Cellular Data Question (iPhone 5s)

Alan2013

Hi All,

A colleague of mine in work bought an iPhone 5s 32gb for Christmas. I transferred all of his photos and contacts from his Galaxy to the iPhone via a laptop, and it was running perfectly fine.

Yesterday, he received his phone bill, and found that he had used over €140 on data charges over three days starting with €100 on the 22nd of December, €30 the next day and €10 on the following day. I looked at his cellular data statistics, and it shows that he downloaded 9.4 GB of data since he got the phone. The breakdown of data usage show that the App Store used 8.7 GB.

I spoke to Apple yesterday, and they referred me to O2, even though I think it is solely an Apple issue. I spoke to O2 this morning, and they say they cannot tell me what the data was used for

Can anybody give me any suggestions to why the iPhone used so much cellular data, (no major apps downloaded, and to the best of knowledge, the App Store will not allow apps over 100mb to be downloaded over cellular data)?

Looking forward to your ideas

guil

Where are you looking that says the data was used on the AppStore?

Also depending what tariff they are on the data can be very expensive

Skalragg

you seeing the App store using 8.9gb????
How many apps does he have? some apps, esp games are 100's of MB's in size. You need to first investigate what he has downloaded from the app store.

in the Iphone settings menu, go to mobile > Mobile data usage and compare what it says there. I would recommend turning off the app store mobile network usage until you find the cause as no one just downloads nearly 9gb out of nowhere. I don't see any reason for the phone to back up so much, the iCloud only stores 5GB so that shouldnt push him up close to that data usage amount.

At any stage have you/your colleague used the Iphone as a hotspot ?

Alan2013

Hi guil. Thanks for replying

In settings > cellular, I see the details similar to this image

www.macrumors.com/2013/06/11/ios-7-beta-tidbits-per-app-cellular-data-usage-live-clock-icon-panoramic-wallpaper-and-more/

As you can see in the image, App Store data is 34 bytes. On my colleagues iPhone, it shows 8.7 GB

Alan2013

Hi Skalragg,

Personal hotspot was the first thing that I thought of, because I got a charge from vodafone for tethering my iPod to my old iPhone, even though I thought my 2gb allowance would cover any downloads. Much to my annoyance, they charged me €8 to download one song using personal hotspot!

He doesn't think that personal hotspot was ever used on the phone.

While he has downloaded a lot of apps on his iPad, owned for the last two years, he says he has downloaded very few onto his new phone. Do you think apple should be able to tell what he downloaded?

Skalragg

Hi alan,

Easiest way to see what he is has downloaded/used is settings > general > usage this lists total amount of space being used and where it has been allocated. That is simplest way to see what is on the phone. While apple will have a log of everything themselves, they will NOT tell you this information, they will also not be held accountable for the mobile data charge

As far as both apple and the mobile provider are concerned, we made the service available ...you used it too much...tough sh**

your lucky, I know some people who have been charged over 2K for mobile data usage.... and they downloaded less than your colleague

guil

If he used the same Apple ID as the iPad it's possible automatic downloads are enabled. That way any apps downloaded on other devices will be downloaded to the iPhone without him knowing. Go to settings-iTunes and appstores and see if it's enabled.

guil

Just as an FYI I checked last night and the same statistic you were looking at for the AppStore. Mine only says 377mb but there's no way I've only downloaded that much. I've easily used 3 times that this month alone

FourFourRED

guil wrote: »

Just as an FYI I checked last night and the same statistic you were looking at for the AppStore. Mine only says 377mb but there's no way I've only downloaded that much. I've easily used 3 times that this month alone

It's not entirely accurate for monitoring usage. I use an app Data Usage from sigterm and that is a lot more accurate for mobile data usage than what the settings tells me I'm using. Sometimes it is out by 200mb or more.

Maybe some of the apps you downloaded were over wi-fi? My figure for the app store this month is 40mb. I've used 2.3gb mobile data this month.

Alan2013

Thanks for your replies. I have looked everywhere on the phone, and I cannot see where this data would have been used. Automatic downloads are switched off and there are few apps on his phone, 10 to 15 maximum. Do you think it is worth pursuing with Apple, as at least if they can give you an explanation for the data usage, you can make sense of paying €140 for something unexplainable at the moment?

kensutz

Alan2013 wrote: »

Thanks for your replies. I have looked everywhere on the phone, and I cannot see where this data would have been used. Automatic downloads are switched off and there are few apps on his phone, 10 to 15 maximum. Do you think it is worth pursuing with Apple, as at least if they can give you an explanation for the data usage, you can make sense of paying €140 for something unexplainable at the moment?

Nope, best bet to ask the mobile phone company. Apple will only go through the settings to check what's on and off. Other than that, like you already called the mobile company, there's no way Apple can pinpoint the cause of it.

flyguy

I might be completely of, but anyway... Maybe a lot of audio/video streaming? Netflix? TuneIn etc? However I doubt that should shows as App Store usage...

CathalDublin

I had an issue recently where my phone used my monthly allowance in the space of 2 days, I have a 4GB allowance.
Here is what I think happened, the phones memory was full and I opened the app store and selected update all not knowing the phone was full, I was prompted with a message after a few minutes warning me of insufficient space, I ignored it and left the apps at loading/installing/whatever for the next day or 2, then I got a warning from o2 about going over my data plan.

djdunny

could it be a case of the photos in Photo stream downloading over the course of a few days?

OP get him to check how many photos he has in photo stream

I know there is a limit of 1000 but if each photo was 5MB then that circa 5GB alone

Alan2013

Thanks for all of the new replies.

My first thought was photo stream because I put quite a few photos from his galaxy onto the iPhone , and as he has an iPad too, I thought it might have uploaded them into his iCloud, but I think that the maximum amount of free iCloud usage is 5gb, and according to the phone itself, it states that he has used a total of 3.7gb of storage on the phone

My main question is, do any of you think I should chase this up with apple to try and get something out of them (free iTunes credit etc) because I think the phone operator is right to charge him for the data because he did use it, we just don't know why/on what basis the phone used it for??

kensutz

Alan2013 wrote: »

Thanks for all of the new replies.

My first thought was photo stream because I put quite a few photos from his galaxy onto the iPhone , and as he has an iPad too, I thought it might have uploaded them into his iCloud, but I think that the maximum amount of free iCloud usage is 5gb, and according to the phone itself, it states that he has used a total of 3.7gb of storage on the phone

My main question is, do any of you think I should chase this up with apple to try and get something out of them (free iTunes credit etc) because I think the phone operator is right to charge him for the data because he did use it, we just don't know why/on what basis the phone used it for??

You won't get anything from apple. We don't issue credit for free at the drop of a hat. The cellular data issue is a user issue and/or network issue.

Piliger

It's impossible to opine on this without knowing what plan he is on, the details and what the charges are in connection with. Screen snaps etc.

Alan2013

I think that my query is getting slightly lost. My colleague has a 1gb allowance each month. Having received his bill this month, he found data charges for 100 euro on the 22/12, 30 euro on the 23/12 and 10 euro on the 24/12. I looked on his iPhone 5s to see what cellular data had been used , and it shows a total of 9.4gb,with 8.7gb allocated against "app store". I have detailed in this thread that it so far appears unexplained

I contacted apple on his behalf,to enquire what this data usage was used for in the "App Store" and they referred to me to O2. I contested this with apple , as I believe that O2 have done nothing wrong ( they provided the download/ upload as requested by the phone )

I think that it is wrong of apple to try to palm this off on O2. Apple should be able to tell me what happened to cause this data usage, whether it be caused by the phone or the user, and not fob me off to the operator!

kensutz

How are Apple meant to be responsible for data charges? It's user set up so you should have realised how it was set up, was it on a wifi connection all the time instead of data. Apple also will not be able to tell you what was downloaded. If you're contacting on behalf of someone else, there's no way they'll go into much detail with you anyway. Also apps vary in size from a few MB to under a GB.

sawdoubters

some one watched a few videos


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4347104?start=180&tstart=0

FourFourRED

kensutz wrote: »

How are Apple meant to be responsible for data charges? It's user set up so you should have realised how it was set up, was it on a wifi connection all the time instead of data. Apple also will not be able to tell you what was downloaded. If you're contacting on behalf of someone else, there's no way they'll go into much detail with you anyway. Also apps vary in size from a few MB to under a GB.

You can't download an app over 100mb on a cellular data connection though.

Alan2013

Thanks Aodhagan. This is exactly my point. Apple have fail-safes in place in stop large amounts of data usage (and related charges!). Apple just wipe their hands of this, and I think that they should at least try to explain this data usage, whether it be user instigated or phone instigated.

curly.bert

I think you're wasting your time. To be fair to Apple, they're not responsible for the data use on the phone. If anything, the Cellular Data settings help to stop this type of thing from happening. My advice? Your mate should chalk it down to experience and make sure he keeps an eye on his data usage in future - or get a different mobile plan.

guil

Aodhagan wrote: »

You can't download an app over 100mb on a cellular data connection though.

Yes you can if it was an app previously downloaded with that Apple ID.

Edit
Actually I was wrong. 3G unrestrictor was enabled.

Piliger

Without more evidence this is obviously an O2 and user issue. Someone left streaming on. Someone went to town on iTunes and now the bill has to be paid. I see no issues for Apple whatsoever.

FourFourRED

In future you can manage what apps can use cellular data via settings so disable the streaming apps like Netflix & YouTube to prevent another nasty bill.