When using the internet on your device that has an active carrier data plan and no WIFI network is available, the device automatically switch to carrier's data plan.
There are many instances where people with limited monthly plans have run into bloated bills due to unintentional excess data usage.
I searched far and wide across the forums, to find any tips, tricks, tools or best practices for optimized data usage, but could not find much.
This is my humble attempt to come up with such a list.
Hopefully this will help someone avoid those surprise excess usages and bloated bills.
Please bare with me if this is insufficient or if the information herein becomes outdated due to new features in latest Android versions.
I'm not an expert. I am kind of a half-noob myself
1. Install a Data Monitor application.
There are applications which help you monitor data usage.
They show how much usage has happened through carrier's packet data and how much is through WIFI.
They also show data usage per application.
If your ROM does not already have these features, there are so many applications available on the android market (Google play store).
Search for one that suits your needs. I personally prefer My Data Manager
Note that all these data monitor applications monitor the usage at real-time.
That means, they can only monitor your usage form the day you installed them. Don't wait till you run into an excess usage problem, install one now.
2. Explicitly turn off packet-data during huge WIFI downloads.
If you are downloading huge data over WIFI (say a 600 MB file), and in-between if your WIFI becomes unavailable, chances are that the phone switches automatically to carrier data and continues with the download.
This is a sure shot scenario to cause surprise excess usage.
The WIFI might become unavailable due to any number of reasons like:
Straying out of the signal area - if you are moving around
Source getting disconnected - I have a cabled broadband with unlimited data on my laptop, I make my laptop a WIFI hotspot (kind of reverse tethering) using a USB adapter (wireless N150 USB adapter from buffalo). Whenever there is a power cut, my broadband connection goes off until I manually reconnect. Also, my connection periodically times off if it's on for a long time, or my laptop might restart.
The router might malfunction or in worst case, the phone's WIFI connectivity might itself dysfunction.
The point is, keep in mind that the WIFI can go off half way through the download and you might end up using carrier data.
The best solution is to turn off your carrier data. [Uncheck Settings -> Wireless and network -> Mobile networks -> Use packet data]
You can turn it on once the download finishes or once you have stopped/paused the download and you are sure that it won't use up your packet data.
This way, you can ensure that you are actually downloading through WIFi.
3. Firewall - allow/disallow data access to individual applications.
There are firewall applications on the market that allow you to:
Block internet access to selected apps.
Many apps like offline games and simple tools require full internet access permission. At first glance, this looks suspicious as these apps do not seem to have any business going online.
The main reason most of them use this permission is to allow in-app Ads.
By using firewalls, you can block internet access to selected apps that do not require internet access for their normal functioning.
Separate packet (3G/GPRS) and WIFI data.
Some apps consume too much data, like Facebook, Google plus and some games.
If you don't need to be online on these apps all the time, you can allow them only WIFI access, so that they can sync only when WIFI becomes available and they can never use up your carrier data.
Toggle blocking status.
Useful when you want to occasionally turn it on for a while.
There are many such firewall apps available on the market and some antivirus apps also come with inbuilt firewall features.
I personally use DroidWall
Note:
Provide access to all android system applications, and apps which come pre-configured from your vendor (I guess they could be trusted)
Make sure all apps that require internet access are given the access - both in WIFI and 3G mode.
Make sure known data guzzlers are denied access - both WIFI and 3G (provided they do not require access for their normal functionality)
If in doubt about any particular app - I prefer to provide it access. Better safe, than risk impaired functionality.
4. Download Manager - pause/resume downloads.
Say you are downloading about 10MB of data and the connection drops when you are about 8MB completed.
At this situation, you do not want to start downloading from scratch again when connection becomes available.
This way, if you are moving in and out of connection, you will end up trying to download the same data again and again, drastically increasing the usage.
You need a download manager with pause, resume, auto resume features to handle this situation.
There are many available on the market, search and use a one that best suits your needs.
This works only for downloading from browser links, dropbox, etc.
The download manager does not come into picture if you are trying to download data directly from an app (like many games download huge data when started for the first time after installation).
I am yet to find an app which can handle this kind of situation. Something like - intercept any downloads initiated from within other apps, and provide you option to manage those downloads.
If anyone knows of any such app, please do update us.
However, most games and apps which do huge data download have inbuilt capability to manage the download.
For example, Sygic has an excellent download manager that manages maps and other downloads for it. It comes by default with Sygic.
5. Push Notification Detectors.
When you install certain applications, they might have tie-ups with certain advertisers to send add notifications directly to your device's notification bar.
Such ads are called push notification ads. They allow the developers to make some revenue and help keep the free applications free.
These notifications show up on your notification area periodically, even when the original application which installed them is not running.
As of now, I cannot find any statics/benchmarks to understand how much data push-notifications consume. But they definitely do consume some data.
It is a personal choice whether you want such notifications or not, I personally feel a little bit of data usage is OK, as it is a small price to pay and helps the developers.
But some applications might be tied up with greedy advertising schemes that do extensive push notifications and consume excessive data.
One best way is to go through the apps description carefully before installing.
If the developer clearly states that the app uses push notification adds, it shows some responsibility on the developer’s part and you can assume he has taken the steps to ensure that the notifications are not excessive and does not consume excess data.
You can then choose to either install or not install the application.
However, there are many applications which are silent about the fact that they use push notifications.
There are many detectors on the market which detect all the installed apps on your device which appear to use known notification Ad frameworks.
They do not block the Ads, but inform you which applications are causing them. You can then choose to uninstall those applications or give them only WIFI data access or freeze them for a certain period of time to monitor your data consumption.
I personally use AirPush Detector
6. Freeze / Unfreeze applications.
If you suspect some application to be causing excess data consumption through push ads, you can freeze it for certain time and monitor the data usage to check if there is any significant change.
There are many such applications on the market which allow you to freeze/unfreeze select apps.
Most of them require root access (I do not know of any such app which works without root)
Titanium Backup (Requires Root) is the best application out there as per my opinion.
It does much more than freeze/unfreeze. It's a must have app for any root user.
PS:
Be very careful which apps you decide to freeze.
There are many apps that should not be frozen, especially system apps and some of those that come preinstalled on your ROM.
If you try to freeze any such app which should not be frozen, you might render your phone unusable.
Please refer threads related to your device to get a list of safe-to-freeze apps for your particular device.
Rooting might void warranty and has an associated risk of rendering your device unusable if done improperly.
If you are unfamiliar with concepts, read through the forums here on XDA, use the search button
This is all I can think of for now.
If you have any more useful tips/tricks or best practices related to data usage, please add them here, so that it can help others as well.
Cheers,
Sandeep
Related
Anyone know of an app that monitors individual apps net connect? I use 3g Watchdog but would like to know what apps are using the net and how much?
thanks
Lee
I've noticed my Android phone is gobbling data a lot faster than my Blackberry ever did. I'd like to know what's eating it as well.
I know the Blackberry is a lesser experience, but I've burned through half of my data cap in a week.
I've now resorted to just disabling data unless I need to use it, but it would be nice to know if there is one app, or a few apps that are chewing through it that I don't need to be running.
"Phone Usage" is what you should be looking for in android market! Droidwall is another app that will allow you to explicitly enable/disable certain apps from accessing data on your phone!
Try spare parts, there's a battery management option that'll show you data usage, gps usage, partial wake lock and cpu usage. if it shows a UID in place of the app you just need a app identifier to tell you what that uid is.
Biggest thing I found using it was dolphin browser had a huge data leak even after closing it through exit causing massive battery loss on my phone
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
Pat123 said:
"Phone Usage" is what you should be looking for in android market! Droidwall is another app that will allow you to explicitly enable/disable certain apps from accessing data on your phone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Droidwall requires root access though. I am trying Phone Usage now next to Network Monitor (which does not monitor seperate apps) cause I am wondering if Network Monitor catches everything (Provider says I am using more...)
uncletaz said:
Droidwall requires root access though. I am trying Phone Usage now next to Network Monitor (which does not monitor seperate apps) cause I am wondering if Network Monitor catches everything (Provider says I am using more...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ugh..I meant to "quote" you and accidently "thanked" you. So..thanks?
Anyways, I have PhoneUsage, which is useful for showing how the data is spread across your phone, and shows the top apps. However, I don't think it shows individual apps..only the top hogs.
3g watchdog PRO does monitor individual apps also. This is one of the extra features on the pro version
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
You can also try ZDBox.
This has been a telepathic transmission from the Outer Limits
Thanks for all the replies. Now to track down the source of my issues.
LBartley said:
Thanks for all the replies. Now to track down the source of my issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this might be useful. Although it's more on applications that are not closed properly or running on its own..
You can identify the problem by looking at your CPU usage.. if you have application showing and the cpu is high. probably, the problem lies on the program.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=967686
Hello. I am also looking for an app that monitors individual installed app network usage (3G or WiFi) in a real time sense (graphically or text based).
There are several utilities that monitor apps individually (3g Watchdog, Network Counter, NetworkTraffic Stats, OS Monitor) but nothing I've found offers a real time showing of individual apps the way that some apps show real time network usage of the OS.
Some show hourly tracking and some will refresh and show slight changes, but for real time tracking purposes (what the heck is consistently sending data *right now*), these are not as helpful.
Some background: for the past few days, my Vibrant would only get 3-4 hours of uptime, way down from the 8-12 I'm used to. I then noticed that my 3G connectivity was always on in both directions and I wanted to know exactly which app(s) was constantly transmitting. With the hourly monitoring, I had to wait, and I might have missed it. With the constant refreshing utility, the changes were so miniscule and not sorted by actively transmitting apps that it was counter productive to search that way.
Again, I'm not looking for one of the many utilities than do real time monitoring of the total network traffic, but real time network monitoring of the individual apps.
If anyone knows of any app that can do this, assistance would be really appreciated.
Thank you!
First of all, Hello! Hoping to find some nuggets of information from you guys!
Android/HTC for Business. The main areas we wish to lock down, and administer are:-
1) Data Usage Capping - Limiting the user to 1GB of Mobile Data, per month. At our discretion, we will up the limit once it has been reached. This means we can take charge of our data rather than the carrier.
2) Secure the device - Locking Marketplace, prevent end user installing apps and changing the company branding. Also deny adding widgets. We can add these from our workshop on an individual user requirement basis.
3) Remote Administration - Connecting remotely to the device be it over Wi-Fi or 3G to troubleshoot problems and amend settings on the users phone. Preferably with a GUI, rather than messing around with Command prompts.
Now, been doing some digging around and I may have answered some of the questions.
Data Usage Capping using 3G watchdog and APNDroid.
Secure the Device - Password protection with Protector
Remote Administration - Webkey (Rooting required)
But wondered if anyone had any other suggestions? Protector is good but limited in respect it can't lock down the adding of widgets, or at least I haven't found the setting. This has a knock on effect as a user can add the APNDroid to the home screen for example and switch the data back on! Webkey obviously won't work with the Wildfire S' as there is currently no root option for the device.
I half expect a lot of you to tell me to go with Blackberry BES, but Android IMHO is the way forward!
Thoughts?
Thanks,
Adam
My wife got a Skyrocket in December and as of January 18, it started sending a TON of data. I'm talking GBs at a time. The first night it sent 4GB and thereafter it's 500MB-1.5GB here and there. Obviously this is busting our extra gigabyte purchases pretty quickly.
I've installed a couple of per-app monitoring applications. TrafficStats allowed me to show system applications and filter to network data only. It shows the data was sent (not received) in the total, but doesn't attribute it to any application. Right now it's over 731MB but the Gmail app, which has used the most, is at 31MB.
It seems to happen whether or not Wifi is enabled and connected. Turning packet data off does stop the traffic.
What can I do to figure out when this is? I have ADB working and root access, but not sure how to go about seeing which app is doing this.
Thanks!
I m guessing its CIQ that's sends this much ****ttttttttt so just disable ciq and it will hopefully stop sending!!!!!
avengerp said:
My wife got a Skyrocket in December and as of January 18, it started sending a TON of data. I'm talking GBs at a time. The first night it sent 4GB and thereafter it's 500MB-1.5GB here and there. Obviously this is busting our extra gigabyte purchases pretty quickly.
I've installed a couple of per-app monitoring applications. TrafficStats allowed me to show system applications and filter to network data only. It shows the data was sent (not received) in the total, but doesn't attribute it to any application. Right now it's over 731MB but the Gmail app, which has used the most, is at 31MB.
It seems to happen whether or not Wifi is enabled and connected. Turning packet data off does stop the traffic.
What can I do to figure out when this is? I have ADB working and root access, but not sure how to go about seeing which app is doing this.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I removed CIQ via the commands here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1399429&highlight=remove+ciq
We'll see if that helps. Would CIQ really transfer gigabytes at a time? Is it sending real-time video back to AT&T in addition to keylogging??
If anyone else has a good tool to monitor the traffic I'd still be interested.
Download / Install "My Data Manager" (free) from Market.. it will show every app/service using data, wifi... and how much.
Unfortunately I'm having a problem finding any apps that support AT&T LTE interface monitoring.
I can, however, see some traffic flying by on tcpdump over adb (on rmnet_sdio0 which I think is the mobile interface). But there's no way to tell which app it's coming from.
download "Data Usage Defender" its the best data/wifi monitoring. It tells you exactly what apps sent and received how much data, over what network 3G/4G/Wifi, it monitors and can cut off your data connection to a pre-set limit you chose, it also gives you realtime speed from a little windows under your status bar. I've had it, but since i have 10Gb of data and NEVER go over i uninstalled it
Thanks! Data Usage Defender seems pretty great, and was able to catch all the traffic. I just watched the 'Email' app send 50MB in about 45 seconds while receivinf 4.4kb.
Now to figure out why...or just uninstall email and switch entirely to the gmail app. Has anyone else experienced this?
IP Table based Android firewall apps (i.e., DroidWall, LBE Privacy Guard) are known to provide a good measure for preventing applications accessing the internet. However, during the boot time, while they are not fully loaded in the background yet the phone might still be vulnerable.
It might have not occurred but there is actually a very simple solution to the above problem. Disabling the Data service before restarting the phone will leave no chance an application can get a chance to transmit data on the startup process. The option to disable/enable data is normally found under the Data Delivery from the Settings menu.
Also on my Motorola Atrix I found when data is disabled the phone starts a bit quicker for obvious reasons -- any apps that allowed to access the internet does not perform its tasks i.e. weather widgets.
I'm sorry if this tip was already a widely known knowledge. Hope it helps someone new in Android world.
I would like to figure out the best solution to receive some kind of real time alerts when an apk is installed on my phone. Two possible options would do this through tasker by monitoring the /data/data folder and creating a notification or through termux with a similar method. Looking for ideas or input here.
Disable automatic updates... lock it down.
Always keep install unknown files disabled unless needed.
If you don't use wi-fi it's easy; disable wi-fi and set Playstore etc to autoupdate by wi-fi only.
Karma Firewall will block all the update IPs as well. I also use Package Disabler to block Playstore and AT&T updates.
Complete updates lockdown on my phone unless I want it.
Makes finding a buggy update much simpler... only a matter of time before autoupdates bones you proper.
@Masterbuilt
If I see it correctly then what you have in mind is to continously take snapshots and compare these. In my eyes an horror: it costs RAM ,stresses CPU, reduces the lifespan of the eMMC, discharges the battery beyond measure...
In my eyes it would be a far better solution to establish an Android service (in Android a service runs in the background and is started at boot time) that intercepts the broadcasts of the Android package manager
Code:
ACTION_PACKAGE_ADDED
and acts accordingly. Causes very little RAM and CPU usage.