How can 5MB of data be used in 3 hours while phone is on Wi-Fi?

[CalgaryMom]

My daughter uses this phone and has plan with 250MB of data. We have turned off cellular data use for practically everything on the phone and disabled background app refresh. This morning we entered the new data cycle. Phone was in our home, on wi-fi network, no calls or texts received and no one touched the phone. In a period of three hours, the PM self-serve site says that 5MB of data was used. How is this possible? Last billing cycle the entire 250MB of data was used in less than 2 days even though cellular data use had been turned off in almost all apps.

[shskr]

Android gives a option to download picture, so you have to turn on data to see picture, Iphones the picture text does not come through unless you turn on data. I got a picture sent to me yesterday and on my iphone I had data off. Today the person that sent me the picture said you get my text with picture? When i turned on data it came through. I wish iphone had the option Android has with picture messages.

[Anonymous]

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@dna2016 wrote:

@RossN 

"@CalgaryMom hi as soon as data is turned on you will use 5mb of data even if you don't do anything this is returned an hour or so later or after you reboot your phone this is normal"

I did not know this information, good to know and thanks for sharing.

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5.293MB to be precise. It's a little buffer that gets opened when you turn on data mode. Restarting or flipping in and out of airplane mode clears it. Or some length of time after turning data mode off.

[dna2016]

@Lieux MMS picture and video requires data service, however no company applies it to the customer's actual data usage, it'll just be considered as a regular text.  I believe Rogers started this quite some time ago and every other company just followed.  If you try sending a picture or video MMS with your data turned off it won't work.  

[dna2016]

@RossN 

"@CalgaryMom hi as soon as data is turned on you will use 5mb of data even if you don't do anything this is returned an hour or so later or after you reboot your phone this is normal"

I did not know this information, good to know and thanks for sharing.

[RossN]

@CalgaryMom that's great I had all the same questions myself awhile back I am not a big data user and I try not to go anywhere near videos of any type

[CalgaryMom]

Thanks @RossN. This worked and now only showing a few KBs of data usage on self-serve site which matches what the phone says was used.

[geopublic]

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@CalgaryMom wrote:

My daughter uses this phone and has plan with 250MB of data. We have turned off cellular data use for practically everything on the phone and disabled background app refresh. This morning we entered the new data cycle. Phone was in our home, on wi-fi network, no calls or texts received and no one touched the phone. In a period of three hours, the PM self-serve site says that 5MB of data was used. How is this possible? Last billing cycle the entire 250MB of data was used in less than 2 days even though cellular data use had been turned off in almost all apps.

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@CalgaryMom  The 5MB shows up as part  the plan renewal process. If you switch your phone to airplane mode and back the 5MB will reset back to zero.

[vfreitag08]

@CalgaryMom What kind of phone are you using? I had this happen to me once, although it was much, much more than just 5MB, and it was because even though my iPhone's updates were set to ONLY ever happen over WiFi, there was a technical error and it used ALL of my data to do the update.. Probably not your issue, but it could be that an app automatically updated. It happens sometimes, but there should be a way to see in your settings what has been using the most data. If it's an iPhone (I apologize if it is not), you can go into Settings > Cellular and you will see everything that is currently using your data in regards to apps on the phone. There is also an option to uncheck WiFi Assist, which will mooch your data if the WiFi connection you're using is lousy. The next step is to go to Settings > Cellular > System Services and there will be a list of what is using your data and how much of it is being used by these services. 

I would also recommend, if you haven't done so, to turn off data roaming as well and turning Personal Hotspot if you also use that, and turn off auto-updates.

I hope I've helped at least a bit... the data leeches are sneaky.

[GinYVR]

@popping  @Lieux  

I think the confusion is MMS uses data but counts differently in the billing section. MMS is counted / incident with no amount displayed in the billing section.. but it shows origin and destination numbers. Web / Data only show the amount, but no origin information.
Data vs MMS

[popping]

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@Lieux wrote:

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@popping wrote:

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@CalgaryMom wrote:

My daughter uses this phone and has plan with 250MB of data. We have turned off cellular data use for practically everything on the phone and disabled background app refresh. This morning we entered the new data cycle. Phone was in our home, on wi-fi network, no calls or texts received and no one touched the phone. In a period of three hours, the PM self-serve site says that 5MB of data was used. How is this possible? Last billing cycle the entire 250MB of data was used in less than 2 days even though cellular data use had been turned off in almost all apps.

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1.  Disable data.  This will disable the picture MMS in/out

2.  Configure Google Play to update apps only with WiFi

3.  Disable auto download photo/video on Facebook, Tweeter, Instagram etc media apps 

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But the MMS don't use data....????

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MMS uses data.  But PM does not deduct data used for MMS from your data.

[GinYVR]

@CalgaryMomIf you look at your daughter's usage in her selfserve account (link here). Usually the data portion are broken down in times.. maybe you can match the usage to what's going on in the house? 5MB is small.. things like Wifi assist use the same amount.. Public Mobile just provides data when your daughter's phone requests it.

Also pertinent to this conversation is what kind of phone is your daughter using?

[Lieux]

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@popping wrote:

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@CalgaryMom wrote:

My daughter uses this phone and has plan with 250MB of data. We have turned off cellular data use for practically everything on the phone and disabled background app refresh. This morning we entered the new data cycle. Phone was in our home, on wi-fi network, no calls or texts received and no one touched the phone. In a period of three hours, the PM self-serve site says that 5MB of data was used. How is this possible? Last billing cycle the entire 250MB of data was used in less than 2 days even though cellular data use had been turned off in almost all apps.

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1.  Disable data.  This will disable the picture MMS in/out

2.  Configure Google Play to update apps only with WiFi

3.  Disable auto download photo/video on Facebook, Tweeter, Instagram etc media apps 

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But the MMS don't use data....????

[RossN]

@CalgaryMom in your settings reset data usage then you will see where it's going 1video for 20 minutes can take care of 250 mb

[popping]

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@CalgaryMom wrote:

My daughter uses this phone and has plan with 250MB of data. We have turned off cellular data use for practically everything on the phone and disabled background app refresh. This morning we entered the new data cycle. Phone was in our home, on wi-fi network, no calls or texts received and no one touched the phone. In a period of three hours, the PM self-serve site says that 5MB of data was used. How is this possible? Last billing cycle the entire 250MB of data was used in less than 2 days even though cellular data use had been turned off in almost all apps.

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1.  Disable data.  This will disable the picture MMS in/out

2.  Configure Google Play to update apps only with WiFi

3.  Disable auto download photo/video on Facebook, Tweeter, Instagram etc media apps 

[Lieux]

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@CalgaryMom wrote:

My daughter uses this phone and has plan with 250MB of data. We have turned off cellular data use for practically everything on the phone and disabled background app refresh. This morning we entered the new data cycle. Phone was in our home, on wi-fi network, no calls or texts received and no one touched the phone. In a period of three hours, the PM self-serve site says that 5MB of data was used. How is this possible? Last billing cycle the entire 250MB of data was used in less than 2 days even though cellular data use had been turned off in almost all apps.

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How you did see that all the data were used up?

[RossN]

@CalgaryMom hi as soon as data is turned on you will use 5mb of data even if you don't do anything this is returned an hour or so later or after you reboot your phone this is normal