Help Standby data usage?

[Plumber]

Hi Everyone,

Just purchased a Milestone and have been mostly using Wifi for internet/app downloads, but when checking my data usage from the telus acct. it said I used 250MB overnight while my phone was 1) On standby and 2) In my wifi network.

I was under the impression 500MB would be fine for casual browsing but if some background app could manage to run up a data usage that high in one night I could be in serious trouble.

Called telus about it and their answer was to return the phone or I surfed video for hours on end....which i did not!

Any ideas about how this could happen?

 

[BTMoonlight]

This was my exact same question. Telus also warned customers about this
*Active online applications can incur high data usage charges due to their constant updating.

 

[Brendanmurphy]

Chances are its an app you installed. No phone can use 250 mb for nothing. First thing i did when i got the phone was install netsentry it monitors wifi and 3g data. Since i got the phone on the 18th ive used 12 mb 3g, 600 mb wifi.

Go to settings/applications/running services and see what application has been running for all night

 

[PlaneGuy]

Also useful... if you go into the WiFi settings screen and hit menu, there's an "Advanced" button. One of the options in there is "wifi sleep". You can set it to "Never" or even better "Never while plugged in". That way you can plug your phone in to charge overnight and it'll use wifi only (unless it loses that connection, of course).

 

[fuzzuy]

SO in reality is there any way that we can control this or it's a built in problem for this phone as i really liked this phone and just bought two days agao put the sim in 11Pm go to bed and woke-up and noticed that i am already above my data usage (500 MB) with in the night on standby checking through 3Gwatchdog and also checked on telus website.

Spoke to telus they said i did some streaming which i did not they ask me to exchange the phone but i have a feeling that it is not the case can any one please guide for a solution or should i go with another phone now ??? thanks in advance

 

[Szadzik]

SO in reality is there any way that we can control this or it's a built in problem for this phone as i really liked this phone and just bought two days agao put the sim in 11Pm go to bed and woke-up and noticed that i am already above my data usage (500 MB) with in the night on standby checking through 3Gwatchdog and also checked on telus website.

Spoke to telus they said i did some streaming which i did not they ask me to exchange the phone but i have a feeling that it is not the case can any one please guide for a solution or should i go with another phone now ??? thanks in advance

It is not the PHONE problem. It is a problem with Android itself.

It is an OS that is based around internet access. If you do not have a data plan having the phone is POINTLESS.

If they said you used data streaming while you were asleep there is either an app that connects on its own and grabs a lot of data or simply telus are lying, which is not the first time I would see a provider would do.

 

[Enygma]

I also JUST signed on with telus and got he 1 gig data plan to be on the safe side. I browsed the web, downloaded tons of free apps and watched a few youtube videos and didn't even get over 100 megs. I'll probably never use the net that much again. I also have a weather app and facebook apps constantly updating. I have no idea how you managed to use 250 megs over night. that's just crazy.

 

[Brendanmurphy]

I also JUST signed on with telus and got he 1 gig data plan to be on the safe side. I browsed the web, downloaded tons of free apps and watched a few youtube videos and didn't even get over 100 megs. I'll probably never use the net that much again. I also have a weather app and facebook apps constantly updating. I have no idea how you managed to use 250 megs over night. that's just crazy.

Yea i still don't understand how he used 250 mb in one night.

I had installed the engadget app last week and put the widget on my desktop and i woke up and checked my data usage and it said i used 50 mb overnight. I immediately removed the engadget widget. He used 250 mb by installing an app. What app? We don't know he must have installed some app that auto updates every minute or 2 minutes.

 

[fuzzuy]

I think now I kind have idea what would have happend i configured my hotmail in the email client and left it over night that must have got to those numbers as after removing my hotmail from there my data usage drop a lot and after fighting over the phone with telus they agreed to exchange the phone with another milestone but i guess this the problem with milestone so i am stuck with this for 3 years man i hate contracts why did I signed any way that's my findings any one else has same issue or sugestion in this ??

 

[Szadzik]

I think now I kind have idea what would have happend i configured my hotmail in the email client and left it over night that must have got to those numbers as after removing my hotmail from there my data usage drop a lot and after fighting over the phone with telus they agreed to exchange the phone with another milestone but i guess this the problem with milestone so i am stuck with this for 3 years man i hate contracts why did I signed any way that's my findings any one else has same issue or sugestion in this ??

It is entirely your choice how you set up the email to run. Simply set it up not to download attachments and not to check email every 15 seconds, but a bit less often.

This has nothing to do with the device, it is just how you use it.

 

[Brendanmurphy]

I think now I kind have idea what would have happend i configured my hotmail in the email client and left it over night that must have got to those numbers as after removing my hotmail from there my data usage drop a lot and after fighting over the phone with telus they agreed to exchange the phone with another milestone but i guess this the problem with milestone so i am stuck with this for 3 years man i hate contracts why did I signed any way that's my findings any one else has same issue or sugestion in this ??

Theres nothing wrong with the milestone. That was just a user error. When installing apps it will tell you " THIS DATA MAY USE ALOT OF DATA ". If this is your first android phone then you really need to read the warnings when installing apps. Your hotmail did not use 250mb i promise you that

 

[WISEMAN]

Brendanmurphy, Sadsack and others clearly don't quite understand how any of this works, despite their rude comments to others who are merely puzzled and disappointed by the lack of transparency and control over these things in Android. If we wanted that type of simplistic UI we would have bought iPhones. I can confirm that for me, each Hotmail 'sync' or poll uses 6 MegaBytes of data. The only mystery is why.

 

[Eggos]

Though it can be an issue with what apps you have installed and syncing, it is also an issue with Telus being dishonest with their tracking (though many will fight me on this).

I had this issue the last 2 months. According to Telus, I had used over 800MB of service in a month. I had 3 applications running on my milestone to track my usage. Though slight variations, all 3 showed between 430MB and 439MB of usage for that month. Telus' site however, showed over 800MB. Most of which, was done between the hours of 1 PM and 6PM. What is funny about this: My employer requires us to not only turn our phones off at work, but also remove the battery; I just happen to work from 11AM until 10PM daily. When I asked Telus about this, they flat out said "you must have forgotten to take the battery out those days". That would be a great excuse, had it not been for our security guard watching me when I enter the building. After 2 levels of escalations, the charges were reversed as they could not prove not tell me what the data usage was.

Long story short: Keep track of your usage, and turn of APN completely when you're staying in a wi-fi zone. I use Toggle Settings to turn off APN, as it's a pretty good manager.

 

[Brendanmurphy]

Brendanmurphy, Sadsack and others clearly don't quite understand how any of this works, despite their rude comments to others who are merely puzzled and disappointed by the lack of transparency and control over these things in Android. If we wanted that type of simplistic UI we would have bought iPhones. I can confirm that for me, each Hotmail 'sync' or poll uses 6 MegaBytes of data. The only mystery is why.

This openness is what makes android good. There are clear warnings when installing an app it may use data. It is your choice to install it. There is no need control this it is at the users discretion. If Google deems an app dangerous they are able to remotely wipe and app from our phone. If hotmail is using 6mb per pull you need to edit your settings have it only collect 10 kb per email and load the rest when you go to view it. Idk what you are getting in emails but 6mb per pull seems excessive

 

[Brendanmurphy]

Though it can be an issue with what apps you have installed and syncing, it is also an issue with Telus being dishonest with their tracking (though many will fight me on this).

I had this issue the last 2 months. According to Telus, I had used over 800MB of service in a month. I had 3 applications running on my milestone to track my usage. Though slight variations, all 3 showed between 430MB and 439MB of usage for that month. Telus' site however, showed over 800MB. Most of which, was done between the hours of 1 PM and 6PM. What is funny about this: My employer requires us to not only turn our phones off at work, but also remove the battery; I just happen to work from 11AM until 10PM daily. When I asked Telus about this, they flat out said "you must have forgotten to take the battery out those days". That would be a great excuse, had it not been for our security guard watching me when I enter the building. After 2 levels of escalations, the charges were reversed as they could not prove not tell me what the data usage was.

Long story short: Keep track of your usage, and turn of APN completely when you're staying in a wi-fi zone. I use Toggle Settings to turn off APN, as it's a pretty good manager.

I will not argue with you on this as i have had this issue with rogers as well. We live in Canada where cell company's are able to rape our wallets and it is ridiculous. The same thing may have happened to the original poster. But with android there are risks when installing an app and to install the app you must agree and i think this is what happened in this case

 

[TelusMilestone]

never had a problem with this I metioned it before in another thread that I use wireless most of the time and I barley use any of telus data download things when on your home connection and transfery on the usb... also I have energy gadgets that turns everything off while I'm at work so it don't waste batteries

 

[Deleted User]

I last used my phone at 12:45 am. This morning at 7am its battery was dead and it used 367M of data on 3G at 5am. Why did it use 3G instead of my WiFi? Is there any way to tell what app used this data?

 

[Eggos]

I last used my phone at 12:45 am. This morning at 7am its battery was dead and it used 367M of data on 3G at 5am. Why did it use 3G instead of my WiFi? Is there any way to tell what app used this data?

Go to settings >wireless anannetwork > wifi settings. Push menu, go to advanced. Change wifi sleep t onever.

 

[Jethro10]

It is entirely your choice how you set up the email to run. Simply set it up not to download attachments and not to check email every 15 seconds, but a bit less often.

This has nothing to do with the device, it is just how you use it.

Hi, are you saying you can set for instance, the built in Gmail/Contacts etc to sync at certain intervals?
To me it's either auto or manual and that's it.
Are there programs that allow this?

thanks
Jeff

 

[TelusMilestone]

Hi, are you saying you can set for instance, the built in Gmail/Contacts etc to sync at certain intervals?
To me it's either auto or manual and that's it.
Are there programs that allow this?

thanks
Jeff

I have all my stuff to sync, (yes there is intervals and how man days you want to go back) and it only goes back four days. I use GPS, telus hotspots and free/home wifi whenever I can. So if I download a bunch of market apps or large files, I would make sure that I was using my home wifi. Last month I used 13mb lol.

 

[Szadzik]

Hi, are you saying you can set for instance, the built in Gmail/Contacts etc to sync at certain intervals?
To me it's either auto or manual and that's it.
Are there programs that allow this?

thanks
Jeff

The 15 seconds was only an example. Maybe there are apps to do that, but GMail itself does not have this option, not that I can recall.

 

[Jethro10]

Ok,
so syncing your normal google stuff for a month over GPRS is not likely to use much then.

Jeff

 

[Shay41]

I just got an unlimited web plan so I don't have to worry about it.

 

[furrowed]

You can also use the app "Tasker" to turn off automatic sync when you're not connected to wifi, or turn it off during certain hours, or not let certain apps use data transfer etc...

I actually have my phone going into airplane mode from midnight to six.

This might cut down on data transfer "when you're not looking," so to speak.

 

[TelusMilestone]

You can also use the app "Tasker" to turn off automatic sync when you're not connected to wifi, or turn it off during certain hours, or not let certain apps use data transfer etc...

I actually have my phone going into airplane mode from midnight to six.

This might cut down on data transfer "when you're not looking," so to speak.

There is a default app to do this as well. I like extended controls works very well and has a lot of options!