Calling all iPhone users

[Brian D]

I will be up front and say that I do not like anything Apple, especially the iPhone. So with that...

On my Android I have the ability to monitor my data usage. I am not a big data user so I only have the 300M data plan with AT&T. With my Android I can set it up so that if I hit a certain level, say 285M, the phone will automatically shut off my data usage. This keeps me from going over my limit if for some reason an App decides to update while on data and not WIFI.

OK, so here is where I need your help. My wife like iPhone and she just got a message saying she was at 75% of her 1G data. We cannot for the life of us figure out how this happened. Or even why. But I too got a message about the same time so I think something to do with AT&T.

Is there a way to tell the phone that if it reaches a certain data value to shut off the data? Either on the phone (and I cannot fine anything except per app) or by downloading something from the Apple Store.

There's my dilemma. Any suggestions?

 

[Sailavie1]

I use My Data Manager App on my IPhone. Works

 

[seadaddler]

I have found that when we travel for many months in summer and we use a lot of data
and Verizon notifies us with a high bill they let us pay for a adding extra gig and keep the
the bill just extra $10 and no big bill and than take the extra gig off when we get home and been doing it this way for a few years now if this helps if you go over by mistake.
My wife has Android and I have IPhone with Verizon.
Nick

 

[SG]

If you don't close open windows (which operate in the background), your smart phone often continues to download images, data updates, etc., regardless of whether you're looking at them.

On the iPhone or iPad, double click the <home. button at the "bottom" of the screen. You'll see what apps are open. Then go to Safari, see how many "screens" are running, you'd be amazed if you don't close them out.

Close un needed sites/links and apps. You'll use less data that you never actually "used".

 

[SFS]

This is not a direct answer to your question, but my phone (I am a Verizon customer with an Android phone) will allow me to set alerts that come to me at whatever percentages of use I specify. I can at least be aware of where I'm at in terms of usage.

Also, if you are a Verizon customer, the following two things may help:
1) All of the unused data from our 2 GB/month plan rolls over to be used the next month. I assume this is true for any plan, though you may want to check. Note that a) we cannot roll over more than 2 GB to the next month; b) data cannot be rolled over more than once; and c) it appears to me that the first data to be used each month is use the "fresh data" for that month.
2) Verizon has a toggle that they can throw (or you can throw on your phone) that they call "Safety Mode". If you activate it, and the time comes when you have used your data (in your case, your 300MB) they will throttle your data speed WAY down, but give you all the data you can use at that speed, free of additional charges, for the rest of that month.

 

[Brian D]

That's the problem I am having with "smart phones". They are dumber than s***!

We both use My Data Manager. It is only a monitoring tool, not a control tool. The thing with Android and iPhone is one can be controlled by the user, the other controls the user. My phone is rooted so I can do things, I control my device. My wife's phone is stock, it controls her.

We basically already do the things mentioned above. I read that one can go to the AT&T web site and set up data limits. They did away with that. Probably because they were losing money on overage charges.

There has to be an app that can be configured to turn data off once it gets to a certain limit. But leave it to Apple to prevent that from working.

 

[Sailavie1]

That's the problem I am having with "smart phones". They are dumber than s***!

If they cause you to spend more $$ then they may not be that dumb

 

[twalker H260]

Under the cellular settings if you scroll down you can tell the phone which apps you want to allow use of cellular data. The vast majority can be turned off with little to no impact on how you use the phone - games, camera, productivity apps, the App Store etc generally don’t need to use data when you have no wifi. Even mail doesn’t necessarily require cellular data if your not in a rush for the latest email.

As previously mentioned it can be amazing how much data some apps will use when left running in the background. - keep in mind that some apps will look for updates even when not running -(background app refresh- another area where many items can be turned off without affecting how you use the phone.- under settings-general.

 

[Skipper]

We both use My Data Manager. It is only a monitoring tool, not a control tool. The thing with Android and iPhone is one can be controlled by the user, the other controls the user.

There has to be an app that can be configured to turn data off once it gets to a certain limit. But leave it to Apple to prevent that from working.

If you are monitoring, if it reaches a limit you can then turn data off yourself.
Settings/cellular/cellular data -off

 

[Benny17441]

Apple and AT&T, two of my favorite corporate Grinches.

 

[DougM]

On the other end of the spectrum, I have always had an iphone. I am aware that screens that are left open in the background can burn data. If you double click the start button you will see all of the open screens. Just swipe upone at a time to remove those that are not being used. I’ve gotten into the habit of doing that at least once daily.
There is also a switch in settings to shut off automatic downloads in background.

Since I started with an iphone, I became comfortable with it quickly. Consequently, I am of the biased opinion that the android system is awkward and non intuitive. To each his own.

 

[Ward H]

if for some reason an App decides to update while on data and not WIFI.

On the iPhone you can set each app to auto update or notify before update. You can also turn off location services per app, allow only while app is in use or allow in background. Since location services uses GPS that is a big data burner. Same with down/up loading photos. Almost all apps allow you to choose between using WiFi only or WiFi and Cellular.
When I'm bored I will go through my apps and make sure they only have the access they need to work as I want them to.

 

[Maine Sail]

I avoided an iPhone for a long time because Apple treats you as if you are a child by not allowing such things as "Always load full website". Apple's default is to always load a mobile site. I FREAKING HATE MOBILE SITES! Apple apparently knows better than me about what I want to do with my data...

That said I would get a new Android phone yearly and by the end of a year the thing was slow as a turtle. I rooted, reformatted, deleted app after app and tried everything I could, but the phones would slowly and continually slow down. I also tried varying brands including Motorola, Samsung, HTC and a few others. I would upgrade when I got to the point of typing a letter and waiting two or three seconds for it to appear.

Since moving to Apple for my cell phone I have had zero performance issues. I still REALLY, REALLY DISLIKE the software, and the lack of ownership they allow, but the damn things just work.

One point I had never considered is that they are also worth a LOT more money when I want to upgrade to a new phone. I threw my last iPhone 6 Plus on Craig's List, last December, and got back 83% of what I had paid for it and the guy showed up with cash in three hours. My Android phones were recycled and worthless when I was done with them.

All that said with Verizon I don't worry about data as I have an *unlimited plan (*Not truly unlimited speed wise after certain point) so I can't really comment on how you would set a stop point on AT & T. I never set a stop point on any of my Android phones either. Sorry I can't help in that department..

 

[Brian D]

So we believe what the problem is. And this is in both Android and iPhone. As mentioned above several times (thanks guys), the issue appears to be open apps. I have trained myself to push the square button on my Android which forces me to close an app. The Android has three buttons: triangle, round, and square. On the iPhone there is only one button that does multiple functions. So I am now training my wife to double-press the single button when she is done with an app. This way she will close it for good.

Thanks for the suggestion and where to look. Now I do have a pet peeve about iPhone not having global functions like "Close all", "Clear all", "Data limit", and possibly a few more that I could find.

Again, thanks for the heads-up. Now, let me get back to finding more silly things to post.

 

[SG]

Make sure you not only swipe-off Safari (the iPhone brower) but first close all open "windows" or URL's. I'm not sure that it doesn't run in the background? (If you close it and open it again, it seems to be "right there", not simply reloading).

You can also "cold boot" the phone -- i.e., turn it completely off and then on; however, that takes a little time to re-start.

 

[LeslieTroyer]

If you go settings cellular you can see exactly what each app is using from your bandwidth quota.

 

[JamesG161]

I recently inherited the Admirals iPad, which is the same thing as a big iPhone [app wise].
It was SLOWWWWWW.
What I discovered is what @Ward H pointed out.
In addition, the iPad was full of "Free" apps that were doing "marketing research" using our data plan.

I didn't know much about the iPad world, did my research and found on Apple app store..
"App Cleaner & Uninstaller"
Using this app, I removed about 20 apps and their octopus like tentacles. Got bunches of new memory, speed and lower data plan cost.
This App works on all Apple Products that use APPS.

I thought I had to Trigger a "clean up", but NO, when you decide to delete any Application on your Apple product, it pops up and asks, do you want to also delete the "tentacles"? [my term for sub files]. I deleted a old application on my iMac and found 79 error reports dating back 2 years.
All gone now to "bit heaven".

So addition to what you can control, you have "spy ware" possibly hidden on your iPhone.
Jim...

 

[SG]

I didn't know much about the iPad world, did my research and found on Apple app store..
"App Cleaner & Uninstaller"
Using this app, I removed about 20 apps and their octopus like tentacles. Got bunches of new memory, speed and lower data plan cost.

I searched for that and there is not an iphone app with that name?

 

[JamesG161]

WTF??? I just checked my iPad and that app is missing now

I just downloaded the new one on my iMac with High Sierra OS.
https://nektony.com/mac-app-cleaner

Wow, sorry Apple just recently upgrade iOS and they removed my app from the iPad.

Hopefully the new version of the app I bragged about will return.
Thanks @SG for pointing that out.
Jim...

 

[SG]

WTF??? I just checked my iPad and that app is missing now

I just downloaded the new one on my iMac with High Sierra OS.
https://nektony.com/mac-app-cleaner

Wow, sorry Apple just recently upgrade iOS and they removed my app from the iPad.

Hopefully the new version of the app I bragged about will return.
Thanks @SG for pointing that out.
Jim...

Maybe it worked too well for the Apple Empire, so it struck back? ;^))))