Database Users

Really need some help on data from people in the know

Hi guys
wondering if someone can help me with an issue im having regarding mobile data useage. I am in the UK and I live in an area where 3g is non existant so I have switched to GSM only in the settings. My problem is my phone is constantly using data and I dont know why or how to stop it.
I downloaded an app to show mobile useage, calls, text, data etc
My provider charges me £4 per 1 Mb (this is 1024kb yeah?)
Well I then went into the settings and edited the providers auto settings to stop it from connecting, and left my wi fi on. When I went to bed, my data was showing 0.24Mb, when I woke up this morning it was showing 1.23Mb (with a cost of over £4)
What is causing this? Far as I can tell I have manually stopped the phone from connecting but something is using data. I have the Gmail sync option enabled (but wi fi was on) but still, it went up 1 Mb whilst I slept.
Can someone help me out with this issue please as its starting to confuse me

As far as I know, push email doesn't work over wifi. So if you have google syncing enabled, it keeps a small mobile connection open at all times over which email notifications are sent.
I'm not an IT guy, so I might be wrong But just try to disable syncing and see what happens!

I opened the thread "strange bug" related to this. In my case it uses more 3g band only if it's attached to the pc via usb. When I must attach the X10 to the pc I disable the apn with apndroid.
Ciao Angelo
Sent from my X10i using XDA App

gmail does work on wifi as far as I can tell. However, I have now gone further into the internet settings and wiped all of the data and the phone now cannot connect. Now this will save me a bundle of cash, but also means that I cant get my internet connection when away from wifi. The APN apps looked good but a lot say dont work with CDMA networks, which I can only assume im on as the apps do nothing

I use WiFi too. But when X10 is attached to the pc it continues to use 3g band even if in the notification bar the WiFi icon appears.
Ciao Angelo
Sent from my X10i using XDA App

well I didnt know that.
I can confirm that Gmail sync DOES work over wi-fi as I have completely deleted the phones internet settings now and am still getting my email.
So this means I will no longer be getting charged for data useage, but cant get internet other than wi fi

cybrid3, you didnt need to wipe the apn/internet settings, there is a simple tick box in /wireless controls /mobile networks/ MMS and data <<, unticking this will stop the phone from using any mobile data (sms/texting still works).
Turning off 3g doesnt make any difference as the phone still uses data over gprs or gsm.
These phones are real data hogs and its best to get a cheap plan if you can.

yeah, but if I disabled it all, then I would not longer have MMS and that is something I do use

Ask your provider to:
1. block data
or
2. give you APN settings for MMS only.

Theres also the possibility that wifi is set to disable itself after the phone goes to sleep.
I left my wifi settings on and let the phone sleep. Based on testing through the wifi active time on spare parts, the phone accessed data through the carrier.
Sent from my X10a using Tapatalk

ask your provider for wap access not data
its very cheap
this way u can send and get mms

Why don't you get a plan that includes unlimited data? Only cost me £5 a month extra for that on uk vodafone.. Well worth it.
Sent from my x10 using XDA and swype.

I have unlimited data, but they say I have gone over my fair use policy so something has been in the background. It used 1 MB whilst I slept. The plans with fair use of 1GB seem pretty useless now

[Q] Mytouch 3G using too much Data?

I have a MyTouch 3g and I was checking my data usage and since the beginning of the month I used over 247mbs of data whereas my brother has used less than 40 with the same phone. I'm normally connected to wifi, and the only app I use a lot that uses data is Facebook. Also when I check my data usage I see that my phone is using data while I'm asleep, anyone have any tips for using less data on my phone?

Turn it off while you're not using would be a good start, CM6 has a data on/off switch with the power control widget. Turning off sync would be another option, also found in the power control widget.
Sent from my HTC Magic using XDA App

Battery Saving Tip: GSM Only Mode!

Ok, this may seem VERY obvious for many, but thought it was worth a mention.
On the N7105, under Settings > Wireless & Network > More Settings > Mobile Networks,
the "Network Mode" option has LTE/GSM/WCDMA (Auto/4G), GSM only(Edge/2G), WCDMA only (3G/HSPA+) .
When using data in passive mode, like letting emails, notifications, contacts, s/media etc sync in the background, if you leave it on GSM only, I'm guessing it'll take up a lot less battery.
And every now and then when you need to browse or stream etc, you can temporarily set it to LTE/Auto or WCDMA depending on the data load (like WCDMA for audio streaming; LTE/Auto for video streaming).
I'm sure there's widgets that do it from the homescreen too.
And I guess the same applies for the N7100, except for the LTE part.

For anyone on 3 in the UK wanting to try this, 3 doesn't have a 2g/GSM only network.

Thanx for the tip

While this is true, I can't stand it. This is coming from me! I used to keep my Blackberries always on 2G. But the problem is if you do anything OTHER than receive emails or send messages, then it's too slow.
Not to mention anything over data via 2G or 2.5G (Edge) cuts off your phone line as it's using the data connection and you can't handle voice and data over over 2 or 2.5G. Be warned! You're going to miss a lot of phone calls!

If you receive a call it will cut out the data connection. Not the other way round
You won't miss any calls...
By the way everyone, check out opera mini! Set image quality to low and pages load pretty quickly over 2.5g and decently over 2g.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium

Cmon guys. . This phone is the mother of all smart phones in regards of battery. ..you need these tricks only if you are stuck on a desolated Island. ..
handwritten from my note 2 (N7100)

I will also have to agree with the previous post. I get almost 2 solid days if not a little more of battery life on this thing. Changing the 4G setting only takes away the full ability of what my "little monster" has to offer.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using xda premium

SirCanealot said:
If you receive a call it will cut out the data connection. Not the other way round
You won't miss any calls...
By the way everyone, check out opera mini! Set image quality to low and pages load pretty quickly over 2.5g and decently over 2g.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, yeah!
It happens to my mom and me all the time. At my moms house she doesn't use wifi, and she leaves it on GPRS. if she's chatting on whatsapp, the phone call goes to the answering machine because it's being transmitted over the same radio! So her being online holds up the line. I'd suggest you try it Turn on GPRS and browse the web and while loading a site give yourself a call.

Never ceases 2 amaze me how people use all kind of tricks, from Uv, Uc, to what the op does...etc etc...ending up with nothing more than a dumb phone with a big screen!
I paid the full price n I want to use the full potentiel, n how big of a deal is it to plug to a power outlet? unless ur in the middle of nowhere, in which case u'll have no use 4 the phone anyways!
Peace 2 all.

Well, people only end up "using" the phone for a few hours (in terms of screen time), and for the majority of the day, it's just passively doing it's thing. So if you had some widget set up for a quick 2/3/4G swap, for the great majority of the day, it wouldn't really make a difference in your experience with the phone. It'd just mean you wouldn't have to worry about running low on juice when you actually ARE using it for content/media/social media etc.
But that is, if you can be bothered The battery's great eitherway!
Re: missing calls on 2G when data is on, I guess it might be carrier specific (as to whether they prioritize pushing through phone calls over data); wouldn't really know. But in my case, the phone calls seem to tend to come through...
Anyway, as I do tend to use the phone quite a lot (multi tasking, a/v streaming, photography/editing, media uploading and more, all at a 'decent' brightness) and am out and about till late regularly, I've realized, putting in that little bit of effort when I'm not doing all that makes a noticeable difference by night time.
But if/when all else fails...spare battery

SirCanealot said:
If you receive a call it will cut out the data connection. Not the other way round
You won't miss any calls...
By the way everyone, check out opera mini! Set image quality to low and pages load pretty quickly over 2.5g and decently over 2g.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly what I do when I'm not really using the phone too much and its mostly in my pocket. Taking it out for a few minutes every now and then I use Opera Mini and the speed over 2.5g is acceptable enough. This is a huge battery saver if you need the phone to last as long as possible when you know you'll be away from a charging point for a few days.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app

if anyone knows of a widget that can directly toggle between 2G and 3G or 4G, i'd love to know about it because samsung implemented network switching differently from AOSP so apps that work on AOSP doesn't work on samsung, at least as far as I can tell. Even having root is useless, I still can't find a widget capable of directly toggling the networks...

lukesky said:
if anyone knows of a widget that can directly toggle between 2G and 3G or 4G, i'd love to know about it because samsung implemented network switching differently from AOSP so apps that work on AOSP doesn't work on samsung, at least as far as I can tell. Even having root is useless, I still can't find a widget capable of directly toggling the networks...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the time being, I've to a shortcut widget to "Mobile Networks" (Power Toggles -> 2G/3G) on my homescreen, and I switch it from there. It's one extra click, but I guess I can live with it!

spade4 said:
For the time being, I've to a shortcut widget to "Mobile Networks" (Power Toggles -> 2G/3G) on my homescreen, and I switch it from there. It's one extra click, but I guess I can live with it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got a widget for the shortcut too, but it's more than 1 extra click right? You have to click the widget, then Network mode, click the mode you want, then click OK, then it will swap modes. That's 4 clicks. On AOSP based roms, it's just 1 click. Guess it's probably a limitation of samsung roms.

So when I posted about switching the original note 1 to edge or gsm only to save battery everyone told me I was crazy and it didn't save any battery but now this is a tip?

lukesky said:
I've got a widget for the shortcut too, but it's more than 1 extra click right? You have to click the widget, then Network mode, click the mode you want, then click OK, then it will swap modes. That's 4 clicks. On AOSP based roms, it's just 1 click. Guess it's probably a limitation of samsung roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, come to think about it you're right! I guess I'd just gotten used to it.
Wonder if there was a way to do it via 'Tasker'?

mazdamiata210 said:
So when I posted about sing the original note 1 to edge or gsm only to save battery everyone told me I was crazy and it didn't save any battery but now this is a tip?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You would have been right! it definitely does. The battery consumption difference between 4G and 2G is fairly significant...

spade4 said:
Actually, come to think about it you're right! I guess I'd just gotten used to it.
Wonder if there was a way to do it via 'Tasker'?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried it on my previous S3 before and Tasker couldn't toggle it either.

Related to the missed calls when on 2G.
That depends of wich model you're using.
CDMA (example: Sprint) will allow you to use data, but data connection will not be available if you place a call. And if you're browsing the web, or downloading something, calls go directly to voicemail
GSM (example: AT&T) will allows you to browse data when you're on 2G, BUT, you can be able to receive calls even if you're downloading something, but the data connection will me cut off until you finish the call.
That's the main difference about how the modems and radio works between each technology.

spade4 said:
You would have been right! it definitely does. The battery consumption difference between 4G and 2G is fairly significant...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup well you can read all the comments telling me what I wanted to do was useless and pointless here when I know for a fact I was right...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1730601

Massively increased battery duration

I'm guessing a lot of people on here know this already but I recently discovered how to massively increase my Moto X's battery duration. Namely by switching off Mobile Data, I can then go a full 14 hours only dropping down to around 75% by the end. So now as soon as I get into work or any place where I'm on Wifi I switch off mobile data.
Makes me wonder why having mobile data switched on is expending so much battery power?

If you wanna increase that even further, just turn the whole thing off. The battery will last for weeks.

teh_lorax said:
If you wanna increase that even further, just turn the whole thing off. The battery will last for weeks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He actually has a point, there's no point on being sarcastic over a good advice that should be logical by now.

rogeriorp said:
He actually has a point, there's no point on being sarcastic over a good advice that should be logical by now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, turning off (necessary) features saves battery. This is not shocking.

teh_lorax said:
Yes, turning off (necessary) features saves battery. This is not shocking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is not shocking but somehow people tend to forget the basics. And it is also unnecessary while on wifi, which is the case and the advice he spoke of.
And I'd go even further and set 3G only with wifi, lollipop tends to switch from wifi to LTE by itself very often.

I've heard of people suggesting switching off wifi when your not using it, but never mobile data. So i just thought it might be a suggestion some people might appreciate. Take it or leave it.
Plus wifi is doing the exact same funtion as mobile data when your connected to it, so your not losing any functionality.
If your rooted you can even get Tasker to do the switch automatically.

This actually doesn't work. The data radio goes I to sleep mode when WiFi is on. Its not just doing its own thing while wood is on.

Definitely working on WiFi enhances battery life enormously but didn't try switching off mobile data

Zammo76 said:
I'm guessing a lot of people on here know this already but I recently discovered how to massively increase my Moto X's battery duration. Namely by switching off Mobile Data, I can then go a full 14 hours only dropping down to around 75% by the end. So now as soon as I get into work or any place where I'm on Wifi I switch off mobile data.
Makes me wonder why having mobile data switched on is expending so much battery power?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How is this possible? When your wifi radio is connected, the data side is completely disconnected. This is even reported in your 'status'.

I see your point, but all I know is that it definitely is making a large difference for me.
One theory I attributed it with was that with Wifi and Mobile Data switched on the phone is getting a lot more Wake Locks (perhaps doubling up), which in turn could also possibly be preventing the phone going into a Deep Sleep. But as the Wakelock detector app doesn't work any more (unless your rooted), I can't verify this.

Gonna test this out!

The issue with turning off mobile data is that it will cause problems with sending and receiving MMS, you may also have problems with SMS as well.
My HTC Sensation was really good at basically putting the radio to sleep when on Wifi and only waking when needing to send or receive data that will only work over the cell network.

Zammo76 said:
I'm guessing a lot of people on here know this already but I recently discovered how to massively increase my Moto X's battery duration. Namely by switching off Mobile Data, I can then go a full 14 hours only dropping down to around 75% by the end. So now as soon as I get into work or any place where I'm on Wifi I switch off mobile data.
Makes me wonder why having mobile data switched on is expending so much battery power?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't disable mobile data, but I do use tasker to switch to 3G when I'm connected to wifi. The LTE radio uses a lot more battery in poor signal areas (like my apartment) and I have noticed it helps me go from about 3 hours of screen time to 4.5. I think the MMS issues are a good point and I feel like this solution is slightly more elegant because even with mobile data disabled, the phone is still holding an LTE signal. Ymmv, obviously

mrapp said:
I don't disable mobile data, but I do use tasker to switch to 3G when I'm connected to wifi. The LTE radio uses a lot more battery in poor signal areas (like my apartment) and I have noticed it helps me go from about 3 hours of screen time to 4.5. I think the MMS issues are a good point and I feel like this solution is slightly more elegant because even with mobile data disabled, the phone is still holding an LTE signal. Ymmv, obviously
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi can you explain whats the settings on tasker to do such a thing? Ive never used it but I have heard good things and just bought the app!

unk3 said:
Hi can you explain whats the settings on tasker to do such a thing? Ive never used it but I have heard good things and just bought the app!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First you'll need root and this plugin (make sure to enable external access in the plugin app)
Basically, create a profile that runs whenever you connect to a network (you can leave it blank for all networks or press the search button to choose just your home network).
The entry task would basically wait 10 seconds and then run the plugin choosing wcdma/gsm (auto) as the network mode. Choose then to add an exit task which simply recalls the plugin and chooses the network mode as LTE, wcdma, gsm. You can even add an extra step to each task at the end which has tasker display a toast that you can have say LTE enabled or 3g mode only

BrokenWall said:
The issue with turning off mobile data is that it will cause problems with sending and receiving MMS, you may also have problems with SMS as well.
My HTC Sensation was really good at basically putting the radio to sleep when on Wifi and only waking when needing to send or receive data that will only work over the cell network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SMS/MMS are sent via voice channels, not data.

floepie said:
SMS/MMS are sent via voice channels, not data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SMS is sent over Voice channels. MMS still requires data.
I double checked and tested this on my Pure Edition on T-Mobile.
Disabled Wifi and Cellular Data
Sent a standard text message, it was received by the other party. Attempted to send a photo message, it was not able to send from my phone as well as the other party did not receive it. Though it did resend when data was enabled.

Tasker can't turn off mobile data since Lollipop update....
Any sugestions?

BrokenWall said:
SMS is sent over Voice channels. MMS still requires data.
I double checked and tested this on my Pure Edition on T-Mobile.
Disabled Wifi and Cellular Data
Sent a standard text message, it was received by the other party. Attempted to send a photo message, it was not able to send from my phone as well as the other party did not receive it. Though it did resend when data was enabled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No one sends MMS messages now (apart from old people), since the advent of Whats app and the like, so its hardly a deal breaker.

Zammo76 said:
No one sends MMS messages now (apart from old people), since the advent of Whats app and the like, so its hardly a deal breaker.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Troll alert

Mobile data not going inactive when wi-fi connects?

So when I first got my V20 (VS996), when wifi was connected the mobile data went inactive- at least I'm presuming so, the '4G' was grayed out, not crossed out, and when there's simply no 4G signal it entirely disappears (or drops to 3G etc). But now it ALMOST never does this anymore... every once in a while it will, but there's nothing specific about times it does.
I'm pretty sure that's what it's supposed to be doing, as there's even an option 'Cellular data always active - Always keep mobile data active, even when Wi-Fi is active [...]' (not enabled). I've searched high and low for a setting that could be causing it not to work right, and information about this, but have come up dry. Is anyone familiar with this? Really didn't want to have to reset and track it that way.
Thanks.

Bad WiFi signal bro. Disable your gsm data and see if you can still watch YouTube.
Sent from my LG-H990 using XDA-Developers Legacy app

fafalone said:
So when I first got my V20 (VS996), when wifi was connected the mobile data went inactive- at least I'm presuming so, the '4G' was grayed out, not crossed out, and when there's simply no 4G signal it entirely disappears (or drops to 3G etc). But now it ALMOST never does this anymore... every once in a while it will, but there's nothing specific about times it does.
I'm pretty sure that's what it's supposed to be doing, as there's even an option 'Cellular data always active - Always keep mobile data active, even when Wi-Fi is active [...]' (not enabled). I've searched high and low for a setting that could be causing it not to work right, and information about this, but have come up dry. Is anyone familiar with this? Really didn't want to have to reset and track it that way.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
developer options
keep mobile data always on
as well as agressive wifi to cellular handoff
as well as under advanced for wifi, you can tell it to switch more agressively off wifi under poor conditions etc

somemadcaaant said:
Bad WiFi signal bro. Disable your gsm data and see if you can still watch YouTube.
Sent from my LG-H990 using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bad WiFi doesn't seem to be the issue. It's showing max strength and is 2 feet away from the wireless router under my desk, and the issue still persists. (yes, youtube plays fine in HD)
Team DevDigitel said:
developer options
keep mobile data always on
as well as agressive wifi to cellular handoff
as well as under advanced for wifi, you can tell it to switch more agressively off wifi under poor conditions etc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm trying to get it to turn mobile data off, not hand off to it even easier. Are you saying that these options will make it disable mobile data when wifi is good, when it's not even doing that without them? Tried that just in case, it's still not deactivating mobile data (still at my desk, wifi router for 100mbps symmetric fiber showing full strength 2' away, so unlikely bad signal)
Edit: I may have found the issue. It appears one of the Verizon apps was forcing the cell connection to stay alive. I tried killing a bunch of the ones I wasn't using after recalling how their voicemail app only runs over cellular, and now mobile data is deactivated. I'll need more trial and error to confirm which one was doing it.. I killed 4 of them.. and it stayed off after re-launch so was clearly some kind of bug. Although it's odd as it did persist through reboots.
Edit: Confirmed; it's the 'Caller Name ID' app. Ending that single process restores the normal mobile data deactivation when wi-fi is good.

So another cause of this problem has popped up. After a reboot, 4G was becoming active after 15-30 minutes despite not touching the phone at all since the reboot, and there were no apps that could be killed to get it to switch off this time. But after a lot of trial and error, the cause was finally isolated: The My Verizon data meter widget. Once it refreshes, it forces cellular data to stay on, even when Wi-Fi is connected and strong. Once the widget was removed from the home screen, 4G never came back on while using WiFi.
Is there any way to disallow an app from using 4G but still allow it to use WiFi? I really would like a better solution than just not being able to use the widget. It would be fine if it just connected, got its update, then disconnected... but no, it's on permanently after a refresh.