I'm having pretty high background data usage, mainly from Android OS and Google Play services. Last month Android OS used 420mb and "Google Play services" used 254mb. Both of those were 100% BACKGROUND data. My monthly limit is 600mb, and I'd rather not pay overage charges again... (everything else for data only came to 300mb combined!)
Here are the settings I've tried:
Google Play services: (254mb)
I turned Off notifications, and I set "Auto-update apps" to "Do not auto-update apps". Why is it still using so much background data?
Android OS (420mb)
Auto-sync is OFF for App Data, Chrome, Drive, Google Photos, Google Plus, etc.
Auto-sync is ON for Calendar, Contacts, Gmail, and Keep (I'd like this stuff to stay synced, but it is SERIOUSLY using that much data? I had this stuff syncing on my iPhone and it only used 30-40mb of data/month...)
Google Plus Auto Backup is turned off.
I even turned off Google Now.
I just realized my Location mode was on High Accuracy... could that be the culprit? Should it be on Device Only?
jarros said:
I'm having pretty high background data usage, mainly from Android OS and Google Play services. Last month Android OS used 420mb and "Google Play services" used 254mb. Both of those were 100% BACKGROUND data. My monthly limit is 600mb, and I'd rather not pay overage charges again... (everything else for data only came to 300mb combined!)
Here are the settings I've tried:
Google Play services: (254mb)
I turned Off notifications, and I set "Auto-update apps" to "Do not auto-update apps". Why is it still using so much background data?
Android OS (420mb)
Auto-sync is OFF for App Data, Chrome, Drive, Google Photos, Google Plus, etc.
Auto-sync is ON for Calendar, Contacts, Gmail, and Keep (I'd like this stuff to stay synced, but it is SERIOUSLY using that much data? I had this stuff syncing on my iPhone and it only used 30-40mb of data/month...)
Google Plus Auto Backup is turned off.
I even turned off Google Now.
I just realized my Location mode was on High Accuracy... could that be the culprit? Should it be on Device Only?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
jeeze some people here burn through 600mb in a day. 600mb is not a lot. Yes turn your location mode to device only and do not agree to anonymous data collection, this will also save you battery. If you don't use calendar a lot turn that sync off (every little bit helps). Make sure you are not streaming your music either but I guess you would have reported it if you were...
mistahseller said:
jeeze some people here burn through 600mb in a day. 600mb is not a lot. Yes turn your location mode to device only and do not agree to anonymous data collection, this will also save you battery. If you don't use calendar a lot turn that sync off (every little bit helps). Make sure you are not streaming your music either but I guess you would have reported it if you were...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not everyone has unlimited 3g/4g data usage , especialy outside the US.
gee2012 said:
Not everyone has unlimited 3g/4g data usage , especialy outside the US.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no, and thats understandable. but that amount of background data being used isnt much(i know it is to the op based on his data plan). unfortunately having and using a smart phone will result in background data being used unless everything is disabled or the data connection is being turned off when not in used. if i was in this situation, id keep my data connection off at all times unless i was using it. especially with google play services being the way that google is updating much of phone now-a-days, its hard to keep background data much lower.
simms22 said:
no, and thats understandable. but that amount of background data being used isnt much(i know it is to the op based on his data plan). unfortunately having and using a smart phone will result in background data being used unless everything is disabled or the data connection is being turned off when not in used. if i was in this situation, id keep my data connection off at all times unless i was using it. especially with google play services being the way that google is updating much of phone now-a-days, its hard to keep background data much lower.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right, I guess it is all relative, so having 2/3 of my data usage as background data seems unnecessary. I was using an old iPhone 3G before this, and my monthly data usage was only ~150mb/month. All I really use it for is emails, syncing contacts and calendars, Hangouts, and browsing mobile sites (text-heavy stuff, news articles). I'm not downloading movies or streaming music, or using a lot of apps that chew up data unless I'm on a WiFi network.
So it seems pretty extreme and tedious to have to go and switch on/off my data connection all the time (especially if I want to keep push notifications for email and hangouts). I thought I had gone digging through plenty of menus to turn off these notifications and auto updates.
Anything else I should be looking for?
jarros said:
You're right, I guess it is all relative, so having 2/3 of my data usage as background data seems unnecessary. I was using an old iPhone 3G before this, and my monthly data usage was only ~150mb/month. All I really use it for is emails, syncing contacts and calendars, Hangouts, and browsing mobile sites (text-heavy stuff, news articles). I'm not downloading movies or streaming music, or using a lot of apps that chew up data unless I'm on a WiFi network.
So it seems pretty extreme and tedious to have to go and switch on/off my data connection all the time (especially if I want to keep push notifications for email and hangouts). I thought I had gone digging through plenty of menus to turn off these notifications and auto updates.
Anything else I should be looking for?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you go to the phones main settings, data usage, if you press on an item it brings up a screen where you can restrict background data usage for that item. for example..
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
simms22 said:
if you go to the phones main settings, data usage, if you press on an item it brings up a screen where you can restrict background data usage for that item. for example..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. That screen is helpful. Unfortunately, most (or nearly all) of my background data usage is coming from "Android OS", which doesn't let you turn off background data. (also, I'm guessing this turns off background data such as Push notifications for Gmail and Hangouts? I'd like to keep those - and only those, as far as I'm concerned).
I could also disable background data globally (under Data Usage, tapping Settings, and turning on "Restrict Background Data"), but again that would turn off my push notifications (and auto sync) for Gmail, Hangouts, contacts, calendar, and keep, which I would like to leave on.
Does anyone know how I can make a whitelist for programs that are still allowed to use background data? If I could turn off background data EXCEPT for syncing the basic things I mentioned above, that would be ideal.
Kinda frustrating that Android seems to chew up so much data by default. I'm not even a heavy user. With mobile plans the way they are here in Canada, I'd need to be spending at least $70 a month to keep up with this kind of data usage. No thanks.
yea, just noticed that android os cant be restricted from background data use.. but goigle play services can be denied at least.
jarros said:
.
Kinda frustrating that Android seems to chew up so much data by default. I'm not even a heavy user. With mobile plans the way they are here in Canada, I'd need to be spending at least $70 a month to keep up with this kind of data usage. No thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what ROM you are on but my suggestion would be to use quick tile for mobile data and turn it off when you don't need it or only turn it on periodically to check email and such.
mistahseller said:
I don't know what ROM you are on but my suggestion would be to use quick tile for mobile data and turn it off when you don't need it or only turn it on periodically to check email and such.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using the stock ROM currently (4.4.2). How do I add quick tiles? I did a search and only found settings for 4.2. Do I need to root it, or install another ROM?
jarros said:
I'm using the stock ROM currently (4.4.2). How do I add quick tiles? I did a search and only found settings for 4.2. Do I need to root it, or install another ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Umm there's no quicktiles for stock for mobile data. You could download power toggles. Most custom Roms have it. Otherwise you'll have to hit the mobile data sign and turn it off that way in settings.
Sent from The Deathstar
Restrict apps using mobile data
jarros said:
Thanks for the reply. That screen is helpful. Unfortunately, most (or nearly all) of my background data usage is coming from "Android OS", which doesn't let you turn off background data. (also, I'm guessing this turns off background data such as Push notifications for Gmail and Hangouts? I'd like to keep those - and only those, as far as I'm concerned).
I could also disable background data globally (under Data Usage, tapping Settings, and turning on "Restrict Background Data"), but again that would turn off my push notifications (and auto sync) for Gmail, Hangouts, contacts, calendar, and keep, which I would like to leave on.
Does anyone know how I can make a whitelist for programs that are still allowed to use background data? If I could turn off background data EXCEPT for syncing the basic things I mentioned above, that would be ideal.
Kinda frustrating that Android seems to chew up so much data by default. I'm not even a heavy user. With mobile plans the way they are here in Canada, I'd need to be spending at least $70 a month to keep up with this kind of data usage. No thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I have limited mobile data left, I use the app called "Android Firewall" which can restrict selected apps from using mobile data. However, sometimes it does not work perfectly on those unrestricted apps. You can try and see whether that works for you. Hope it helps.
simms22 said:
if you go to the phones main settings, data usage, if you press on an item it brings up a screen where you can restrict background data usage for that item. for example..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm suffering the same problem but not every time. It happened to my phone the first weeks of the last month, disappears and, again this week. Although your solution can work it is not, at least for me, for long time because restricting data of Google Plays Services also affects syncing of Gmail, Google+, Hangouts,… (I never receive any notification of those programs on 3G) and Whatsapps starts to have delays????
I tried to deactivate some syncing (calendar, lastly, shows a lot of problems) and seems to work for a while. Let’s see.
Could it be related with Google collecting data for the new updates? As, looking around, seems to be usual on Nexus devices
It is too early to be sure but I think I have found the solution as everything is working without problems and Google services uses, in 24 hours, less than one mega. I will say in some days but it's related with Google Analytics.
update, please
j2002 said:
It is too early to be sure but I think I have found the solution as everything is working without problems and Google services uses, in 24 hours, less than one mega. I will say in some days but it's related with Google Analytics.
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Click to collapse
Hi! So what happened, here? Was it fixed?!
carlitosoe said:
Hi! So what happened, here? Was it fixed?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it did. At least, since I have it deactivated, it never happened again.
I deactivated it using Disable Service (find it at Google Play)
And also, I tried the same solution on my wife`s phone because battery flies due to Google services and seems to work.
thanks
j2002 said:
Yes it did. At least, since I have it deactivated, it never happened again.
I deactivated it using Disable Service (find it at Google Play)
And also, I tried the same solution on my wife`s phone because battery flies due to Google services and seems to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for answering, it's awesome that it worked. But are your applications working normal? do you get push notifications from apps using Google Cloud Messaging?
carlitosoe said:
Thanks for answering, it's awesome that it worked. But are your applications working normal? do you get push notifications from apps using Google Cloud Messaging?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nothing abnormal at all.
Related
Hi,
I've recently discovered that very large amounts of data are being transferred from my Nexus S which is pushing me over my data limit of 750mb. I downloaded 3G watchdog and monitored traffic for a while and noticed that every hour or so data use goes wild running into the tens of mb over a very short period of time.
I'm currently running MIUI-109020 and have a fairly standard range of apps installed. I've tried killing all of the apps that might possibly transfer data but this makes no difference. So, at the moment I've turned off mobile data before it bankrupts me but obviously I'd like to have it back on again.
Anyone, anywhere have any thoughts or pointers as to what might be going on or how I could solve it?
BTW I'm in the UK on Vodaphone's network.
Cheers
David McNorton
davidmcnorton said:
Hi,
I've recently discovered that very large amounts of data are being transferred from my Nexus S which is pushing me over my data limit of 750mb. I downloaded 3G watchdog and monitored traffic for a while and noticed that every hour or so data use goes wild running into the tens of mb over a very short period of time.
I'm currently running MIUI-109020 and have a fairly standard range of apps installed. I've tried killing all of the apps that might possibly transfer data but this makes no difference. So, at the moment I've turned off mobile data before it bankrupts me but obviously I'd like to have it back on again.
Anyone, anywhere have any thoughts or pointers as to what might be going on or how I could solve it?
BTW I'm in the UK on Vodaphone's network.
Cheers
David McNorton
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That much data? Email, gmail, facebook sync.
Install Droidwall and prevent some apps from the network.
I would also like to see what exactly Android is doing all the time...
MIUI has a built in Monitor app. Use that to see which app is using up your data.
You may also want to opt-out of MIUI stats. I'm not sure of how much data it sends, but it will cut down on some of your data usage.
Droidwall is a great suggestion as well. Prevent some apps from connecting on 3G but allow them on wifi. If you want some apps to connect on 3G, check your sync settings.
Sent from my Evo + MIUI using Tapatalk!
Thanks for your replies. I've now installed droidwall and that looks like it could help. I've also purchased the pro version of 3G Watchdog (hadn't realised MIUI had a monitor app) and that's showing me what how much data my apps are using.
I phoned Vodaphone and they increased my data plan to 1GB which gives me a little leeway while I try to work this out. So I'll test it again tomorrow and see if I can work out what's going on.
Cheers
David McNorton
Is your Gallery app syncing pictures to Picassa? It's the only thing i can think of that would explain that much data in a short period of time.
Problem solved. Google+ was the culprit. By default the app had Instant Upload of all photo's and video's set to on. That has cost me about £50 since installing the app in late September when it first came out. Thank's Google
Thanks for all your tips. At least now I have a better handle on data monitoring and firewall protection.
Cheers
David McNorton
Wow, never thought Google Plus would use that much, even though it syncs a ton. Good think I have unlimited, may want to look into it yourself.
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA App
Just converted to winpho, and I love all the integration and fluidity as everyone says. But I feel like it takes up way too much data.
tl;dr. data usage hitting 10+mb daily, <3mb on android. wtf?
I find myself hitting 10mb+ daily, when i was below 3mb on android. WiFi continuously on (it wasn't on android either). I browsed wiki (one page) and used bing once, and found myself at 10mb halfway through the day. The only running app with data usage (that i know off) is 2 gmail account (probably 20 emails total, all text), with 30min interval and metrotalk (google voice client).
Looking at tmobile data spreadsheet, my phone seems to randomly access about 5+mb (up to like 13mb) daily in one section of time, and everything else below 1mb. I stream no music or video.
Not a new toy syndrome either, I used the phone for half a month already and found this trend.
Data Usage spreadsheet from t-mobile. http://bit.ly/JVQk0C
This is frankly, ridiculous. That would be like downloading a giant app a day. what could possibly my phone be doing?
phone: nokia 710
edit: i did the math, wp7 avg. at 15mb/day while android at 4mb/day wtf? (same usage for the most part)
Moved to Q&A for you mate, should get you a few more opinions
I actually found WP7 much easier on my data allowance than Android. Don't forget that your live tiles etc. will use data to refresh, and having your Google voice client open all the time may not be doing you any favours, either. It's entirely possible that the Voice client on Android hibernates one way, and the client you're using on WP7 does it another way
You could always turn off the xbox live synchronisation with your games and the zune account for the music. I believe they will take up some of your data. You should also check any of your applications that might use the internet a lot! By the way, why don't you use push notifications for your google accounts? Those might use your data too!
There are number of services that can use data in the background. A few suggestions of things to check:
Make sure the feedback info is either turned off or set to only send over WiFi.
Un-pin the Me tile, or accept that WP7 will need to ping Facebook to see what your contacts are saying about you (may also apply to the People tile).
Marketplace tile probably uses a little data, checking for updates, but it should be minimal.
Games hub definitely uses som data, if it's synching with the Xbox Live servers (not sure how much).
A small bit of Marketplace configuration data is downloaded nightly, but it should be only a few KB.
Tip: Leave the phone plugged in all night, even if it doesn't need it. WiFi turns off when the screen is locked, unless the phone is plugged in. No, that behavior is not (yet) configurable.
I note this too after NoDo update. At the begining, my phone uses a little of data every day (some Kb, never goes far than a Mb). I use data to sync my hotmail account, gmail account, rss channels, some webpages. After NoDo update, my phones starts to consume a lot of data (more than 10Mb every day with the same uses). Then mango goes out and i think maybe they fix this situation. Today my phone have 8107 and the data usage is over the clouds. I switch on data connection manually and my data usage is more "normal". I know my phone has a lot of new services over the cloud but i can't maintain its appetite of data.
Hi all,
I am having an issue with my Nexus 5 using huge amounts of my mobile data (T-Mobile) when connected to wifi even when I'm not using it. What's crazy is that this keeps happening almost exclusively between 2-6am when I'm not awake. It also happens to an even further extent when I'm connected to wifi at work and not using my phone either. Heres a breakdown:
11/12 5:48 AM - 27.57 MB
11/13 3:33 AM - 12.42 MB
11/14 5:15 AM - 14.21 MB
11/12 2:53 PM - 49.57 MB
11/13 2:39 PM - 27.97 MB
I called T-Mobile and they said that it shows that I definitely used my data during those times. I have almost nothing running in the background that uses any data and have turned off my GPS to see if that will help.
Anyone else having the same problems or have any advice?
Thanks,
Chris
Only thing that comes to mind is that your wifi connection is being dropped for some reason, and your phone switches to mobile data instead.
About why data is being used at that time, it is very likely that there are some apps that are using background data - you may have disabled this for a bunch of apps, but may have missed some.
Check data usage under settings to see if you can identify the culprit (you can use the sliders to narrow down - though it doesn't seem to let you narrow down to a specific timeframe)
jj14 said:
Only thing that comes to mind is that your wifi connection is being dropped for some reason, and your phone switches to mobile data instead.
About why data is being used at that time, it is very likely that there are some apps that are using background data - you may have disabled this for a bunch of apps, but may have missed some.
Check data usage under settings to see if you can identify the culprit (you can use the sliders to narrow down - though it doesn't seem to let you narrow down to a specific timeframe)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where can setup this prioritization? For example if I want the phone to use mobile data and override Wifi?
megakony said:
Where can setup this prioritization? For example if I want the phone to use mobile data and override Wifi?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I may be mistaken, but I don't think you can do that on stock ROM at least. If WiFi is available, it will always try to use WiFi
For whatever reason, if you want to use Mobile data, you will need to turn WiFi off.
If you always want to use mobile data for a given app or want to use mobile data in a specific time range, you could use tasker app to set up a profile to disable WiFi when that app is launched (or in that time range)
jj14 said:
Only thing that comes to mind is that your wifi connection is being dropped for some reason, and your phone switches to mobile data instead.
About why data is being used at that time, it is very likely that there are some apps that are using background data - you may have disabled this for a bunch of apps, but may have missed some.
Check data usage under settings to see if you can identify the culprit (you can use the sliders to narrow down - though it doesn't seem to let you narrow down to a specific timeframe)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I did check last night to see what apps were using the most data and it was by far feedly but I'm not sure why that would be using data when I'm not awake. Does anyone else have that problem with feedly? Isn't it also strange that it keeps happening at roughly the same times every day?
Also wanted to add that I came from a Galaxy S2 running Cyanogen and never had this issue.
jj14 said:
I may be mistaken, but I don't think you can do that on stock ROM at least. If WiFi is available, it will always try to use WiFi
For whatever reason, if you want to use Mobile data, you will need to turn WiFi off.
If you always want to use mobile data for a given app or want to use mobile data in a specific time range, you could use tasker app to set up a profile to disable WiFi when that app is launched (or in that time range)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just checked my gf's Galaxy Young...in there when you go to WIFI and access Advanced and there you can set Wifi Sleep policy.
The options I got are "When screen turns off", "Never when plugged in" and "Never"...not really the options I'd imagine for this =)
danotoriusodo said:
Thanks. I did check last night to see what apps were using the most data and it was by far feedly but I'm not sure why that would be using data when I'm not awake. Does anyone else have that problem with feedly? Isn't it also strange that it keeps happening at roughly the same times every day?
Also wanted to add that I came from a Galaxy S2 running Cyanogen and never had this issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you check settings on your feedly? It sounds like it does a daily sync which some RSS readers I'd imagine would do.
I don't have feedly on my phone, but if it has some decent settings it should have one to sync only via wifi or similar.
xShadoWxDrifTx said:
Did you check settings on your feedly? It sounds like it does a daily sync which some RSS readers I'd imagine would do.
I don't have feedly on my phone, but if it has some decent settings it should have one to sync only via wifi or similar.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea I checked the feedly settings section and there isn't anything related to sync. The app actually only refreshes when it's opened. For now I went into the "data usage" section on my phone and selected "Restrict background data" for the app. Hopefully that works.
danotoriusodo said:
Yea I checked the feedly settings section and there isn't anything related to sync. The app actually only refreshes when it's opened. For now I went into the "data usage" section on my phone and selected "Restrict background data" for the app. Hopefully that works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It actually gets even crazier. Last night before I went to bed I turned off my mobile data by going to setting>data usage and it still shows at 5:19 AM that I used 43 MB of data. I mean the only explanation I could think of is I'm sleep walking and using my phone lol. I called T-Mobile and it definitely shows on their end I did use the data at that time. They also couldn't help me because they don't have the phone yet. Can't believe that no one else is having this problem. Guess I have to contact Google which should be really useful smh.
Hi,
It would be hugely appreciated if someone could help me with an issue i am having.
Google+ has used 1.98Gb of background data in the last 2 weeks.
I have made sure all auto-uploads are set to use wifi only, but it still seems to be downloading excessive amounts.
Is there a way to determine what part of Google+ could be the culprit for my data usage?
And would restricting background data have any adverse affects on my experience with Google+?
Thanks in advance
I would try two things. Check if Google Photos Sync is turned on under settings<Accounts<your google account
i would also go into settings<data usage and you can restrict all background data to wifi only.
y2whisper said:
I would try two things. Check if Google Photos Sync is turned on under settings<Accounts<your google account
i would also go into settings<data usage and you can restrict all background data to wifi only.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I checked Google Photos Sync and that is turned off.
I will restrict background data and see how I get on.
Thanks a lot
I Have the same issue
I have the same issue.
I had configured in G+ settings to use wifi only for syncing. I'm not sure how G+ ended up using 2GB++ of my data plan.
this just happened to me as well!
You need to change the default photo resolution upload value from full resolution to standard size.... Go to photo -- settings-- auto backup-- standard size.
Sent from my Nexus 5
Bump.
Has anyone found the cause for this behavior or the solution?
Guess I am one of the latest victim of this shocking behavior of Google+
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=48984993&postcount=5464
Edit: I've been reading about this issue and not surprised to see so many users affected with this. Astonishing that Google has not addressed this issue yet, not even acknowledged maybe?
Hi All, I have a Nexus 6P, Android 8.1, on the Google Project Fi network
I have the MLB At Bat app (baseball) and it was working fine for a while - I keep background data off for most of my apps because Project Fi's data costs are expensive and as such I've had background data turned off for MLB At Bat since I installed in a couple of months ago. This week however it used over 1GB of background data (and over 10GB of wifi data which I don't care so much about) How is it possible that it used background data when it was disabled? I'm checking all the time now to see that the app is closed (force stop) whenever i'm not specifically using it.
While the app does allow audio and video streaming I don't use it for that, just for push notifications for team news and such. I see a couple of recent reviews on that app's Play Store page that say exactly the same thing I'm saying - but don't mention if background data was turned off or not for them.
I guess my question is, how is it possible that it sucked up background data while it was disabled and is there an app or something I can install that will stop that from happening again? or at least alert me that there's a rogue app costing me a fortune?
Thanks!