A common question I assume, but no good answers showed up on a quick search, everything was ad-hack, not really practical.
Since I got my SIII I've seen a large rise is the amount of data I'm using, also all of which is listed as Android OS and if I drill down it is all background. Is there a way to easily track down what is using so much background data? In my case the top app is Play with 51mb, but the Android OS background is at 2.8GB in 10 days, which is insane. Thus I'm looking for some way to break down what is using all of this data.
Thanks,
ERIC
settings/data usage shows a breakdown, or there are several apps on the market. Might be a Samsung account backing up data or Google, or drop box, piccassa web album, all these could use a fair bit, make sure they only synch on Wi-Fi, or ditch them, even better
My problem is that the it only shows up as Android OS and then if I select it as background data (none is foreground), all of that does not help as I still do not know the cause, I have setup blocks in Droidwall so that many Apps can only run on Wifi and according to the per app break down that's all fine (none exceed 50 or so megs) the problem is with background data usage by Android. I do have Kaspersky install, so I do not think it is coming from Malware, but .... starting to wonder if maybe a reinstall is in order, that's such a pain.
Current breakdown (1 day all in K unless stated otherwise):
Android OS: 238megs
Google Play Store: 1.48megs
Email: 774
GoogelServices: 152
Gmail: 133
Maps: 124
Google+ 80
Go Weather ex 70
...
so basically no app is using anything yet I've used 238megs.
Maybe it is a Google backup then, do you use that?
Thanks will try that (just disabled google sync),
I've tracked down it is a matter of large uploads normally 30 to 250 megs that occur in the over night hours (between 1Am and 6AM), but do not know the cause will see if that is it. Also odd that as the phone is connected to a Wifi connection during those hours, so it should not use any mobile data, also as if it is using mobile data when it should be using wifi, will see if I can verify whether this is the case or not tonight. I have 3g watchdog installed now so I can see if the traffic is wifi or cell.
ERIC
Maybe it is a Google backup then, do you use that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep that was the problem, moving massive amounts of data and not using the Wifi connection, turned it off and poof all gone.
ERIC
Sorry to bring this back from the dead but what did you disable exactly?
I think disabling the google backup would help, coz enabling it makes app data back up to google servers. If there's an app with a lot of app data, it can eat up your data bandwidth.
Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman
Hi,
I am using KITKAT ported by Legacy Xperia. Me too facing same problem. From starting, I have not enabled data backup. Still, for 10 days, Android OS consumed 9.5MB data. Look high side for me as I have only 500MB data / month.
Kindly let me know the solution.
egandt said:
A common question I assume, but no good answers showed up on a quick search, everything was ad-hack, not really practical.
Since I got my SIII I've seen a large rise is the amount of data I'm using, also all of which is listed as Android OS and if I drill down it is all background. Is there a way to easily track down what is using so much background data? In my case the top app is Play with 51mb, but the Android OS background is at 2.8GB in 10 days, which is insane. Thus I'm looking for some way to break down what is using all of this data.
Thanks,
ERIC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I faced the same problem, issue was somewhat with auto backup of data, sync of app data & people details in google account,
BUT the main culprit in my case was uTorrent application.
Even though there was no torrent added to it, i didn't even opened it,
it was using 1GB data daily on WiFi and in data usage it was coming under Android OS usage. I uninstalled it, everything went back to normal.
So try to look for such apps which eat up your data in background, it may not be an error of android OS as such.
Hope this helps, Press THANKS if it did help you
Enjoy
Related
So, I logged onto my Vodafone account and checked my usage and it seems that at regular intervals throughout the last few days I've been downloading stuff, always at around roughly 3000.00 KB (more like 2800/2900). These amounts have been downloaded literally 65 times between Wednesday morning and this afternoon (Saturday).
Now, it's a new phone and I'm all giddy about it with new phone syndrome so I have been downloading stuff and it looks like I've downloaded about 195 MB, plus a bit more here and there. So I'll round it up to 250 mb. I only have a 500mb monthly allowance.
So, can anyone tell me, why these amounts show like this? I have downloaded some games and stuff - do the amounts of MB they are worth get reported in small packets like this? Also, does just going on the Marketplace use up a lot of MB? In fact, can anyone tell me what things to look out for in terms of default settings that I can turn off to help make sure I don't go over my 500 mb limit?
I'm especially worried because of all the crappy bloatware that I can't seem to remove no matter how many times i dump something into the bin. Do any of these programs auto connect to the internet secretly?
Thanks for your help!
Am assuming this is your first smart phone.
Yes lots of programmes use the internet in the background, google does it to sync your account, facebook/twitter does it for updates, Email apps do it to check to see if you have email/ the weather app does it every so many hours to update the weather etc etc.
And yes going onto the market does use some data as your downloading the latest information (like what new apps are their etc) every time you go on.
My advice is use wifi every time chance you get, if your checking you allowance often you should be ok as after the whole new phone things die down, you should be ok, though if your ever running low on your allowance, turning auto sync and background data off stops programmes connecting to the internet in the background, your weather wont update unless you do it manually but nothing will eat your data unless you tell it too.
and the thing using your internet 65 times, will be google syncing your account, everytime you get a gmail/ or add a new contact etc it syncs so its all backed up into the google cloud (which btw when you get your next smartphone makes life dead easy, type your email and password and presto, you get all your contacts/email/ apps all downloaded onto your new device along with passwords of past wifi networks and assuming your next device is one running android 4.0 or newer, you'l get all your bookmarks too.
I would recommend droidstats from the market. It will monitor your 3g usage and the pro version will tell you which Apps have been using it. I'm paranoid about getting unwelcome 3g bills so find it invaluable.
Thanks for the advice, it's very helpful!
It's not actually my first smart phone - I had the HTC Touch pro 2 which was a win mo 6.5 based phone but it was very different to android - there was none of this auto syncing. All it did was check my email account every 2 hours and push it to my phone. Android seems to do way more things on it's own. I'm going to switch off all that syncing now and just check my emails myself - bit annoying but otherwise I'll hit my monthly limit way too early.
I also recommend "3g watch dog" free from the market. You can set a limit on there and that way you can always check your data from your notification bar with 1 click.
Nice easy quick reliable
In my experience not one of them including 3G watchdog are totally accurate,ive tried them all and they are all incorrect and do not 100% properly calculate your data usage, funnily enough the only one that came even close to calculating properly is part of the ZD Box app, i don't even use though as it's still not accurate, i am hoping with the ICS update the built in program will properly calculate data usage because the ones available right now (including pro versions) are way off the mark, until then ill have to make so with texting my carrier to get my data usage.
Hi, I have a non-rooted RAZR XT910 (OTA Updated just a few days back to 65.1.40.XT910.AsiaRetail.en.03).
I absolutely love this phone and am eagerly waiting for some functional ICS goodness but I have been facing some issues with high consumption of data.
I have Onavo installed to monitor data usage (Installed it a little too late, relying on my service provider's text notifications).
The two most data hungry applications in the "App Watch" section are "Android OS + others" & the official Facebook application.
Three days in to my billing cycle, "Android OS + others" has already hit 51.7 MB and Facebook is up to 19.4 MB. I haven't opened the Facebook application even once in the last week, so whatever data it has pulled is background data. My OTA updates are allowed only over WiFi. And I have also disabled the "Back up my data" option, under Privacy > Settings but that doesn't seem to have helped much, if at all. Neither did the OTA update.
Before Onavo reset the data usage meter for the new billing cycle, "Android OS + others" had used about 150 MB of data in a week and Facebook about 40 MB.
Can anyone help me out here? I need to reduce this phantom data usage. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
I have that too. I'm running rooted 167.19. first I suspected the gallery app with its motocast service so I freezed this app for one day, but it didn't helped. every now and then these few app processes (which are sadly only listed in one package so I don't exactly know which one causes the traffic) upload about 2mb somewhere. sometimes they also upload 2x 2mb, pause for some time and then there is an other upload of 2mb a few hours later. i'm monitoring traffic with droidstats and checking my consumed traffic online from my providers website.
I installed driodwall for blocking android-os service and these others from up- and downloading via 3g, just allowing wifi. this was also before the update with 651.73.30. full wipe already done - does not help ... still testing if blocking helps
This sucks but good to know I'm not the only one facing this problem with the RAZR.
I did start looking at other forums and seems like the problem is not only with the RAZR. There are other handsets which face a similar issue. Let us hope we get some insight into this problem.
i read about that defy users experience this high consumption too.
since I blocked android-OS (and all of these other processes in this package) from 3G network my traffic for today for corporate mail + 2x imap idle accounts + weather update is about 800KB. yesterday I had about 15MB for doing the same - nothing.
that helps for now but I still don't know which process exactly uploads so much stuff ... and why..
Just an update. Things still the same. VERY heavy data usage. Facebook is upto a 100MB even though I barely ever open the application now. Android OS + Others is around 200 Megs too. 300MB of my monthly 500MB data allowed is gone. Just like that. Any suggestions anyone?
That could be traffic originating from outside. Try connecting to another network and see if you see the same behavior.
With my Android, when I connect to my home WiFi network, "OS Services" take up about 2kb an hour while idle. But, when I connect to my work WiFi network, it takes up about 2mb every hour while idle. I am pretty sure my work network is doing a lot of snooping (in the name of security).
Facebook is understandable though don't ya think? It syncs all your contacts and birthdays and thongs of that nature.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda premium
ali87va said:
Facebook is understandable though don't ya think? It syncs all your contacts and birthdays and thongs of that nature.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of which nature are said thongs... Autocorrect for the win!
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda premium
Solutions?
No solutions or updates so far? Same problem here: Sony Xperia S, Android 2.3.7 (Build .75), 500MB dataplan and the OS takes 300 of that! I already took some precautions like turning of the backup, I've logged out of Facebook and removed my Hotmail app. And I installed JuiceDefender Plus which handles my connections, but no results whatsoever: Android OS still uses 5-10MB/day...
Any help would be very, very welcome.
Find the option for "Sync over wifi only" inside of settings, that should save a bunch. I've never had that problem, infact I have the opposite issue. I use maybe 100MB of my 500MB plan. Sometimes I even TRY to use up my data for the month and fail. I use the Facebook app maybe 10 times a month, most of my data goes towards sports scores, twitter, and reddit. As for the Android OS, the bloatware included on the phone are considered part of the "Android OS" so it's not really the OS using all the data. Open up the task manager and set all the bloatware to auto-end, might help a bit
Just posted in another thread about this. I some how used 25 megabytes on the way to and from work today with the phone in my pocket. 15 minutes each way.
Also accumulated about 280 "free" minutes this weekend between my wife and I. I thought weekends were free. Well I know they are supposed to.
Back to sprint and slow unlimited data as apposed to fast data that's going to break the bank. Just as I was starting to like the phone.
Call them tonight to tell them I was switching. Glad I'm withiny fourteen days.
Hey, didn't notice the replies till now. But do you have any task managers auto ending apps?
That was what caused high data consumption in my case. A self starting task when killed, may restart itself and it's data consumption process from 0.
Once I disabled that, data consumption fell to normal ranges. Hope this helps. Let us know how it goes.
Sent from my XT910 using xda premium
Its been a few months now that i have been noticing that my facebook app is using around 75% of my data plan capacity.
for starters i have 250mb every month as free data plan. it never used to happen initially but suddenly since feb/march my fb app has started using up data plan so much that within 4 days it would have used up 75 % of data plan!!!
after uninstalling fb from my phone, i checked data usage for 2 months and lo and behold it never went more than 75%!!
i have switched off all the app syncs through the phone settings menu and also the app settings menu and still this happens!!!
the second most data usage app is the Android OS Services...
any ideas guys????
A few things:
-How often does your Facebook refresh it's news feed?
-Does this happen when you're signed out of the app?
-Try installing Onavo, you can limit the app's usage from there if you don't manage to solve the problem
-Did you update the Facebook app around that time? If so, try installing an older version of the Facebook app and see if the issue goes away.
@RootTurtles: answer to your questions
1. i have set the app to never refresh.
2. i have never tried that.
3. I forgot to add that I also use onavo ever since i notice the quick depletion of my monthly data cap. i have set restrict to wifi on almost all programs including fb, viber and plenty of other apps. Out of all these fb will continue data transfers even on my network.
4. the fb app is the latest version. how and from where will i get previous versions of fb???
I've attached version 1.8.2 of the app, give that a try.
Do you have any Facebook related widgets on your device?
i still have the same problem after installing fb version 1.8.2.... first i tried with the app signed in!!! the same thing happens...then i tried by signing out of the app...still the same......too much data usage!!!!! oh and i forgot to add that the fb app causes my battery to discharge very quickly....so in other words......the title should read...."facebook app causes extreme data usage and extreme data discharge!!!"
after that i un-installed the fb app everything is back to normal!!!! no extreme data usage or battery discharge!!!
If you havent already done so...try the following..
- In the phone setiings .. go to Data usage..select the facebook in the listed app..click the restrict background data box
- In the phone settings..got to accounts and syn...set it to..Off
- In the latest FB official app...go to settings..change the refresh interval to ..Never
@woodstock i have tried all what you said but still fb uses data......i have uninstalled it now...only thing i don't understand is your first point
"In the phone setiings .. go to Data usage..select the facebook in the listed app..click the restrict background data box"
i don't have that option. i'm running gingerbread 2.3.5 I9100XXKI4 with kernel [email protected]#2
That option is in ICS.. It stops selected apps from using data in the background.. Just what you need
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
any other suggestions????? anyone anybody somethin anything i want to use fb on my phone but the minute it is installed data usage goes thru the rooooooooffffffff!!!!!
Any solution for this??
11alex11 said:
Any solution for this??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
u can try 'Friend Caster' as an alternative to FB and see
Any solution that dosen't involve friendcaster?
Yes, don't use FB nor FC.
Sent from the little guy
facebook 25 GB background data in 10 days
Hi all
i have bougt The new THL 5000 mobile phone and changed the factory rom with dimid v3 Rom. I played around and one month later, i receive the incredible invoice from the Provider: the shocking amount of CHF 3000.-, about 3200 US$ for 25GB data traffic is wanted from me. I cant beleve how this could happen. The included traffic Limit in my contract is 500MB only. This means, that 1GB costs 100 Swiss Francs.
The screenshot 1 Shows, that Facebook has caused the large traffic. Screenshot 2 Shows that there is Zero foreground traffic, all Background traffic. This shows, that not i initiated the download, the Facebook-app startet from itself. I also wonder, what the hell did they download to my phone, or even worse, what did they upload?
I immediately uninstalled the app.
Problem:
The provider is not willing to reduce the invoice, because he sent me 3 SMS to warn me. In fact i did not interest my much, because i was not realizing, that a down-or upload is ongoing right now.
What shall i do? it must be a faulty Facebook app, which caused this traffic. In my opinion Facebook must pay this invoice. I could not find a Facebook customer or complaint helpline. Does anybody know how this is possible, or where i can get help? Please help!
Thanks
Kukuk69
Kukuk69 said:
Hi all
i have bougt The new THL 5000 mobile phone and changed the factory rom with dimid v3 Rom. I played around and one month later, i receive the incredible invoice from the Provider: the shocking amount of CHF 3000.-, about 3200 US$ for 25GB data traffic is wanted from me. I cant beleve how this could happen. The included traffic Limit in my contract is 500MB only. This means, that 1GB costs 100 Swiss Francs.
The screenshot 1 Shows, that Facebook has caused the large traffic. Screenshot 2 Shows that there is Zero foreground traffic, all Background traffic. This shows, that not i initiated the download, the Facebook-app startet from itself. I also wonder, what the hell did they download to my phone, or even worse, what did they upload?
I immediately uninstalled the app.
Problem:
The provider is not willing to reduce the invoice, because he sent me 3 SMS to warn me. In fact i did not interest my much, because i was not realizing, that a down-or upload is ongoing right now.
What shall i do? it must be a faulty Facebook app, which caused this traffic. In my opinion Facebook must pay this invoice. I could not find a Facebook customer or complaint helpline. Does anybody know how this is possible, or where i can get help? Please help!
Thanks
Kukuk69
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely the Facebook app problem. You could sue them if you want but I doubt it will work. Perhaps all you can do is leave feedback: https://m.facebook.com/help/344911968960524?refid=69
Sorry with your what you have to deal with.
Since a few days ago, Android OS has been using an extreme amount of background data. I have never had this issue before. I did some research and found a ton of conflicting things about this supposedly common error. Does anyone have any idea how to fix it?
I have tried turning location off, still uses data. I have tried turning sync off, still uses data. I've tried using third party apps to track and see what is causing the problem, no luck.
Wiping cache & Dalvik cache can help correct this. Do you have root / custom recovery?
pc103 said:
Wiping cache & Dalvik cache can help correct this. Do you have root / custom recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. I do. Dalvik and cache has been wiped several times already, but I will try it again and see if it works.
I tried wiping cache and dalvik. Didn't do anything. This is ridiculous... My little bitty data allowance disappearing because of a stupid bug...
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
Have you checked the list of apps below the usage graph in Settings / Data usage?
Be sure to place a check mark in Mobile data in the upper right.
Scroll down the list, tap on each major app & consider limiting its background data usage to wifi with the individualized Restrict background data setting.
You could use an app like Network Log to at least see what Android System is connecting to, might narrow down what's causing the issue.
Yes, I have looked there. I have limited everything I can think of. The problem is, it says Android os is the app using the data and I can't limit that app. And I will install that app and see what I can see.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
You can read up on using Better Battery Stats at its excellent xda thread.
This could help especially if the detail on Android OS in Settings / Battery usage shows excessive wake time.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
use a firewall app to block internet access to all the apps except the ones you use
I've tried doing that. I just can't block access to android os.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
This is ridiculous. My tablet never used this much data before. Android OS is the worst, but Google play services are using a lot too.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
It must me something else.
Data usage displayed by each application when summed up don't give even half of global amount used.
Something like:
Google play - 2Mb, Chrome - 5Mb, Android OS - 4Mb, some other apps - 300Kb each, together - 45Mb !!!
Where 20+ Mb has gone - no idea.
There is option to stop background data usage but then phone is almost useless.
BTW:
I don't have any sync to network drive, no FB, no mail or other regular checking.
Bobby060 said:
Since a few days ago, Android OS has been using an extreme amount of background data. I have never had this issue before. I did some research and found a ton of conflicting things about this supposedly common error. Does anyone have any idea how to fix it?
I have tried turning location off, still uses data. I have tried turning sync off, still uses data. I've tried using third party apps to track and see what is causing the problem, no luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I faced the same problem, issue was somewhat with auto backup of data, sync of app data & people details in google account,
BUT the main culprit in my case was uTorrent application.
Even though there was no torrent added to it, i didn't even opened it,
it was using 1GB data daily on WiFi and in data usage it was coming under Android OS usage. I uninstalled it, everything went back to normal.
So try to look for such apps which eat up your data in background, it may not be an error of android OS as such.
Hope this helps, Press THANKS if it did help you
Enjoy
As I understand, several apps and services will "hide" their data usage under Adnroid OS. I need a way to see what exactly is using the data.
Same thing with Play services. I dont want to disable play services all together because then I lose email and find my phone functions, but.. what the heck is it doing in the background?
Surely there is an app or xposed module or something to see whats what, isnt there?
Before you say: I already have firewall installed and data permissions limited for everything I dont want running and also background data is disabled for most apps with the Marshmallow built in settings. (although some apps still report using few kilobytes leaking trough firewall and built in permission manager.. what gives?)
Sync is on, yes, but I only have google and watsapp in there + I checked it by manually syncing everything and comparing used data before and after - it was like 6kb, not megabytes.
Its not necessarily a huge data consumption from those two anyway, but I have a small data plan so every MB counts. And besides, even if my mobile data plan wasnt a problem - I still want to know whats going on.
I remember I had an old nokia with symbian OS and i got all the notifications from email, watsapp and skype and everything worked (albeit slowly becasue it wasnt a fast phone) with no phantom data usage in the background.. now if I disable background access for play services, I lose everything.