High data usage on tablet wifi started June 11

[TomsDad]

I have studied many posts on this subject but still not got to the bottom of this problem ..

After 6 months of use, my son's tablet suddenly started using large amounts of data (on 11th June 2013), and has continued to use 2GB+ every day since. He only uses wifi, but has managed to exceed its 60GB monthly limit. Before, the daily usage was about 500MB/day for the whole household. I immediately told him to cut back on youtube but that didn't make much difference. I also checked the download history for new apps around the 11th.

A data monitoring app attributes the data to "system", but I understand that that could still be an app using a system service.

He doesn't use email, facebook or similar. The google sync is switched off. His main activities are youtube and minecraft (a more recent download).

From other posts I have the following suspects:

- OS or app update that is failing and retrying continuously?

- auto backup of some sort (but can't see this using 2GB a day)

- background data ... but what for?

- youtube streaming data (but he has used youtube for months without problem)

Any idea what the problem is, how to investigate or fix?

thanks
Neil

 

[LilBit]

Hi TomsDad, Welcome to AF!! Is there a chance some app was downloaded that has push ads?
Maybe try a Factory Data reset? Try a virus scanner perhaps?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.antivirus&hl=en

Also at the link I gave you are many more free apps to scan the device.
Hope this helps.

 

[TomsDad]

Update from tests:

I ran 10mins of youtube on both the tablet and my laptop (same clip). The tablet used 250MB (almost all attributed to "system") and the laptop used 50MB. So for some reason the youtube android app is using 25MB/min, 5x my laptop. At this rate I can image my son running up a big total.

Doesn't explain why the problem started suddenly or why the laptop is so much better, but at least I may have work around (ban youtube).

Thanks for the virus scanner suggestion - worth doing.

 

[jhawkkw]

One thing to remember is that if there are ads in some things, if you don't close the app and simply hit home to go back to the home screen(like one would do with an apple device), then the app still runs in the background, thus consuming data. You have to use the back button to close out of apps, or force close them if you can't use the back button my going to settings -> app info->then on the app you want to close you tap stop.

 

[TomsDad]

One thing to remember is that if there are ads in some things, if you don't close the app and simply hit home to go back to the home screen(like one would do with an apple device), then the app still runs in the background, thus consuming data. You have to use the back button to close out of apps, or force close them if you can't use the back button my going to settings -> app info->then on the app you want to close you tap stop.

A useful point. Perhaps app developers should include a simple close option .. perhaps a X is the top right corner!.

However, I doubt unsolicited ads would add upon to 2GB a day. In our case, I did check the app running list and there wasn't much running.

Given the many cases that I have found of unexpected data usage that I have now heard about, I would recommend that the data connection is kept off except when you know you need it.

 

[funkylogik]

Is he maybe watching the vids in HD? that would use a lot more data :thumbup:

 

[TomsDad]

HD - I think you might be right. My laptop defaults to 320p. Why the dumb youtube app should go for higher on a 800x400 tablet beats me, but I suspect it does.

 

[Mostly Harmless]

Does he use Google Music?

Also the youtube app doesn't know what hardware you are using, it just plays the highest quality video according to your connection. Actually I am pretty sure my youtube app defaults to low quality on cell service and high quality only when it's on wifi.

 

[TomsDad]

We found the "switch off HD" button on youtube and its been ok since.