Help Help! Whats Eating My DATA?!

[tessahtc]

Hello, I have a relatively new HTC desire. I am on the student plan which gives you about 100MB of data a month, its not alot but I plan to use it mainly for texting. If I go over 100MB then I get charged. I haven't been doing much besides playing games like PapiJump and texting.

It says that I owe over FIFTY DOLLARS for using up all my data, and I havent even had it for a month. I have "Friend Stream" on, but other than that I do not use the internet. What is eating all my data and making me pay?

 

[tessahtc]

Anyone have a solution?

 

[bass2rez]

Hi tessahtc,

I'm new to HTC Desire too. One of the first apps I installed is called 3G Watchdog. It keeps a count of data usage, Important for me too, as I have a 750mb cap. I cant remember if it will show what apps are using the data, however. At the moment I'm on holiday and dont have any data access, so I cant tell, but I hope this may prove useful to you.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[tessahtc]

Hi tessahtc,

I'm new to HTC Desire too. One of the first apps I installed is called 3G Watchdog. It keeps a count of data usage, Important for me too, as I have a 750mb cap. I cant remember if it will show what apps are using the data, however. At the moment I'm on holiday and dont have any data access, so I cant tell, but I hope this may prove useful to you.

Cheers,
Steve

I downloaded the app, and it says I haven't used any of my 1g limit! Strange... Thank you though, this app seems like it will be useful.

 

[jason-567]

I had a back-up tool that raped my data usage, if you have one i would sugest un-installing for a few days see if this helps the problem

 

[tessahtc]

I had a back-up tool that raped my data usage, if you have one i would sugest un-installing for a few days see if this helps the problem

Hmm I don't think I have one...

 

[matttye]

How often does your Friendstream update?
How many friends do you have on Facebook?
How many people are you following on Twitter?
Do you have a Flickr account?

My Friendstream uses hardly any data, I follow less than people on Twitter, have about 60 friends on Facebook and no Flickr account. Uses well less than 1MB a day!

 

[jim_h]

Friends stream will use the data. So will things like email, the weather widget, facebook updates in your contact list. Have you got twitter or facebook syncing automatically? What about games or apps that are ad supported or that upload high scores etc? They will all use some data too. So many things on new mobiles use data, it's hard to track everything down when you're limited.

I'd recommend getting the Data Counter Widget - it's a freebie and sits on your home screen. It monitors all the incoming and outgoing data and seperates everything into your mobile data plan and any wifi connections you may have. As it's updated live, it's easy to see when it's being used.

 

[tessahtc]

How often does your Friendstream update?
How many friends do you have on Facebook?
How many people are you following on Twitter?
Do you have a Flickr account?

My Friendstream uses hardly any data, I follow less than people on Twitter, have about 60 friends on Facebook and no Flickr account. Uses well less than 1MB a day!

I have no idea how often my friendstream updates. Maybe when someone from facebook updates their status? I have no flickr or twitter. So its just facebook statuses. I have about 500 people. Could this be the problem?

 

[tessahtc]

Friends stream will use the data. So will things like email, the weather widget, facebook updates in your contact list. Have you got twitter or facebook syncing automatically? What about games or apps that are ad supported or that upload high scores etc? They will all use some data too. So many things on new mobiles use data, it's hard to track everything down when you're limited.

I'd recommend getting the Data Counter Widget - it's a freebie and sits on your home screen. It monitors all the incoming and outgoing data and seperates everything into your mobile data plan and any wifi connections you may have. As it's updated live, it's easy to see when it's being used.

Thank you. Is there a way to turn off facebook from syncing automatically? I will try that application. Most of my games have ads...Does that mean they are using data?

 

[DCFC79]

I take it you have a 1gig allowance and not a 100mb one as 2 of your posts contradict each other

 

[matttye]

I have no idea how often my friendstream updates. Maybe when someone from facebook updates their status? I have no flickr or twitter. So its just facebook statuses. I have about 500 people. Could this be the problem?

You can see how often it updates by going to Settings > Accounts & Sync > Facebook for HTC Sense > Account Settings > Update Schedule.

With having 500 friends you may want to consider setting that to manual frequency and only updating when you actually want to talk/look at Facebook.

 

[pieterv]

I downloaded the app, and it says I haven't used any of my 1g limit! Strange... Thank you though, this app seems like it will be useful.

I think it will only show how much data you have used AFTER the app has been installed.

 

[jim_h]

matttye's advice on the sync schedule is very good afaic. I'd say the same. Manually sync facebook, and only if you really must. I have now turned off auto sync with facebook and either rely on emails to let me know of updates or check via the browser. Then again, I've got less than 50 friends, so it's not that big a deal anyway

Having 500 friends on Facebook is definitely not going to help with your bandwidth limit. Every time one of them updates anything and your phone connects to sync, it will have to download notification of whatever update it may be. So, if you have it set to sync every 30 minutes (I forget what the default is now) throughout each day for example, that's potentially going to be an awful lot of data.

 

[bass2rez]

Pieterv, you are correct, the 3D Watchdog app will only monitor data usage after it has been installed.

I imagine 500 friends on Facebook on an automatic update will be the issue. Thats a lot of data. I'm not sure how you restrict the updates yet though. I'm trying to find that out myself. When I find out, I'll post it here, unless someone beats me to it, which should be the quickest result!

Cheers,
Steve

 

[Steve_S_T]

+1 for 3G Watchdog here. I recently came from an unlimited data account on BlackBerry onto a 500mb Desire account. E-mails with large attachments and downloading podcasts over 3G caused me to use 1.5gb in the first month (to their credit Orange have now waived the