Android Phone - Data Usage Really High

Vodafone

originalmiscellany wrote: »

Please help!

Got my last phone bill which was huge.
With vodafone, have had a shock as my data allowance is 1 gig but I've used 2.93 in the last month - an extra 25 quid on my phone bill - 500 megs = £5. Not good money saving!

Any advice on what I can do to curb this usage? I've currently removed the auto syncing of email/contacts etc, but am amazed at 3 gig usage, which includes nothing like videos or music streaming.

Completely stumped! I rang vodafone who said I couldn't upgrade to a bigger data allowance which is a super pain

Hi originalmiscellany,

It's great to see that you've already received some excellent advice which will hopefully allow you get to the bottom of this.

In the meantime, can I ask if you've exceeded your data allowance previously at all and how long have you had your current phone for?

Although it's not possible to increase your current 1GB per month allowance we do offer tethering bundles which you can find more details on here. Of course, there's absolutely no obligation here just something for you to consider.

Naturally, should you wish for me to take a closer look at the billing side of things you're welcome to email me your details via the Contact us form here quoting WRT135 - FAO Lee in the subject line.

When sending it could you also include a link to your thread so I can correspond your email with your thread?

Thanks,

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

fitshase

Another trick for the e-mails is to set the maximum size to download. Get the e-mails pushed to your phone but only specify 50k as the max size. That way, all attachments, etc, don't get pushed to your phone. When you open the e-mail, it has an option to get the rest should you want to read it.

JJ_Egan

If it was me i would factory reset wiping all data .
Delete all non stock apps .
Turn off Mobile data .
Run the phone for two days and check data charges .
Turn data back on and check after two days Charges then turn background sync off again two days see what happens .

A stock factory unit once set up will use data if checked its connecting roughly every five mins as the default .

jje

originalmiscellany

It's certainly looking a bit better - Since yesterday, and installing the splendid 3g watchdog, I'm "down" to a mere 9 megs in just under a day.
One of the programs identified was "money toolkit" which each time it logged into my bank to show transactions added 1/2 a meg of data, just downloading, no uploading. I've removed that, and it seems that it could be one key part of getting my data usage down. This accounted for several megs of data in just a few hours.

I'll email Lee from this board too, to check I've done everything "correctly" and am on the right tarrif etc.

Thanks again for your help so far people.
Much appreciated.

originalmiscellany

Lee, I've sent you an email via vodafone help. Let me know if it's not received.

Thanks

paddyrg

originalmiscellany wrote: »

One of the programs identified was "money toolkit" which each time it logged into my bank to show transactions added 1/2 a meg of data, just downloading, no uploading. I've removed that, and it seems that it could be one key part of getting my data usage down. This accounted for several megs of data in just a few hours.

Wow! That's quite a saving already!

The social networky apps like facebook, twitter, may drive up traffic? Also where does SMSBackup back up to? Could that be driving lots of data?

fitshase

paddyrg wrote: »

Wow! That's quite a saving already!

The social networky apps like facebook, twitter, may drive up traffic? Also where does SMSBackup back up to? Could that be driving lots of data?

SMSBackup backs your text messages up to your google mail account linked to the phone. Texts are so small in size I doubt it would make any saving by switching that off (depends on how many texts you receive and send though!).

originalmiscellany

One issue of my phone is that it sometimes loses SMS's in one fell swoop...

This means you can back up all texts, and if necessary I've integrated them into google mail which allows me to search for them as if they're a normal email which is really handy, e.g. searching for addresses that have been forwarded.

I contacted the maker of the phone prog that seemed to be the memory hog, and I'll work with them to see if I can repeat this memory loss.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/sms-backup/com.zegoggles.smssync

is the free prog we've referred to...

and

http://lifehacker.com/5713726/how-to-use-gmail-as-your-central-universal-communications-hub

to sort our gmail and link your sms'es with gmail.

I hope these links (I don't benefit from either) are allowed?

Former_MSE_Andrea

Hi Moneytoolkit's asked us to post a statement on its behalf. MSE doesn't endorse anything a company says on our forum.


We recognise that when synchronising with First Direct, data usage can be as high as has been pointed out, which is roughly the same as if you accessed the First Direct web site directly on your phone. We are looking at ways to reduce the amount of data that Money Toolkit uses, but in the mean time we will update the details on our web site, and in the Android market place to include what the data requirements are, to help avoid this kind of unpleasant surprise.

davester

Set your 3G watchdog limit to your monthy allowance so that way you will never go over and be billed.

Also I have heard stock apps can be data hungry as they update regularly as well as weather and as mentioned cut your emails download lower.