Does a phone use data all the time

[hance2]

If I have a phone with No Applications that use data, like weather, and is always logged out of  Facebook, Google, and the like, will my phone still use data?

Also, does the data used to download mms count toward my monthly usage?

[Madison_07]

Only when your data is on 

[hTideGnow]

@hance2  yes, the best way to really stop Data is to turn if off.  If you only turn it on when you need and turn it back off after, it should be good enough.

Strongly suggest you to install app like Data Counter Widget to keep track of the data being used in the current 30 days cycle.  I like this app because there is a widget so you can put it on the desktop and you always know how much you used.  

you might want to install some widget to show whether Mobile Data is on or off.  Or same phone has Mobile Data as an option on the Quick Panel for easy checking and easy toggle On/Off.

[darlicious]

@hance2 

Here's my data usage for the last ten days on my main phone with 250mb of plan data. The lion's share taken up by me searching for a photo the other day while on mobile data. With background data disabled mobile data usage is minimal if you are smart about it. Don't know what the heck Google TV is and how it used data but its in kb so I'm not bothered. Stay off chrome if possible but you can see some apps that I never use on my phone like facebook still use tiny amounts of data.

[Anonymous]

 @hance2 : If you're not doing anything else with data then you'll use very little of even the 250MB of the $15 plan. I wouldn't worry about it. Turn on data when you see the MMS notification, download it, turn data off.

You might also be able to restrict data to MMS only. But I don't know how well your phone is configurable. I have dual-SIM. I use one as my main account and the other as my "data' account. I set the APN on the main account to MMS only. I get very few pics so for those few times I can do a little more manual work to turn the data on on the main account.

[hance2]

My phone is very old and I don't see a way to get mms without manually turning on my data. Then I turn it back off again.

There is nothing extra running on my phone. For example, I don't just log out of gmail, I remove the account otherwise the big Google machine is still active.

Thanks everyone!

[sheytoon]

@hance2 the only way to ensure no data usage is to disable data completely. If you only uninstall apps and log out of accounts, your phone's OS will still use some data in the background.

MMS also uses data, but it's not counted against your allowance.

[darlicious · Accepted solution]

@hance2 

If your mobile data is turned off then your phone will not use mobile data. When turned on it will automatically show in your account 5mb used. This is a pm buffer that resets every night or if you toggle airplane mode on/off. If you do not have apps open they generally will not use any data as long as you have background data turned off. Your OS will use small amounts of data even when you don't use your phone but it is minimal. Some other apps such as messages, phone etc...will also use small amounts of data if you have any but that is tied to your OS.

MMS uses data from a separate server so it does not count against your mobile data and mobile data only needs to be toggled on....you do not need to have any mobile data in your plan or left in your account for it to work. There is small amounts of "ghost" data that will show in your daily usage pages even if you have no data left in your plan. I've never been able to figure out where or how that comes about?!!

[hTideGnow]

yes,  Phone might have background data consumption.   As you said, Weather app could be the app that uses data when you are not aware.  Depends on the settings, it might be downloading update every X hours.

Same with Gmail, you didn't launch it explicitly, but it could be checking with the server to see if there is any new emails.  Other apps couple be like this too

Yes you can stop them, you can turn background data off, you can turn of Sync.   Really depends on the settings.

If you want to monitor the data usage, check with data usage app.  "Data Counter Widget" can count 30day cycle, it would tells you how much data used by each app.  

BTW, MMS does not count towards data consumption

[Leopold]

"If I have a phone with No Applications that use data, like weather, and is always logged out of Facebook, Google, and the like, will my phone still use data?"

No

[hance2]

Thank you, but that's not really what I  am asking right now.

[Leopold]

Most smartphones have settings that allow it to automatically switch from WIFI (at home or elsewhere) to Mobile Data when you are out of WIFI range. Leopold