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Still can't download 100mb + app over cellular? Really?

Berthacrowley

Berthacrowley

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 29, 2015
97
46
Nahant, MA
I wanted to download a game from the app store to play during my lunch break at work. We don't have any wifi at work and the game is over 100mb so Apple is telling me it won't download until I connect to wifi. Why is this a thing?

Obviously this isn't a huge problem, I can just download the game when I get home, but it's pretty annoying to basically be told I can't use my data how I want. I have 15gb a month and I'm not going to go over on this game (and if I *was* going to go over, isn't that my choice if you warn me first?)

I searched the forum to see if there was a workaround for this and someone suggested that turning off the phone and turning it back on allowed the game to download over cellular but they must have patched that up because it didn't work for me. Is there really no way around this limit?
 
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Berthacrowley said:
I wanted to download a game from the app store to play during my lunch break at work. We don't have any wifi at work and the game is over 100mb so Apple is telling me it won't download until I connect to wifi. Why is this a thing?

Obviously this isn't a huge problem, I can just download the game when I get home, but it's pretty annoying to basically be told I can't use my data how I want. I have 15gb a month and I'm not going to go over on this game (and if I *was* going to go over, isn't that my choice if you warn me first?)

I searched the forum to see if there was a workaround for this and someone suggested that turning off the phone and turning it back on allowed the game to download over cellular but they must have patched that up because it didn't work for me. Is there really no way around this limit?
Click to expand...
If you have an ipad or another device you setup a hotspot and it will work w/o any limits. But of course - you shouldnt have to do this
 
CNeufeld said:
I don't mind a warning, but that's all it should be. Or as someone else posted, on kid's accounts, maybe it's not over-rideable. But the rest of us should be able to make up our own minds. Apple's "nanny" mentality gets tiresome, at times.

IMHO.

C
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100% agree. Maybe a war minor passcode/TouchID lock, but with the unbiquity of large mobile data, this arbitrary cap is silly and outdated.
 
I think it is a safe decision to keep that cap.
It doesn't just protect our data plan (I think average data plans as of today are about 1-2 Gb/mo at best), but it avoid the network to be saturated.
 
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Max(IT) said:
I think it is a safe decision to keep that cap.
It doesn't just protect our data plan (I think average data plans as of today are about 1-2 Gb/mo at best), but it avoid the network to be saturated.
Click to expand...

Right. While it's perfectly fine for teeny-boppers to watch hours of YouTube videos while walking around the mall. We need to protect our networks for the latest cat videos.

C
 
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Max(IT) said:
I think it is a safe decision to keep that cap. It doesn't just protect our data plan (I think average data plans as of today are about 1-2 Gb/mo at best), but it avoid the network to be saturated.
Click to expand...

It's a safe decision to have a cap enabled by default, but overbearing to make it so that a user cannot take responsibility and override it. It's not a great implementation, particularly when one can just tether with a different phone, use THAT phone's data to download the the app, and thereby indirectly defeat the restriction (or directly, if both devices are on the same shared data account).

It's also heavy-handed considering some of us are on unlimited data plans, and there are networks (like T-Mobile) that clearly have the bandwidth and capacity, and continue to offer unlimited data to users.

Worst of all: this alleged plan/network protection sure seems to be unevenly enforced considering that WiFi Assist is turned on by default, and most users weren't ever informed that their phone might now opt to use cellular data where they would normally expect it not to do so. While I'm not a bit worried in my cases I have unlimited data, I was mildly surprised at how much more cellular data my phone has recently started using, even with lots of WiFi present. While the class action lawsuit is way over the top, I do think Apple erred on that one, particularly given the 100MB app restriction over cellular.
 
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I get around it all the time (albeit an expensive way) by using my iPads hotspot lol. As what was said above, YouTube cat videos which can easily exceed 100mb get free reign...
 
Max(IT) said:
I think it is a safe decision to keep that cap.
It doesn't just protect our data plan (I think average data plans as of today are about 1-2 Gb/mo at best), but it avoid the network to be saturated.
Click to expand...
As a customer who still has Unlimited Data with AT&T, I feel like it should be an option within the settings menu. By default Apple could have it turned off. This way, those of us who want to use our data for larger app updates will have the option to turn this feature on.
 
C DM said:
That demonstrates the point.
Click to expand...
True, but in the case of that referenced link, Apple turned that feature ON by default which most customers were not aware of. I stated that Apple could allow App updates over cellular with the feature turned OFF by default within the settings menu.
 
Totally agree dude. It's annoying as hell that Apple wants act like a Parent and tell a person how much they can download. Can't download a particular 100MB+ game via LTE on my iPhone but I can do it on my Android device
 
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This is surely annoying, especially when I am in developing countries where the cellular network IS the internet, no landline. Of course, streaming music and video are a-okay, which is stupid as those put more strain on the network vs an occasional app download. Another irony is that tethering is also ok, so I can tether the phone to another one, and then it's thinking it's on wifi.

Instead of putting limit on this (which is probably a legacy policy when Apple first did a deal with AT&T/Cingular), I think Apple should just let it free. Let consumers put the pressure on the carriers themselves for putting such prohibitive data quota to begin with.
 
Hmm been overriding this since 2009 with jail breaking. Didn't realize it's still an issue lol.
 
scaredpoet said:
It's a safe decision to have a cap enabled by default, but overbearing to make it so that a user cannot take responsibility and override it. It's not a great implementation, particularly when one can just tether with a different phone, use THAT phone's data to download the the app, and thereby indirectly defeat the restriction (or directly, if both devices are on the same shared data account).

It's also heavy-handed considering some of us are on unlimited data plans, and there are networks (like T-Mobile) that clearly have the bandwidth and capacity, and continue to offer unlimited data to users.

Worst of all: this alleged plan/network protection sure seems to be unevenly enforced considering that WiFi Assist is turned on by default, and most users weren't ever informed that their phone might now opt to use cellular data where they would normally expect it not to do so. While I'm not a bit worried in my cases I have unlimited data, I was mildly surprised at how much more cellular data my phone has recently started using, even with lots of WiFi present. While the class action lawsuit is way over the top, I do think Apple erred on that one, particularly given the 100MB app restriction over cellular.
Click to expand...
I have udp and monitor my usage and not found any difference with wifi assist. My use case is however I actually turn cellular off when I don't want to use it. I also am of the opinion wifi assist threshold has to be lower; it's too high.
 
Eileen89 said:
As a customer who still has Unlimited Data with AT&T, I feel like it should be an option within the settings menu. By default Apple could have it turned off. This way, those of us who want to use our data for larger app updates will have the option to turn this feature on.
Click to expand...
unlimited doesn't really exist. It's just a marketing gimmick. The web is full of people complaining about being throttled in their "unlimited" data plans ...
The bandwidth IS limited, by definition.

C DM said:
Apple proactively preventing class action lawsuits from people going over their data because someone didn't stop them. ;)
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It's not only Apple.
I have the same limitation on my Windows device.

pika2000 said:
This is surely annoying, especially when I am in developing countries where the cellular network IS the internet, no landline. Of course, streaming music and video are a-okay, which is stupid as those put more strain on the network vs an occasional app download. Another irony is that tethering is also ok, so I can tether the phone to another one, and then it's thinking it's on wifi.

Instead of putting limit on this (which is probably a legacy policy when Apple first did a deal with AT&T/Cingular), I think Apple should just let it free. Let consumers put the pressure on the carriers themselves for putting such prohibitive data quota to begin with.
Click to expand...
In those developing countries data caps are even lower than in your country.
 
Last edited:
I like the limitation being there, but it should be configurable.
WqjPdm
 
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