Hi there.
I have been recently working outside my home country and I disable my mobile data as soon as I reach the airport.
My Nexus 5, now with 4.4.3 reports 0 bytes of data when I am in roaming and I never got a notification or any sort of activity that may point to a data access being made, yet my service provider sent a big bill with many 10KB accesses during the time I was in roaming.
The same problem might exist while at my home country, but since I have a few hundreds of MB to use each month, I can't really tell.
Anyone else is facing the same problem?
I will temporarily ask my service provider to block my data access while in roaming, but I would like to understand if that is some sort of Android bug or a service provider charging what it shouldn't.
I've looked a bit more into this issue and I suspect that it was the Google Location Services that try to obtain the positioning from the cellular mobile network.
I've installed the Network Monitor Mini and it showed me a few times that process has a residual network usage.
Since I'm on Wifi most of the time, I assumed that network usage was on the WiFi but now I understand that being connected to the WiFi doesn't mean that the phone cannot use cellular data.
Can anyone that uses little Mobile Data (disabled in the Settings most of the time) confirm that the eventually you get some cellular data charged if you have the Location Settings set to use the mobile networks?
Sorry for the monologue, but this might be useful for someone that may face this problem in the feature.
After being more attentive to the network usage pointed by Network Monitor Mini, I think I found the culprit.
I've spent the last weeks with mobile data completely off, using only WiFi, yet on a couple of occasions I noticed Network Monitor Mini reporting minimal network usage being made when no know network WiFi was around.
As the screenshot shows, the WiFi is not connected to any known access point, yet some data was being uploaded by one of those processes.
I think the phone is trying to ping the cellular antenna for a location, thus accounting for mobile data access.
I've disabled the location and I will keep monitoring the data usage to see if that is the real culprit. Also noticed that Network Monitor Mini has a traffic breakdown mode per interface. I'll use that to distinguish wifi and cellular data.
why not just disable data complete, a data signal wont even appear because it wont be connected to data? go to main settings, more, mobile networks, data enabled.. now uncheck it and your data connection will disappear, but your phone connection will stay.
edit.. and if you have root, you can install the disable service app, then you can disable the 5 differing types of location services that your phone uses.
Hi simms22.
Like I said on the first post, that was the first thing I did in the airport. I'm not saying simply disabling roaming data, I disabled data completely.
The point I'm trying to show is that even with mobile data disabled, in roaming I still got several tiny chunks of data registered by my operator and I occasionally noticed Network Monitor Mini showing 0.1KB upload, as shown in the screenshot.
Regards.
VuDuCuRSe said:
Hi simms22.
Like I said on the first post, that was the first thing I did in the airport. I'm not saying simply disabling roaming data, I disabled data completely.
The point I'm trying to show is that even with mobile data disabled, in roaming I still got several tiny chunks of data registered by my operator and I occasionally noticed Network Monitor Mini showing 0.1KB upload, as shown in the screenshot.
Regards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, a little bit of data can be transferred through the phone signal(sms). do you have disabled in wifi settings, bottom right three dots, advanced, scanning always available? that uses the wifi to scan for location even when wifi is off, maybe they do that with the mobile signal as well. anyways, about a month ago, google location services kept waking my device non stop, so i completely disabled them in the google play services using the disable service app(i have root). now google never checks for my location unless i let it.
Hey.
I disabled the Location services in Settings, restricted the background data and so far it has been three days with no data accesses registered by my provider.
I don't think the background data is responsible for the traffic so I will wait a couple more days and then re-enable it.
I think the Location services are useful and I do like those small things it offers like weather prediction for where you are, where you parked the car, time to go home/work and movie times near you. The only problem is that it doesn't seem to respect the Mobile data status.
Just raised an issue in the AOSP tracker
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=72332&colspec=ID Type Status Owner Summary Stars
If you share the concern on this problem, please star it to give visibility.
VuDuCuRSe said:
Just raised an issue in the AOSP tracker
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=72332&colspec=ID Type Status Owner Summary Stars
If you share the concern on this problem, please star it to give visibility.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It also happens with me but I have a Galaxy S4. It's a huge defect to alow location to consume mobile data even with the data roaming and mobile data disabled.
Related
Pretty self explanatory this one - is there any way of knowing whether your mobile internet connection (3G) or WiFi is being used in, for example, a browser session? Just don't want to make the mistake of looking at YouTube on the phone, meaning to use the home WiFi, and end up using my 3G by accident, and paying through the nose for extra feed.
ryanbryan said:
Pretty self explanatory this one - is there any way of knowing whether your mobile internet connection (3G) or WiFi is being used in, for example, a browser session? Just don't want to make the mistake of looking at YouTube on the phone, meaning to use the home WiFi, and end up using my 3G by accident, and paying through the nose for extra feed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The icons on your task bar should indicate if you have a active data connection.
Or, you can use Spb Wireless Monitor (which you need to purchase). It produces reports telling you which software uses which connections and the amount of data transferred.
In a discussion I had with HTC Tech Support, they told me that wifi, when enabled, over-rides the cellular data. I'm not sure if this just applies to the settings or always. Hopefully, someone can provide a definitive answer.
Yes that is correct, if WIFI is enabled you WILL NOT have a cellular data connection.
Umm. There is a wifi icon in the taskbar o.o and a signal icon also.....whichever is there means it's active and if wifi is there, your data will not be active, only wifi.
What all you are saying is true but some applications still use the data network even if wifi is turned on and connected it seems. I have the same issue(i don't have a data plan with my fuze since my college has wifi everywhere). But things like weather and other native apps on the phone will just turn on the 3g network and stat using data instead of wifi.
if a device is transfering data over gprs/3g whatever
it show arrows moving in the signal str icon
otherwise it use wifi
Applications can choose to use a certain connection if they are programmed to do so, windows only gives each one a type of 'ranking', the fastest connection having the highest ranking and being the one an application is to use by default, but the application can override this and choose whatever connection it likes. This ranking is called the "Interface Metric" if you'd like to learn more about it.
There's an HTC program called 'bytecounter' that monitors the SMDx: ports in the system, which are the ports the system uses for data.. in bytecounter you will see the values increase if an application is using data over cellular network. let me know if you'd like me to upload it.
Umm. There is a wifi icon in the taskbar o.o and a signal icon also.....whichever is there means it's active and if wifi is there, your data will not be active, only wifi.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that wasn't particularly helpful. I too have made the same assumption, but the question asked if there was any way to make sure.
windows only gives each one a type of 'ranking', the fastest connection having the highest ranking and being the one an application is to use by default, but the application can override this and choose whatever connection it likes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that was the kind of answer I was looking for, and is particularly pertinent in my case, as my connection through my mobile provider is about as fast (or maybe even faster) than my fixed line connection at home. A rather bizarre situation, but such is the advancement of Australian broadband infrastructure.
The last couple of times I have used it, I have taken to turning off the phone connection so that only WiFi is running, and then using the internet. It would be good if you can upload the byetcounter program, seems like a free (?) version of the software programatix mentioned.
Here ya go!
Maybe this is just me, but when I try to unzip that file, nothing comes up....?
lol, i always forget to remove the hidden attribute.. let me go ahead and fix that..
Edit: fixed
Newer Windows Live (including the one that come with Touch Pro) will always dial-up the 3G/GPRS connection when checking for email in Messaging. But if you are checking in Windows Live, most of the time it doesn't dial-up but sometimes, it does.
So far that is the only program that I know of behaves like this. I contacted Microsoft regarding this and they keep asking me to contact my celular provider for help. In other word, they are not helping (or do not understand the problem).
Anyway I solved the problem by changing the Connections setting to "My Work Network" for Internet. The catch is, if I really want to use 3G/GPRS, I'll have to change the setting to my celular 3G/GPRS connection.
Or you could use the nodata application from modaco and disable whenever you like the cellular 3g connection just to be sure you are using wifi.When you are away from wifi networks you can in a matter of 2 clicks reenable the cellular 3g connection...
[Q] Android System showing Data Sent&Received even when all data networks are off?
I'm sorry, this topic has probably been brought up before, but Im just wondering since my data network connection is disabled even from my mobile operator it self. No 3G or GPRS are working, APN name has been fundled with, so therefore there is no way for my phone to be connected to the internet unless I use Wifi.
On the 2.3, the android system lists a whole list of system apps associated with it such as Crash Monitor, SemcHDMI control service, customized settings, diagnostic tool, download agent, account and sync setting, status bar, fmrx services, google backup transport etc and etc, and it shows that there are Data Sent and Data Received in which this number just increases out of no where. Now I'm probably paranoid by the word Data Sent and Received, because I doubled check with my mobile operator and it is assured that my data connections are all disconnected, from operator and from my phone as well.
So excatly where are these system apps sending these datas to? and where are these system apps receiving their datas from?
Wifi's not on, yet these numbers continue to increase. Not a whole lot, but it increases. Traffic Info application also shows no data usage from internet, but data usage from system apps.
Can anyone confirm this?
SE Xperia Arc user
So I've had this HTC S743 for about 5 days and I thought I had it setup correctly to use wifi for data comm.
wifi enabled and selected to use my home network. I can see the radio tower status icon and my locally named network is also displayed.
Under the comm manager the data connection is off.
I have a very simple $45/mo plan with no monthly data plan.
Over the last 5 days I have been surfing the web a bit did some email tests with my ISP and used the on board GPS app which is horrible. Not heavy usage but experimentation to see if I like how the phone works.
After 2 days I get an email from AT&T that I have extremely high data usage exceeding my account limit (for having no monthly plan) and that I should sign up for a data plan at once.
$29 over 2 days for this little bit of fluff? A total of 2,900kb in data.
So I call up AT&T and they tell me this and that and want me to sign up for a plan which I may do. But I want to be able to know that the datacomm is happening via WIFI when I can see a selected WIFI is in service.
They also told me that all GPS data is forced through 3G and bypasses WIFI???
Can anyone here give me an idea about what I may be doing wrong and whether AT&T is correct about the GPS service?
Is there a better GPS app that doesn't do this? This one pretty much stinks anyway. A resolution of 1000 meters doesn't cut it.
AT&T also informed me that I can't have a smart phone without a data contract. Really? I've had one for 6 years like that but it wasn't WIFI capabale and too small to bother with web access.
Thanks for any light you shed on the subject.
One thing I have subsequently found out is that if data connection is off and WIFI is off then when I go into IE and start surfing it does bring up pages. Then when I go back to the Comm Manager the Data Connection to check the status of my connections it is still off for an instant and then it automatically turns itself on as though it had been turned on by use of IE and the status was just being updated.
Last night I installed a newer version of Google maps and was only able to install it via the web browser as opposed to via the Activesynch application on my PC. I was concerned that this might trigger turning on the 3G connection. So I had it set up for a WIFI connection ONLY and installed the app. Afterwards I went into the connection manager and once again the data conn. was turned back on so it's possible that it utilized AT&T's 3G network instead.
Is there any way to control or stop this?
GPS data doesn't have anything to do with 3G/Wifi data......
I know it's supposed to be positioning via the satellites through the GPS antenna but the the description data is coming over the network right? So it appears that even though I'm setup for WIFI access and it's showing as connected with an IP address etc. when I try the Googlemaps GPS app it turns the data conn. for 3G back on.
Thanks for chiming in ...
I have been copying over and installing some new apps to try out this morning via usb. WIFI is on and I'm loged in. None are datacomm oriented that I know of (unless they'r trying to make an internet access to notify about being installed) none the less I just checked again and my data conn. is once again turned back on. Is this typical behavior for a windows mobile phone (6.1) or is this just an AT&T "feature".
Sorry, I don't have a WM6 phone!
Hi Guys,
I am here with a..I hope possible to solve situation.
I have switched to our local carrier, which provides only 2G and 4G connection, but... I have 1GB of data for 4G, but my OPO is sometimes switching to EDGE, which makes me fury, because I am paying for anything transferred through 2G (separately as it is not in the data package I have), but all calls are on 2G, which makes restricting the connection to "LTE-only" impossible, becuase it would result in no access to the calls/text messages.
I have found this article
http://editorsean.com/articles/how-to-force-three-to-use-3g-and-4g-only/
which is really great, but with those options I am forced to use GSM/LTE and such..
Is there any chance of letting my calls and text messages just using 2G network as usuall, but forcing my internet access using just LTE ? There is of course an option for disabling "national roaming" (I hope, it is called the same in english), I have it disabled, but it is still connecting to the 2G and draining data from it...
Is there a chance it is a problem from my side ? I did not factory reseted the phone since buying, doing just OTA upgrades and such, so I was thinking, if the system is not kind of bloated...I had some weird things happening with it too in the past - recently I have seen that in the battery saving mode I could see some like various screen brightness jumps while playing a game for example.
Is it possible for applications to bypass Data Transmission switch and Roaming block?
I have been traveling abroad recently and even though I have Roaming Data disabled and Data Transmission disabled in the system I still got charged for data transmission.
I have travelled with it before last two trips and have not seen the problem.
Since I had similar situation last time I was traveling, I made sure that those settings are off couple of times over the course of the trip.
When I check data usage (Settings -> Data Usage) for that period is practically zero, but there are some Google apps listed for that period: Internet, Kids Mode, Youtube, Smart Remote, and Google Movies BUT they all list 0kB for usage and I'm not using neither KidsMode nor Smart Remote.
It does not look like operator related since I got charges from several countries.
Any ideas what might be going on? I will file a complaint for the charges with my operator (not counting on positive response there), but I still would like to use my phone when travelling, but if blocking data transmission is not enough to prevent roaming charges - what is?
For reference my phone is European Galaxy S5, running Stock, not rooted, 4.4.2 Android
thanks in advance,
Kubak
Data off from settings will surely off any transmission. No app is allowed to bypass that setting. Dont know if you are talking about check on data roaming, you should just off the data.
There could some problem with the data switching. Since your phone is not rooted it shoudn't happen but some apps may be doing this. Try flight mode/airplane mode. If problem still does not go OR if you want your data on Try the app permission management.
Settings-->Security-->App permission management.
Thanks for the replies guys!
To clarify - I have been always using the Roaming data off setting when traveling. And it worked until my last two trips.
On previous one I did not disable data since the setting always worked before. When I got charged for data, I made sure I additionally switch off the Data and keep it off during my trip.
The data usage meter on the phone shows 0.0 kB with several Google apps listed (as mentioned initially) they are all set to restricted mode - no background data.
It looks that IF there was any transmission it was small - one of the operators on route charged just 1kB, but ATT was happy to charge me 50kB up and down every time this happened?
The Airplane mode can be a solution but will pretty much "kill" the phone - I would still like to be able to be reachable under that number.
I was a bit suspicious of Llama app fiddling with data, but even that should not bypass the Roaming setting (and there would be a lot of data being transferred)
And the problematic part is I don't think I can check data usage with my operator in real time - I just learn from my monthly bill...
So it looks like "something" is bypassing the "no data in roaming setting" - but what?
Any suggestions are welcome
I had the same experience recently and I've figured it out. Even if your roaming function is turned off there are VOIP apps that can bypass your roaming and you will get charged for data. Facebook calls, Whatsapp calls and IMO calls are a few. I noticed the last time when I was travelling through the States (with my roaming off) that when a fb call rang my phone (I did not answer), every frickin' fb notification for the week came through during the duration of the ringing (remember ... I did not answer / connect to call), and I got dinged for 4 bucks for every one. The only way to get around it is to have phone on airplane mode or delete / uninstall the apps while you are away.