On verge of selling S3 - too much data being used. Help

[NotMyName]

The wife is on the verge of selling her S3 although she doesn't want to.

She has a 500mb/month plan like i do. We were both iPhone 3GS users & would both use approx 200mb max per month - not even going over the half way mark, nevermind the full allowance.

I bought an iPhone 4S, she got the Galaxy S3.

My usage remains the same & i'm using the same MB per month as i always was.
Her usage remains the same however last month she went over her 500MB. This month she topped up 1st Dec & she's used over 300MB so far. She used 80MB in the last 2 days.

She's tried turning mobile data off but this seemingly didn't help. She's had a look at what app is using what. Apparently she says the Facebook app has a rep for eating data? It seems to be that way from her screenshot, although i've no idea why her Facebook app on the SGS3 uses so much more than mine on my iPhone when we always did the same.

She wants to keep it but will have to sell if the data usage keeps going on like this.

Help.

 

[Metfanant]

has she been uploading/downloading pictures? 124MB is a lot

 

[ceva321]

divorce her

 

[davidmanvell]

Larger more powerful phone does use more data. have her just trim back as much as you can. Syncing only when needed, watch the uploading of videos and photos and watch music and video streaming. Web browsing can add a lot as well. Also you can make sure you are using wifi as much as possible as that will not count as data usage. Do all your large data usage things while connected to wifi only.

 

[NotMyName]

has she been uploading/downloading pictures? 124MB is a lot

Nope she hasn't.

Going in to the facebook settings, here is what is turned ON...

Notifications: Active
Messages: Ticked

Everything else is OFF. Refresh interval is "NEVER", Sync Contacts are "DONT SYNC"

Facebook app isn't set to sync photos
"Show WiFi usage" is NOT ticked in "Data Usage"

 

[NotMyName]

Larger more powerful phone does use more data. have her just trim back as much as you can. Syncing only when needed, watch the uploading of videos and photos and watch music and video streaming. Web browsing can add a lot as well. Also you can make sure you are using wifi as much as possible as that will not count as data usage. Do all your large data usage things while connected to wifi only.

She does connect to WiFi when possible (from about 6pm & on weekends).

She doesn't actually get to use the phone a great deal as she's at work - so 1hr per day for 5 days, then it's on the WiFi at home & weekends.

She doesn't upload photos or videos.


I've asked what she uses the phone for - she says Facebook checking, bit of web browsing for a few minutes. She doesn't really stream videos. Texting.

 

[kjsoccerdude]

I could be wrong but I believe 4G uses more data or uses it up quicker than 3G. Her phone is 4G while yours and your old ones were 3G.

 

[davidmanvell]

She may have one of the cloud storage services activated and it may have auto upload turned on. See if she has an skydrive, dropbox or similar type of account installed and if it is set to auto upload anything. Also if she has Google+ it may have auto upload turned on too.

From her usage data it is facebook and the internet that is using most of the data. Wonder what she is looking at?

Just so you know 500MB is not a lot of data for a powerful smart phone...

 

[FxsX24]

maybe she uses it more........

 

[dan330]

as FxsX24 said... maybe she is using it more than she thinks.. just not noticing it.


maybe.. when she is home.. and she thinks she is on wifi...
but it actually is not connected on wifi. so it is using mobile data.

might want to check the connection with your home wifi.. is it good... and strong?
what is the usage on wifi?

 

[NotMyName]

I could be wrong but I believe 4G uses more data or uses it up quicker than 3G. Her phone is 4G while yours and your old ones were 3G.

Can't get 4G in this area. Search post code LA1 or LA2.

She may have one of the cloud storage services activated and it may have auto upload turned on. See if she has an skydrive, dropbox or similar type of account installed and if it is set to auto upload anything. Also if she has Google+ it may have auto upload turned on too.

From her usage data it is facebook and the internet that is using most of the data. Wonder what she is looking at?

Just so you know 500MB is not a lot of data for a powerful smart phone...

Would you say 500MB is a lot or not a lot for an iPhone 4S? Because it's what i have & i don't come anywhere near to the allowance (bearing in mind that our usage was always the same give or take the odd MB).

She does have dropbox - will check that.
Facebook seems to be the killer, but can't understand why.
Also, what of those apps that run in the background when everything else has been shut down?

She doesn't know what the cloud storage services are though.

maybe she uses it more........

and maybe she doesn't.......

She's telling me how much she uses it. She's not going to lie is she because she would like to keep the phone.

 

[NotMyName]

as FxsX24 said... maybe she is using it more than she thinks.. just not noticing it.


maybe.. when she is home.. and she thinks she is on wifi...
but it actually is not connected on wifi. so it is using mobile data.

might want to check the connection with your home wifi.. is it good... and strong?
what is the usage on wifi?

Not possible - we don't get a signal at all at home on o2, so she couldn't possibly be using mobile data (at home).

WiFi signal is always strong as our room is right next to the wireless router.

WiFi for the month - 174MB.

 

[dan330]

hhmm.... so she uses more mobile data (326 mb) than wifi (174mb)

that alone seams odd...
since she does not use her phone at work...


both amounts are very small.. 500mbs is small.
you and your wife must not use data/internet services much.

i can burn 300mb in 1 day... just surfing and looking things up.. some music...

 

[GoldenDiamond]

can you get her to select facebook to see how much is foreground vs background usage?
That might point you in the right direction.

 

[Heisenberg123]

my Facebook uses about 20MB a day and I do not upload photos

 

[NotMyName]

Facebook:

Mobile data from 1st Dec (when she topped up)...

Foreground: 114MB
Background: 9.90MB

As for over WiFi....

F/G: 22.96MB
B/G: 6.93MB

This info help you guys any?


I should point out that while her phone is connected via WiFi at home, she generally uses her Galaxy Tab for the net & Facebook at home.

 

[Yatezy]

Get rid of the Facebook app and just use the Web version from the browser. Admittedly you won't get notifications but let's be honest, they're usually just a pain in the rectum and are usually game requests or someone poking you with an imaginary finger

 

[OverByter]

I could be wrong but I believe 4G uses more data or uses it up quicker than 3G. Her phone is 4G while yours and your old ones were 3G.

This isn't true. If you download 5 gigs, it's still 5 gigs whether it's edge, 3G, 4G or wifi. The technology only relates to the speed of the service, the quantity is always the same.

 

[ljbad4life]

Since no one else has thrown this out there, to the OP, was this the first time she installed/using the facebook app? If she has contact sync on, then facebook will sync all her friend's profile pics, and info and that could use a good chunk of data and if her friends changes their profile pic, facebook will sync the new pic/any new info in their contact (if they added new email addy etc).

 

[Szadzik]

Ditch FB app, it is crap anyway

 

[MicroNix]

Get rid of the Facebook app and just use the Web version from the browser. Admittedly you won't get notifications but let's be honest, they're usually just a pain in the rectum and are usually game requests or someone poking you with an imaginary finger

Another option to the Facebook app is Friendcaster. Though with the update to Facebook on Thursday, I'd give that a shot first. It is completely rebuilt with native Android code and is way nicer than the previous build.

 

[Hrethgir]

Ditch FB app, it is crap anyway

Agreed, have her uninstall the Facebook app and then have her install FriendCaster. It's a 3rd party Facebook app that works better than the official app. Never seen it use much data on my phone, and I have it sync every 30 minutes.

 

[Jeepmaster]

As stated in one previous post, try using the browsers to get to FB. You can make a bookmark icon on your home screen and it will act exactly like having the FB app. In fact i find it faster to load, and I'm using Dolphin as my browser. It will not have any notification which should cut down some data.
I had 500MB plans before and it is enough for checking FB all day and email and some light surfing, with WiFi when I get home.
If u want to cut down even more data, root the phone and get AdAway to block all ads.
Then get droidwall to only allow certain apps internet access.

I now have 6GB plan for only $5 more and stream videos,music all day.

 

[sherlock5545]

I think the issue with the Facebook app is that it loads all the contents beforehand, particularly when loading the "home" with all the stories from all your contact and liked pages. When doing so, it loads quite a lot of pictures that may cause the issue. Also, if you look at pictures from the facebook app, that might be another reasons for MBs being eaten easily.

 

[NotMyName]

She doesn't look at many photos & no videos through facebook. The photos load big enough for her to see without clicking on them. I view quite a lot of photos & my usage is nowhere near hers.

She also doesn't want to root her phone. Personally i would, but she wont.

She's uninstalled & reinstalled to see if that will make a difference. My guess is not.