IPhone 5 unexpected data usage-AT&T

My data usage is unexpected very high for the past couple of months. I increased my data plan from 200mb to 300mb because my data usage was unexpectedly increasing. I'm 5 days into my billing cycle and i'm already 20% into my data plan. The only things I've done are read news articles online, pulled emails, and used iMessage. No online music or videos. I also made sure my background apps were closed out, and I even rebooted. Has anyone experienced the same issue? How did you resolve this issue?

Have you used Siri a lot or any navigation apps?

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IPhone 5 excessive data usage problem (carrier-AT&T)--any resolutions?

I got an iPhone 5 in June of 2013, and the billing period after I got it, I went over my data usage for the first time ever (I have been an iPhone user since 2010). I thought that it was just because I had been working out at a camp that got poor reception and had been using as much as I always did. However, in the subsequent months, I have racked up data overage charges every month, and since October, it's been several gigs over my plan. I have a 4gb plan with AT&T that I share with my parents (I am a college student), and they don't use hardly any data. As I am a nineteen-year-old, I admit that I do spend a lot of time on the Internet and use a lot of social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Snapchat, etc.), and I have always used a lot more data than my parents, but I don't think I'm doing much more than I did when I still had the iPhone 4 and 4s. I haven't gotten a chance to call AT&T yet to see what they have to say about it, and, unfortunately, my school is in the middle of nowhere and my hometown doesn't have an Apple store anywhere near it so I don't think I'll be able to get to a genius bar any time soon, but I've done a little research and found some threads here that mention problems with the iPhone 5 and data usage. Most of these threads seem to be related to Verizon or are from iOS 6 (and my phone is updated to iOS 7.0.4, which is the latest update at this date), and I wondered if it was still a problem for people.
In the past few minutes, I have done the following to the phone:
Turned off Cellular Data
Turned off iCloud Backup
Turned off Cellular Data for all unnecessary apps
Turned off Location Services for all unnecessary apps
Turned off Notifications for all unnecessary apps
Changed all email accounts to manual
Turned off Diagnostics and Usage sending
Turned off Ad Tracking
Turned off Documents and Data
Now, not to sound spoiled, but I think this is both tedious and a pain in the rear end. It seems to me like it's just treating the symptoms rather than the disease itself, so to speak. I feel that for the money we pay for what is essentially a handheld computer with phone capabilities, I should be able to use it as such. When I've turned off Cellular Data in the past to remedy this problem, I notice that I don't receive texts from a lot of people, which is really frustrating, because I feel like I basically just have a glorified iPod. If I had wanted an iPod, I would have bought an iPod. So, basically, has anyone experienced this problem recently/found a solution that actually fixes the problem rather than just masking it? I feel bad about the overage charges and am very annoyed with the fact that my old iPhone seemed to work better than this new one, and that I can't seem to find much evidence of either Apple or AT&T making much of an effort to acknowledge or fix this expensive problem. My phone reports that my cellular data usage for the current period (which ends on February 11, and it is currently January 28) is 21 GB, and I find it very hard to believe this to be true.
I'm about to reset my phone and see if that does anything, but I would really appreciate it if someone could help me out here.
Thanks.

I'm not trying to minimize your issues, but I have an iPhone 5S and find that I have not had these types of problems on AT&T. I'm wonding if something has gotten stuck in a loop that is continually trying to use data. If you make a good backup of your phone, try restoring it as new, and do not add anything to the phone right away. Let the device run like this for a little while and see what kind of usage you have. You report you phone is showing usage of 21GB. Did you rese this setting on the phone to begin at your billing period? The reason I ask this is some people believe this setting resets on its own with your billing period, it does not. This has to be manually reset by the user, so it might not be that accurate depending on the last time that you reset it.
If the phone seems to not use so much extra data during the period the device does not have extra apps on it, then try restoring from your backup and see what happens. If this increases your data usage quite fast again, then there is probably something corrupt in the backup that is causing this issue.

IPhone 5 - Excessive data usage and data "bleed"

We recently upgraded my daughter's phone from a Samsung to an iPhone 5, originally running iOS 6, now running iOS 7. The Samsung (Android) phone used less than .5 MB per month, whereas the iPhone 5 will consume that much data in one day. About 80% of the phone's usage is on WiFi, and is only actively used on the cellular network less than an hour a day. However, the phone and the Verizon data usage log show data being consumed even when connected continously to wifi.
With help from a Verizon representative, we turned off location services, closed all background apps and stopped automatic updates and refreshes, shut off icloud, email, and anything else that could possibly be running in the background or consuming data. The changes didn't do anything to slow the usage, and the Verizon reps suggested that my daughter was secretly using her phone in the middle of the night to play games and watch movies. At Verizon's recommendation, we signed up for parental controls, and set them to prevent the phone from being used during the school day, and at night. However, the phone and Verizon continue to show data use in tiny increments 24 hours per day. These post in the Verizon data usage logs about every 10 minutes, and are typically 10-20KB.
Using the parental controls, I set a hard data stop each week so that we could meter her data out over a month's time and prevent overages. It is supposed to stop all data usage on the phone once she reaches a preset limit. She would usually hit the 1GB limit in a day or two, but the phone and Verizon's data usage log show that the phone continues to bleed data 24 hours per day even after the limit is reached and she is unable to use her phone. Verizon can offer no explanation.
In addition to the data bleed, the actual data usage for virtually any activity that required data is substantially higher than what I would see for the same use on my iPhone 4s. For example, a couple of youtube videos played on her iPhone 5 resulted in 0.8GB being used in just a few minutes, vs about 50MB on my 4s for the same videos. Verizon seems to suggest that this is due to the higher resolution and speed, but it seems excessive.
Here's a Youtube video I found that seems to show our exact issue. We've done similar tests on our phone, with the same results.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9AR2rEFcKk
Although it is frequently suggested that the "fix" for this problem is to turn off cellular, that hardly addresses the problem. It would also mean we have purchased a very expensive iPod.
Is there anyone who can help us address this issue? Verizon has been no help, and does not acknowledge this as an ongoing problem, despite the fact that there are countless articles, blogs, and videos online about the very same issue. We have tried a number of the "fix" recommendations we've found online, but thus far have had no success.

There's something wrong. Have you tried the 4 Rs basic troubleshooting steps?
Restart:
1. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the red "slide to power off" slider appears, and then slide the slider.
2. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the Apple logo appears.
Reset: Hold down the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button at the same time for at least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears. Note: You will not lose any data
Restore from backup
Restore as new
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414
This article is about battery life, there are a few tips about data usage as well.
http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html
Data settings & usage
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4146
If all failed, make an appointment with the Apple genius at your local Apple Store and have them evaluate.

IPhone 5 Battery & Data usage issues

Here's my journey.
I had the iPhone 5 from the day it was realeased. Was with Vodafone Australia. Phone was awesome. Coverage was an issue, so decided to swap to Telstra recently. Got new iPhone 5 with the change over.
From the beginning, the new Iphone on Telstra, the battery was draining completely in less than 3 hours. Looked at the support communities and spoke to Apple. I made the mistake of setting the phone up from a "BackUp". They suggested setting it up as a "new phone" in iTunes.
Did that - phone had been awesome until 4 days ago when I decided to "Update All" of the pending App updates. After all was downloaded the phone returned to its draining self, also becomign VERY VERY HOT when charging. Warmer than normal. Also got a SMS from Telstra to say I have used 82% of my download entitlement. With 22 days remaining!!!! Something wasnt right, not only was it using the battery life, cellular data usage was being drained also.
Spoke to Apple, they told me I would need to do a process of elimination to find the "corrupt" app that was draining the Battery & Data.
I deleted every single App I had on the phone, yet it made no difference. I started to monitor the cellular data recieved on the phone. With no apps and nothing running, how is there data and battery being drained.
Decided yesterday to"RESTORE" iPhone once again. Set up as a new phone. I had loaded my email settings, but nothing else. I hadnt even provided my Apple ID infomation so the App Store wasnt logged in. Phone was still not right. Played with some settings, decided to turn my "Exchange" email from "PUSH" to "Manually Fetch". After this, the phone was back to normal. No cellular data being downloaded and battery OK. Turned Exchanged back to PUSH, then the battery decides to trickle away again.
After all this ********, I have narrowed it down to the way my exhcnage server checks for new messages. I have ALWAYS had my Exchange server PUSH emails to me. Why with this phone, on 6.1 should I have to have it to Manually check for emails.
I get the feeling from conversations with other people, there seems to be alot of unknown data usage which Apple need to make a priority in preventing. This is costing consumers time and money.
Curious if anyone else has had same issue?

The issue is pretty broad. I see posts all over the internet on iphone 5. I use the phone on 2 continents and both places have the issue. Therefore, it is not a network issue, it's an Apple issue. I use pccw in Hong Kong and AT&T in the US. I have isolated the issue to the phone sending data, massive amounts of data, all on it's own. At first I tried turning everything off like icloud, itunes, passbook, all downloads, etc. Eventually, I shut everything off other than cellular data. The phone will be fine for some amount of time then it randomly begins sending data. It can send 100mb an hour, with nothing on at all. You can view your send data under settings> general> usage> Cellular usage. I went as far as taking screen shots every minute and watched it sending massive amounts of data. Here they are, just a sample. Apple's suggestion on chat is to turn data off or put it on airplane mode.... quite frustrating since those are the two reasons you buy a smart phone to begin with... I'm hoping there is a solution other than not to use the phone.

Iphone 5 Excessive Data Usage Mapping Services

I have had my Iphone 5 since December 2013. Recently I have been having problems with my cellular data usage where my phone will use more than 900mb a day. After investigating the issue I noticed that the biggest problem is mapping services. This was not making sense as frequent location settings and all location settings are switched off. I went to my service provider MTC (This is the service provider in Namibia, Africa) and they advised me to upgrade to IOS 7.1.2. According to them Apple has made more services available on our carrier and that I needed the newest IOS to be able to manage these services.
I have updated my IOS to 7.1.2 yesterday 28 July at 12:00. Since then till yesterday afternoon at 17:00 my phone used over 500mb of which 418mb was for system services which after investigation revealed that 415mb was for mapping services. The location settings and frequent location settings are still switch off, but I am still using data for mapping services. The data in Namibia is not the cheapest and this has caused me to have to switch off my cellular data to ensure that I don't run my cellphone bill through the roof. I am now sitting with an equivalent of a Nokia 3310 as I can only sms and phone from my Iphone. I do not have access to WIFI so using that is not an option.
I have a friend with a Iphone 5S and one with and Iphone 4 and they do not seem to have the same problem as I do. Is it only Iphone 5?
If anyone has the same problem, I hear that it is also the case in South Africa, please help me make it heard by Apple or give me a solution if you have one.

I see about 500MB for "Time & Location" tracking. You can check here: Mobile Network -> System tasks -> Time & Location (roughly translated from German iOS 7 menu. Can someone please write down the correct english menu entries?).
I believe it is the Google App (https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/id284815942?mt=8), which is tracking me (https://maps.google.com/locationhistory/b/0). I like beeing tracked since i'm sometimes curious where i have spent my time;). But 500MB is far too much - i have only 1GB per month.

Track iPhone based on data usage

Is there any way to see where an iPhone last connected to the internet?
My iPhone was stolen and I'm trying to find it. I can see the data usage on my AT&T account after the time of the theft, is there a way to find where it connected at?

If you didn't enable the Find my Phone feature on your phone, there's no way to track it. Call AT&T and make sure you report the phone stolen so your account can be deactivated.

Iphone Vs. Blackberry data usage

I used to own a Blackberry Bold 9000. Then I switched to the iPhone. My carrier is Rogers Wireless. My 500 MB data plan started falling short. Rogers says the BB is more economical in handling data. For example compared to a smartphone like the iPhone, one can handle 5,000 emails on the BB compared to 2,500 on a smartphone in the same 500 MB. Is this correct?

Tamara wrote:
BB routes everything through their servers and optimizes it so you have "lower" data usage since they do it on their end.
The iPhone uses data the same way a computer would. There is nothing in between that prefilters and compresses everything.
Great post, I did not know this, good information. I learn something new here all the time. Thanks Tamara!

Iphone 3gs:Cellular data usage

I recently purchased iphone 3gs with 200 MB data plan. 98% of my data usage was performed using wifi but i still see in the usage section that Data sent is around 225 KB and Data received is around 550 KB. My question is
1. Whether the usage in the phone matches the cingular.com records
2. Whether wifi adds to the usage and why
3. Is there any hidden app/ acct setting which is accumulating data during the sleep mode?
4. How to stop it
Thanks

Chittoo wrote:
1. Whether the usage in the phone matches the cingular.com records
Go with whatever ATT lists for usage on their site.
2. Whether wifi adds to the usage and why
No.
3. Is there any hidden app/ acct setting which is accumulating data during the sleep mode?
There are no hidden apps. The phone does do a brief send/receive data around 2:30 am.
4. How to stop it
Turn the phone off during the night

IPhone 5S extreme data usage

I've had my iPhone 5S ever since last Christmas and never had a problem with data usage, but all of a sudden the past two months I've exceeded or come close to the max amount of the family plan I am on with my family. I'm talking 23GB of data usage for last month! I did watch many youtube videos over cellular network last month and didn't know it ate up such a huge amount of data, so I stopped doing that. But still, I checked today and I'm at 12.15GB. It seems like even when I'm on a WiFi network my data usage still is through the roof, has anyone experienced the same thing? I really don't want to exceed my plan's limit again and have to pay the penalty fee, any help is appreciated.

We don't want to see you with any overage, JB52. Is it possible that you stopped watching the videos a little bit into the current cycle creating a higher usage for the first few days/week? If you go into Settings>Cellular and scroll down, what applications are reflecting the most data usage? You can select certain applications to turn off cellular data here too to decrease the data applied to your allowance.
JenniferH_VZW
Please follow us on Twitter @vzwsupport

Iphone 5/ios6 data usage shockingly high

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Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

I'm not trying to minimize your issues, but I have an iPhone 5S and find that I have not had these types of problems on AT&T. I'm wonding if something has gotten stuck in a loop that is continually trying to use data. If you make a good backup of your phone, try restoring it as new, and do not add anything to the phone right away. Let the device run like this for a little while and see what kind of usage you have. You report you phone is showing usage of 21GB. Did you rese this setting on the phone to begin at your billing period? The reason I ask this is some people believe this setting resets on its own with your billing period, it does not. This has to be manually reset by the user, so it might not be that accurate depending on the last time that you reset it.
If the phone seems to not use so much extra data during the period the device does not have extra apps on it, then try restoring from your backup and see what happens. If this increases your data usage quite fast again, then there is probably something corrupt in the backup that is causing this issue.

IPhone 5 excessive data usage recently?

I have never come close to using my 4gb data plan but in the last week, my phone is using (receiving) nearly 1gb of data a day. While at home and work i'm on wifi which leaves the minimal driving time in between on a LTE network. AT&T said they had a meeting with Apple and that Apple is aware of a data leak. I replaced my iPhone and the same thing. Any suggestions?

I'm not trying to minimize your issues, but I have an iPhone 5S and find that I have not had these types of problems on AT&T. I'm wonding if something has gotten stuck in a loop that is continually trying to use data. If you make a good backup of your phone, try restoring it as new, and do not add anything to the phone right away. Let the device run like this for a little while and see what kind of usage you have. You report you phone is showing usage of 21GB. Did you rese this setting on the phone to begin at your billing period? The reason I ask this is some people believe this setting resets on its own with your billing period, it does not. This has to be manually reset by the user, so it might not be that accurate depending on the last time that you reset it.
If the phone seems to not use so much extra data during the period the device does not have extra apps on it, then try restoring from your backup and see what happens. If this increases your data usage quite fast again, then there is probably something corrupt in the backup that is causing this issue.

IPhone 5 excessive data usage - possible fix

I, like many customers here, have had a major increase in data usage with the iPhone 5. In fact I blew through 1.3 gigs of data in just a couple weeks even though I use wifi 80% of the time.
A couple days ago I restored my phone to its factory settings through iTunes, which installed a fresh version of iOS 6.0.1. This seems to have cured the problem with data and wifi. When I got the iPhone 5 I had restored it from a backup which was from my iPhone 4. Somehow installing a fresh version of iOS 6 on my phone has fixed the problem.
I’m guessing there is a glitch when installing an iPhone 4 backup onto a iPhone 5.

Did you lose anything in the process of doing that? Any tips? Appreciate the help in advance.

IPhone 5 excess data usage

Hi, we have purchased an iphone 5 plan with telstra for my daughter and in the first 4 days of plan, excess data of 7GB was recorded! I contacted Telstra and they have for a once time only waived the excess charges and data was turned off, no more data was used for month. This month, first day my daughter used 100 mb of 1GB of data allowance! I asked what she was doing and she accessed only afew websites to check when she was working which should be a few kb of data. Data has been turned of again. We are frightened to use internet on iphone 5.
My Samsung Galaxy 2 with Vodaphone I leave data on all the time and look at webites and use a few apps which need to be connected to data and have used in the last 10 days 18mb!
We are taking daughter's phone into telstra and will talk to them about either the phone or their system.
Is there a problem with iPhone 5 or is it Telstra.

There are numerous wifi problems with iOS 6. It's possible that your daughter's phone is switching from wifi to cellular and she is not noticing that. Still, that's a lot of data, so there might be something else going on. Search this forum for threads about excess data usage. There's a lot of info. Also, look at the threads listed to the right under "More Like This".

Iphone 5 crazy data usage

I just purchased the iPhone 5 for my daughter. Apparently, the iPhone 5 doesn't recognize wifi unless you go into settings and turn something off. Att sent codes to the phone and gave a 25.00 credit. They tried to say we didn't purchase a larger data plan when we upgraded..I said NO! I then told the rep to look my daughters data usage at 2am every morning.. Something was downloading using 200 each time... He had only 10 apps on the phone...Hmmmm Lets see if it works

The phone only uses wifi when it is plugged in to power. When it goes into sleep mode, the wifi signal will drop and then use only cellular.
Also, on the AT&T bill, all usage is added on in the evening, not as you go along during the day. So most likely the usage is not happening at 2AM but that is when it is being totaled and added to your usage bill. The usage printed at 2AM is for the 24 hour period prior.

IPhone 4: about data usage..

Sorry if this has been asked before, but my keywords of my query seems to vague to put in the search box..
I'm looking at my data usage now, and I have 500mb limit on my o2 contract. On my 'mobile network data' in General>Usage, does the 'Sent' or 'Received' amount indicate my limit? My 'Received' is a bit more than my 'Sent', so just wanted to make sure which number I should be keeping my eye on.
Cheers!

Thanks for the above answers.
I turn off my mobile data & 3g when I get home so I use only wifi. I find that if I leave mobile data & 3g on when I use my wifi, my data usage still ups.. I wonder what it could be?
Am I right in turning both 3g and mobile data off, or is it ok to leave 3g on (as in it won't make a difference if my mobile data is off anyway)?

IPhone 5 unexpected data usage-AT&T

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