Mobile phone data usage

Information and help in the IT field of computers, internet, ISP's, mobile and fixed line telephones plus satellite TV systems.
elusive
Andalucia Guru
Posts: 3275
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2012 11:49 am
Location: East of Malaga

Mobile phone data usage

Postby elusive » Tue Nov 28, 2017 4:02 pm

Probably a daft question but can your mobile provider change how many mega bites it takes to say visit this board or any website or app? Or is it something thats set in stone. I dont use much data each day as when im in the house i connect via wifi. Using 12mb in a day off my data plan would be alot for me. Yesterday i noticed i had used around that but couldnt really remember when and where.it seemed abit strange.it appeared to be going up even though id hardly used it ie going into one app a few times. So ive been tracking my usage today and its more normal but still seems abit more than normal for just going into say one app for litterally 30 secs.

Im with hits and wonder if its a coincedence that my rolling monthly contract renewed yesterday and thats when it started and also looking on their website for the tarrif im on you get double the amount of data im getting now but for the same price so come the end of december ill move onto the new tarrif. Which made me wonder if it is possible for a provider to change the amount of M.Bs it takes to visit sites etc???

User avatar
costakid
Andalucia Guru
Posts: 5754
Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2005 11:55 am
Location: malaga este

Re: Mobile phone data usage

Postby costakid » Tue Nov 28, 2017 7:35 pm

Try closing all your apps. If you have a news or sport app open it is automatically updating all day and using data

User avatar
spanish_lad
Andalucia Guru
Posts: 6218
Joined: Fri Apr 15, 2005 10:13 pm
Location: Alhaurin el Grande since 99, cartama campo since 2022

Re: Mobile phone data usage

Postby spanish_lad » Thu Nov 30, 2017 7:18 pm

News / weather / Google will be constantly updating.

12mb is nothing, I've sent bigger WhatsApp messages :lol:
Alhaurin el Grande since 99, working at the airport since 2011.

elusive
Andalucia Guru
Posts: 3275
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2012 11:49 am
Location: East of Malaga

Re: Mobile phone data usage

Postby elusive » Fri Dec 22, 2017 6:51 pm

Touch wood i think ive sorted the problem. Been out alot this last week and hardly seem to use my phone bar a quick check of the news etc but it was getting towards15-20 mb a day which is alot for me and seemed to make no sense. I always close my apps after use but after abit of googling it seems you need to do more than that. Went into data use in the settings and checked the box that stops apps from running in the background when you are on a data connection.so did that with all of them bar a couple that need to run like A.V. it also shows you which apps are using the most data in the background and two,tripadvisor and the playstore had suddenly started using loads more background data from when i started this thread compaired to previous months.all my other apps had normal usage.so i guess its those two apps causing the issue (hopefully)

this morning i went out for a few hours and didnt use my phone at all but when i came back and connected to the wifi it showed i had used 4mb of data without even touching my phone! So after turning off background data ive been checking my phone over the last three hours and ive used about 60kb which is certainly better than 4mb and pretty normal i would think.hopefully of help if anyone else has such an issue

El Cid
Andalucia Guru
Posts: 16058
Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2004 10:42 pm
Location: La Herradura, Costa Tropical, Granada

Re: Mobile phone data usage

Postby El Cid » Fri Dec 22, 2017 9:45 pm

The phone uses data for various system jobs. You can’t really do much about this but you can restrict which apps can use data. I find it much easier to just turn off mobile data completely until you need to use it. It’s a couple of clicks to turn it on when you need it.

Data on or off does not affect your ability to make or receive phone calls or SMS texts.

Sid

elusive
Andalucia Guru
Posts: 3275
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2012 11:49 am
Location: East of Malaga

Re: Mobile phone data usage

Postby elusive » Sat Dec 23, 2017 9:05 am

I will do that cid if it comes to it or at least delete The T.A app first. but it does kinda beat the point of having a smartphone if you only turn your data on every so often when out and about. As theres no direct access to emails and whatsapp etc. I prefer to get to the bottom of it otherwise its a source of worry. Although im hoping its what i said above as ive never had this issue before with this phone and ive had all the same apps on it since i got it and the problem started at the exact time the T.A and playstore app started using 50mb plus more data in the background during the month than previous ones.I'll be out today for a good while so will continue wtih my monitoring from yesterday which was postive after turning off background data.

One thing that also happens when i first turn my phone on in the morning is that my data counter (wifi) goes up within a couple of mins of turning my phone on before doing anything on the phone.the other day it went upto 11mb before stopping.then one day nothing and this morning 4 mb. I always leave my data connection off when i first turn it on as the playstore itself not the apps update via data even if your app update setting is set to update over wifi only. Maybe thats connected to the playstore as play store and T.A are the two apps that have been using alot more background data since i noticed this problem and havnt before in previous months.

Dont you love technology !!!!

elusive
Andalucia Guru
Posts: 3275
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2012 11:49 am
Location: East of Malaga

Re: Mobile phone data usage

Postby elusive » Sat Dec 23, 2017 12:28 pm

Argh. Spoke to soon. Used 2.5 mb in 30 mins with phone not been used. Appears to be so random.it was fine when i tracked my usage last night. So ive uninstalled tripadvisor. The other app which was using alot was the playstore. Obviously i cant uninstall it but if i disable it will it cause any probs with using the apps i have installed? Obviously i will have to undisable it to update apps.

Also it seems when ever i turn on or restart my phone i get this excessive use of data for a couple of mins.like an app is starting up.i restarted my phone earlier and 12 mb was used up via wifi. Whether that was connected to the app ive uninstalled we will see

User avatar
gerryh
Andalucia Guru
Posts: 8046
Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2008 6:17 pm
Location: Cajiz, Malaga

Re: Mobile phone data usage

Postby gerryh » Sat Dec 23, 2017 12:37 pm

Sorry but why are you worried about such a small amount of data being used?
Do you have a monthly data cap on your phone?
Do you pay for the amount of data used?
Both I and my wife have a 2GB monthly data caps on our phones.
The phones are almost permanently connected for data.
Rarely ever use our allowances.
Cheers
Gerry
Gerry Harris

elusive
Andalucia Guru
Posts: 3275
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2012 11:49 am
Location: East of Malaga

Re: Mobile phone data usage

Postby elusive » Sat Dec 23, 2017 12:50 pm

Yeah its not a huge amount gerry and ive just upgraded my allowance to 3gb for the same price as 500mb which i was getting before. But if im out all day i dont want to be constantly having to check my phone and seeing that for no reason im using upwards of 20mb. It shouldnt be happening and has never done so in the two years ive had the phone so I'd like to try and find out why as it will bug and stress me out that theres a problem somewhere.the only other app using alot in the backgroud was the playstore but if i disable that it says data will be wipped or something like that so i dont want to do that.

Anyway i uninstalled the T.A app and restarted my phone and yet again as soon as it restarted within a min or two (phone wasnt touched) it used 12 MB via wifi. So whatever is causing this issue on start up isnt the T.A app. *sigh*. Now to check if uninstalling T.A makes any difference to the data

User avatar
gerryh
Andalucia Guru
Posts: 8046
Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2008 6:17 pm
Location: Cajiz, Malaga

Re: Mobile phone data usage

Postby gerryh » Sat Dec 23, 2017 1:06 pm

Assuming your phone uses the Android OS then if you go into settings, data usage it will show you the amount of data used by each app in your present monthly billing period.
You can also set a warning when your usage exceeds a certain amount.
Cheers
Gerry
Gerry Harris

elusive
Andalucia Guru
Posts: 3275
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2012 11:49 am
Location: East of Malaga

Re: Mobile phone data usage

Postby elusive » Sat Dec 23, 2017 1:49 pm

Thanks gerry .yes i checked my data usage and ticked to restrict the apps that were using alot of b ground data.

Ive now worked out what was causing the data usage as soon as i turned my phone on. My data counter app shows real time traffic and when i did a phone restart it showed that google contacts sync in the play services app was using upto 12mb via wifi. So i ticked the restrict background data in the data usage setting and restarted my phone with the data connection on and this time there was no use of data as soon as my phone was turned on.

The real time counter also showed the 2 plus mb that was used quickly was from my avast app. I dont have that restricted when im using data as i presume it needs to be running all the time to work properly.so it wasnt Trip advisor.


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot], Majestic-12 [Bot] and 31 guests