I have a strange situation with my wife’s iPhone SE. She’s going through our data plan at a much faster clip than before and something doesn’t seem right. Our data plan (20GB) reset two days ago and she’s already burned over 1 GB, which doesn’t sound right as she’s a stay at home mom and using our home WiFi the majority of the time.

She is telling me that she swears that the LTE symbol is showing whenever she picks up her phone in the house and then seems to switch back over to Wi-Fi, but not always. Do you think there is an issue with her Wi-Fi antenna or something? I’ve already done a hard reset, a full network reset, a reset of our router, removed and re-added her phone to the Wi-Fi network of the house, and nothing seems to be helping.

It almost seems like there’s an app or something that is using data when it should be using Wi-Fi?

Any ideas? Is this something the Apple Store could diagnose?

First three things I'd check. All under the Settings tools.

Go to Privacy and Location Services and see what apps, if any, are using location always instead of just when using apps. Turn as many off as you can, and for those that are on during app use close those apps.

Also look under Battery and see what apps are using power the most, those might be the ones sucking data as well.

Open Cellular, wait for Cellular Data details to load at bottom of page and see what's using the most. Actually, I'd start here, but the others are a good idea too.

A big one is background app refresh. Go to Settings, General, Background App Refresh, and turn off all the applications that you don't want drawing data when not in use.

Anything that's being refreshed in the background is still using data to update, even when not being actively used. If you have your maps function or the weather channel or some other application being refreshed in the background, it's constantly or periodically checking to get information to keep it up to date, and this adds up.

Do all apps require location service?

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Originally posted by Georgeair:

Open Cellular, wait for Cellular Data details to load at bottom of page and see what's using the most. Actually, I'd start here, but the others are a good idea too.

^ the biggest issue when I got my iPhone X.
Several apps took it among themselves to run and update 24/7.
I think I turned off cellular data of at least 30 apps I didn't or rarely use.

I'd also go thru the phone and delete all apps she doesn't use.

Also look into Wi-Fi Assist.
I goes to cellular if the wifi gets weak.
It is turned on by default and can greatly increase your cellular use even when at home.

Turn Wi-Fi Assist on or off
Wi-Fi Assist is on by default.
If you don't want your iOS device to stay connected to the Internet when you have a poor Wi-Fi connection, you can disable Wi-Fi Assist.
Go to Settings > Cellular or Settings > Mobile Data.
Then scroll down and tap the slider for Wi-Fi Assist.

quote:

Originally posted by PD:
Do all apps require location service?

Very few apps require it - many want it for advertising purposes...

I had the same problem with my Wife and her phone as well (Apple iPhone, but not SE). I had her turn off cellular for just about everything on the phone and still ran into data issue. Finally got frustrated enough and switched us over to Unlimited Plans so no more worrying about data.

Definitely check all the background app refresh stuff. Also check your plan. My exwife was going over her 6gb monthly limit every few months and found out it was only $4/extra a month to up her plan to unlimited.

I've been on unlimited for years and have my kids on it (they average about 150gb/month). I'm about to cancel my home internet.

quote:

Also check your plan.

Also good advice. Because of the legacy plan we were on our costs actually went down when we moved three phones and two iPads over to an unlimited a while ago.

quote:

Originally posted by sns3guppy:
A big one is background app refresh.

This in spades. Just turn it off. Location services is another. Go into Privacy/Location Services and allow/disallow each app the right to use Location services. You can set each app to Never, Always, or only while using the app. And don't forget to check "System Services" listed there as well. I find that allowing "Compass Calibration" set to "Always" uses Location services quite regularly in the background. Just use it when you run the app. I have only a very few apps allowed to use Location at all. If you find that little arrow-thingy icon indicating Location is in use at the top of your phone's menu line, go find out what is using it and decide whether or not you might be able to restrict it.