Data consumption--Ugh!

tlo07

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So I pulled up the AT&T app on my phone today to discover that 3 days into my billing cycle my daughter has used over 5 gb of our 10 gb of shared data. We had been having a lot of trouble getting the phones to stay on wifi but it seemed after resetting network settings things improved. Now I'm starting to wonder if these phones are still using data even when they indicate they are on wifi. My daughter goes to school full time and works two jobs so I'm not sure how she could use so much data in such a short amount of time.

I thought putting the phones in airplane mode while on wifi would help but is it better to just turn off cellular in the settings? I'm not sure I know what the difference is.

Anyone else having this issue with high data consumption? Even I have used 1 1/2 gb in the first 3 days of the billing cycle and I usually use around 2 the whole month.

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BreakingKayfabe

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How old is your daughter? Do you think there is a distinct possibility she is maybe using all that data when there is no WiFi available?

And as far as AT&T goes: I've had my issues with them on more than one occasion regarding ghost data. So keep an eye on that as well.
 

tlo07

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Airplane mode turns off all radios (wifi cellular Bluetooth nfc). So it's not quite the same as turning just cellular off and turning wifi on.

But either way would prevent data use. Do only iMessages come through on wifi or will SMS also come through on wifi with cellular turned off?

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tlo07

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How old is your daughter? Do you think there is a distinct possibility she is maybe using all that data when there is no WiFi available?

And as far as AT&T goes: I've had my issues with them on more than one occasion regarding ghost data. So keep an eye on that as well.

She's 20. The thing is she is at school with wifi and her 1st job is at the school in the Admissions Office so she is still on wifi at that job. Her second job is at PetsMart as a cashier and there is no wifi but she can only shoot out a quick text here or there-- she would get in trouble watching YouTube videos or streaming Netflix at the cash register. We have wifi at home obviously. She really doesn't spend a lot of time anywhere else. I'm stumped.

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Ledsteplin

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Videos are a big data hog, regardless of where they come from. Some games use a lot. FaceTime on Cellular uses data. Email uses data on Cellular.


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Jimbos Jumbos

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My data plan cycle started today. I havent left my house all day (working from home office today). But somehow, I have used 200MB of data??? If this keeps up, that would be 6GB of data a month. Data being used while I am on wifi??? I have been wondering about ghost data with ATT, but your message had me looking at my ATT app.

How can we tell if ATT is charging us for data that is not being used?
 

GibMcFragger

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I have used a fair chunk of data since getting this phone also. I looked at the usage, and nothing is abnormal. I'm not worried, I get 6GB a month. I'm not on AT&T btw.

Do you have app updates allowed over data? If so, disable that. It'll help.
 

diesteldorf

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Have you tried having her go to SETTINGS and then CELLULAR? If she scrolls down, it should give a list of apps on her phone and a general estimate on which ones are using data.
 

blasted11

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I'm tired of ATT and all this data usage crap. Having the same issue,though I constantly use a speedtest app on my iPhone to check download speeds over wifi and LTE. I have ocd when it comes to my download speeds and it drives me nuts if they're not up to par..so when I get a new phone I test a lot. I was on the unlimited plan for a long time,and found out about throttling last spring when I decided to keep wifi off (even at home) because my speeds over LTE were better. Now with the new iphone 6 I was having slow speed issues and called ATT several times and even made a Genius bar appt in case it was a faulty phone. I tried everything to no avail,and knew it wasnt due to throttling this time because we checked. Then when I was on the phone with ATT support,she mentioned I had only used about 300 mb's of data in each of the past few months,and suggested I go to a 1gb plan to save money. I did, and 4 hrs later I got the auto text from ATT saying I'm near my data limit only 5 days into the cycle..lol.(because I keep using that app to test the LTE speeds!) So for now I switched it to a 2 gb plan and haven't run the test over LTE.
Driving me insane.:crying:
 

Premium1

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So I pulled up the AT&T app on my phone today to discover that 3 days into my billing cycle my daughter has used over 5 gb of our 10 gb of shared data. We had been having a lot of trouble getting the phones to stay on wifi but it seemed after resetting network settings things improved. Now I'm starting to wonder if these phones are still using data even when they indicate they are on wifi. My daughter goes to school full time and works two jobs so I'm not sure how she could use so much data in such a short amount of time.

I thought putting the phones in airplane mode while on wifi would help but is it better to just turn off cellular in the settings? I'm not sure I know what the difference is.

Anyone else having this issue with high data consumption? Even I have used 1 1/2 gb in the first 3 days of the billing cycle and I usually use around 2 the whole month.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

My wifi was having issues earlier today (first time having issues) but now seems to be staying locked on. Hopefully Apple can fix the wifi issue in another update and it is not something more. Wifi seems to be an issue with their phones lately and some having issues where it uses data when should be on wifi.


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tlo07

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Well I feel foolish now. I think the amount showing for data usage was still last months total even though it's the third day into my billing cycle. I had even called att and talked to the customer service rep and she recommended I increase my data plan. I went up to the 30gb plan to cover my @ss.

Well, tonight I log back and and now my balance due appears (it said zero earlier) and everyone is rolled back to zero on data. So I called back to att to find out if the data had been reset because of the new billing period or as a result of the plan change. Basically I wanted to know did my daughter use 5 gb in the first few days of the billing cycle. The guy said there had been very little data use the last few days so it seems to me it just took a few days for the data to reset which makes no sense at all. Very weird.


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eprisencc

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I'm tired of ATT and all this data usage crap. Having the same issue,though I constantly use a speedtest app on my iPhone to check download speeds over wifi and LTE. I have ocd when it comes to my download speeds and it drives me nuts if they're not up to par..so when I get a new phone I test a lot. I was on the unlimited plan for a long time,and found out about throttling last spring when I decided to keep wifi off (even at home) because my speeds over LTE were better. Now with the new iphone 6 I was having slow speed issues and called ATT several times and even made a Genius bar appt in case it was a faulty phone. I tried everything to no avail,and knew it wasnt due to throttling this time because we checked. Then when I was on the phone with ATT support,she mentioned I had only used about 300 mb's of data in each of the past few months,and suggested I go to a 1gb plan to save money. I did, and 4 hrs later I got the auto text from ATT saying I'm near my data limit only 5 days into the cycle..lol.(because I keep using that app to test the LTE speeds!) So for now I switched it to a 2 gb plan and haven't run the test over LTE.
Driving me insane.:crying:

I don't see why people give up unlimited data even with the throttling. Why would I want to be charged for going over?


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BreakingKayfabe

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I don't see why people give up unlimited data even with the throttling. Why would I want to be charged for going over?


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Because not everyone goes over. If you think you'd go over whatever tier you get, then stick with whet you have. Some of us don't want to be in a situation where we need to do a quick Google search on the street and it takes minutes to load results.
 

DINGSTER1

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Also check what she is synching, fb, etc. And how. I shut off all the synching except mail on my son's phone after his 5c started gobbling data
 

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