We want to make sure your data services are working as they should, Janem56. I know how important it is to keep your data amount low. In regards to your data usage were there any updates on your phone recently? Was cellular data turned off on all the phones that were connected to WiFi?
JasperM_VZW
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Yes all phones are set to wifi only at home and st work. no wifi assist no recent updates. The phone started wracking up data in the early morning when everything was closed out and set on wifi.It's annoying that I went over this in great detail with several people the day I called in and more specifically Greg as I mentioned who promised to call back at a certain time which did not happen. I don't have all day to spend time on the phone being promised a solution and then to have the rep not even attempt a call back. I don't want to follow it on Twitter or anywhere else I want Verizon to do what they said they would do. CALL like they said they would. This from what I am reading seems to happen to many of your customers. Often times middle of the night. Some complaints dating back a year on this one post. How come Verizon can't figure out why it happens and give its customers the actual support they pay for instead of suggestions as to where they can go to find the info?
Is it possible that, if the phone in question has the Verizon Wireless Backup Assistant Plus app installed, that it is running overnight, losing network connection and retransmitting over and over again via 4G/LTE despite the phone being pinned to WiFi?
I know your time is valuable and apologize for the inconvenience. Let's get to the bottom of this once and for all. I will be sending you a Private Message momentarily.
AyaniB_VZW
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If my response answered your question please click the "Correct Answer" button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!
No it does not.
Sorry to come late the this party. The reason for the confusion over data reported in the middle of the night is lack of understanding how data is reported.
DAta is not used in real time. The only record of what your data was used for is in your phones settings.
Data starts being measured when your phones connects to towers, and stops when you disconnect. Like measuring water in a cup, you can only measure when the water is turned off. Sometimes reported in small batches, every few hours. Your data is often not totaled until your phone is not using towers for data. Typical, when you are home on wifi.
The analogy I use most is your data plan is like a checking account, your phone is like the checkbook and debit card. Purchases made during the day are not deducted from your checking account at the moment you write the check or swipe the debit card.
Each tower = a point of purchase.
Verizon towers = debit card purchase, often recorded as 'pending' and will be deducted soon.
Partner towers = check, no way of knowing when it will be deducted. International roaming data can take weeks to be deducted.
The delay in towers reporting back to computers is several hours. Partner towers take longer.
Just like your checking account, the data isn't reported back for several hours, often overnight, and then deducted from your data plan.
If you have an android phone, there is an option in settings to provide a warning and a cap. It has to be set slightly below your cap to be sure not to go over.
Verizon provides that service as well and should notify the user before 90 and 103% and especially notify the phone user that is actually going over instead of notifying all the other plan users as the phone accrues the data. We use low data monthly and all the sudden used all of our data in 12 days. Nothing changed with how the phones are being used or the settings. Regardless of when it gets " charged" to an account. The point is same settings same usage should result in similar data use not one phone using all of the data in 12 days. I have been with Verizon for many years so I'm familiar with our data usage associated with the phones on the plan. More than anything I am angry with the lack of customer service and the fact that it seems to have happened to other people without an explanation by Verizon. I would prefer to do this by phone and not air this on a public forum but that attempt result was less than satisfying. I notice you mention droid settings? I had thought that I had put this under the apple section.
You did place in Apple. Your iPhone has 2 flaws which makes regulating data Difficult.
1. It doesn't reset data with the billing period. So unless you do so manually, you cannot tell if you are using the exact same amount of data as previous months. To manually reset, open settings, cellular data, scroll down. Date of last reset is shown. Reset on billing date and screen shot before end of bill cycle, then reset again. Data will never be exact, but should be close.
2. Apple did not add the data management tool. And added wifi assist, which you can turn off.
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THe only record of what used how much data is your phone. Until you reset and track a month, you cannot tell if you used the same amount of data as last month, or 3 months ago. Verizon can only tell you which phone is using how much data and by category.
You need to do the research. Until then the data reported to Verizon is assumed correct.
Since you wrote "We", I assume you have at least 2 phones. Is one phone high, or both? Which apps are using the most data? Are they limited to wifi, yet still using data according to your phone?
MY experience has been that tech support reads data responses off a cue card has has no real experience in managing data.
My information comes from several years dealing with the lack of "support" and knowledge on the subject from the carriers. As in, learning the hard way. Note, plural, I have moved from Verizon to ATT, to Verizon and am now back with AT&T. I left Verizon before More Everything. I recently went back to ATT.
Ive done hours of research over several years and spoken with techs who could actually tell me how data is used, collected by towers, reported back to carrier computers. Where data goes wrong on phones, and how likely it is the user, an application, the OS/iOS or phone is to blame, or if the carrier has a bug.
1. The most likely cause is user error. Leaving wifi off, leaving an app running in the background, watching video on cellular.
Fix: usually fixed when users reviewed phone records and realized the error, self corrected.
2. next is software error. Email stuck in out box, app continually working, update changed settings to default.
Fix: Delete and reinstall an app or email, empty out box. Review settings in particular apps.
These 2 above cause pretty near all the problems.
3. next is a iOS / OS error. It's easier to see on android and Windows Because OS is listed in data usage, but is integrated and sandboxed in iOS.
Fix: Most of the time a factory reset will do the job. If not, replacing the phone, hopefully with warranty is the only recourse. iPhone is more likely to require a replacement phone because of the way iOS works. You may have read people with the problem felt the problem was fixed by switching carriers. Not really. Switching carriers also meant switching phones, which was the problem all along.
4. Least likely a bug in the carrier side, which may be caused if someone else is using your ESN/IMEI. The ESN/IMEI is like your social security number For your phone. It may be a computer foul up. If this were the case, there would be an obvious error. The phones would total a very different total each month from the carrier record.
I Have read of only 2 incidents were the carrier acknowledged there was a big and the phones were recording less data and the carriers larger total was incorrect. The only solution was to switch carriers - new account, a do over.
FIx: if you want to keep your carrier, they have to close your account and open you an new one. Never been done, everyone always switches.
I Wrote a blog for ATT last year. Data Management - Cause for gray hair, hair pullin... - AT&T Community
Just want to share that Wi-Fi assist does not use cellular data in the following instances:
About Wi-Fi Assist - Apple Support
- Wi-Fi Assist will not automatically switch to cellular if you're data roaming.
- Wi-Fi Assist only works when you have apps running in the foreground and doesn't activate with background downloading of content.
- Wi-Fi Assist doesn’t activate with some third-party apps that stream audio or video, or download attachments, like an email app, as they might use large amounts of data.
I'm still having issues with this. We have one line on our account that uses about 3GB of data between 4am and 10am while on Wifi at home.
Start a new topic or ask questions in the open forum.
