Mobile Data Usage Gone Wild

[KickMeInTheJunk]

A few days ago, my phone started going crazy using mobile data. I didn't realize until 9pm when I got a text from my carrier I was at 90%, by the time I got home at 11pm, it was 100% (and a hefty overage bill added). I'm less than a week into my billing cycle. My carrier says it started around 4pm Sunday, and has since consumed over a GB of data. Looking at SIM 1 in Data Usage, 'System' seems to be the culprit consumed the majority of it. (Oddly SIM 2 shows a tonne of data use as well, even though there has never been a SIM in SIM 2).

What is my phone possibly doing to consume all this data all of a sudden? Is there any way to track this down? No new updates have been available for my phone, so I wouldn't think it'd be that.

Lumia 950
Carrier: Telus
OS: 10.0.10586.29
FW: 01078.00027.15506.02004
HW REv: 2.1.6.2

 

[Wes Smith]

any syncs for onedrive or any other app? Possibly a 40GB mailbox syncing contents down? App updates configured to download update immediately? Post data usage / usage details page and lets see

 

[KickMeInTheJunk]

No app updates that I can tell, I've always had auto update enabled but never had a problem on my old 1020. No changes to my OneDrive. The Store on Windows 10 isn't nearly informative on which apps have been updated and when. Plus this should only happen over wifi. I've had the same mailboxes syncd since I got the phone (Outlook.com and Exchange). Here's the details from the usage page.

 

[Wes Smith]

hmm I believe those have to be system updates like core apps etc. That's the only thing I can think of. I checked mine and I got the same thing going. Look at the very last in the list and that is just in the last few days since the .63 release. I updated to .63, wiped factory reset and started from scratch. So that number is not cumulative since once upon a time but very recent. I would really think it is related to core apps updates

 

[uselessrobot]

I was worried about this myself. I had auto backup for the camera disabled but I still got a 75% warning a couple of days from the end of the month. I allowed a few apps to update over the cellular network and occasionally uploaded stuff to OneDrive but I can't imagine that would have totaled nearly 4GB. There was no single app that stood out as having particularly heavy usage.

For what it's worth, I'm halfway through the next month and my usage is barely 500GB. I haven't really done anything beyond ensuring that updates occurred over WiFi.

 

[Wes Smith]

I was worried about this myself. I had auto backup for the camera disabled but I still got a 75% warning a couple of days from the end of the month. I allowed a few apps to update over the cellular network and occasionally uploaded stuff to OneDrive but I can't imagine that would have totaled nearly 4GB. There was no single app that stood out as having particularly heavy usage.

For what it's worth, I'm halfway through the next month and my usage is barely 500GB. I haven't really done anything beyond ensuring that updates occurred over WiFi.

500GB?!?!? You running a Pron Server from your phone? LOL!!

 

[Wes Smith]

OOOO!!!! I just remembered, besides the core app updates post os update, I did download maps for offline using for about 5 diff states. That would make sense it is being reported under the system since it will not show up under the maps

 

[sutt359]

Do you have an exchange email account added. I had the same problem with the system using 4gb over a few days.

I found out it was my exchange account causing the issue even though it was set to manual sync.

 

[Wes Smith]

Do you have an exchange email account added. I had the same problem with the system using 4gb over a few days.

I found out it was my exchange account causing the issue even though it was set to manual sync.

Did it show up as System though for you?

 

[uselessrobot]

500GB?!?!? You running a Pron Server from your phone? LOL!!

Hahaha! I meant 500MB. I don't want to think what my bill would look like with 500GB of usage.

 

[Wes Smith]

Do you have an exchange email account added. I had the same problem with the system using 4gb over a few days.

I found out it was my exchange account causing the issue even though it was set to manual sync.

Nope. No Exchange account

 

[KickMeInTheJunk]

Ya, my Exchange account shows as a separate object in the App Usage screen.

 

[VineRider]

Had this happening on my AT&T branded 950. Was using about 200 MB per day on cellular data showing up as System usage under the data usage option in settings. Also, strange that it was showing a weird name for the carrier instead of AT&T (cannot recall off the top of my head what it was). What I did was to power down the phone, remove the SIM, and power the phone back up so that it recognized there was no SIM. I powered down again, inserted the SIM and powered back up. After the phone booted, I got the message that my SIM settings had changed and that I needed to reboot. I rebooted the phone, and now the data usage seems to have settled down. Not sure what is causing this but might be worth a try for the OP if you're still having the issue.

UPDATE: Well, after a few hours, looks like this did not resolve the issue. I am now wondering if this isn't the system downloading my old text messages. I had the setting set to download messages from any time, and I have noticed a lot of my old text messages finally started downloading the past couple days....maybe it will settle down soon....

 

[TechFreak1]

What about the store settings?

Do you have it set to update only on WiFi or on both?

 

[balintmaci]

My phone is doing the same thing ever since i got it. Do you think it could be the .29 update?

 

[balintmaci]

What about the store settings?

Do you have it set to update only on WiFi or on both?

Only wifi

 

[TechFreak1]

Only wifi

What about data sense?

Is it set to minimise data via compression (browser data savings)?

Also is restrict background data usage turned on?

 

[balintmaci]

Bg data is set to always restricted. 'system' is using massive amounts of data so it's not the browser

 

[TechFreak1]

Bg data is set to always restricted. 'system' is using massive amounts of data so it's not the browser

hmm, interesting.

Any core apps updated before this spike?

 

[balintmaci]

I got this phone on the 29th and it used up all my monthly data in 3 days I don't know dude