Extraordinary iPhone 6 Data Usage

[rhrt]

Hey all, I am also experiencing extraordinarily high data consumption by the iPhone 6 on my 12 gb, four (4) phone family plan. 

Here is a snapshot of data usage from the Vz Wireless “My Account” portal.  This is UNBILLED data used between 2/19/15 to 3/10/15 – the first 19 days of my 30 day billing period:

1: Samsung S5: 0.197 gb

2: iPhone 6: 10.439 gb

3: Samsung S4: 1.028 gb

4: iPhone 5: 0.345 gb

The iPhone 6 user (my daughter) is a 24-year old, college graduate who is literate in iPhone usage and has 13 years of prior mobile phone usage experience. 

Her iPhone 6 property settings are all the “out of the box” defaults with no unusual settings.

The minute she walks into her apartment, she switches over from mobile data to apartment WiFi data to conserve mobile data use.

Based on the Verizon data usage numbers (above), this iPhone 6 is consuming data at a rate of approximately 0.5 gb per day! 

At this rate, the iPhone 6 will consume an additional 6 GB of data in the 11 remaining days of my current 30 billing cycle.

In light of this, I was forced to upgrade my data plan last week from 12 to 16 gb; to avoid the $15 per gigabyte penalty fee Vz Wireless charges for each gig of consumption beyond the limit of my plan quota.

To identify which iPhone 6 app are the ones consuming the large amounts of plan data, Verizon Support directs me to use their web-based “Data Usage” tool.  The tool resides in the Support region of their site and a login is required.

The issue with the website “Data Usage” tool is that it DOES NOT provide data utilization, in gigabytes by application name! The tool is not designed to the work this way.

With the Samsung S5 and S4 phones, their version of Android has a built “Data Usage” tool available under “Setting”.  This is a “REAL” data usage tool that list data consumption in gigabytes, by each installed App name.  Apple’s iOS appears to lack any functionally equivalent feature.

I am unsure if any other steps are available.  The inability to analyze the iPhone 6 data consumption to the app level is significantly and artificially increasing my annual mobile phone costs. Clearly I am being forced to buy mobile data unnecessarily.

I have called Verizon Support twice in the last 90 days. Also, both my wife and daughter have separately visited Verizon-operated walk-in centers several times each for help with this. 

Nobody at Verizon seems interested - beyond telling us that all our questions can be answered by simply using their website “Data Usage” tool

[kaebfly]

It's not an ideal suggestion but could she possibly delete all of her downloaded apps temporarily and use the phone for a day....to see if that significantly changes her phones data usage? It won't isolate the particular app but it will help determine how the phone acts without apps before tediously adding apps back a few at a time to see if she can pinpoint the issue. Again, this isn't ideal and I'm sure it's not something most feel like having to deal with. It definitely shouldn't be that way.

I also wonder if having advanced calling activated on the iPhone 6 might contribute to increased data consumption. I'm sure it does but that doesn't explain older iPhone models also having increased data use based on all of the other complaints about it.

[rhrt]

Thanks for response. Thoughts appreciated. I am going to install the mobidia app, MY DATA TRACKER for IOS on the iPhone 6.  Something I should have thought of months ago

Be well and thanks for your time

>> Personal information removed by Verizon Moderator to comply with the Verizon Wireless Terms of Service <<

[SuzyQ · Accepted solution]

You can use an app like Onavo Count to see what's using the data.  ALso, you an go to the app list and turn OFF the apps that, by default, are always ON.  My daughter (27 at the time) got an iPhone 5, and discovered that all her Facebook, Instagram, and other social apps were set to be ON and using data (wifi or otherwise).  She turned them all off, and opens them at will, not by default.

Using the phone with settings "out of the box" means everything is turned on and set to update and use data automatically - adjustments to update apps over wifi only, sybc over wifi only, etc need to be made.  And an overlooked possibility (often) is Facebook videos are set to play automatically unless you change the setting in Facebook or in the app to only play on wifi, or never play automatically.  Facebook has a lot of videos lately - and they can eat data like crazy.

[rhrt]

Thank for the note and for taking the time to write. This is helpful. I’ll look at the Onavo Count app.

I found another data usage app also that appears highly rated on the iOS app store called MT DATA MANAGER by Mobidia

I downloaded the Android version (of MY DATA MANAGER) onto my Samsung S5 for a test drive and it appears to work.

Mobidia advertises that the MY DATA MANAGER app can be configured by the end user for either “shared” or “single” user mode.

Meaning that in shared mode a family plan “administrator” can download a copy to say one of N number of family plan phones and configured it for “shared” user mode and “invite” the other phones into a “share group” and all can simultaneously see aggregate data consumption of the plans specific data allocation limit.

I am going to bypass the shared mode and just ask my daughter to download and setup the app in single user mode – since all she need is visibility into the apps that are the worse offenders so that she knows specifically which have to be turned off.

Be well and bye for now