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Excessive Increase in Mobile Data

Anonymous
Not applicable

Samsung Galaxy S5 Neo

 

Last two months I have had a huge increase in data usage. From average of 130mb per month out of my 500mb allowance, it soared to.... for June, it was was 564mb and July it was nearly 600mb.  First 2 days of this month it was 202mb total. Nothing had changed, I am practically housebound so phone is connected to WiFi 24/7. I wasn't using any social media more than usual nor other apps. O2 gave me a bolt-on of 500 mb until this was sorted, which they haven't been able to,so far.  All they keep doing is to tell me to switch off Mobile Data. I never did before nor have done on the last 3 Samsung phones I have had from O2.... that's not solving the problem nor telling me why the usage has gone so high.

 

I went back to when this excessive usage first began around 15th/16th June (O2 told me that was when the usage went up, but couldn't tell me why.) so I worked it out to being either when 4g first started in this area and I'd also downloaded the app Android Pay about this time too.

 

I have turned off 4g and also Android Pay and my usage has dropped way back down to what it was. A very rude & obnoxious O2 advisor tried to tell me that 4g did use a bit more data usage, maybe it does but not to the tune of 400%-500%. 

 

If it is either one of those apps causing the increase, I will be pretty annoyed if it is the 4g.  Not too bothered with Android Pay but not having a phone that can use 4g is poor. I should have kept my other phone instead of updating.

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Cleoriff
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Sorry to say but you seem to be using mobile data far more than necessary if,as you say, you are at home the majority of the time and using WiFi.  This is the only reason I can think of for this amount of increased data usage. We know 4g is data only

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Message 11 of 49
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MI5
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Simple test. Turn off mobile data when you are at home so that wifi is the only data access point. Check what data has been used and by what but remember this is free from your data allowance.
If you go out of the house, turn on mobile data and do the same check of data usage.
Just having 4g turned on will not use more data, but if you do more because you are utilising the increase in data speed, you obviously will.
1mb on 3g is exactly the same as 1mb on 4g.
I have no affiliation whatsoever with O2 or any subsidiary companies. Comments posted are entirely of my own opinion. This is not Customer Service so we are unable to help with account specific issues.

Currently using:
Pixel 7a (O2 & Lyca), One Plus 6 (Sfr), iPhone 12 Pro Max (Vodafone)
Message 12 of 49
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Anonymous
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@Anonymous You do not need to have mobile data switched on if you are connected to wifi. I am on wifi at the moment & my mobile data is off so I'm not using any of my allowance 

Message 13 of 49
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Anonymous
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As I mentioned before... if a rogue app, has to be Android Pay or 4g as data used at the moment and last 2 days with wifi on and mobile data on, I have used 2.61mb.  I have kept a chart for the last week. Will see if I can copy/paste it.  You can see the amount dropped from 12.20pm on 3.8.16

 

DATE/TIME LEFT USED TOTAL   USED  
1.8.16 from 1000 mb 1000.00      
10.17am 523.00 477.00   46.00  
11.34am 516.58 483.42   6.42  
12.55pm 512.62 487.38   3.96  
6.40pm 508.00 492.00   4.62  
9.10.pm 494.86 505.14   13.14 74.14
           
2.8.16          
9.00am 424.95 575.05   69.91  
9.45am 422.62 577.38   2.33  
10.30am 422.15 577.85   0.47  
12.00pm 418.97 581.03   3.18  
12.30pm 415.92 584.58   3.55 79.44
           
3.8.16          
9.00am 376.16 623.84   39.26  
10.15am 356.36 643.64   19.80  
12.20pm 354.39 645.64   1.97  
13.11pm 353.19 646.81   1.20  
14.50pm 353.19 646.81   0.00  
17.48pm 353.19 646.81   0.00  
20.13pm 353.19 646.81   0.00 62.23
           
4.8.16          
9.07am 350.60 649.40   2.59  
14.30pm 350.60 649.40   0.00  
6.00pm 350.60 649.40   0.00  
10.00pm 350.60 649.40   0.00 2.59
           
5.8.16          
8.40am 350.60 649.40   0.00  
           
6.8.16          
8.45am 350.58 649.42   0.02 0.02
           
           
           
Message 14 of 49
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Anonymous
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In the times they were high were you playing any games on your phone or apps?

 

just a thought. Do you have Pokemon go installed 

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MI5
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Turn off mobile data and it will stop immediately.
It will only use data when you are doing something - background app refresh amounts are only tiny amounts and play store only updates on wifi by default.
I have no affiliation whatsoever with O2 or any subsidiary companies. Comments posted are entirely of my own opinion. This is not Customer Service so we are unable to help with account specific issues.

Currently using:
Pixel 7a (O2 & Lyca), One Plus 6 (Sfr), iPhone 12 Pro Max (Vodafone)
Message 16 of 49
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Anonymous
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I don't have any games on the phone at all. I am not a games person. 

 

Just looked in my apps and there's only a few I have downloaded myself... AppMgr III,  Whatsapp, Access to my bank and a few Sports apps which I rarely use, only if I go out.

Message 17 of 49
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Anonymous
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Sorry I should have made myself clearer... turning off Mobile Data doesn't lower the data usage. Also if I turn it off I am unable to open some links to media, especially daily newspapers.

Message 18 of 49
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MI5
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It sounds like your wifi isn't working then which would explain your increase in mobile data.
Reboot your wifi router and forget your wifi connection, then reconnect to it - check it is working by turning mobile data off - everything should work fine over wifi without need for mobile data to be on.
I have no affiliation whatsoever with O2 or any subsidiary companies. Comments posted are entirely of my own opinion. This is not Customer Service so we are unable to help with account specific issues.

Currently using:
Pixel 7a (O2 & Lyca), One Plus 6 (Sfr), iPhone 12 Pro Max (Vodafone)
Message 19 of 49
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Anonymous
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Wifi is working perfectly. Have rebooted it and looked how much usage has been used in wifi mode. For instance 9 July to 6 Aug is 4.12gb which is about right comparing to other wifi data usage for previous months.

 

This is just all so confusing, I have done everything that has been suggested. I will give it a few more chances as I have 6 days left until next billing date and have 350mb left from when O2 gave me the 500mb bolt-on.

 

Thank you all for your help and suggestions

Message 20 of 49
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