Does location services use data

I was wondering whether Location Services uses data and if so how much?

No, it uses the location of the nearest wi-fi router as determined by Apple's database, which is usually, but not always, up-to-date.

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Location services use data?

Hi all, I leave with my iPhone 4 for Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands tomorrow. I was wondering if there is any way to use my device as a GPS without actually using data via AT&T. No way can I afford to pay for an international data plan.
Thanks!

You should be able to turn off cellular data and continue to use the gps. May not be as quick since it won't receive assistance from the cell tower, but gps should work.
Data is needed to download the maps though, unless you have a gps application, like tom-tom or navigon, with built-in maps. You cannot use the phone's maps application because it downloads map data.
Message was edited by: anilsudhakaran

HT5594 Does location services show your actual address when at home

Does location services show your actual address when at home

I should also mention that my wife got a phone the same time I did. Sometimes her's will show the same problem, and then sometimes her's will work fine while mine is right next to her's and not working. This type of behavior would point to a problem with the device and not the service. But then the fact that mine DOES work at times would indicate a software/service issue. I've heard others say that behavior will change when WiFi is turned on or off or when airplane mode is turned off and on. I haven't really noticed that. It's a hard one to figure out. Hopefully it is something with the software/service that will simply be solved with updates.
Message was edited by: Fivepi

Does using "location services" constitute data useage from AT&T

I travel between Seattle and Vancouver, BC almost every weekend. At the border, I always switch to Airplane Mode since I don't wish to be hit by huge data bills from AT&T through Rogers Wireless, the iPhone carrier in Canada. I then turn on WiFi and use the phone for email, web surfing, etc. and even Skype calls when I have a connection.
My question is, if I turn on "location services" while still in Airplane Mode, will that count as cellular data usage in the eyes of AT&T?

Yes, data roaming is off. In fact, I've never turned it on. Thanks for the quick answer.

Does Location Services suck battery if turned ON but nothing is using it?

As Title. If I turn the Location switch ON in the Settings app, does it use the battery if not used by any other app (i.e. there's not the arrow in the upper bar)?

It will use a little more battery, but(in my experience) not significant, perhaps 3~5% more battery per day. But, if you aren't using any apps that require location services, you might as well leave it off and only turn it own when needed.

If I Switch Location Services & Cellular Data Will I Be Charged by the Telcom?

Hi. Will I have additional charges from the cellular company if I switch ON the Location Services and Cellular Data. My SIM, my iPhone is prepaid, I'm not on a plan of any kind. My load credit seems to be consumed too fast and I was only doing very few local SMS messages. I only use wifi for the internet when I'm using the iPhone's Safari or the App Store or YouTube. My iPhone is the 3G (I hope to buy version 5 this October hopefully if it's has significant updates). Thank you in advance. Recommendations to solve this load credite being consumed too fast are welcome.
How about push notification? Does it add to cellular charges.
Gbu,
Alvin

If you switch on cellular data and you use safari, YouTube..etc on the cellular network....Yes your are using data. Hence you are being charged for it. Some apps use location services . If that is so then yes it needs to use cell data to track you. Push notifications as well. Not sure on the 3G depends on iOS version ... Been awile since I've used it..but I know on my iPhone 4 you can turn on and off location services for particular apps.

How does location services work?

I recently found an app called "mapswithme" and basically it downloads maps and I can use it offline. I don't really care about the criticism about how apple maps suck because I personally don't use the 3D features. I can drive perfectly fine even without that 3D or the routing, I just don't want to pay extra for 3G or 4G or LTE or whatever you want to call it because I have no use for it except on maps; which is stupid because "mapswithme" can download an entire country's map for free. Will location services still work even if I don't have 3G and Wi-Fi on, and only relying on cellular data? FOR EXAMPLE: I have a SIM CARD on my iPhone with "GSM only", will location services still be able to find my position? I have heard of others being able to see the blue dot(which represents where your location is) and grey background(which represents that maps has not yet been cached because of no internet) previously on iOS 5 on google maps. Because if it will work, then the grey background won't be a problem because the entire country's map is already downloaded and I do not need 3G service anymore, I only need the location services.
*PS: I am considering buying an iPhone 5 and I have never owned an iPhone before, just iPods. If location service will not work relying only on cellular data then I wont buy and iPhone anymore. PHP50,000 is a heavy price to pay for an iPhone here in the Philippines and I don't want to waste money.
*PPS: There is also a 4G LTE plan here in the Philippines, but I still have to pay around PHP2000 to PHP4000 every month aside from paying the iPhone, which is again wasting money because I will only need the internet service on iPhone on maps.
*PPPS: No, I don't use Twitter and I only visit Facebook for the notifications. I don't use Weather, Stocks, Game Center, Mail, FaceTime and other apps from Apple that do not make sense. I have a computer at home and I can do internet surfing there. I also don't plan on jailbreaking because there are a lot of paid apps that become free on App Store every week.
I really need help on this one. It would change my overview on whether I would buy just an iPod touch or an iPhone 5.
Thank you for your replies.

I see, the app does require data connection but only on the first use because it still needs to me to pick which map of a country I want to download. Other than that, it does not require internet connection at all, only GPS. I first saw this app on my friend's android device, he only had GPS turned on. 3G and Wi-Fi were turned off and still worked. It could point his position and maps were not a problem because it had already downloaded the whole country's map.
This really helped me. Thank you.

Why does "itunes accounts" use data with all settings OFF?

Does anyone know how to keep "iTunes accounts" under system from using cellular data?
I have already:
1. Toggled OFF all settings in the "Use cellular data for" menu.
2. Turned OFF all automatic downloads and any other options under iTunes/app store settings.
3. Turned OFF Background App refresh.
4. Turned OFF all options under iCloud sync menu.
Right now, the only thing that keeps "iTunes accounts" from pulling cellular data is turning Cellular Data completely OFF, but I don't want to do this because I lose some messaging and voicemail functions and I need to be able to use Find My Phone. I have two identical iPhone 5c's on this account. One is running iOs 8.1.2 and the above settings control it's data usage nicely. The other phone is running iOs 8.1.3 and this one uses 50-100 mb a day even with all the above settings off and the phone almost always on wifi.
I am aware that the phone will lose it's wifi connection when asleep, but that shouldn't be a problem if all the apps/settings are already set not to use cellular data. What am I missing. I've read a bunch of threads on this issue and they all suggest settings I already have OFF.

My personal phone is on 8.1.2. My daughter's phone is 8.1.3.
It is her phone that is currently having this problem, but I reported it under my account; sorry for the confusion.
My phone has had some data problems in the past, but I have been able to control them by keeping almost all data options OFF and the overall switch ON. My usage is back to less than 50 mb per month which makes sense since my phone is almost always on wifi and I don't use data dense applications.
Everything about my daughter's phone is the same as mine except for the 8.1.3 upgrade. She does use things like Instagram more than I do, but I have them all set to not use Cellular Data and the option to change these settings is locked. When I look at the usage on her phone, it isn't her apps that are pulling unexpected data; it's "iTunes accounts" under system services. All the options under iTunes/App Store (auto downloads, home sharing, etc.) and all the iCloud options are already OFF.

Why does my phone use data with cellular data turned off?

I have problems with my iPhone 5 using data on its own. It usually happens at night, with all the apps closed and plugged in to charge (should be connected to my wifi). Recently, I started turning off my cellular data any time I'm at home out of desperation to save my data. Last night, my phone used 6MB of data with my data off, plugged in. I use My Data Manager to track, it matches up with AT&T's record of my data usage, so I'm pretty sure the app is not wrong. I have the 200MB plan, so I have to be very careful and it's incredibly frustrating to wake up and find 6MB gone when cellular data was turned off. Does anyone know what's going on? I haven't bothered calling Apple or AT&T, I never get anywhere with either one.

I'm not familiar with My Data Manager but from the name I would think it would tell you what app or apps have used the data and that might help narrow down the problem. If it doesn't have that information, you can go to Settings > Cellular > Use Cellular Data For and that shows usage by each app and if you click on System Services in that list it will also give details of that usage. The numbers are since you last reset the statistics (bottom of that screen). With a little time and detective work you may be able to identify the cause.
Also, there have been many discussions on various internet forums of AT&T (and other) reporting of the time of data usage not matching the actual time of the use. The usage numbers over a number of days for example are accurate but usage reported at 2AM may actually be a summary of some types of use that happened the previous day.

Multitasking bar? Does this constantly use data?

Hi,
Unfortunetly AT&T did away with their unlimated data feature so I'm stuck with the 2gb per month plan. My question is when I leave an app in the multitask bar does this constantly use my data? I have notifications turned off and I have my mail set up for me to manually load it. It's becoming a pain to have to keep an eye on which apps are running and to not be able to shut the app completely down when I close it, instead I'm going to my MTB every 10 min. to kill apps.
Thank you!

I popped into the AT&T store this afternoon and confirmed that I could keep my unlimited plan and still have a family plan. Which is nice, not sure I need it but it does offer another choice.
I've been relatively uninspired by AT&T's service in my area and researching changing to the Droid X as well. It does have a few features that are attractive like a replaceable battery, storage on a replaceable card and so on. The display on the iPhone 4 is simply amazing though and I already prefer the interface of the iPhone to the Droids, so it's probably going to be an upgrade instead of a switch of providers.
The video conferencing on the iPhone is a nice feature but since it's required to be over wifi on each connection, the chances of both my wife and myself being on wifi at the same time unless we're in the house together are slim to none and slim left town. So, great feature, not very practical.
I did find one thing unique today, the sales guy at AT&T had his own iPhone 4 and we did a couple of speed tests while I was there vs my 3GS. Now we were both on 3G at the time and really the speeds should have been almost identical as the processor should have nothing to do with the transmission speed over 3G but his phone blew mine away. A bit on the download but a huge amount on the upload. Kind of makes me wonder if there's been something wrong with my 3Gs that I wasn't really aware of?

Why does location services not work on my ipad2 with ios7?

Why does my wifi only iPad 2 location serves not work...worked for years, even when I traveled extensively and returned home. I loaded ios7plus and went out West for the holidays. Worked out West and on return, did not...live in country and worked when I took it to Mickey d's six miles away. Only change is ios7 and it's default to Apple maps. Apple support claimed to have passed this to engineering, but despite my follow ups with them using my case number, they have left me in limbo with a silent phone. This is very wrong and not the apple I have known...very frustrated.

Cause Wi-Fi only iPads do not have GPS receivers in them, nor can they use the cell towers for triangulating position. Best they can do is guesstimate based on the hotspots they are connecting to. They base their guess on a database of known hotspots, which can be incomplete, erroneous or wildly inaccurate. The rise of the problem can be due to any change you or your ISP has done to the Wi-Fi setup you use.
If you need to depend on critical apps that require reliable Location Services, get Wi-Fi+Cell devices next time. They can be used without a SIM chip with no problems (and not paying for cell charges), but GPS will work fine.

Location services, Celular data, Usage and Stand by & fast battery drain on iOS 4.3.5

Hi all,
I've been experiencing some trouble with fast battery drain since I have updated to iOS 4.3.5, never experienced it before. I've spent some time reading out through the web, including the Apple Discussion forums, and never found anything conclusive that could lead me to a solution. With some hints from many places and some particular obstination for fixing the problem, I've managed to find a solution. I was willing to share this here just to see if anyone else had the same problem and try to figure out wheter this is a bug or just an ignorant user like me
This is the configuration and symptoms I had for my iPhone 3GS with iOS 4.3.5 (didn' happen until 4.3.4):
Location services enabled, with several apps been allowed to use it;
Celular data (and 3G) turned off;
Usage and Stand by times reported always equal since last charge (really weird, although other have already reported this);
Cell phone overheated;
Battery drain really fast, dropping from 100% to 50% in about four to five hours with almost no use at all.
The following steps solved my problem:
Close all applications to make sure nothing is running in the background;
Reset statistics in order to observe correctly the celular data traffic;
Make sure you have access to the internet over Wifi;
Turn on Celular data and 3G for a short time (2 minutes should be enough). Observe celular data exchange stats: for me it was 3Kb download and 2Kb uploaded, although no application was running in the background (and there was also no need for celular data, since I was connected over Wifi);
Turn off Celular data and 3G.
Turn off (completelly!) Location services;
No more overheating, usage and stand by being reported equal nor battery fast drain noticed: everything was back to normal.
I have come to the following conclusions: it seems that Location services causes problems with Celular data turned off. I'm not sure whether Location services should work at all with Celular data turned off, but I also believe it doesn't give it the right to drain my battery so fast . I'd like to here from others just to see if anyone has experienced a similar thing and if the solution above helped fixed it. It would be interest if we could confirm this is indeed a bug in iOS 4.3.5.
Best regards,
Adriano

Some further testing and observation lead me to new conclusions. I looks like the problem is not actually related to Location services, but to some buggy application trying to access data when it's not available at all. Even closing all apps, the problem doesn't go away untill Celular data is enabled (and then disabled again).
I still believe this shouldn't be the regular behaviour.

Does "location service" ever let go?

When I leave the "location services" turned on, the usage meter and standby meter always record the exact same amount of time, even if the phone is just sitting there doing absolutely nothing and should be in standby. It takes turning off location services and doing a reboot to get the usage meter to report only the time it's actually in use.
As far as I can tell, this it the only service or app that causes this problem. Strangely enough, it doesn't seem to affect battery life much.
Has anyone else noticed this?
Other specs, in case anyone cares:
-iPhone 3G 16gb White
-model: MB499LL
-version: 2.0.1 (5B108)
-Serial # starts 88827xxxxxx
-Brightness: 50%
-Bluetooth: off unless needed
-Push: on - only pushing Mobile/Me calendar and contacts, which change only once or twice per day
-Fetch: on - 30min - fetching 3 email accounts
-GPS/location: off unless needed
-3g: On all of the time
-Wi-Fi: On all of the time, at use mostly at home

What are all 4 Mighty Mouse buttons mapped to? Starting with left, then right, then scroll ball button, then side buttons. I only ask because it could be possible you are activating a different button when you stop, and the mouse switches to THAT function, thereby letting go of the left click function.

HT201472 Does location services have to be on for activation lock to work ?

Will activation lock work if location services is turned off ?

How does Activation Lock work?
When you enable Find My iPhone on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 7, your Apple ID is securely stored on Apple’s activation servers and linked to your device. From that point on, your password will be required before anyone can turn off Find My iPhone on your device, erase your device, or reactivate and use your device.
Activation Lock is enabled automatically when you turn on Find My iPhone in iOS 7, or when you upgrade to iOS 7 from a previous version of iOS that has Find My iPhone already turned on.
To turn on Find My iPhone on your device:
Go to Settings.
Tap iCloud.
Sign in with your Apple ID, if necessary.
Turn on Find My iPhone.
iCloud: Find My iPhone Activation Lock in iOS 7
iCloud: Activation Lock

Does "Location Services" always drain the battery when enabled?

Hi,
I've read lots of things that say if you want to save battery power, disabled "Location Services".
I find it annoying that on the odd occasion that I want to use Location Services, say, to find an ATM near where I am, I have to go into settings and enable it, and then go back into the app I tried to use, and go and enter my search again, etc.
Now, I understand that if my phone is actually trying to find my location, that is should use some power.
But my question is... If I have Location Services switched on, and I am not actually using any app that is trying to find my location, does my phone actually use any more power than if Location Services is disabled?

Tamara wrote:
It does not use extra power to have Location Services enabled if you're not using the app.
I leave Location Services on all the time and I have decent battery life.
I agree that having location services on doesn't use battery unless an app is using it. Now none of us can say for sure about that since we don't know the software/hardware and how they talk/work and as the other poster said, powers the GPS chip. Just because the service is on, for all we know the OS only powers on the chip then "when needed"
From looking at the "Optimize Your Settings" from http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html They say:
Minimize use of location services: Applications that actively use location services such as Maps may reduce battery life. To disable location services, go to Settings > General > Location Services or use location services only when needed.
While for WiFi/Bluetooth, etc they say turn off, not just minimize use of "applications" that use it. That is because WiFi and Bluetooth have to actively beacon/probe while the GPS only has to do something when requested.
Just my two cents though.
Message was edited by: DaVBMan

Does location services use data

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