iPhone 6 / 6 plus data usage is very high

[palmtungsten]

Make appropriate changes to Facebook settings.

Tweak facebook settings will not help much. Only way is to limit using facebook app eg max 3 to 5 times a day

After limit the use of Facebook app, the data is ard 2gb max..

 

[paul02]

Seriously people. It's about the user and little about the tweaks.

 

[revogsx]

use built in data counter in ios8

these are my top data hogging apps.
facebook
safari
facetime
speedtest (220MB)

 

[mistersoh]

Use Onavo Extend to shrink your cellular data:

https://www.onavo.com/apps/iphone_extend

It's a very good free app.

Onavo Extend, got good reviews ?
Seems to be an app taking note of what we surfing on our phone...
Still thinking of whether to use this or not.

 

[swgj86]

new report by citrix suggests

macrumors article: iPhone 6 Plus Owners Use Twice as Much Data as iPhone 6 Owners - Mac Rumors

citrix report: http://www.citrix.com/content/dam/citrix/en_us/documents/products-solutions/citrix-mobile-analytics-report-february-2015.pdf?accessmode=direct

agree w the reports man ...

larger screen .. u tend to do more things .. if you have a 7 or 8-inch tablet .. most probably u use it lesser... when you do more things on your phone .. data usage naturally goes up leh ..

just have to keep tabs on the data usage ... can't blame telco la ... not possible for them to "fake" data consumption for consumers lei... esp when we all have data consumption apps/tools on our end to monitor ..

 

[gkhchay]

Onavo Extend, got good reviews ?
Seems to be an app taking note of what we surfing on our phone...
Still thinking of whether to use this or not.

PC Mag gave Onavo Extend a very good review:

Onavo Extend (for iPhone) Review & Rating | PCMag.com

Since all your data is being routed through Onavo's servers, privacy, security, and scalability should be of concern. So here's what we know: Onavo's system runs on Amazon's EC2 cloud servers. Its servers are protected by multiple layers of security, and nothing is actually stored on them except for aggregated and anonymized metadata, such as what types of apps are being using. That information is used to help illustrate your data usage and savings, as well as for research to help improve the service.

 

[Luffy Pirate King]

May i check if data plans for iphone or other smartphone works like this. Say, whatsapp, someone send me a 5mb video, if i dl it using cellular, does that equals to 5mb from my 2gb monthly plan is taken up? Same goes for appstores, say if i dl a new game or updates, 70mb for new game or 30mb for updates, does that equal to either 70mb or 30mb is used up on my 2gb plan?

 

[wharzhee]

May i check if data plans for iphone or other smartphone works like this. Say, whatsapp, someone send me a 5mb video, if i dl it using cellular, does that equals to 5mb from my 2gb monthly plan is taken up? Same goes for appstores, say if i dl a new game or updates, 70mb for new game or 30mb for updates, does that equal to either 70mb or 30mb is used up on my 2gb plan?

it should be about there.

however, there's a minimum data block for each connection.

for example, singtel charges per block of 100KB (please check your own contract)

let's say at 4pm, u just sent "one" message via whatsapp that's only "30kb" = 100KB used
3 minutes later, u've sent "one" message via whatsapp again = 100KB used
15minutes later, u did the same thing again. = 100KB used

u do this for another 7 times at separate time intervals = 700KB used


total usage = 1,000KB used (for sending data)

--
note: don't forget about receiving the messages/notifications too.

 

[chester121]

Sorry to bump up this thread.

Anyone know the reason why my data usage shot up to 11.35GB when my bill has only just restarted from 4th March? In 11 days based on the same usage patterns I have used up 11+ GB?! I've been using my 6+ since September 2014 and while I know that data usage on large screen phone will increase, I experienced an increase from 3GB to 6GB after upgrading from my 5s. That is justifiable.

However, this month I have used the phone as per normal daily: playing some games (COC, Brave Frontier), Reddit a bit, Instagram and WhatsApp. I use Facebook on my laptop on Wi-Fi.

How in the world can my data usage spike so high?! I don't know what's possible anymore...

The thing is, 2 days ago I checked it was already 6GB used up of my 12GB plan. 2 days later, I used up 5GB? I stream movies on my phone when connected to Wi-Fi. Never streamed on data before.

 

[paul02]

Sorry to bump up this thread.

Anyone know the reason why my data usage shot up to 11.35GB when my bill has only just restarted from 4th March? In 11 days based on the same usage patterns I have used up 11+ GB?! I've been using my 6+ since September 2014 and while I know that data usage on large screen phone will increase, I experienced an increase from 3GB to 6GB after upgrading from my 5s. That is justifiable.

However, this month I have used the phone as per normal daily: playing some games (COC, Brave Frontier), Reddit a bit, Instagram and WhatsApp. I use Facebook on my laptop on Wi-Fi.

How in the world can my data usage spike so high?! I don't know what's possible anymore...

The thing is, 2 days ago I checked it was already 6GB used up of my 12GB plan. 2 days later, I used up 5GB? I stream movies on my phone when connected to Wi-Fi. Never streamed on data before.

Do yourself a favour.

Tomorrow morning.

Go to Settings>Mobile>Reset Statistics

Then when you get home or when it's night, go to

Settings>Mobile and take a screenshot of your "Use Mobile Data For".


This is one way to track and see which app/system is using up your data like a hungry camel.


I await your results tomorrow.

 

[chester121]

Hi paul02, thanks for the instructions. Will reset it first thing tmr morning.

But, should I still be using data for now? I have just used the "Disable Mobile Data" option in the My Singtel app. Relying on Wi-Fi for now. Went back to the Singtel app on wifi after I disabled mobile data and the statistics for data usage jump 40 mb... WTH.

 

[szeli]

Hi paul02, thanks for the instructions. Will reset it first thing tmr morning.

But, should I still be using data for now? I have just used the "Disable Mobile Data" option in the My Singtel app. Relying on Wi-Fi for now. Went back to the Singtel app on wifi after I disabled mobile data and the statistics for data usage jump 40 mb... WTH.

if u want to disable data maybe better to disable data in e phone settings. not sure if e Singtel app setting is effective immediately or not.

 

[anfielder]

it should be about there.

however, there's a minimum data block for each connection.

for example, singtel charges per block of 100KB (please check your own contract)

let's say at 4pm, u just sent "one" message via whatsapp that's only "30kb" = 100KB used
3 minutes later, u've sent "one" message via whatsapp again = 100KB used
15minutes later, u did the same thing again. = 100KB used

u do this for another 7 times at separate time intervals = 700KB used


total usage = 1,000KB used (for sending data)

--
note: don't forget about receiving the messages/notifications too.

actually, the min 100kb is not for each time a data connection is made. if i remember correctly it's for 8 hours.

 

[GoToSea]

@chester
do what paulo suggested, reset the statistics and use the phone as per normal.
at night check back which apps are the assh**.

no need to disable data first, just use per normal, u have to catch the culprit first u know... if not forever u need to turn-on/turn-off mobile data, very troublesome.

my own experience, usually FB and youtube. in FB sometimes the movie auto start.

 

[Slim123]

@chester
do what paulo suggested, reset the statistics and use the phone as per normal.
at night check back which apps are the assh**.

no need to disable data first, just use per normal, u have to catch the culprit first u know... if not forever u need to turn-on/turn-off mobile data, very troublesome.

my own experience, usually FB and youtube. in FB sometimes the movie auto start.

U can turn off auto play for FB movie...

 

[paul02]

Hi paul02, thanks for the instructions. Will reset it first thing tmr morning.

But, should I still be using data for now? I have just used the "Disable Mobile Data" option in the My Singtel app. Relying on Wi-Fi for now. Went back to the Singtel app on wifi after I disabled mobile data and the statistics for data usage jump 40 mb... WTH.

You decide. I think it's better to test using mobile data since that's what you normally use when you are out.

Post a screenie here so we can see what's up with your hungry phone.

 

[haoren]

I disable fb and use only the web app while I am outside. Too data draining.

 

[Corny_Cow]

i keep exceeding my 3gig plan. in the past when i had 12gig, i rarely exceed 2 gig. this is damn frustrating. i dont stream videos, only heavy whatsapp, fb (no video) and IG. im using an iphone 6 btw.

 

[chester121]

Hi all, thanks for all the advice given. I have ended my day out today and so far I have only used 28.7MB as stated in the "Current Period" for Cellular Data Usage. I think it's pretty difficult to pinpoint the TRUE culprit as I was super conscious of my data usage today and did not use as many apps as I usually would on a daily basis.

Used WhatsApp, checked some mail, searched for some accounting terms on Safari and really light gaming before sending out 1 SnapChat. Didn't even dare to scroll through Instagram until I reached home to use Wi-Fi!

I called Singtel this morning asking them to analyse for me which day did my data usage spike but they said they can only do that once my current month billing cycle end - idk but it sounds like an excuse to me; they probably hope that I exceed so I can pay them more $? HAHA. Anyway even if they can only check next month, it would be pretty useless since by then I would have either:
1. exceeded usage already or
2. managed to stay within 12gb by scrimping on data.

They just gave me additional 1GB just for this month to "monitor my data usage", so as of now I have 1.6GB to span my remaining 18 days. I divided and only have about 88.8MB per day. But after today's low usage of 28.7MB, I can rollover unused data to the remaining days.

One discovery, if any of you bros use SnapChat, is that it could possibly be the biggest culprit since out of the 28.7MB, it has used up 13.6MB! This is just by loading 5 of my friends' Stories! I always had the impression that these video-sharing apps would apply some sort of compression algorithm on the videos before sending them? Doesn't seem like the case...

@paul02: I haven't posted a photo here before so I decided to list them out instead until I learn how to post photos.

Breakdown of data usage for 16 Mar 2015
Snapchat: 13.6MB
Twitter: 4.4MB
WhatsApp: 554KB
Safari: 4.1MB
Settings: 31.9KB
My Singtel: 22.8KB
Mail: 1.6MB
Dropbox: 666KB
Brave Frontier: 1.2MB
Alien Blue: 109KB
App Store: 127KB
VSCOcam: 202KB
System Services: 1.8MB of which "iTunes Accounts" used 1.1MB.

These results may not be conclusive since I usually use more apps than these daily. It's just that due to this "data exceeding issue", I now only open apps I deem essential.

@Slim123: I don't use FB on my phone, so I never have to deal with the auto-start options

@Corny_Cow: I was lucky to keep my 12GB data with 4G VAS! Now I understand the pain of 2GB/3GB/4GB data users. I definitely cannot survive on those plans. I used to only hit max 6GB+ on my 5s before changing to my 6 Plus. There were people saying that the iPhone 6/6 Plus used more data and this is true, judging from my recent bills that hit 10+GB each month. Only for 1 month did I hit 11.6GB.

That's why I find this month's usage really shocking because I use my phone as I would every other month.
11.35GB in 11 days is crazy. Yes, it can be achieved probably through streaming of HD movies or TV shows using data. But even I would know better than to do that instead of using Wi-Fi!

 

[paul02]

Hi all, thanks for all the advice given. I have ended my day out today and so far I have only used 28.7MB as stated in the "Current Period" for Cellular Data Usage. I think it's pretty difficult to pinpoint the TRUE culprit as I was super conscious of my data usage today and did not use as many apps as I usually would on a daily basis.

Used WhatsApp, checked some mail, searched for some accounting terms on Safari and really light gaming before sending out 1 SnapChat. Didn't even dare to scroll through Instagram until I reached home to use Wi-Fi!

I called Singtel this morning asking them to analyse for me which day did my data usage spike but they said they can only do that once my current month billing cycle end - idk but it sounds like an excuse to me; they probably hope that I exceed so I can pay them more $? HAHA. Anyway even if they can only check next month, it would be pretty useless since by then I would have either:
1. exceeded usage already or
2. managed to stay within 12gb by scrimping on data.

They just gave me additional 1GB just for this month to "monitor my data usage", so as of now I have 1.6GB to span my remaining 18 days. I divided and only have about 88.8MB per day. But after today's low usage of 28.7MB, I can rollover unused data to the remaining days.

One discovery, if any of you bros use SnapChat, is that it could possibly be the biggest culprit since out of the 28.7MB, it has used up 13.6MB! This is just by loading 5 of my friends' Stories! I always had the impression that these video-sharing apps would apply some sort of compression algorithm on the videos before sending them? Doesn't seem like the case...

@paul02: I haven't posted a photo here before so I decided to list them out instead until I learn how to post photos.

Breakdown of data usage for 16 Mar 2015
Snapchat: 13.6MB
Twitter: 4.4MB
WhatsApp: 554KB
Safari: 4.1MB
Settings: 31.9KB
My Singtel: 22.8KB
Mail: 1.6MB
Dropbox: 666KB
Brave Frontier: 1.2MB
Alien Blue: 109KB
App Store: 127KB
VSCOcam: 202KB
System Services: 1.8MB of which "iTunes Accounts" used 1.1MB.

These results may not be conclusive since I usually use more apps than these daily. It's just that due to this "data exceeding issue", I now only open apps I deem essential.

@Slim123: I don't use FB on my phone, so I never have to deal with the auto-start options

@Corny_Cow: I was lucky to keep my 12GB data with 4G VAS! Now I understand the pain of 2GB/3GB/4GB data users. I definitely cannot survive on those plans. I used to only hit max 6GB+ on my 5s before changing to my 6 Plus. There were people saying that the iPhone 6/6 Plus used more data and this is true, judging from my recent bills that hit 10+GB each month. Only for 1 month did I hit 11.6GB.

That's why I find this month's usage really shocking because I use my phone as I would every other month.
11.35GB in 11 days is crazy. Yes, it can be achieved probably through streaming of HD movies or TV shows using data. But even I would know better than to do that instead of using Wi-Fi!

Since these results are inconclusive, I will just comment based on these results.
1. Apps that load videos / images use up a lot more data than just words.
2. If you have iCloud on, data is probably being used to do occasional back up of your app data.

Compression algorithm could be better BUT would affect video/image quality. Most videos on average, consume about 20-80MB of data.

No, not all suffer from this mobile data change. Was on 12GB like you and am now on 4GB. I guess I am a light user as I don't usually exceed 3~GB/month (even when on my 12GB plan).