Need Help with data usage problem

[pdxmatts]

My daughters i5 on 8.1.1 is using data at hours that she isn't even on her phone. It shows data used at the same time every day at times when she is sleeping and on wifi at home. 12:00am, 3:00am, 6:00am etc. Does anyone know what is causing this?

 

[lordofthereef]

Impossible for anyone to give you any valuable info without a list of her applications, at minimum.

 

[Newtons Apple]

Real smartphones use data no matter if you are using it or not. Software can, on a regular basis, use data to update or locate itself.

My house is covered with my home WiFi system so most of my data goes through the WiFi. Without it would use cellular data.

Only way to stop it is to use Airplane Mode or turn you phone off.

It is normal.

 

[gmikesell]

I'm having the EXACT same problem! I keep a close eye on my account data usage as there 7 devices currently sharing 30gb bucket. I saw that in 3 days my wife had used 6.8gb with data usage at consistent 3 hr intervals through the night even though she's on wifi. WE ARE NEVER OFF WIFI AT THE HOUSE! I call asking ATT what is going on. That's when she reports that I've used 8gb in the last 2 days! 😱 now she has the Galaxy s5. I have an iPhone 6+. My usage hadn't reported online yet but I go into settings> cellular > under "cellular data usage" scroll down to "system services" > after clicking into that I see "Personal Hotspot" has used 4.4gb of data by itself even though I haven't used tethering in over a month!

Is it possible that my phone hotspot is activating on its own? Since my wife is on an android phone I can't see what system services her phone is using exactly. This is concerning because in 3 days we've used half our family data bucket with 27 more days left in the billing period.

Att response, by the way, was to tell me to go into the store and have them look to see what apps we may have running in the background. Locking down background activity is the first thing I do on any phones on our account so I don't think that's it. I already checked again and still see everything locked down. I have no idea what this is and I pissed as H-E-double hockey sticks!

 

[pdxmatts]

Att response, by the way, was to tell me to go into the store and have them look to see what apps we may have running in the background. Locking down background activity is the first thing I do on any phones on our account so I don't think that's it. I already checked again and still see everything locked down. I have no idea what this is and I pissed as H-E-double hockey sticks!

Fortunately, her data usage is not that high. When I called ATT, they told me some apps run on data even when on wifi and that I should have her close all apps each night and turn data off. 🙄 They didn't know either. We also have Background App Refresh turned off.

 

[pdxmatts]

.

Go through this list to lock down your phone even more 😉 http://www.zdnet.com/seven-privacy-settings-you-should-change-immediately-in-ios-8-7000033598/

 

[scaredpoet]

The "phantom usage" could also be just lousy bookkeeping on the carrier's part. A lot of them trigger billing events on a "per session" basis, and if the connection is kept alive (as most smartphones do), then the billing isn't cut off till the middle of night, usually midnight in the time zone wherever that carrier has centralized their billing.

Since the cutoff is the middle of the night, the billing system "charges" all the usage to what looks like a middle-of-the-night session. So, you see usage in the wee hours when it was actually legit usage during the day.

If the usage is pushing against your plan limit, the best thing to do is go into your cellular usage and see if any apps are using excessive data.