I seem to be running over my data usage every month and am at a loss to what it causing it, I have disabled iMatach, iCloud, dont watch YouTube videos and general only use the data (knowingly) to read online newspapers.
Using the Data Usage app it appears that a used 10MB of data this afternoon alone so what other things should I check?

Not sure about iPhones, but my Android phone would be silently updating all its apps on a regular basis, which killed my data plan. There’s an option to set it to “Only over WiFi” – I’m guessing there’s something similar on iOS?

Can’t you get a breakdown of data usage by app?

Generally any gallery/mirroring services dropbox etc.

Is there no data monitor app?

How low is your data limit?

Switch off push email

Have a 300MB per month limit which should be sufficient for mail, Whatsapp and stuff as this is for personal use, try to use my work cell phone for business mail etc.
Only apps I see for data usage reporting on an iPhone appear to only do overall usage unlike Androids apps which can break down usage per application, if I am wrong someone please point out the app to use?
Will switch off Push and have disabled Dropbox already.

What’s your data limit?

Mine is 500MB. I’d don’t come close to breaching that unless I start watching videos or a LOT of web surfing on 3G.

(I don’t have anything specially disabled and I use both Push and Pull email)

There’s an option to set it to “Only over WiFi” – I’m guessing there’s something similar on iOS?

Yep, on iOS 6 it is Settings->iTunes & App Stores->Use Mobile Data, but it should be off by default anyway.

Only apps I see for data usage reporting on an iPhone appear to only do overall usage

Which is pointless as you can see that in Settings->General->Usage->Mobile Usage anyway.

unlike Androids apps which can break down usage per application

Yeah you won’t get that. iOS sandboxes each app, to prevent it accessing any data from other apps. Good for security and virus protection, but does limit things like data monitoring.

Had a similar problem with my iPhone 4 soon after I got it, using way over my 900mb limit for no apparent reason.
After getting nowhere with my service provider who insisted I must be doing something to use the data I took the phone into an Apple store, having removed all the apps and disabled email first.
I was then able to demonstrate that nothing was running on the phone, but it was still using my data allowance at the rate of about 10mb an hour . . . they swapped the phone out for a new one immediately, no hassle.
If you remove all your apps and disable email and the data usage stops, then it’s not the phone at fault.

300mb??
That’s bugger all.

Get a decent plan where you don’t have to worry about data. There’s no point in having a smartphone if you can’t use it!

Still he shouldn’t be hitting that limit if he is just doing a bit of email and surfing.

Either something else is eating it or his phone is wonky as above.

I’d go for a fresh restore and monitor it from there.

Mine is 500MB. I’d don’t come close to breaching that unless I start watching videos or a LOT of web surfing on 3G.

Depends- some tarrifs don’t include email and browsing within the allowance. My t mobile tarrif only meters downloaded stuff like music and films, I can email and browse to my hearts content without consuming the allowance, even if I’ve exceeded my download quota.

That’s an odd tarrif! I wonder how they enforce it?

But no, I’m on O2. They count ALL data usage and I rarely hit the limit.

I just checked my iPhone 1,000mb usage over 7 weeks. I browse news articles for 20-30 mins every morning plus emails etc. So that’s 500mb a month, does seem your amount is a bit low.

You might try switching off location services. It might make sense to get newspaper apps with subscription (Guardian is cheap) and then download the paper whilst on wifi and you read the articles offline. Also do you have BTinternet at home, if so you can use their BT FON free wifi when not at home.

If you have BT Internet at home couldn’t you just use your BT Internet? BT FON might be useful away from home though…

And then read it again and realised that that is EXACTLY what you said… My only defence is man flu and tiredness…

You might try switching off location services.

They shouldn’t be using any data anyway?

AGPS (not sure if that is on the iphone) uses data to locate the transmitter towers then uses that to speed up the GPS lock.

Depends- some tarrifs don’t include email and browsing within the allowance. My t mobile tarrif only meters downloaded stuff like music and films, I can email and browse to my hearts content without consuming the allowance, even if I’ve exceeded my download quota.

My understanding of T-Mobile was that they meter everything, but if you go over they’ll still allow email/browsing but block anything that uses significant data.

mike: I thought AGPS was just downloading the ephemeris and almanac data using mobile data, to save waiting for it to arrive from the slow satellite link, thus telling it quickly which satellites are available and speeding up the time to first fix?

The almanac is only 15,000 bits long (1.8Kb) and is valid for several days, so any data used should be absolutely tiny.

Or does it do something else too?

Not sure if it’s just on that – is there any other location services google search etc going on?

In the end just suggestions my phone tells me which app used what per month and lets me turn them onto wifi only. My gallery sync hooked up with my google+ shared pics and went through 500mb this month – spotted and returned to wifi only now.

My plan also gives free mail, facebook & twitter so that is outside my allowance anyway – not that it adds up to much.

Just get more data 🙂

I never use above 100mb on my android phone! Just have it set to data network off all the time and just use wifi for everything.

You could try installing DataMan, which will tell you precisely what apps are using what data. Turn on the precise tracking option. It’s a handy app if you roam, as you can set an almighty foghorn to go off if you get too close to your limit. It does drain the battery slightly faster in my experience, but worth it.

Time to get a better plan? Managed 11gb in one month recently… Although there was a fair bit of tethering involved. 3.6 gb in the last 5 weeks.

Going to start with removing every app and work my way back from there.
As for the plan, its for my personal cell phone so would rather not spend too much money on it as I also have a work phone, however i prefer to not be too reliant on that.

Sounds like the issue is with your phone or an app but it might also be worth looking at http://giffgaff.com/index/offer

I’ve just switched my personal phone to Giffgaff, who currently offer unlimited data for £10 a month, however it’s not a contracted monthly fee so you can top up as and when you want. Tethering not allowed.

They will be changing the £10 plan soon to ‘only’ 750mb but allowing tethering.

Sorry GS, Hong Kong resident so have to stick with the local tariffs which are pretty cheap, this is more about finding out why I am using (in my opinion) excessive data not so much the cost.