Database Users

"Android OS" consuming insane amount of data in background

I have a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, on ver 6.0.1; Build No:MMB29K.G935FXXU1APD1
Notice couple week ago, I have finished my monthly data quota of 3Gb, upon checking data usage close to 1/3 is consumed by "Android OS" in background.
Since then, I been on quest to find out what actually caused the drain on data. I have tried
1. Run in safe mode, "Android OS" in background continue
2. Factory reset, "Android OS" in background continur.
3. "Reset Network Setting", work for a couple a day, then "Android OS" in background came back again.
4. Off all Google Account Sync and Off background data, "Android OS" in background continue too.
Now I am really out of ideas... really disappointed with Android now.... planning to sell off my phone and switch to Iphone

Just as a comparison, between 7am to 1pm today, "Android OS" already consumed 37Mb; while my web brwsing in the same period only used up 95mb. And I have Facebook app disabled already.

at a 'wag' I'd speculate that you have one/all of the background reporting enabled (diagnostics, security reports, app scanning, et. al.).
you could also take a walk through the 'optimize battery usage' settings to restrict the various apps to limit their usage.
these things are discussed in the battery consumption thread(s) but they also affect data usage.

^^^ what he said
I had the same issue the very first week I got the device (800+ MB consumed by Android OS) - it automagically stopped once I greenified and Dozed the sh!t out of it.
Mind you, even at the beginning I had no sync and most of apps disabled for background data usage.
Sh!ty implementation if you ask me: it almost looks like a collusion between Google and the carriers to waste your data. Why on Earth would they otherwise have "Download boost" and "Smart network switch" which both suck up your precious little data (I speak as a Canadian screwed by the monopolies...).

Ipse_Tase said:
Why on Earth would they otherwise have "Download boost" and "Smart network switch" which both suck up your precious little data
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"duh" - they can bill you for more data consumption, makes complete sense to me!
I had the thought that it'd be very nice (from a user' point of view) of everything not absolutely necessary was disabled by default and a nice 'wizard' walked you through enabling of ANYTHING which will use background data, location, or radio (essentially anything using power or money). Sort of the mirroring the "secure by default" ethic where everything would need to be individually opted-in. Alas, I feel this is contrary to the interests not only of the phone carriers (who want to bill more for data service), OEM (who want to regularly sell you a new device), and Google (who wants to leverage data of/about/by you to create $).
Or maybe I'm just a little cynical.

Ipse_Tase said:
^^^ what he said
I had the same issue the very first week I got the device (800+ MB consumed by Android OS) - it automagically stopped once I greenified and Dozed the sh!t out of it.
Mind you, even at the beginning I had no sync and most of apps disabled for background data usage.
Sh!ty implementation if you ask me: it almost looks like a collusion between Google and the carriers to waste your data. Why on Earth would they otherwise have "Download boost" and "Smart network switch" which both suck up your precious little data (I speak as a Canadian screwed by the monopolies...).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how you greenify Doze? dont think it is available on Sammy phone.

I started to monitor the "Android OS" usage every 5~10min... what I notice is, it starts drain data every time I go online, e.g. surf net, FB app, etc.
So for example, surf net at 10:00am... and close the browser... 5 min later I will notice the "Andoird OS" data consumption increased by another 2-3Mb.

lkoky said:
how you greenify Doze? dont think it is available on Sammy phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2.9beta2...read the forum thread in the Greenify section.

Ok, seems to have found a solution. I boot into recovery and
1. wipe cache
2. wipe data
now it is running ok. "Android OS" no longer draining data in background.
Not quite sure why the previous two time factory reset via setting menu wont do the tricks though.

I have the same trouble! Android SO consumes a lot of data, I'm gonna try your solution I hope it works!!
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Any solutions for this ? im still having this problem.

forum.xda-developers.com/note5/help/guide-how-to-fix-android-os-battery-t3423150
You may wanna check the wakelocks, probably most often used will be your evil one

AASAservice
Download the Package disabler in google play and disable the system app named AASAservice. You will be OK. I found this solution through a data manager app called DATAEYE. If you still worry about your data usage, you can try to use this app too.

Ipse_Tase said:
^^^ what he said
I had the same issue the very first week I got the device (800+ MB consumed by Android OS) - it automagically stopped once I greenified and Dozed the sh!t out of it.
Mind you, even at the beginning I had no sync and most of apps disabled for background data usage.
Sh!ty implementation if you ask me: it almost looks like a collusion between Google and the carriers to waste your data. Why on Earth would they otherwise have "Download boost" and "Smart network switch" which both suck up your precious little data (I speak as a Canadian screwed by the monopolies...).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung is actually very open about it. They said that first and foremost, it is the carriers, that are their customers. Not the average Joe blow like us.
Sent from my SM-G935W8 using XDA-Developers Legacy app

lgh197219721 said:
Download the Package disabler in google play and disable the system app named AASAservice. You will be OK. I found this solution through a data manager app called DATAEYE. If you still worry about your data usage, you can try to use this app too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any specific "Package Disabler"? Since there is are at least 10 of them. Who si the developer?

knyaztmi said:
Any specific "Package Disabler"? Since there is are at least 10 of them. Who si the developer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think he's talking about BK package disabler Pro which is what I use too, great app.
However, cant remember now if this is possible in MM but in Android 7 Nougat you can restrict data usage for anything you like except apps that really need to use data like facebook and your browser etc, but you can still restrict them from using background data regardless, screenshots below, as far as I'm concerned, theres not really much on my phone that I want accessing my data without me knowing about it, I don't send picture messages etc, and I don't need weather and traffic updates every 10 secs etc.

Can anyone tell me what is this?
Sent from my SM-G935F using XDA-Developers Legacy app

Setting up CyanogenMod with maximum privacy (no more Google)

I'll try to make it as simple as I can.
Here is what I want:
CyanogenMod with root privileges
Full control over which app, service or system component can access my data and the Internet.
(at the moment for instance I can't alter the "network access" privileges of my apps)
Safe to use speech recognition software
Safe to use, sophisticated navigation software
My questions:
Is that even achievable without a ton of work?
Is there a simple way to flash CyanogenMod without pre-installed bloatware? (e.g. Google apps, Skype, Cortana, ...)
Which tools should I use to make sure that apps can only access what I want them to?
Is there speech recognition software for Android that doesn't require Internet access?
Is there a navigation app that is capable of using the offline maps of Google Maps without requiring an Internet connection?
(e.g. Google Maps makes itself useless if you don't update from their servers every 30 days)
From your experience, do apps refuse to work when you deny certain privileges?

ferivon said:
I'll try to make it as simple as I can.
Here is what I want:
CyanogenMod with root privileges
Full control over which app, service or system component can access my data and the Internet.
(at the moment for instance I can't alter the "network access" privileges of my apps)
Safe to use speech recognition software
Safe to use, sophisticated navigation software
My questions:
Is that even achievable without a ton of work?
Is there a simple way to flash CyanogenMod without pre-installed bloatware? (e.g. Google apps, Skype, Cortana, ...)
Which tools should I use to make sure that apps can only access what I want them to?
Is there speech recognition software for Android that doesn't require Internet access?
Is there a navigation app that is capable of using the offline maps of Google Maps without requiring an Internet connection?
(e.g. Google Maps makes itself useless if you don't update from their servers every 30 days)
From your experience, do apps refuse to work when you deny certain privileges?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude- You should start developing your own rom in this case.
But consfused here and at this point i think you dont know.
CyanogenMod & Cyanogen OS
Assuming- when you said, cortana etc etc--- i think you are on cyanogen OS.. Which is the original OS for 1+1.
1- To achieve, you need to work.
2- Some optimized COS builds in XDA one android dev section- try a search. but not latest 13.1.2-ZNH2KAS3P0. Root using SuperSU. and use system app uninstaller to remove apps you dont need. Some debloater zips also lurking around in XDA. If you install CyanogenMod, then no need of gapps flashing if you dont use google account.
3. you can stop background data for the apps you dont want. Settings in most roms.
4. Speech recognition can be used offline after u download all languages of your choice. Not 100% and dont use it.
5. Try Maps.me. i didnt know google map needed to be force updated every 30 days unless some one restructures the entire landscape and routes.
6. Certain apps refuse to work if you dont grant permission. yes. its like telling some 1 without hands to eat from hand,.
:good:

Thank you so much for your reply. I indeed did not know that there is a difference between Cyanogen OS and CyanogenMod. But if I understood you correctly, CyanogenMod comes without gapps. (I hope it also comes without Google Play Services?)
The offline speech recognition you linked to seems to be from Google. I bet it will require Google Play Services and an Internet connection after some time, just like Google Maps does and I'm really afraid of that.
I might give Maps.me a try, but I think Google Maps still has by far the best most detailed and correct maps especially when it comes to POIs.
I would consider using official Google Maps, if there was a 100% safe way to wipe all the data the app collects before I allow it to update the maps. Alternatively, maybe I could download the apps from a second device and just copy the map data over to my main device every once in a while.
An even more crazy approach might be to spoof the time/date data for Google Maps so that it thinks the 30 days haven't been reached yet.
But I would still be very concerned about Google Play Services. Would microG be sufficient for my purposes to replace Google Play Services?
edit:
Okay, I have a rooted CyanogenMod without gapps now on my OPO.
edit2:
I have Xposed with modules "Xprivacy" and "Per App Hacking" installed now.
Xprivacy is an app permission manager and "Per App Hacking" can be used to spoof the system time an app will see. Hopefully I'll be able to fool Google Maps with it.
edit3:
I have microG installed now. Hopefully this will be enough to run Google Maps.
I really need to make sure I understand Xprivacy before that though.

My recommendations:
1. I recommend full device encryption with long and secure boot password and easy to use pin lock screen password. Here's more info: http://forum.xda-developers.com/general/security/guide-separate-passwords-encrypted-t3048072
2. Get an email address from a provider that respects user privacy i.e. Riseup. https://riseup.net/
This is one the most important things to do if you don't want google / yahoo / microsoft scanning your email for surveillance / marketing purposes.
3. Use apps from F-Droid. It's an app "store" for open source apps.
4. Always use Afwall+ to have control over which apps have access to internet. Even better if you use Afwall with combination of Orbot. This way you can route some apps through tor (need a custom script though). Orwall does the same thing more easily.
5. Instead of closed source Supersu, use open source superuser http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software-hacking/wip-selinux-capable-superuser-t3216394
6. For maps I recommend openstreetmap. Download Osmand from F-Droid. It has navigation too.
7. For cellbased location provider, use unified location provider found from F-droid. It's connected to microg projects.
8. For encrypted SMS use Silence from F-droid (recipient needs the same app if you use encryption).
9. For encrypted instant messaging use Conversations (XMPP client) from F-DROID. Or Riot (which will soon have strong encryption).

Hey tofu thanks for your answer, I appreciate it!
I'm only really concerned about my phones software spying on me.
About the email thing: I'm running my own email server for that.
But I'm still looking for a way to anonymously creating a google account without providing my phone number.
I'm using F-Droid already and it's great.
I'll never go back to the play store that's for sure.
And for anyone else reading this, please don't touch the amazon app store, it's pure poison.
I'm also using AFWall+ already, but I'm not satisfied at all. The creator doesn't really seem to care about ensuring that no data gets leaked ever. I read a lot of reports that data was being leaked every once in a while, especially during system boots.
This is really scary to me... I'd really like to have a safer firewall.
Blocking Internet/networking permissions directly just causes apps and the system to become extremely unstable. I soft-bricked my phone like 5 times while playing around with it the last few days.
I was not aware supersu was closed source. I'll switch to the open source alternative soon.
I just installed OsmAnd~ and I'm not very satisfied. Navigation was ok, the tts voice was absolutely terrible and I wasn't able to find a single POI, I wouldn't even be surprised if it would fail to find the next McDonald's to my place. Google Maps just seems completely unmatched to me.
And about that: I was actually able to get Google Maps running without Google Play Services installed and I was able to successfully use it offline, spoofing the system time for that app, so that my maps would never become outdated. I notices a few downsides though, for example it only works for car navigation (bicycle mode etc are not available). After completing the installation of all the microG components I wasn't able to get it to work anymore though (I couldn't download the offline maps, because I couldn't enter my google account data anymore...).
But I'll figure out how I did it and go with Google Maps then.
To complete the microG installation I installed unifiedNlp with GSMLocationNlpBackend.
For encrypted messaging I'll probably be forced to stay with WhatsApp, as I can't possibly convince all of my friends to switch. But hey at least WhatsApp claims that your messages are end-to-end encrypted.
But obviously WhatsApp will always know who I know... that problem seems pretty much unfixable to me though...
I have btw also tried to get Google Now (speech recognition) to work offline. But I was unsuccessful. I have read reports of others getting it to work for literal voice to text applications... it won't take voice commands though. So that's not very useful... unless there was a way to define your own voice commands somehow.
But my biggest worry at the moment really is the firewall. I feel like there is nothing that you can really trust to work reliably.
And also the fact that Xprivacy can't restrict file access to certain folders... it's either all or nothing.
The worst of all might actually be IPC though (inter process communication) which a lot of apps require permissions for. And from what I understand any app with that permission could use another app as a sort of proxy to access the Internet.

I'm using a Google-free device with maximum privacy, so maybe I can not answer all your questions but I can give you an idea. First of all - disclaimer: I'm here because my girlfriend has an Oneplus One (OPO), but I do not have one. I use her old Nexus 5 (N5), but you will get the general idea. You already noticed there is a difference between CyanogenOS (COS) and CyanogenMod (CM). It also took me a while to figure out that difference. If you still have a stock Android in your OPO, it should be a COS 13.1 which is based on Android 6.0.1 and comes with alot of bloatware from Google and Microsoft.
1. First step is to find a suitable ROM for your needs. If you are used to COS and have not much experience in chosing custom ROMs, you should give CM a try. Here is the official wiki which includes Download links and installation instructions: https://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Bacon_Info
2. The 2nd step after installing CM is the full device encryption, can be found in Settings > Security. If you do it on a clean phone without any apps and data it only takes a couple of minutes and chances of breaking stuff are low at this step.
3. Now I usually root it (with SuperSU) and install some magic which is called XPOSED framework. It's something which allows you to install modules on your phone on system level, not like an Appstore, but rather like a Tweakstore. There are a lot if chances you break stuff and most of the modules do not work with CM, however, one module to beat them all is the XPRIVACY module. It gives you back full control on everything. You can manage App permissions, you can fake permissions or if apps do not want to run with your set of permissions, you can even feed fake data (like wrong GPS signals, etc.). Read more here. http://repo.xposed.info/module/biz.bokhorst.xprivacy
4. F-Droid, yeah, the one open-source repository for your new apps. I'll install it at this point.
5. Now, that the device is flashed with CM, probably rooted and with a custom recovery, you have to flash a stock recovery again and lock the bootloader. Stock recovery because it does not allow any malicious party (hacker with physical access, police, intelligence services, etc.) to deploy any code to your phone which compromises your privacy. Locked bootloader is important to disallow any malicious party to boot anything they want which also compromises your privacy.
And this is pretty much what you need to get started, a rock solid environment free from Google. Make sure you have a strong PIN, I also use randomized screen locker, so people can not "observe" the way you enter your PIN.
For encrypted calls and SMS there is Signal, but that does not work without Google services and LibreSignal, the Websockets version, was discontinued just recently. For encrypted IM use ChatSecure rather than Conversations. Both are XMPP clients, but Conversations does not allow you to import or export OTR keys, which is very annoying for an Jabber client. For not so sensitive chats, I use telegram.
Finally, not having Google Play and Google Services available, makes the experience a totally different for the android device. Apps like Snapchat which do not require Google, but still do for some unknown reasons checks for Google, wont run. Also, a lot of apps work without Google, but you can't install them without downloading suspicious APKs from dubious websites. Be very carefull from where you download and install software if you can not find what you need in F-Droid.
I hope that helps you for your considerations.
---
Edit, one more final note. I also use OsmAnd and have to say it never let me down on any occasion (except when I forgot to download the maps before going somewhere remote without internet). The geodata quality is excellent in most urban areas, but the interace and usability are a mess. If you find your way around in the interface, the navigation works out pretty well. I sometimes have issues calculating very long routes, but you start to live with that.

Thanks for your input 5chdn! Most of the stuff you mentioned it already on my phone.
I made some progress yesterday and I'd like to share my current configuration:
All the apps I mention in this post are (at the time of writing) available in F-Droid, unless stated otherwise.
Everything I mention in this post is free and open source, unless stated otherwise.
Recovery Image: TWRP
ROM: CyanogenMod
'Apps' that have to be flashed:
SuperUser (this roots your phone which means you can grant root access to apps)
Xposed (provides a lot of important privacy tools)
Apps:
F-Droid (app store that provides free open source apps)
AFWall+ (manage which app can access the Internet)
Autostarts (manage triggers that apps can use to start themselves)
AdAway (can remove ads from apps)
Xposed Modules:
BootManager (manage which apps can start on boot)
Xprivacy (manage/spoof app permissions for privacy)
Safely using Google Maps offline permanently:
Please note: Google Maps is not open source.
Install microG (open source alternative to Google Play Services)
The installation complete installation consists of:
'microG Services Core' (aka 'GsmCore') (app)
At the time of writing this app is NOT available in F-Droid. This app also automatically installs 'µg unifiedNlp (NO GAPPS)' for you.
'microG Services Framework Proxy' (aka 'GsfProxy') (app)
'FakeGapps' (Xposed module)
'FakeStore' (app)
'XposedGmsCoreUnifiedNlp' (Xposed module)
'LocalGsmNlpBackend' (app)
'NominatimNlpBackend' (app)
'µg unifiedNlp (NO GAPPS)' (app) (will be installed automatically!)
Install 'Per App Hacking' (Xposed module)
Use this module to spoof the system time/date that Google Maps sees e.g. to '2016-10-14 10:00' so that offline maps don't become outdated. The feature to spoof the time is called 'time machine'.
I would really like to improve what I got so far and share it with the community.
If you know of anything that could help improve privacy please tell me.
I do not mention things like device encryption, passwords, lock screens etc, as these are a separate issue.

Enable Google Play Services - Why?

SOLVED: Figured out that if you press and hold the message that comes up you get a menu in which you can choose to no longer receive notifications from that particular app. So, not an elegant solution but it works for now. Not that anyone else is crazy enough to want to delete everything Google on their Google OS Android phone. But hey.
So, I have a Moto G4 XT1625 off of Amazon (no-ads) that I've unlocked the bootloader and rooted (Android 7.0 oem through the updater before root). I don't want any Google apps or services or my Google account on the phone, so I used Titanium Backup to freeze all of it, including Google Playstore, Google Play Services and Google Play Framework. All other obvious Google apps have been frozen or uninstalled. I've used as many open source apps off repositories like F-Droid as I can and the phone runs super fast, no ads (Adaway, ofcourse) and the battery lasts noticeably much longer with no Google crapware churning in the background.
My problem is that when starting some apps, the phone complains:
"Enable Google Play services
__________ won't work unless you enable Google Play services."
The blank space is the name of whichever app I'm trying to open that supposedly requires Google PS, which is a lie because they all work perfectly fine. The nag message is just annoying and I'd like to know what I need to freeze to get rid of this. Any help would be appreciated.

Quite a few years later, and your solution has helped me get rid of that annoyance. You're not the only crazy, there's at least two of us. The only thing I want to give to google is the finger
Thanks again mate.

Is there a way to disable specific services, not just whole packages, on Oreo?

The Oreo update was just another hit to us, despite of all the good it brought. I can no longer disable specific services with any app.
This means that now I am once again forced to watch the Google Play Services drain that amounts out of thin air no matter what I do, without being able to do anything.
In Android 7 I could use BK disabler 2 and the plugin to disable services. This no longer works, no matter how I tried to bring it back. I tried getting the older versions, but it always tries to activate a licence and fails. I also do not trust the BK developers at all and don't really want to use it anymore (notSABS has a great PKG Disabler and I use that but it has no services control).
So, could we somehow still find a way to disable specific services? I used to have about 90 Google play sub-services disabled and that kept my battery steady and reliable.
I am now getting random bursts of drain again.
If anyone has found a way to stop this drain, please share, because I have literally ran out of options save for rooting. Any possible option and tweak has been made and this bs keeps lurking back and stealing my battery life for nothing that benefits me in any way whatsoever.

bumping this. There must be a way to add this functionality in notSABS, would really make it next-level

GPS/Location spoofing when location is off??? Yes or No?

Howdy!
3 part question:
1) I am on rooted OOS9.0.17 + Omega kernel + xXxNoLimits and use App Ops to put my apps on a leash( those dirty buggers! ), and a VPN. I have location services turned off, sandboxed facebook and fb messenger, use Privacy Browser or Tor, and use App Ops to turn off location for the ton of apps that use it but do not ask for permission. Do I still need to use a gps/location spoofer for all the system level stuff that I won't/don't mess with? It seems some stuff still knows where I am. It seems that, in spite of all I have done, a few apps still know where I really am.
2) what app have you personally had success with? I have searched the sight and didn't seem to find "that" one app everyone uses and loves.
3) What is the impact on battery life? I had to made some adjustments with my VPN after the last update to either Eddie or OpenVPN as my battery started tanking again. Still not totally happy on that front.
Thank you in advance!