topic Re: Mobile data leakage. in Get Support

Mobile data leakage.

zblackma — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 13:57:08 GMT

Good day, I have the 250 mb of data on the $15 autopay. I have turned off mobile data on my phone. I noticed today in my account daily usage system that I used data on the 7th. Even though I was at home and connected to WiFi. Does anyone know what might cause this?

Re: Mobile data leakage.

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 16:05:31 GMT

@zblackma wrote:
Good day, I have the 250 mb of data on the $15 autopay. I have turned off mobile data on my phone. I noticed today in my account daily usage system that I used data on the 7th. Even though I was at home and connected to WiFi. Does anyone know what might cause this?

Your phone might have an option to switch to cell data if the wifi signal is weak. Maybe you walked around to a weak spot.

Maybe you sent or received an MMS. That shouldn't count but I've read here of possible incorrect consumptions recently.

Re: Mobile data leakage.

will13am — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 16:17:06 GMT

@zblackma, personally I don't really pay that much attention to the data meter in the self serve as I have every confidence that there are enough official eyes on it ensure that it is legal tender so to speak. Some members have talked about phantom data usage where right after a renewal, the meter does not reset back to zero. Some time later, the meter is supposed to self correct. I actually saw that the other day on one of my accounts. I think right after renewal the meter showed 5.2 Mbytes used. Then later in the day, it showed 0.001 Mbytes used. This amount of usage seems rather small to be "real". A sync event on the phone would use more than 1 kbyte. Not going to quibble over 1 kbyte.

Re: Mobile data leakage.

kselmak — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 17:06:54 GMT

How much data was used? (There are some basic handshakes performed by system but they shouldn't take too much)

Was data completely off?

Are you boosting Wi-Fi signal with data? (You can check that in WiFi settings)

Restrict the background data.

If you walked off or lost WiFi signal phone might have tried to retain connection.

Check your data usage list and find how much data was used by which app. From drop-down window you can change the start date to match the beginning of yet current cycle.

Re: Mobile data leakage.

Staliger — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 17:18:48 GMT

@zblackma wrote:
Good day, I have the 250 mb of data on the $15 autopay. I have turned off mobile data on my phone. I noticed today in my account daily usage system that I used data on the 7th. Even though I was at home and connected to WiFi. Does anyone know what might cause this?

How much data was used? If around 5mb, that is just a buffer PM uses time to time, and there is no need to worry about. Did you receive/sent MMS? Was the triger to switch from wifi to data when wifi is weak on?

Re: Mobile data leakage.

zblackma — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 18:07:03 GMT

The data use was trivial. It all seemed to be linked to WiFi useage. I went through the and turned off the apps that were set to data use. Hopefull that this works.

@kselmak wrote:
How much data was used? (There are some basic handshakes performed by system but they shouldn't take too much)
Was data completely off?
Are you boosting Wi-Fi signal with data? (You can check that in WiFi settings)
Restrict the background data.
If you walked off or lost WiFi signal phone might have tried to retain connection.
Check your data usage list and find how much data was used by which app. From drop-down window you can change the start date to match the beginning of yet current cycle.

Re: Mobile data leakage.

zblackma — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 18:08:37 GMT

Thanks to all that answered .

Re: Mobile data leakage.

lg1475 — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 19:12:36 GMT

Sending MMS like photos or video via text message might show data used on your phone but won't use your data usage on Public.

Re: Mobile data leakage.

zblackma — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 19:17:01 GMT

Just a thought. If you have the locate your phone option on, could this account for the leakage?

Re: Mobile data leakage.

jimbobs — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 01:35:28 GMT

@zblackma wrote:
Just a thought. If you have the locate your phone option on, could this account for the leakage?

It should not.

Re: Mobile data leakage.

zblackma — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 15:03:51 GMT

Thanks. Could you please explain why it shouldn't?

@jimbobs wrote:
@zblackma wrote:
Just a thought. If you have the locate your phone option on, could this account for the leakage?
It should not.

Re: Mobile data leakage.

Alex_San — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 15:28:51 GMT

I have the same problem. The mobile data is turned off in my phone (original Pixel). I can see the little "x" on my signal bars, but I can still browse the net. All the data allowance is used now. I will check the suggestions here.

Re: Mobile data leakage.

sam777aircraft — Sun, 04 Oct 2020 12:32:45 GMT

Hello, I'm new to PM and this forum. Having just signed up yesterday to PM and also on the $15 / 256 Mb plan I noticed a tiny amount (.001) of data usage in "My Account". I know this amount of usage is insignificant, but I'm curious what is using it. I have read in this post that it might be "handshaking" or because text messages use some.

To clarify all data is turned Off on my phone so I'm pretty sure it is not "handshaking". However I did send 2 text messages yesterday and noticed two of the .001 data usages, so the part about the text using some data makes sense.

Can someone who knows for sure please confirm this. Thank you.

Re: Mobile data leakage.

darlicious — Sun, 04 Oct 2020 12:39:11 GMT

@sam777aircraft

MMS will show that amount in your usage however it does not count against your data allotment. You will notice it won't change in your counter on the overview page. If you run out of data it will still continue to record data usage but it will not count.

Re: Mobile data leakage.

darlicious — Sun, 04 Oct 2020 12:42:42 GMT

@sam777aircraft

Whenever you turn data on the system will take approx a 5mb buffer this resets everyday andcagain will not count against your plan data. If you want to see an immediate reset of data toggle airplane mode on/off.

Re: Mobile data leakage.

Anonymous — Sun, 04 Oct 2020 14:59:01 GMT

@sam777aircraft

If you send or receive picture messages or group messages then it needs cell data. Your phone might have a switch to allow that to happen automatically. If you're using iMessage then it would use either wifi or cell data. Many phones also have a way to let it failover to cell data if wifi is weak or out of range.

But yes, the overview page counter is the one that matters. If you send out 249,999 MMS messages then that counter might be interesting to see. 🙂

Re: Mobile data leakage.

geopublic — Sun, 04 Oct 2020 15:17:26 GMT

@sam777aircraft You are correct there is a data leak for MMS not sure when it started happening but it was after I signed which was more than a year ago. Not really concerned as it's a tiny amount but you are correct it should not be using that data.

Re: Mobile data leakage.

sam777aircraft — Sun, 04 Oct 2020 15:28:22 GMT

OK, thanks geopublic. That's what I thought because 2 text messages in my account showed up with 2 data usages of .001 mb each. Not too concerned, was just interested in what was happening, and I guess this explains it.

Re: Mobile data leakage.

darlicious — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 21:28:15 GMT

@sam777aircraft

I wouldn't call it data leakage as it doesn't count against your data it merely records it as .001mb as it does when you have no data in your plan or left on your plan.

Re: Mobile data leakage.

geopublic — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 21:50:39 GMT

0.001 mb = 1kb