Can someone explain data charges to me?

[ac3dc11]

Upgraded to a smartphone Samsung Nexus. First Data plan and all. So, what is costing me alot of data when I am at work,home asleep,connected to wifi at home(Xfinity). I am barely on the thing and in three weeks 75% of 1GB is already used. I am not a gamer either. So, any explanation of exactly what data charges are for and help would be greatly appreciated. I am thinking about going back to my old phone and my old plan not this new stuff and share everything plan. Thank you

[Ann154]

Do you keep the cellular data on while you are connected to a wifi network?  Unless you change the settings for the wifi sleep policy, it will go to sleep after 15 minutes whe the phone is in standby.  If your cellular data connection is still on, it will become active and the background data and email sync will occur over the data network.

[ac3dc11]

Thank you responding. I don't mean to sound so stupid but I have no knowledge of this tech. Where do I find what you suggest on the phone? Do you know? I looked couldn't seem to find it. This Nexus phone is getting alot of bad talk on a variety of levels. Do you think while I can I should exchange it for something else? It also seems that somehow part of the data issue is, it lost it's wifi whatever even though we were at home the whole time so alot of data was used/charged instead of the very small data using wifi. Any ideas in that? Sorry. I just need help learning and saving money. Went to one of my local Verizon stores last night and the mgr. there was just awful. He treated me like a child and no respect. First time in all the yrs. I have been with Verizon for such disrespect. I will be going to a different store on Wed. but, would like to learn all I can from outsiders so I can make a more qualified decision and discussion. Again, Thank you.

[Ann154]

Mobile network:

Settings > Wireless & Networks section > more... > mobile networks > data enabled > change to unchecked to turn off the mobile cellular data connection

Wifi sleep policy:

settings > wireless & networks section > touch Wi-Fi > overflow button (three dots) > advanced > keep wifi on during sleep > change to always to keep the wifi radio from sleeping.

Personally I use "only when plugged in" and turn off the mobile network when I intend to stay connected to a wifi network.

[#5]

ac3dc11 wrote:

Upgraded to a smartphone Samsung Nexus. First Data plan and all. So, what is costing me alot of data when I am at work,home asleep,connected to wifi at home(Xfinity). I am barely on the thing and in three weeks 75% of 1GB is already used. I am not a gamer either. So, any explanation of exactly what data charges are for and help would be greatly appreciated. I am thinking about going back to my old phone and my old plan not this new stuff and share everything plan. Thank you

75% of 1 GB is 768 MB. That is not a ton of data for 3 weeks. Also 3 weeks is about 75% of a month and you are at 75% of your data allotment. That doesn't scream "issue" to me.  768 MB is 21 days is 36 MB a day. Once again that's nothing. Also make sure you have background data off and do not have apps on auto update.

[ac3dc11]

Thank you to you both in reaching out and trying to help me.

Brian68, I realize to some that might not be much data and maybe I didn't explain my concerns very well. Trying to use the phone for web/games only at home with our wifi via xfinity. Yet the data is in the 19,000's kb (whatever that is) and lower at home using wifi. It also shows data usage when I am asleep or at work totally not using the phone. Again not techno so also need additional help on your ideas regarding background data off and your app suggestions on where and how to do that if you can please. Thank you.

Ann154, Thank you for your continued help. I have done what you have suggested so far. Anything else comes to mind just let me know. Thank you.

[#7]

ac3dc11 wrote:

Thank you to you both in reaching out and trying to help me.

Brian68, I realize to some that might not be much data and maybe I didn't explain my concerns very well. Trying to use the phone for web/games only at home with our wifi via xfinity. Yet the data is in the 19,000's kb (whatever that is) and lower at home using wifi. It also shows data usage when I am asleep or at work totally not using the phone. Again not techno so also need additional help on your ideas regarding background data off and your app suggestions on where and how to do that if you can please. Thank you.

Ann154, Thank you for your continued help. I have done what you have suggested so far. Anything else comes to mind just let me know. Thank you.

Is 19000 kb the SPEED or the amount of data used? At any rate if you data is being used when you are not using the phone it could be you have background data on and also you could have you apps on auto update. Make sure you shut off auto update on apps and also set it to where apps only update over wi-fi.

[ac3dc11]

The 19,000 is one time used data of others less. And as mentioned prior if you could tell me how to find your suggestions on my phone so I can apply your suggestions (background data and apps auto update) that would be great. Thank you again and appreciate your patience.

[tikibar1]

You should be able to turn off your background data within your Mobile Network settings.

To ensure you don't have auto-update checked on your apps, log into the Google Play Store and then check your Settings.

[AZSALUKI]

your best bet is to simply turn of wireless data (as ann mentioned). there may also be settings in each individual app, like the play store (for example) has an option to only allow app updates over wifi. other apps often times have their own setting to only upload or download data while on wifi. some also have settings for the quality of data. for example, on spotify i can select a normal sound quality of the music i stream. this streams at a much smaller data size than if i select high quality. if i'm on wifi it doesn't matter, but if i'm in the car i use this option to minimize my data use. explore each app that you use that consumes data and look for setting and options to control how and when data is uploaded or downloaded. finally, most verizon stores have workshops. then you go in on wednesday, ask them if they do workshops that you could attend to learn about all of this. if you don't have an understanding of data consumption, it can be easy to go over your limit (stream or download one hd movie over the network and bam! you just hit 1-2 gigs!!!)