2GB / hour data usage

I am using skype video on an ipad over Verizon LTE to my partner on a macbook. Skype is using 2GB (gigabytes) per hour! (871MB for 29 minutes, precisely.) The info I've found is that skype uses 300kbps which is 1.06 GB per hour. Why is the actual usage twice that high? Skype video is using significantly more data per hour than it did, say, six months ago. There have been updates to skype and to IOS so I can't guess what is responsible for the increased usage. Is there a way to decrease the bandwidth that Skype video uses? Is there a control to tell skype to downsample the video to, for example, 800x600, or to use more aggressive data compresskon to decrease data usage? If not, why not? This is clearly a huge usability issue in a mobile application. What can I do?

I agree with all of you. I don't like where Skype is going. I teach by Skype - one hour videos call = one lesson. I want to be able to get away from the home and still teach and am looking into mobile hot spots. My main consideration is how much data Skype is going to require. So now I am looking at other video conferencing options. I was appalled at the way skype was acting on my mother's new computer with Windows 8. I could not figure out how to do anything on it. I had to use it when my computer died and had to end up calling Skype twice, which I think is ridiculous because it's a simple program I've used successfully without issue for years. This is exactly the same reason why I bought a Mac instead of dealing with Windows 8 which drives me up the wall. Had been a happy windows user for 20 years. It is ridiculous that MS wants to connect everything a person has, so there is no privacy left anymore. Like Google.

Similar Messages

ATT charges me for Wifi Data Usage

I am on 2GB ATT data usage program. I always make sure that I am on wifi before I do data-intensive transactions.
Last month, I downloaded a large file: 1.5GB and was hit with overusage.
I called in the first time, ATT told me that perhaps I made a mistake. I said OK...
The second time, I recorded each steps(video taped and took photos) of each steps of what I was doing to make sure that I was on wifi
Again I was charged for overusage.
I called ATT. They told me that it might hardware or software problem.
Anyone has any idea what's going on?
Thanks

Pretty simple way to check how your phone is logging the data transfers is to reset our data counters, turn off 3G data and download something. If the data transfer shows up on your phones cellular data log then you know it's being logged wrong by the phone.
Given the 42 page thread on unusual and high databtransfers going on at odd hours in the night I wouldn't put it past ATT to have something buggy going in their networks that is causing people to go over on their usage. Call it coincidence that when they switch to metered data they seem to have lots of people accidentally going over on their usage. Of you're a conspiracy type it's ATT trying to rape customers while they have an excuse. If you're not it's ATTnot knowing how to properly implement the data metering and using their customers as the beta testers. It's not inconceivable to think that the outsourced code jockey in India writing the billing software didn't know what the outsourced code jockey in XYZ was doing for the metering and caused a mess.

Excess data usage on my from my with pre-paid 3G Wi Fi

I am tearing my hair out with an excess data issue; I hope someone can help me out. I'm using a 3G WiFi on my laptop and over the last week and a half, my data usage has been very high, as have my total hours for a 24-hour period. I've been taking detailed notes about my log on and log off times as well as the data used during the time I'm logged on and since June 26 and I've discovered that I am being charged for time and data even while I am not online. I've now spoken to four different people on the phone at Telstra about this issue. The first two times, I was compensated for this: once with extra credit, the other with extra data; these are a good help for the problem that has happened, but moving forward it doesn't fix the problem of being charged for time and data that I haven't used. And continuously being overcharged makes me cross. Has anyone experienced something similar? I've been on this pre-paid broadband since March and everything had been great - $50 managed to last me the whole month, even as a student, being online most of the day, but from June 22 it started chewing up my data without explanation--I'm on semester break and am not online much at all, so I don't understand. Here's an example:July 1: logged off at 11:12pm - data usage was 180MB - total hours was 8:08:00 (which was already 3 hours more than I had actually been on for the day).July 2: logged on and checked the previous day's data and hours - data usage was 491MB - total hours was 12:02:37! How does this happen? The WiFi was not connected to my laptop (I manually connect and have automatic WiFI connection turned off), my laptop was shut down, and I was asleep! How did the connection manage to use and extra 300MB data over an additional 4 hours? Has something changed? I need to fix this. I've put a complaint into the ombudsman about it.

Hey Sirdal,
I understand that your pre-paid Wi-Fi 4G service seems to be using up a lot of your data allowance from the time that you recharge your in the last 2 recharges.
This is definitely worth investigating but please also bear in mind that the rates of your data iis dependent on the previous data plan you've recharged on.
So if you've changed from a $20 recharge to $30 recharge, you need to disconnect from the internet before reconnecting in order to reset the rate of your data charge to what is equivalent for the $30 recharge because if you've not refreshed your connection since the $20 recharge, you will be charged the same rate as if you were on the $20 rechage rather than the $30 recharge which means that your allowance will be used up more than what it should be. I hope this makes sense Sirdal.

Why do I have mysterious cellular data usage (Verizon) every 6 hours on all 3 of my iphone 5's?

I have recently uncovered mysterious cellular usage on three different iPhones. I am a Verizon customer and discovered this by examining the cellular data use logs. What I found are a long series of mysterious data usage logs. I have visited the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store 3 times now to log notes and discuss the issue. It is being escalated.
The characterstics are as follows:
All my family phones have the appropriate IOS and hardware updates (verified by the GeniusBar at my local Apple Store).
This is occuring across three phones, which happen to all be iphone 5. Two are 5 and the other a new 5s. We do have one iphone 4 in the family but the issue (so far as I can tell), is not happening on it.
One iphone 5 has IOS 7, the other IOS 6. The new 5s has of course IOS 7.
Mysterious data use happens even while connected to wifi.
Each mysterious data use log entry is exactly 6 hours apart. For example: 2:18 AM, 8:18 AM, 2:18 PM, 8:18 PM, 2:18 AM ... etc. It cycles AM and PM, same times, for a day to many days until some condition causes it to change (evolve).
The times evolve. One day it could be cycling through at one time series, then it changes to another time sequence and continues until the next condition.
The data usage is anywhere from a few K to many MB. The largest I've seen is over 100 MB.
The logs clearly show these usages are not due to human interaction. It is a program.
If cellular connection is used frequently (by the owner), the pattern is hard to pick out. Luckily, my family member is very good about only using wifi whenever possible, so these mysterious use patterns are easy to pick out.
Verizon allows access to 90 days worth of data logs, so I downloaded and analyzed them. This has been happening for at least 90 days. I have found 298 instances of mysterious use out of 500 total connections to cellular. A total of 3.5 GB of mysterious cellular data has been recorded as used in that 90 days by this phone alone. Only .6 GB of the total cellular data use is legitimate, meaning by the person.
This issue is occuring across three different phones. Two are iPhone 5, and the third is a recently purchased iPhone 5s. The 5s I have not touched beyone the basic startup. I have left it alone on a desk for 3 days, and looking at the logs, the mysterious data use in the same pattern is occuring.
So ... I am speaking to both sides, Verizon and Apple to get answers. Verizon puts their wall up at data usage. It doesn't matter how it is being used, you simply need to pay for it. Yes, the evidence I have gathered is getting closer to someting on Verizon's end.
Before pressing in that direction, I am hoping someone reading this may recognize this issue as a possible iPhone 5 issue ... OR ... you, right now, go look at your data usage logs available through your carrier's web account, and see if you can pick out a pattern of mysterious use. Look especially at the early morning instances when you are most likely sleeping.
I am hoping this is a simple issue that has a quick resolution. I'm looking for the "ooohhh, I see that now ..." But I am starting to think this might be much bigger, but the fact is, most customers rarely or never look at their data usage details, much less discover mysterious use patterns.
The final interesting (maybe frightening part) thing about all this is that I discovered while talking to Verizon ... they do not divulge which direction the data is going. This goes for any use, mysterious or legitimate. Is cellular data coming to your phone, or leaving it? Is something pulling data from your phone? We know that it is possible to build malware apps, but the catch with my issue is that it is also happening on a brand new iphone 5s with nothing downloaded to it.
Thanks for your time

Thanks for the replies. It took a while not hearing anything so thought I was alone. I have done many of the suggestions already. The key here is that it occurs on both phones with apps, and phones still packaged in a box.
A Genius Bar supervisor also checked his Verizon data usage log and found the same 6 hour incremental use. Suprisingly, he did not express much intrigue over that. Maybe he did, but did not show it.
I think the 6 hour incremental usage is the main issue here. I spoke with Verizon (again) and they confirmed that all they do is log exactly when the phone connected to the tower and used data. The time it records is when the usage started. I also found out that the time recorded is GMT.
What is using data, unsolicited, every 6 hours?
Why does it change?
Why does it only happen on the iPhone 5 series and not the 4?
Since no one from Apple seems to be chiming in on this, and I have not received the promised calls from Apple tech support that the Genius Bar staff said I was suppose to receive, it is starting to feel like something is being swept under the rug.
I woke up the other day with another thought ... What application would use such large amounts of data? Well ... music, video, sound and pictures of course. Well ... what would someone set automatically that is of any use to them? hmmm ... video, pictures, sound. Is the iPhone 5 succeptible to snooping? Can an app be buried in the IOS that automatically turns on video and sound recording, and send it somewhere ... every 6 hours? Chilling. I noted that the smallest data usage is during the night when nothing is going on, then it peaks during the day. The Genius Bar tech and I looked at each other when I drew this sine wave graph on the log print outs during an appointment ...

Large data usage transfer every 6 hours while on a WiFi network, who is doing this transfer? Is Verizon polling my phone causing this usage?

I have three iPhone 5s. All are using my WiFi while at home. One iPhone is sending data over Verizon's network, not WiFi, every 6 hours or so. The time of this data transfer changes every few days. I see data usage number on my Verizon account ranging from a few kilobytes to almost a gigabyte. Is this due to Verizon polling the iPhone for data usage and billing purposes on a regular basis? And what do these billing numbers mean? Where does Verizon get these numbers? Any running apps while on my WiFi should use the WiFi, not Verizon, correct?

I'm having the same issue and this month these data pulls equated to 1891.51 MB!!!
Model: iPhone 5S 64GB. Today I received a notification from Verizon that I had exceeded my data plan. I just went through my entire usage detail report on my phone and separated-out everything that appears to be part of a 6-hour pattern. When I'm at home and most of the time while I'm at work, I am connected to wifi. These data pulls often happen in the middle of the night, when I know for a fact that my phone is charging and connected to wifi at home. Below are the results of the pattern analysis. Keep in mind that I removed all lines that, as far as I could tell, were not part of a 6-hour pattern.
THE PROOF: You sent me three alerts immediately after pulling data from my phone.
The first alert said that I had used 75% of my data plan on 8/11/2014 at 9:45pm while I was at home on wifi. There was a data pull logged at 9:45pm which was part of the 6-hour pattern above.
The second alert stated that I had used 90% of my data at 10:46pm on 8/14/2014; the data log shows a pull just before the alert at 10:45pm.
The third alert telling me I had used all of my data came today while my phone was sitting next to me, connected to wifi at the office. The alert arrived at 12:48pm, the log shows a data pull at 12:48pm.
Screenshots:
How about an explanation Verizon?

My daughter's phone racks up data usage every 12 hours, twice a day, even though she isn't using it. Anybody know why this would be happening or how to track it/stop it?

My daughter's phone racks up data usage every 12 hours, twice a day, even though she isn't using it. Anybody know why this would be happening or how to track it/stop it?

Its all good, TimN8128! Mrhelper is corret with regards to making sure that mobile data is turned off when on WiFi or when not connected to WiFi, if you do not want the phone to access data services to update or refresh app services. These applications can all be configured by going to Settings and reviewing all apps that appear in that area. You can also configure a bit further by going to Settings>Cellular.
NicandroN_VZW
Follow us on twitter @VZWSupport

I'm accruing data usage when I'm connected to wifi

I'm positive that Verizon is committing Fraud.
10 days ago my husband and I switched from Sprint to Verizon and got new Galaxy S5 phones. While with Sprint, my husband used about 1.5GB of data a month and I used .5GB a month. The reason my usage was less was because I use my phone less (duh) but also because my phone very often wouldn't connect to their service, 3G or their so called 4G at all. My husband didn't have this problem, but I got so fed up with the connectivity that we switched to Verizon. We thought that since I would be able to use my phone a little more and the data would be faster and more reliable, it would be prudent to buy 3GB of data a month even though we were only averaging 2GB before.
Well, after having Verizon for 10 days, we have used 2.3GB between the two of us; .5GB for me and 1.8GB for my husband. In other words, our data usage has MORE THAN TRIPLED with Verizon. This is absolutely wrong, so I did some investigating. I looked at the data usage details spreadsheet that Verizon posts online with the date, time and amount of each occurrence of data usage. Be aware that we have wifi at home (where we are basically every night from 7pm-7am) and my husband has wifi at work (weekdays 8am-5pm). I was SHOCKED to see that the vast majority of my husbands outrageous usage was being incurred specifically during times when he was at work or home, even significant amounts at 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning. Only a little usage was being accrued during the about 3 hours a day when he might not be connected to wifi.
I spent over an hour on the phone today (including 40 minutes on hold) with tech support. They must have thought I was an idiot because they kept telling me about how our phones are using a lot of RAM. I'm no IT expert, but RAM is internal memory and not equivalent to data usage. Then they tried to tell me that the time stamps on our spreadsheets were delayed and that the data was really being used when not on wifi but not showing up on my account until some unknown period of time later. This is ******** and I debunked that theory by turning off my data (when there actually was no usage accrued) and then turned my data back on momentarily at 10:15am. A usage charge popped up a little while later on my account time stamped 10:16am. Pretty accurate, which tells me that the other time stamps are also accurate to within a minute or two; not off by many hours.
Then tech support told me to try a test to see if I can show that data is being accrued when I'm definitely not using it. They told me to turn off my data for an extended period of time, use wifi only, and then check my account to see if data charges are accruing. Well, of course data isn't accruing when data is off. That proves nothing. That does not have any bearing whatsoever on the fact that data usage is accruing when data service is ON but I'm CONNECTED to a reliable, strong, functioning WIFI signal like the one at my home and the one in my husband's office. There are only two explanations left. Either my husband and I are severely psyciatrically disabled and are imagining having working wifi signals and are somehow watching youtube videos in our sleep; OR VERIZON IS COMMITTING FRAUD. Its one or the other, the way I see it.
IS THERE A REASONABLE SOLUTION TO THIS??? Resolving this issue by telling me to manually turn my data service on and off each time I come and go from my house is unacceptable. Verizon, you need to fix your practices and remove the fraudulent usage from my account immediately. Since I'm sure you won't, I'll be switching to AT&T since I still have 3 days to cancel my contract. Third time is a charm, I hope.

I took it off WiFi and complained on their Facebook page. I think their
salespeople telling folks to always stay on WiFi is their way of making
money! Take your phones OFF of WiFi, put Task Killer Advanced (google play
store - FREE) on your phone and hit that repeatedly during the day. It
will shut down the junk running in the background that loves to nom on your
data. The other thing I do is to constantly dump cached data from my
phone. We did all three of these things and we have only burned up .7 of
our 3GB limit since June 1st! Not even a whole GB in 19 days! Also,
remove all updates from every app that your phone came with (bloatware)
every so often. And shut the phone down every night after you run the task
killer and empty your data cache. Somewhere along the line I will learn how
to completely uninstall that darned bloatware and I will pass it on!
Let me know if this makes a difference for you!
-Carole
(Removed)
Personal info removed as required by the Verizon Wireless Terms of Service
Message edited by: Admin Moderator

Weather App Affecting my Data Usage

Hi Community,
Back in October 2013 when I changed my IPhone from a 4S to a 5S I had to go from an “Unlimited” plan to Tiered plan. I went to a tiered planned capped at 2 GB per billing cycle. This didn’t bother me because I would never use all of my allocated data and I usually came in way under 2gb’s
Under my new plan, I set up my data alerts to monitor my usage.   This past week on tuesday, I was notified that my usage was at 75% of the data allowed.   I immediately called VZW to ask how and the tech said that my phone had streamed for an inordinate amount of time around 18 hours while using a app, on the days where my usage was high. The tech was unable to tell me which app, but advised me to take it into the store immediately.
I took my phone into the store and luckily the manager had the same issue on his IPad. He replaced the Sim Card and reset the settings on my phone and credited my account $20 to pay for the extra usage.   Really great customer service!!!
Monitoring my data usage, I noticed that my phone would incrementally use the data plan even while on my wifi.    It would only do it in 8 hour increments, I was led to a previous post via Google (on the apple forums) and I found that the culprit may that I had set up my phone to automatically send diagnostic data.
I shut this feature off, being nosy I looked at the data that was being sent and noticed two odd diagnostic reports titled: Weather_2013_11.08_17:55 and Weather +Stacks 11/10 20:37:47.
The latter (Weather +Stacks 11/10 20:37:47.) diagnostic report I can only assume was informing me that the weather app stayed opened beyond its allocated time. Which prevented the phone from sleeping so it the OS finally crashed the crashed the program.
Also I assume that the report was informing me that informed me in the app it had stayed connected to the weather server for 66,447 seconds, which is about 18.45 hours and used 1147387904 bytes of data or just over 1 GB of usage….
Now I’m not saying that these separate instances are related, but the interesting thing 11/10 I was shown according to VZW that I had amassed 66.51 MB’s.
I am wondering if anyone else has seen this correlation. I have attached screenshots to clarify any confusing parts of the story.   there are three pics, so scroll all the way down

Settings > Cellular only counts cellular data. I can verify that because I'm on AT&T and that carrier offers a service whereby you can telephone *DATA and receive a text message from them telling your month-to-date cellular data usage. I can compare that number to what I see in Settings > Cellular and the two are pretty well equivalent.
Again, I do a Settings > Cellular > Reset Statistics at the end of every billing month.
UPDATE - I said "month-to-date cellular data usage" above. I should have said "billing period to date."
Message was edited by: sberman

Data Usage Discrepancy

Hi everyone,
I know this is an age old tale but I'm truly baffled at this point. I just received a text from Verizon that I have, in a matter on 5 days, single-handedly exhausted 2GB of data. Lets take a step back and look at the facts:
1) I am connected to a wifi network 8+ hours a day while at work.
2) I have a wifi network at home that I am connected to for the majority of the time I'm not at work.
3) I made sure that all of my apps are set to conserve data - limit push notifications, no updates unless I'm on wifi, don't automatically download email attachments, etc. All the usual suspects.
Finally, and what is most confusing to me, my phone data usage settings indicate that I have used about 0.11GB of data...
...but Verizon seems to think I've used 2.17GB of data (again, IN FIVE DAYS!).
This is over an order of magnitude in difference. I understand that my device and Verizon measure data usage a little bit differently BUT I have no idea how such a large discrepancy would occur. Moreover, I have no idea how I could possibly use over 2GB of data in a matter of a few days when I have been connected to a wifi network almost 24 hours a day. Thoughts?
Erica

Thank you for responding. Something is definitely wrong that's for sure. I don't use my phone to surf the net at all during the day and when I'm home at night the little bit I do i am using Wi-Fi. And this month the day before my usage shifts to another month I get hit with another overage fee. Something is wrong I have everything on my cell phone turned off so there's no data being used but yet I am over every month? I am definitely switching over to another carrier. Verizon is is ripping me off I can't prove it and all customer service wants to do is sell me more data
Sent from my iPhone

BT Infinity Data Usage Wrong

After getting a warning at the end of January about my data usage exceeding 240GB, I've been pretty annoyed about the Infinity Option 2 service, since it is patently neither 'Infinite' nor 'Unlimited'.
I took it upon myself to monitor my own usage, and for the last couple of days I've been estimating how much bandwidth I've been using - I figured a couple of hours Iplayer, some surfing, a little Xbox would mean about 3GB max, so I checked my router which shows :
Connection time : 1 days, 19:49:44
Data Transmitted/Received (MB) : 1885.9 / 57.2
So, looks like I over estimated it, total is just under 2GB.
Now, issue is, I checked
http://www.bt.com/appsyouraccount/usage/viewYourBroadbandUsage.do
Which is showing 16.27GB, updated 02 Feb 2011 at 23:59
(It showed about 7.25GB, updated 01 Feb 2011 at 23:59 previously)
This is a vast difference - and even looking at the overlapping period, BT have me using about 8-9GB in one day, and I have a total of 2GB for that day, and the next. (Actually, I was at work all day on the 2nd, and at night my speed was 0.5MB/s - which I raised a fault for, so it would seem incredible)
Now, I'm incensed about what I believe to be mis-selling of the product, and locking into a contract that may mean no service (2MB/s for 30 days in useless to me since I use VNC for work), but this issue of them using incorrect measurements as a determining factor on whether to bother providing a service that's being paid for (at a vast premium over similar ones) would seem to be a major issue.
If they want only low usage customers who've never heard of Iplayer, they should market it that way, and allow people such as me to use providers more suited to our needs. Hiding information during the buying process, and using subjective and unauditable reasons for tricking people into paying for a service they have no intention of providing is unreasonable and should be investigated.
Anyone else had a similar experience?
For Info :
Getting the data information from your router :
1 - http://192.168.1.254/
2 - Click on Settings and Sign in (password on router unless you reset it)
3 - Click on Advanced Settings and "Continue to Advanced Settings"
4 - Click on Broadband.

Not sure anyone's still listening, but it's therapeautic to type it out, so here's the latest.
I went on BT's live customer service and reported it :
"We are currently experiencing some technical issues with our online service, which is why you are experiencing this problem"
I asked what my current usage was, ignoring the website tool as was told to call the 'fair usage team' on 0800 7076044.
I called them, spoke to someone who told me it was either
1/ My router had become unencrypted
2/ A Trojan
I asked why either of those would result in the router reporting the wrong information and explained how a router works - regardless of the source of the data transfer, the router would have it in it's logs (barring ridiculous scenarios involving hollywood movie plots).
I was transferred to 'the technical team' at 10:40, on hold until 10:56
back on hold 10:57
off hold 11:03 - informed they were 'getting hold of the customer services team'
back on hold 11:03-11:08 - told they could help and checking with manager, back on hold
11:24 - back off hold for a couple of minutes as they suggest there might be a button on the web page to report it, informed them I'd already raised a complaint with them 2 days ago and asked if they could just tell me my usage for February thus far - from their systems, back on hold 11:27
11:40-11:53 - informed they couldn't access that data. Now asking if the figures on the router could be wrong under any circumstances, Manoj, Ref vol011-45571649670 confirmed that those figures (and therefore the ones noted above) can't be wrong and include all the data through the router, regardless of the source.
This is confirmation that the figures BT are using to cap peoples service punitively for 30 days to an unusable 2MB/s are being overestimated (at least in my case) by a factor of 4.
I would presume that 300GB means I'm actually using 75GB.
Given up on the phone call now - 12:05 - he wanted to transfer me to billing.

What causes cellular data usage to decrease if last reset has not changed? I reset every pay period cuz I do not have unlimited and was showing 125 mb sent/1.2g received. Now showing 98mb sent/980mb received. Last reset still shows same

I reset my cellular data usage every month at the beginning of my billing period so that I can keep track of how much data I am using thru out the month. I do not have the unlimited data plan and have gone over a few times. It's usually the last couple days of my billing cycle and I am charged $10 for an extra gig which I barely use 10% of before my usage is restarted for new billing cycle. FYI, they do not carry the remainder of the unused gig that you purchase for $10 which I disagree with. But have accepted. Lol Moving on.
I have two questions. One possibly being answered by the other. 1. Is cellular data used when I sync to iTunes on my home computer to load songs onto my iPhone from my iTunes library(songs that already exist)? 2. What causes the cellular data usage readings in iPhone settings/general/usage/cellular usage to decrease if my last reset has not changed? It is close to end of my billing cycle and I have been keeping close eye. Earlier today it read around 180mb sent/1.2gb received. Now it reads 90mb sent/980 mb recieved. My last reset date reads the same as before. I don't know if my sync and music management had anything to do with the decrease but i didn't notice the decrease until after I had connected to iTunes and loaded music. I should also mention that a 700mb app automatically loaded itself to my phone during the sync process. Is cellular data used at all during any kind of sync /iPhone/iTunes management? Is the cellular data usage reading under iPhone settings a reliable source to keep track of monthly data usage? Guess turned out to be more than two questions but all related. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer me. It is information I find valuable. Sorry for the book long question.

Is cellular data used at all during any kind of sync /iPhone/iTunes management? Is the cellular data usage reading under iPhone settings a reliable source to keep track of monthly data usage?
1) No.
2) It does provide an estimated usage, but it's not accurate. For accurate determination, you should check the remaining/used MBs from the carrier (most of the carriers provide this service for free).

My iPhone 5s has no visual voicemail or regular voicemail and data usage is off the charts....

Okay so problem number 1 with my new iPhone 5s is data usage has spiked tremendously. I don't know why this is as for the last 2 years I have had an iPhone 4 and barely ever used 1GB a month. Now with my 2GB allowance I reached 90% used midway through the month. I have turned off the LTE and now have turned off cellular data completely and am only using wifi. I don't understand why my data usage has been so high this month since I am using my phone the same way. Is it the LTE?
My second problem is my phone has no voicemail. It tells me visual voicemail is unavailable and to call my voicemail. Except when I call my voicemail it asks me for a password. I have had my phone number for over 5 years and never had a password and now I can't get into my voicemail. I tried resetting the Network settings, that did not work. I have left my self voicemails and no notification even shows up. I called *86 to create a voicemail and it asks for a password which I never made.
I am EXTREMELY angry with Verizon's service at this point. I can not use my data until next month, and now I can't even receive voicemail messages. If someone could please tell me what is going on I would be appreciative.

To answer your first question, the answer is yes, it is the LTE. Your iPhone 4 could only connect to 3G and so therefore unable to transfer data as quickly as 4G on the 5s. So then you end up using more data than you have before.
And your second question. I am not sure as to why it's asking for a password if it never was before. You can reset your voicemail password if you log into your MyVerizon account. Hope that helps

IPhone 5 battery only lasts for 3 hours of usage

My iPhone 5 64GB is not working as well as I think it should be. After about 3 hours of usage (according to usage statistics in settings), which is just Facebook and web browsing, and 9 total hours of standby, the battery dies. This is mainly over 4G with medium brightness. Background App Refresh is off, most location services are off, Push emails are off, reduce motion is on. I have tried everything I have found online to try and fix this, but nothing has worked. On top of that, my iPhone was just replaced at an Apple Store, so I'm not really sure what it could be.
Any help is greatly appreciated!

Hello pierre0,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Since you have just received this iPhone as a replacement from an Apple Store, it should still be within its 90 day warranty. Please take the device back to the store and inform them of the issue.
A replacement part or Apple Product, including a user-installable part that has been installed in accordance with instructions provided by Apple, assumes the remaining term of the Warranty or ninety (90) days from the date of replacement or repair, whichever provides longer coverage for you.
Your Hardware Warranty
http://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/products/ios-warranty-document-us.html
Take care,
Alex H.

Mysterious Data Usage

Hello,
My wife owns an HTC Thunderbolt. We are experiencing mysterious data usage.
The data log shows data usage during hours and at times when the phone is not being used. We have tried closing all apps and resetting the phone.
Still, these nickel and dime data used entries are adding up fast and bring us to the brink of our our plan which we have already extended.
We do not stream video, we do not listen to Pandora.... The phone is used strictly for texts, emails, and phone calls.
Any advice? Thank you for your help.

Same here - very similar.Times are close but not like yours.
I've deleted the email accounts and re-added them to see if there was a looping email send issue that I've read about.
Funny though, when I review the data use on the phone, "photo" is the app indicating using the most data. So I've turned off and uninstalled everything I can think is tied to that.

Data usage and battery drain has skyrocketed with iOS 8.1.2 (maybe earlier)

3 weeks ago my wife got a text message on her iPhone 5 from AT&T that she had used 90% of her data for the month. 30 seconds later, she got another one saying that she had used 100%. Granted, her data plan is small, 200 MB. But, for the last two years she has used as little as 17 MB in a month and her largest prior to this latest month was 49 mb. This month she got to 380 mb before we were able to shut off her cell data. Otherwise, a second chunk of 200 MB and another $15 would have been added to the month.
We had noticed that her battery had been draining rather rapidly in standby mode with no background apps running when she didn't have access to WiFi. We have now correlated the two results, High Cell data usage, Quick battery drain and very warm phone. In case anyone is wondering about her iPhone 5 being one in the recall, it is. I took it in and had it tested. Apple says the battery is fine. It does hold a charge well. When all network communications are shut down on her phone and it is in standby mode, there is no noticeable loss of charge in 24 hours (our longest test).
Since I have a grandfathered Unlimited Data Plan with AT&T, I have been doing some testing on my iPhone 5s. Sure enough, I've seen similar results. With nearly everything turned off except Cell Data, I've seen 483 MB used in 24 hours. Of that total, 479 MB was used for Documents & Sync. I even have everything turned off in my iCloud account, Location services are turned off, no push notifications etc...
The best I can figure, this has been a problem since we installed 8.1.2 and yesterday I installed 8.1.3 resulting in no positive effect on this issue.
At this rate of data usage and no access to WiFi, my wife would have to have a 15 Gb data plan to keep from exceeding her limit. I don't think AT&T even offers one that big anymore. I might have to switch to Sprint or T-Mobile if this doesn't get resolved.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your shared insights.

Hey this is Brian, bjmcmurry, under a different user ID. If I logged in as bmcmurry, original post, I was just getting a server error and couldn't get to this discussion nor post a comment anywhere.
Anyway, let me be as brief as I can. After an extensive analysis of replicating the problem on another phone to eliminate it being a hardware specific issue and that the test phone has an unlimited data plan, I was able to stop the excessive data usage and consequential battery drain. I believe I have a reasonable explanation of the problem, an iOS logic bug.
I had everything under my control clamped down on the test phone to minimize data usage. Also, I was forcing all data usage to use the cell towers. I determined that I was burning at least 11 to 13 Mb per hour doing nothing important. I literally had everything turned off except 'Settings' was allowed to use Cell data providing a avenue to log into the Apple ID.
The two phones had 2 things in common, they were using the same Apple ID and the same version of the OS. One was a iPhone 5 and the other was a 5s.
Here is a synopsis of my experience via my written evaluation of the Apple support system (Apple Rep name's have been removed):
After a couple of hours on the phone with an Apple Care Senior support Analyst, it was suggested that I go to the Apple Store to 1) get my battery replace in the iPhone 5 since it qualified for the replacement program and 2) see if the Genius could provide me with any insight in the data usage issue and battery drain.
I'm certainly glad I had multiple reasons to visit the closest Apple store, a 45 min drive. I got the battery replaced, thanks for that.
Regarding the important issue to me that brought me to the Genius Bar, excessive Cell data usage, I thought the Genius did a wonderful job listening and documenting the problem we were experiencing. Unfortunately, educating us on the use of the product or replacing our phone was not going to solve the problem. He eventually figured it out, this was not a user error or broken hardware. We surmised that the reason I was sent to him was to verify and document that there was a problem. I clearly had a problem. After writing copious notes on the issue, The Genius smartly referred me back the the AppleCare Senior Advisor. So, back to AppleCare Senior Analyst I went. She, knowing this was not a simple problem to solve i.e. beyond her level of expertise, got an Apple Software engineer involved.
My primary frustration is that this should have been escalated to software engineering right away. My trip to see the Genius was, I believe, a waste of time for both me and Apple regarding this issue. Diagnosis of this type of problem is well beyond the Genius’ knowledge and job. The Genius did a very good job doing what he could within the scope of his job. He just couldn’t solve this problem and had no one within Apple to which he had access for help.
However, that initial consult with the engineer was a bit feeble. Not only could I not talk to him/her directly, his/her focus was still working with the ‘Black Box' approach. Having Analyst ask me to do stuff like restore the Phone was more like trying to find a 'work around' than 'identifying the real problem.' Maybe restoring the phone was going to fix some corrupted data on the phone sidesteping the real problem, the handling of this condition. The engineer did listen to the fact that I had restored the test phone, the 5s, and only added the use of my Apple ID. Duh, been there!!!
Having been an previous owner of a software development company that I started in 1980 and retired in 2001, I can tell you that using the 'Black Box' method of debugging is extremely inefficient. Instead, having access to an ‘Activity Manager’ type app to identify in real time what process was blowing up the data flow would have saved me a lost afternoon at the Apple store and hours on the phone with tech support.
Ironically, I may have stumbled onto a "work around" solution short of turning off Cell Data that stopped the excessive Cell Data usage and consequential battery drain. Just prior to leaving the Apple Store, I used one of their Macs to log in my Apple ID on the id.apple.com website to ‘Manage my Apple ID’, I was forced to upgrade the security level of my password. Afterward, my cell data usage seemed to drop dramatically.
I told the AppleCare Senior Analyst that I may have stumbled onto a workaround and I suggested that I give it a couple of days of monitoring. We'd talk then and I would have results to report. She agreed.
Sure enough, my Document & Sync usage was back to normal, about 1/2 Mb per day. Am I happy that the excessive Cell Data usage has stopped? You bet! But, there was no intuitive reason that an end user would know to log in on the ID website to unknowingly solve this problem. As I use to say to my employees, that is not the ‘Macintosh Way.’ And, rebooting the the 'Microsoft Way.'
When I reported my findings to the Analyst, we both concluded that data usage was back to normal. She did report to me that the engineer did provide a laundry list of suggested activities to help solve the problem. Remarkably, they were everything that I had already done and were pretty much what the Analyst and the Genius tried to do. All reasonable tasks. But clearly, the engineer hadn't even ready the notes on the case before responding. And, none of the things suggested would have uncovered the real problem, likely a logic bug in iOS.
My advice now is to have the software engineering team rule out that there was an unresolvable state that a background process was fiercely trying to handle. The iOS does not seem to know how to intervene and prompt the user with a requirement to upgrade their password. If this does end up being the case, I would call it a logic bug, a perpetual exception that is not being handled properly.
Anyway, I hope this helps you.

2GB / hour data usage

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