how can i reduce data usage?

[hj]

Hi,

I joined PM yesterday. I think, I didn't use data much but data usage in my account shows me that I have used 14MB.

I turned off wifi assist of my iphone and send and recieved imessages through data, checked e-mails, but didn't open attatched document. Most importantly, the phone current period shows me that I used 8 MB. It seem not right....

[hj]

My phone is 5s and has ios version 9.3.5.

I use mail,bank, transit, and safari apps often, also use dropbox, evernote, cineplex, and etc. which I don't use often.

I turn off the data when I can use wifi at home. This is the best way to save data, I guess.

[Korth]

@hj - exactly which device model, OS version, and apps are you using?

[Korth]

iOS provides the same information about per-app data consumption (and memory usage, processor usage, battery consumption, etc).  But it is generally far more restrictive than Android systems in allowing the user to control/lockout resource permissions.  Partly because it's deliberately designed for global simplicity, updates are bundled as "all-or-nothing" packages with uniform permissions, and Apple doesn't really want to make it easy for users to circumvent the systems (or system defaults) they've put in place.

[JMCD]

I'm not sure about iOS, but on Android you can check and see how much data is being used by each app. You can select a specific date or range of dates. You can also check for background/foreground data. It is also possible to restrict background data for each individual app. I find this helps keep things to a minimum. Sorry, I don't know about how this works on iOS.

[Korth]

A discrepancy of 6MB is generally insignificant.  But a discrepancy of 14MB vs 8MB suggests that you were using data near the fringe of your coverage area.  Lots of extra data packets transceived by the PM (Telus) tower, which they count towards your usage, but which didn't arrive intact on your device until re-sent.  I wouldn't worry about 6MB, I would be concerned about 700MB vs 400MB, there's always some data overhead cost but a consistently high ratio means too much lost data (and time to move around in search of better service, or just go WiFi).

[Jsauter]

I had the same issue the first few days, it seemed like I was using A LOT of data.  However, it has evened out over the last month and I am using a more reasonable amount.  If you get a bad connection or something it can make your phone use more data than it should.  Keep an eye on it over the months and it will even out.  Keep in mind though, 2GB is not really enough to do a lot of mobile video watching, etc.  If you are just using websites reasonably, email, messenger, facebook, etc. you will have enough data.

[cphan0604]

Is your phone syncing for backup purposes? That will use data too if you aren't on wifi...

Download my data manager app and it will show you the apps that's using your data...

[hj]

chrom browser for iphone doesn't have that function, i tried last night. 😞
apple may restrict the function to promote people use safari browser.

[McLaren]

Chrome browser also has data saver setting you can enable where it compresses the data

[Korth · Accepted solution]

You will be billed for data usage as measured on your account, that's the bottom line, even if your phone or softwares report different measures.

If you don't want to use data then just don't use it - go into your device settings and turn cellular data off, turn wifi on, do all your internet stuff while you're somewhere you can use the wifi.

Web surfing, emails, forums, and such stuff consume trivial amounts of data, even if you do it a lot.  Images are much larger than text, it's true that a single picture is worth a thousand words.  A single video is worth a thousand pictures.

Your browser might allow you to block images and just display empty placeholders until you click them.  Handy if you visit websites which pollute the screen with useless (but bandwidth-eating) graphics.  Video and audio files can be similarly blocked, although polite websites will require you click on a Play button to start them anyways.

You can install an ad-blocking extension for your browser to kill all those pop-ups and banners and boxes which annoy you and waste your data.

You can often visit the "Mobile version" of websites instead of the beefier "Full version" to improve speed and cut down data consumption.  No need to download tons of images and junk which can't display properly on your small screen anyhow.

There are apps which promise to improve download speeds and reduce download consumption by compressing the data on-site then decompressing it on-phone.  A great idea, and I've met people who swear by them, but I think their value in the real world is inconsistent and dubious.

[nishufan]

   You should believe the account summary. It happens that you using more data than the phone showed.