data usages spikes

[realmccoy18]

almost 700mb of my date has evaporated in the last week...i've been experiencing spikes in usage when i'm not using my phone...200mb in a few seconds...i even bought an extra 200 mb only 2 days ago and it's already gone even though i have barely used my phone off of wifi...i has set the aps i use to not upliad when not on wifi so i don't know what's happening.

[jpar]

That would make sense, although I think the default is backup while on wi-fi only

[david_l]

If it's Google Service then I do wonder if you have google photos to auto upload even with data on? That would eat up your data real quick.

[will13am]

I find that the only activities using a lot of data are backup to cloud storage and videos.  

[jpar]

I've heard that whatsapp is pretty conservative with data usage, especially compared to some other messaging apps. 

[srlawren]

@TheOldVR WhatsApp as a data hog?  Really?  Are you doing a lot of video calling on it or something?

[TheOldVR]

You should not need to turn off background refresh on everything, just he ones that will eat up a whole bunch of data.

I have a friend who setup Google Photos to update with Data, boy that was a mess after a couple of days!

My biggest data hogs are WhatsApp and Youtube.... Google Play for those times when I can't wait to get an app downloaded.

Cheers!

[Chaos_Scorpio]

Before I had a great dataplan (the promo) I restricted 90% off my apps background usage. it makes a HUGE difference. 

Other things you can do:

1) delete the facebook app and just use chrome - make a desktop shortcut and it will act just like the app but use a fraction of the data

2) use Chrome and turn on data saver if not already on; compresses websites so you do not need the full res pics on your phone

Or search google for other tips. 

Now that I am on a great data plan, I would say 40% of my apps still have restricted background on. 

Make sure your email services are not updating every 5 min. you might want to set it to push and only download the messages when you refresh, otherwise that friend that sent you a huge zip file is downloading without you wanting it to be. 

[realmccoy18 · Accepted solution]

i misspoke...it was Google services and it was 509 mb and that may not seem like much in the grand scheme of things but it's more than half of my monthly data....i've turned off background data on everything.

[jchan]

If it's google play services it could be an OS update. They are set to automatically download unless otherwise specified. It's set in a different location than the play store autoupdate.

[srlawren]

@realmccoy18 if you think about it, 200MB isn't really a ton of data.  It sounds like you already had it set not to auto update apps?  Google Play services is a bit of a mystery sometimes, it could be doing other things that didn't realize.  There's a million settings across the OS settings, Google app settings, and all your apps, that can affect it.  Do you have Google Photos set to only sync over WiFi?  Do you have an Android Wear watch paired to the phone?  There's just so many variables it's hard to say for sure.  But turning off background data usage on play services should help, as you have done.

[dohadotahmed]

Could you please screenshot your cellular data uses details because it can help us troubleshoot the problem. Thanks.

[jpar]

Is it Google Play Services?

[realmccoy18]

but that's it i've alwayws had it set that way...can background date really eat up that much data in such a short time or is omething else going on?

[NDesai]

I have Auto-Update set to Do not update and it never used any data. There are app updates like every other day so i don't want it to update all apps everyday. Once in a while i manually go in and update the apps i want to update. 

[realmccoy18]

i looked and it seems to be Google play than eating everything up but i have it set so that nothing downloads unles i aprrove it...i turned off the background data...should that fix the issue?

[NDesai]

Check in your data usage which app consumed the most data. It should display this information. Many times, there are background syncing or backup/restore take place and use a lot of data.