How I'm cutting back on bandwidth (suggestions welcome)

[Kettir]

Now that I'm stuck at 2Gb max on my data plan, I'm looking at ways to cut back on what I don't need in the way of data useage. Here's what I've done, and I'm interested in any other suggestions along these lines:

weather - I've set this up so that it does not auto update. If I want to know anything, I open the app and tell it to update. Same thing with Weatherbug.

facebook - Again, no auto update. I will refresh when I want to know what's new.

mail - all accounts are set to update once a day, both peak and off times. It appears an update is done if I open an account anyway.

twitter - auto refresh is set to off. I'll refresh when I want to know what's new.

I keep wifi, bluetooth, and gps turned off via the widget until I actually need them. This is for saving on power, not bandwidth, of course.

In "accounts & sync" I've turned off facebook, flickr, google, last.fm, news, stocks, twitter, and weather under "sync". I've also turned off auto-sync. However, I do have "background data" turned on. What apps/functions need this to be on? Can I turn it off?

Under "location" I've turned off Use Wireless Networks preferring to depend on GPS for location/mapping purposes. Phone Finder is left on, does that use GPS or any of my limited data?

Some questions:

under mobile network settings I see "enable always-on mobile data." not sure what this means?

Can I turn off "background data" under "sync" safely, and if I do, what will I miss out on?

Thanks to anyone for assistance. I do stream last.fm and would like to save my bandwidth for that when I need it.

 

[shawn1224]

I've had a plethora of Android devices and over time I've noticed that most of the settings & sync only use incremental data. I have all my stuff synced up even the dreaded HTC Sense and It barely taps my data usage. Now stuff like facebook and Twitter might do some heavy syncing so you want to dial those back to like every 6 or 12 hrs.

Personally I don't skimp on anything. I sync everything, I browse, I watch videos, I stream music throughout the day as I don't get a strong wifi signal at work and my usage as of today with 2 days left in my billing cycle is 1777.87MB of 2048MB

Unless you're tethering for extended periods, it's really hard to surpass that 2GB threshold.

 

[Kettir]

I'd have to say my heaviest data useage is Opera Mobile surfing the web, last.fm to listen to music, and the occasional youtube video. I just want to make sure that I'm not wasting any of my bandwidth on programs polling for info I don't need, until I actually need it.

 

[tonyb81]

use opera mini

 

[AndreaCristiano]

Use WiFi S often as possible. I have WiFi at home and work and I connect so that I don't use my mobile data and I rarely if ever go over 200mb

 

[emuneee]

The account syncing in the grand scheme of things, doesn't use a lot of data. The music/video streaming, web browsing, and downloading are the major culprits. If you save all the heavy stuff (or a good proportion of it) until you can access a WiFi hotspot, you should be alright.

 

[mrcamp]

You will rarely get close to the 2GB limit. I fo not skimp on anything, run pandora, for at least 2 hrs daily, etc. And I fo not get close to my 2GB limit.

 

[blazeplacid]

I dont know what your settings are but about 1hr of pandora is about 100MB for me.

Im at just under 1gb and I have 13 days left till my billing cycle is over.

 

[Aatos.1]

Use Airplane Mode and WiFi.