Motorola Moto G5 - stopping data use

YorkshireTraveller

My Dad has been using his trusty Nokia 6021 for years on PAYG with EE.  He only uses it for the occasional phone call and text (we top up £10 every six months or so!).  He now needs to be able to show his Covid pass in order to go to the football.  I have given him my old Motorola G5 and have successfully downloaded his Covid pass and he'll be able to update this as required using wifi at home.  In order to receive texts when out of the house and not connected to wifi the phone needs to have Data turned on.  To prevent any additional unwanted use of data (i.e. no data to be used at all) on his PAYG SIM I have set Play Store to only update over wifi.  Is there anything else I need to do or settings I need to change?  TIA.

Grumpy_chap

Yorkshire_Traveller said:

My Dad has been using his trusty Nokia 6021 for years on PAYG with EE.  He only uses it for the occasional phone call and text (we top up £10 every six months or so!).  He now needs to be able to show his Covid pass in order to go to the football.  I have given him my old Motorola G5 and have successfully downloaded his Covid pass and he'll be able to update this as required using wifi at home.  In order to receive texts when out of the house and not connected to wifi the phone needs to have Data turned on.  To prevent any additional unwanted use of data (i.e. no data to be used at all) on his PAYG SIM I have set Play Store to only update over wifi.  Is there anything else I need to do or settings I need to change?  TIA.

I was certain that text only uses GSM, not data.
I just did a check with my phone (Moto G7 Power) flicked mobile data "off" and sent and received return message with my wife.  WIFI also off.
Should be able to send and receive texts on the Moto G5 in the same way.

YorkshireTraveller

Grumpy_chap said:

Yorkshire_Traveller said:

My Dad has been using his trusty Nokia 6021 for years on PAYG with EE.  He only uses it for the occasional phone call and text (we top up £10 every six months or so!).  He now needs to be able to show his Covid pass in order to go to the football.  I have given him my old Motorola G5 and have successfully downloaded his Covid pass and he'll be able to update this as required using wifi at home.  In order to receive texts when out of the house and not connected to wifi the phone needs to have Data turned on.  To prevent any additional unwanted use of data (i.e. no data to be used at all) on his PAYG SIM I have set Play Store to only update over wifi.  Is there anything else I need to do or settings I need to change?  TIA.

I was certain that text only uses GSM, not data.
I just did a check with my phone (Moto G7 Power) flicked mobile data "off" and sent and received return message with my wife.  WIFI also off.
Should be able to send and receive texts on the Moto G5 in the same way.

I had originally turned the data off.  He only received the text I sent him at the match when he got home and the phone connected to the wifi.  I have checked again and with data off and no wifi signal no message comes through until the wifi is connected.  I thought the same as you hence switching the data off.  Most confusing.

Neil_Jones

Yorkshire_Traveller said:

My Dad has been using his trusty Nokia 6021 for years on PAYG with EE.  He only uses it for the occasional phone call and text (we top up £10 every six months or so!).  He now needs to be able to show his Covid pass in order to go to the football.  I have given him my old Motorola G5 and have successfully downloaded his Covid pass and he'll be able to update this as required using wifi at home.  In order to receive texts when out of the house and not connected to wifi the phone needs to have Data turned on.  To prevent any additional unwanted use of data (i.e. no data to be used at all) on his PAYG SIM I have set Play Store to only update over wifi.  Is there anything else I need to do or settings I need to change?  TIA.

Texts do not use data.  You do not need mobile data to send/receive texts.  You've never needed mobile data to send/receive texts (considering they've been a feature of mobile phones since the 1980s, long before the concept of data was available).

If the messages are sent via Whatsapp or some other messaging soution, then that will require data outside of Wifi connectivity.  Same for the Covid pass.

Grumpy_chap

Yorkshire_Traveller said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Yorkshire_Traveller said:

My Dad has been using his trusty Nokia 6021 for years on PAYG with EE.  He only uses it for the occasional phone call and text (we top up £10 every six months or so!).  He now needs to be able to show his Covid pass in order to go to the football.  I have given him my old Motorola G5 and have successfully downloaded his Covid pass and he'll be able to update this as required using wifi at home.  In order to receive texts when out of the house and not connected to wifi the phone needs to have Data turned on.  To prevent any additional unwanted use of data (i.e. no data to be used at all) on his PAYG SIM I have set Play Store to only update over wifi.  Is there anything else I need to do or settings I need to change?  TIA.

I was certain that text only uses GSM, not data.
I just did a check with my phone (Moto G7 Power) flicked mobile data "off" and sent and received return message with my wife.  WIFI also off.
Should be able to send and receive texts on the Moto G5 in the same way.

I had originally turned the data off.  He only received the text I sent him at the match when he got home and the phone connected to the wifi.  I have checked again and with data off and no wifi signal no message comes through until the wifi is connected.  I thought the same as you hence switching the data off.  Most confusing.

Are the texts actually text messages, or e-mails, or whatsapp, or other messenger service?

YorkshireTraveller

Neil_Jones said:

Yorkshire_Traveller said:

My Dad has been using his trusty Nokia 6021 for years on PAYG with EE.  He only uses it for the occasional phone call and text (we top up £10 every six months or so!).  He now needs to be able to show his Covid pass in order to go to the football.  I have given him my old Motorola G5 and have successfully downloaded his Covid pass and he'll be able to update this as required using wifi at home.  In order to receive texts when out of the house and not connected to wifi the phone needs to have Data turned on.  To prevent any additional unwanted use of data (i.e. no data to be used at all) on his PAYG SIM I have set Play Store to only update over wifi.  Is there anything else I need to do or settings I need to change?  TIA.

Texts do not use data.  You do not need mobile data to send/receive texts.  You've never needed mobile data to send/receive texts (considering they've been a feature of mobile phones since the 1980s, long before the concept of data was available).

If the messages are sent via Whatsapp or some other messaging soution, then that will require data outside of Wifi connectivity.  Same for the Covid pass.

But I'm finding that on the MotoG5 if data is switched off then texts do not come through until the phone connects to wifi.  I have just rechecked sending a message to his phone:  with data switched off and not connected to wifi no text come through, as soon as you connect to wifi then the text arrives.  Turning the wifi off and the data on texts come through as normal.  Perhaps this is something peculiar to this phone?  I'm confused!  I just want to make sure that he doesn't inadvertently run up a bill on his SIM for using data inadvertently.

YorkshireTraveller

Grumpy_chap said:

Yorkshire_Traveller said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Yorkshire_Traveller said:

My Dad has been using his trusty Nokia 6021 for years on PAYG with EE.  He only uses it for the occasional phone call and text (we top up £10 every six months or so!).  He now needs to be able to show his Covid pass in order to go to the football.  I have given him my old Motorola G5 and have successfully downloaded his Covid pass and he'll be able to update this as required using wifi at home.  In order to receive texts when out of the house and not connected to wifi the phone needs to have Data turned on.  To prevent any additional unwanted use of data (i.e. no data to be used at all) on his PAYG SIM I have set Play Store to only update over wifi.  Is there anything else I need to do or settings I need to change?  TIA.

I was certain that text only uses GSM, not data.
I just did a check with my phone (Moto G7 Power) flicked mobile data "off" and sent and received return message with my wife.  WIFI also off.
Should be able to send and receive texts on the Moto G5 in the same way.

I had originally turned the data off.  He only received the text I sent him at the match when he got home and the phone connected to the wifi.  I have checked again and with data off and no wifi signal no message comes through until the wifi is connected.  I thought the same as you hence switching the data off.  Most confusing.

Are the texts actually text messages, or e-mails, or whatsapp, or other messenger service?

Just a straightforward text message - but now you have me thinking, perhaps I have my phone set up to send 'enhanced' type messages including photos (it's a motoG7 Power) in which case i'm not sure how to check and switch back to 'ordinary' text messages!

Neil_Jones

Yorkshire_Traveller said:

Neil_Jones said:

Yorkshire_Traveller said:

My Dad has been using his trusty Nokia 6021 for years on PAYG with EE.  He only uses it for the occasional phone call and text (we top up £10 every six months or so!).  He now needs to be able to show his Covid pass in order to go to the football.  I have given him my old Motorola G5 and have successfully downloaded his Covid pass and he'll be able to update this as required using wifi at home.  In order to receive texts when out of the house and not connected to wifi the phone needs to have Data turned on.  To prevent any additional unwanted use of data (i.e. no data to be used at all) on his PAYG SIM I have set Play Store to only update over wifi.  Is there anything else I need to do or settings I need to change?  TIA.

Texts do not use data.  You do not need mobile data to send/receive texts.  You've never needed mobile data to send/receive texts (considering they've been a feature of mobile phones since the 1980s, long before the concept of data was available).

If the messages are sent via Whatsapp or some other messaging soution, then that will require data outside of Wifi connectivity.  Same for the Covid pass.

But I'm finding that on the MotoG5 if data is switched off then texts do not come through until the phone connects to wifi.  I have just rechecked sending a message to his phone:  with data switched off and not connected to wifi no text come through, as soon as you connect to wifi then the text arrives.  Turning the wifi off and the data on texts come through as normal.  Perhaps this is something peculiar to this phone?  I'm confused!  I just want to make sure that he doesn't inadvertently run up a bill on his SIM for using data inadvertently.

If you are saying you can only receive SMS texts when data is on (or the phone is connected to Wifi) then you're doing something wrong.

Or Messages isn't your default text app.

1. Open the Settings on your phone.
2. Tap Apps & notifications.
3. Tap Advanced.

4. Tap Default apps.

5. Tap SMS app.

What does it say is your default app?

YorkshireTraveller

Neil_Jones said:

Yorkshire_Traveller said:

Neil_Jones said:

Yorkshire_Traveller said:

My Dad has been using his trusty Nokia 6021 for years on PAYG with EE.  He only uses it for the occasional phone call and text (we top up £10 every six months or so!).  He now needs to be able to show his Covid pass in order to go to the football.  I have given him my old Motorola G5 and have successfully downloaded his Covid pass and he'll be able to update this as required using wifi at home.  In order to receive texts when out of the house and not connected to wifi the phone needs to have Data turned on.  To prevent any additional unwanted use of data (i.e. no data to be used at all) on his PAYG SIM I have set Play Store to only update over wifi.  Is there anything else I need to do or settings I need to change?  TIA.

Texts do not use data.  You do not need mobile data to send/receive texts.  You've never needed mobile data to send/receive texts (considering they've been a feature of mobile phones since the 1980s, long before the concept of data was available).

If the messages are sent via Whatsapp or some other messaging soution, then that will require data outside of Wifi connectivity.  Same for the Covid pass.

But I'm finding that on the MotoG5 if data is switched off then texts do not come through until the phone connects to wifi.  I have just rechecked sending a message to his phone:  with data switched off and not connected to wifi no text come through, as soon as you connect to wifi then the text arrives.  Turning the wifi off and the data on texts come through as normal.  Perhaps this is something peculiar to this phone?  I'm confused!  I just want to make sure that he doesn't inadvertently run up a bill on his SIM for using data inadvertently.

If you are saying you can only receive SMS texts when data is on (or the phone is connected to Wifi) then you're doing something wrong.

Or Messages isn't your default text app.

1. Open the Settings on your phone.
2. Tap Apps & notifications.
3. Tap Advanced.

4. Tap Default apps.

5. Tap SMS app.

What does it say is your default app?

Default App on both phones is SMS app (Messages) - blue circle with white text symbol.

Neil_Jones

Messages has an option, Chat Features.  You may want to turn this off (three dots top right in the Messages app -> Settings -> Chat Features), or at least ensure they're either on (or off) on both phones.  If one has it enabled and the other doesn't, then (it says here) it means the one with features on can't send/receive until they have a connection.

YorkshireTraveller

Hi Neil - many thanks - problem solved!  Turned off Chat Features on both phones and can now send/receive texts on both phones with wifi off and data disabled.