topic Re: The time has come, do we make a change? in Android

The time has come, do we make a change?

SallyMagpie — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 11:36:37 GMT

You have probably heard this a million times before, but, any help will be gratefully received.

My sister upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy S4 mini last novemberish. Since then her data has been stripped constantly, to the point that when she is out of the house ( and out of wifi range) she has to switch data off all together.

Obviously, for a smart phone this doesn't really give you the benefits of having the damn thing, because if you had it switched on in the house, you may aswell use the laptop/pc/tablet.

I have contacted O2 about this on numerous occasions and no one has been able to tell me anything about why this is happening. I just get the standard, well its your data, you must be using this.... But this is where the plot thickens, as it only happens DURING her drive to work. As soon as she leaves the house, if she leaves the data on the damn thing sucks it all out and she has used the lot.

Add to this, my husband and I are due to renew our contracts on 5 December, and I am not going to stay if we can't get this issue sorted out.

Can anyone give me any ideas about how to stop this, or at least find out what is sucking all the data out of her phone, I would be most pleased, and probably stay! ( I have been with you for about 15 years, so I am not a fickle creature of change)

Re: The time has come, do we make a change?

MI5 — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 11:43:10 GMT

Settings >Connections >data usage will tell you what is using it.
Apps refreshing, email polling, weather, news facebook, twitter etc all use data and if not in range of WiFi will default to mobile data.
Find out what is the highest user and we can direct you to control it, or turn off the mobile data connection completely and just rely on WiFi when in range.

Re: The time has come, do we make a change?

jonsie — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 11:43:46 GMT

There are data settings on the phone which will show what is using the data. Something is running and drawing the data maybe a rogue app that needs uninstalling. Facebook and it's auto playing of videos can use lots of data.

Re: The time has come, do we make a change?

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 11:48:05 GMT

Yeah this isn't o2's fault, it's clearly an app on your phone causing it to eat data, as already said you can check your usage settings.

Also assuming you have facebook app go to the settings on the app and turn off auto play videos setting to wifi only.

Re: The time has come, do we make a change?

viridis — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 12:16:02 GMT

Google location services?
Maps?
Spotify?

Most common used data huggers in cars

Re: The time has come, do we make a change?

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 12:20:17 GMT

Maybe if you can re post with the stats from your phone on data usage and what apps are downloaded then more tips etc can be given.

Smartphones as you know cry out to be connected to data. Apps updating in the background etc.

May I ask What is the data allowance amount in the tariff.

Re: The time has come, do we make a change?

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 12:20:26 GMT

Also check for any emails stuck in the outbox. The phone will constantly try and resend it and will consume data.

Re: The time has come, do we make a change?

Bambino — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 12:38:09 GMT

What the OP also hasn't said, is the amount of data her sister has on her tariff. If this is happening on the drive to work, there's no need to have data switched on while she's in the car, unless there's something vital she needs the data for while she's driving. Just keep it switched off until it's needed, particularly if she's on a small allowance.

Re: The time has come, do we make a change?

MI5 — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 12:59:03 GMT

@Bambino wrote:
What the OP also hasn't said, is the amount of data her sister has on her tariff. If this is happening on the drive to work, there's no need to have data switched on while she's in the car, unless there's something vital she needs the data for while she's driving.

Navigation app with live traffic updates (although should be smal amounts of data)...?

Re: The time has come, do we make a change?

Bambino — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 13:14:39 GMT

@MI5 wrote:
Navigation app with live traffic updates (although should be smal amounts of data)...?
Yes, I would think that's about it if she's driving, but if she's doing that every day and has a small data allowance, it will get used up.

Re: The time has come, do we make a change?

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 13:21:28 GMT

She's probably got something silly like 250mb of data allowence

Re: The time has come, do we make a change?

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 13:32:20 GMT

Possibly so.

I thought it prudent to ask as one resolution could be to change tariff with a larger data allowance and could be of a similar costing.

That obviously doesn't resolve the issue over this unexplained data allowance.

Re: The time has come, do we make a change?

jonsie — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 14:50:52 GMT

Only the OP can answer that by looking what's using data and what allowance there is. Until they come back, anything else is conjecture and guesswork.

Re: The time has come, do we make a change?

SallyMagpie — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 17:52:46 GMT

Oooooh, some of you are cutting!

She has a 1gb allowance ( I believe) I will check with her when she wakes up.

To be honest I don't doubt it is an app, but, when asking O2 for help they have basically gone 'switch it off' which when you have a phone isn't the best. Would also say its my sister, she doesn't do much on her phone, BBM occasionally, messages not photos.

I will be back shortly

Re: The time has come, do we make a change?

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 17:55:03 GMT

Im sure some are not meaning to be " cutting"

1gb is a decent enough amount of data allowance depending on usage pattern.

See you on your return

Re: The time has come, do we make a change?

MI5 — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 17:56:38 GMT

1gb should be ample and should not be used up quickly with the usage you suggest - we really do need to know what the usage stats are saying though please?

Re: The time has come, do we make a change?

jonsie — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 18:07:20 GMT

Most people would get by on 1gb allowance given the usage you say. It's almost certainly an app but the data information on the phone will pinpoint the culprit.

Re: The time has come, do we make a change?

SallyMagpie — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 17:37:14 GMT

I'm back

Had a look at her phone, and its difficult as I can only go back to July, and she has been switching off data when she leaves the house.

However, looking at the data usage it appears facebook is the answer. It has used 88MB in the past week!

So, I am going to get the video thing switched off, and see if that helps.

Her usage on everything else is piddling

Facebook 88mb

internet 15.54mb

Exchange services 1.66mb

Google services 1.53mb

Twitter 895kb

Android OS 736KB

BBM 374kb

google play store 272kb

Vine 340kb

google search 186kb

samsung push service 120kb

google+93.28kb

Drive 91.65kb

Samsung Syncadaptors 84.55kb

My O2 83.61kb

Weather Widget 48.47kb

Ebay 47.88kb

Guess Emoji 40.02kb

Samsung Cloud 24.28kb

Samsung Apps16.52kb

youtube 10.41kb

Google Calendar sync 9.92kb

Instagram 5.16kb

Software update 3.72kb

Cookie Jam 1.03kb

Re: The time has come, do we make a change?

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 17:38:11 GMT

Going from your posted stats i concur.

Re: The time has come, do we make a change?

jonsie — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 17:40:59 GMT

That would appear to be the culprit. It's a matter of checking it constantly now and monitoring the data usage. Thanks for updating.