Tips to make the most of your mobile data [ Edited ]

[Marjo]

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a lovely day! 

We often see questions on the community related to managing your mobile data usage. See below some tips on what kind of things you can try in case you tend to run out of data on your phone. 

Please do add in the comments if you have any additional tips to share with the community or just want to discuss what you normally do to manage your data allowance - we'd love to hear about it and add your tips to the list too! 

6 tips to managing your mobile data from O2:

1. You can turn off apps automatically downloading updates in the background
2. Turn off videos playing automatically when you scroll down e.g. on Facebook
3. Turn off location services, so e.g. Google maps doesn't use your data to pinpoint your location in the background
4. Use wi-fi whenever possible especially when you want to download your music and videos
5. Some phones have Wi-fi Assist which uses mobile data if your wi-fi access drops - this can be disabled
6. You can keep track of your data usage via My O2 (see also a guide from our member @gmarkj that details the Allowances section in My O2)

You can find more info on these tips in the video below:

Additional tips from our community members:

• There are also apps you can install on your phone, such as 3G Watchdog on the Play Store, that can be used to monitor data usage in a widget on the home screen for Android phones (cheers for the tip @gmarkj!)
• You might also find apps for iPhones for monitoring data usage, e.g. DataCare in the App Store (thanks @MI5!)

Check out also these other video guides from O2:

• The O2 guide to premium SMS numbers
• O2 Guide to Charge to Mobile
• O2 Guide to Network Issues
• O2 Guide to MMS charges

[jonsie Level 94: Supreme]

Hope this helps everyone, especially those with iphones who seem to suffer most  and a good tip to disable wifi assist.😀

[Anonymous]

Very useful @Marjo

[Cleoriff Level 94: Supreme]

Thanks for the info @Marjo It's useful to have it in one place...

[Glory1 Level 43: Bright Spark]

Thank you @Marjo very useful info, particularly Google Maps which I never thought of.

[gmarkj]

I have a widget on my homescreen that shows how much data I have used both in terms of Mb/Gb.
If you click it then estimates how much you will use until the end of the current period based on what you have used so far, and whether or not this is more or less than your allowance (if you set it up correctly).
The app is called 3G Watchdog, and is free for the basic version on the Play store.

[Marjo]

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@gmarkj wrote:
I have a widget on my homescreen that shows how much data I have used both in terms of Mb/Gb.
If you click it then estimates how much you will use until the end of the current period based on what you have used so far, and whether or not this is more or less than your allowance (if you set it up correctly).
The app is called 3G Watchdog, and is free for the basic version on the Play store.

---

That's a good tip @gmarkj thanks for that! It's an Android app I'm assuming?

Edit: just saw you mentioned the Play Store so Android then. Anyone know any similar ones for iPhone?

[MI5 Level 94: Supreme]

Something like this for iPhone https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/datacare-wireless-data-monitor/id785252393?mt=8 but widgets aren't supported on iOS so it won't be the same experience.

[gmarkj]

Yes it is an Android app @Marjo

Here is the home screen with the widget showing

And here is the detail of the app

The two bars at the top are the amount of data used compared to the time elapsed during the period.

So as the data line is slightly behind the elapsed time I am not likely to run out of data (based on current usage).

If the data line was in front then it would have lots of red on it showing that I will run out - either meaning I need to alter my usage or get a bolt on.

[nansou]

Thanks @Marjo very useful link from @MI5 in reply to a query I had.