data being used and seems to be text messaging or something?

[consulting]

My daughter also has a public mobile account.

We are trying to figure out why all her data is being used.

it is an iPhone from public mobile iPhone8plus

GPS is turned off

updates when not on wifi is turned off on each app and the phone itself

She closes her apps before going outside (ie the issue with YouTube preloading is not the situation)

She can not text without turning data on. She text to a phone number - ie it is NOT Facebook messenger nor apple messenger. The other person she was texting (we are monitoring) has a standard android phone so it is not apple messenger and my daughter does not have a Facebook account nor messenger account. 

I thought there was a post that if data is used for a text message then the data is 'refunded' but we are not seeing this in reality. 

When she sends a text message it is using data. When I read through the logs it says MMS will use data but she is sending plain text message - ie "we are here,,, are you ready" and the response would be "yes.. give me 5 minutes". no emoticons no gifs nothing pretty.

She is almost out of data and it is the first week. She has wifi turned on at home for doing anything online.

There are some significant days as well re 60M so those are not text messages.

How can we find out what is going on? We have searched the various pages here and online and can not find anything we have not already tried.

thanks

frustrated dad and panicked daughter

[dust2dust]

I blame Apple. They want to keep their users in their own little world. The providers are only too happy to oblige with buckets of data for you to pay for to make it work.

[consulting]

thanks for the link. Ours were off but I find many posts do not provide the link of 'how to'. Nice response! thank-you... I did check the link to verify - appreciate it!

[consulting]

Thank-you! was not related to my daughter but I did find this on my phone last night. Thanks!
You would think this would be on by default... sometimes wonder if telcos are in cahoots with manufacturers as this should be a default!
thank-you
Also noticed that green chat bubbles are sms and blue chat bubbles are iMessage so we can also monitor better.

[consulting]

Hi @Egor_Gevo 
I saw some of the responses below and a couple more online. We are going to test and validate...
in iMessage under settings you can turn off iMessage or leave it on and there is an option you need to enable called 'Use SMS when data is not available" - so we are assuming when data is not available and iMessage still enabled then this setting will switch it to SMS message vs data.

Also found out Green message blobs are SMS and Blue blobs are iMessage data use - nice visual.. wish it was more obvious.

Also saw a post re youtube pre-caching by my daughter turns her data off when she leaves the house so it is not any apps.

She is confident her GPS is turned off. I am going to verify.

then the other hints in my original post and the follow up messages.

So I am thinking it is the issue re under settings then iMessage and "enable SMS when data is not available" *should* fix it and if not then we will turn iMessage off and monitor the text block colours. 

I think there is still something else going on though because 60M and a couple of 30M sessions is not a text nor iMessage so we are monitoring to try to find out what it is.

I wish the telcos would disable all the data functions or there was a button to select when setting up the phone re do you want your data on or off if there is WIFI. That way you can use your home wifi as a signal to turn off data (ie when away from home wifi turn data use apps off). Usually you would want your data off anyway if you have wifi but then you can also have the setting re use wifi vs data if wifi is available. 
then the apps have to be smart enough to say... if you want to use me you need to turn data on... so it is transparent and explicit that data is going to be used.

or 3G is so old now... just give us unlimited 3G and make 4G 5G a premium option LOL.

[Egor_Gevo]

Have the exact same problem... I turned on my data for the first time since my plan got renewed and it instantly used 75% of my data.

[Timer]

@consulting 

use browser from computer,and clear cache and cookies and use one page inPrivate mode,

To Login Page 

to check history data usage,

or by call *611 press 3 and you need 4 digit PIN,  Here: photo

turn all apps background  How to turn off

[dust2dust]

The imessage app has settings to use sms and mms. Turn them on. imessage uses the old time instant messaging method which needs an internet connection. SMS doesn't. MMS just needs data turned on but doesn't use data itself.

[hTideGnow · Accepted solution]

Hi @consulting she is not using regular MMS or SMS but she is using iMessage.  iMessage needs Wifi or data.   Kids these days only use iMessage 🙂

She needs turn off iMessage if she wants regular sms/mms.  But she still won't receive incoming iMessage if her friends use that and she turns off data