Unexplained data usage peak

[Fun Bus]

I've just learnt my most recent mobile phone bill is carrying an additional £30 of data charges as I went over my allowance. If I felt I had used this data, I'd hold my hands up and pay it. Having looked at my usage though, something isn't right and even one of the tech guys at T-Mobile is baffled.

There is a period of about two weeks where my data usage is 40-55mb per day. Both before, and after this peak I'm showing as using less than 20mb per day.

Nothing changed in this period with regards to usage. I'm on Wi-Fi at home, in my local and when working use my phone for calls and texts as I'm too busy for anything else!

Has anyone else had this? I've T-Mobile looking into it further as it goes against my 'normal' pattern.

[LeoSayer]

Google+ backing up your phone photos to the cloud over 3G?

[andy-xr]

What phone? If I look at mine I have a data usage section for mobile and wifi which tells me during a monthly period what data was used by which app. I can see that I used 122Mb on email last month, which was higher than the month before. And I installed 3 apps that took up another 22Mb

Do you have something similar on your handset?

[randlemarcus]

Does the handset agree on the data usage? If so, I'd have thought you would be on a sticky wicket, and you might want to up your data allowance to cover future instances of your phone going off on one.

[Fun Bus]

I've an iPhone 4S, and have paid the additional charges as I don't see the point in not. I've no way of monitoring my usage as I never reset my usage stats.

I'm more intrigued than anything.

[Mr Will]

Didn't download the new U2 album did you...

[Major Fallout]

My OH got a bill from vodaphone for £140 for downloading 3gb in 3 min at 12pm. She was asleep and we struggle to get a 3G connection it's mostly GPRS.

Vodaphone couldn't explain it, agreed it was impossible but wouldn't knock it off. After 3 months of arguing they knocked off 20%.

Now with giffgaff

[anonymous-user]

Fun Bus said:

I've an iPhone 4S, and have paid the additional charges as I don't see the point in not. I've no way of monitoring my usage as I never reset my usage stats.

I'm more intrigued than anything.

Do you use Facebook?

I hit my data limit the last couple of months when previously have never had an issue, when speaking to mates about it we tracked it down to Facebook and videos autoplaying. Have now turned it off so will see this month if it makes a difference.

[mojitomax]

Facebook has caused massive data usage and battery drain on my 5s.

I only use Facebook on wifi now

[Fun Bus]

I've turned auto play off for Facebook - both for cellular and wifi.

Since I reset my data usage, my ohone has now used 4.5mb of data in a couple of hours. Not unusual except I've not actively used anything requiring data. Therefore, it must be in the background somewhere.

[extraT]

Dont understand why people use the facebook app....

simply go to the facebook website and create a short cut on your phone. You will remain logged in, you will use the web version, which will use whatever permissions you have given safari, will not do things you do not want it to, AND you still have messages, so you do not need a seperate app for them either.

[BlackST]

iOS8? With the new update even if you were receiving iMessages over wifi I believe that it was still using celular data. Same with sending pictures.

[BlackST]

Somebody reporting the Mail app using high amounts of data too
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=17926...

[Fun Bus]

BlackST said:

iOS8? With the new update even if you were receiving iMessages over wifi I believe that it was still using celular data. Same with sending pictures.

Yes, iOS8. Sorry for being stupid, I don't understand what you're telling me I'm afraid.

[BlackST]

I'm sure I read on macrumours that a glitch in iOS8 was that, if people were using iMessage over wifi, they were still using 3G data instead of the wifi data.

[Fun Bus]

Could be that then. In 24hrs I've now used 2.5mb of cellular data - I've not been on wifi for a total of 5 hours and during that did nothing that would have used anything like. In fact, whilst I was asleep last night, I used 500kb of data apparently.

Odd, determined to try and get to the bottom of it though.

[THX]

I'm constantly on wifi, never make calls, and use only iMessage.

Sometimes, my mobile bill will increase by a few quid.

Low and behold, the online bill doesn't work.

I've never been arsed enough to check it.

Just one of life's mysteries.

[Fun Bus]

The reason I'm digging deeper is because I went over my allowance by 300MB which has cost me the best part of £30. I'm not disputing the charge, I've paid that but I'm very curious as to how it happened.

[NDA]

Fun Bus said:

The reason I'm digging deeper is because I went over my allowance by 300MB which has cost me the best part of £30. I'm not disputing the charge, I've paid that but I'm very curious as to how it happened.

On Sunday my EE app told me I had no data left - very odd. 600MB used in a day. So I bought some more.

On Monday, my EE app told me that I had 600MB remaining, and of course, the new data I'd just bought.

They're a law unto themselves.

[mini95]

I have gone over my allowance a couple of times with my mifi and ipad combination, I have a big allowance so it is unusual. I know I have been using it more as my home broadband is crap but it was still a lot.

I am not 100% sure if I have got to the bottom of it but I read on a forum that Skype being logged in all the time sucked a lot of data as it is always checking to see what contacts are online. I have logged out of this app now and data usage seems to have dropped.