Why is the Samsung 8+ using up MY data?

[awake_in_Seattle]

I went from an iPhone (mistake) to an Android Samsung 8+...  My iphone and I used 0.2-0.5 GB of data monthly.  I am 15 days into my new Samsung Android 8+++++++ and have already used up 1.1 GB of DATA!!!  MY habits have NOT changed, but obviously my Android is taking over MY usage!!!! Verizon offers no instruction on how to use their products.  I have to resort to asking strangers and YouTube.... So how do I stop my ANDROID from stealing my data??

[tikibar1 · Accepted solution]

Ensure that the Google Play Store is set to either not auto-update apps or to do so over wi-fi.  Open the Play Store app, tap the Menu (three bars in the upper left-hand corner), tap Settngs, tap Auto Update Apps, change to either not auto update or to do so only over wi-fi.

If you're backing up your photos to Google Photos, ensure that it's set to do so only over wi-fi.  Open the Photos app, tap the Menu (three bars in the upper left-hand corner), tap Settings, tap Back up & Sync, ensure cellular data backup is turned Off.

Other tips/suggestions regarding data usage can be found here:

How to Monitor (and Reduce) Your Data Usage on Android

Should you need them:

Samsung Galaxy S8+ | Verizon Wireless

https://ss7.vzw.com/is/content/VerizonWireless/Devices/Samsung/UserGuides/samsung-galaxy-s8-ug.pdf

[rcschnoor]

tikibar1​ has provided some great suggestions.

Some other thought would be if you have been using an iPhone for some time now, you may have had some apps on there which you had previously set them so that they would not use data in the background. Setting up an android phone up from scratch, you likely downloaded all of the apps you had routinely used on your iPhone. The default settings for these apps likely DID NOT prevent the app from using a significant amount of data in the background or even while you are using them. What you had come to take for granted from these apps would not necessarily be the "default" way the app behaves but how you had, over time, chosen settings for the app to behave how you would like it to behave. Moving from one platform to another, those settings would not transfer as they would when moving from phone to phone while staying with the same platform.

I'm not saying you have the following app(s) but am simply using these as an example. Other apps you MAY have could have similar settings. That being said, Facebook has settings which can have videos autodownload and autoplay when you are using the app. This can use up considerable amounts of data. There are settings in Facebook which would prevent either of those things happening, preventing your phone from using considerable amounts of data. This is not because of android, it is because of Facebook.