Got a new, unlocked, Galazy S7 last month when my old phone was stolen. As soon as I activated it, I made sure wi-fi assist was off, turned on mobile data saver, connected to my normal wifi places (school, work, home, family's house), and tweaked various settings to make sure I wouldn't leak any data. My phone usage habits have remained exactly the same. However, Verizon said my data use skyrocketed, that I went over my data limits, and I got charged for two extra gigs. This month I thought to check how my phone measures data- it showed normal use and that I was WELL within my limits. I don't expect my phone and Verizon to be exactly the same, but they are off by a factor of ten. Furthermore, this entire week I have had mobile data turned off and disabled so many apps and functions that my phone is practically a brick. Verizon is STILL showing extremely high data use.
Has anyone else had this problem? Does anyone know what's going on?
iphones are nortorious for turning off wi-fi and turning on mobile data.
In the last three months our data usage has skyrocketed and we're doing nothing different and use our phones 90% of the time with our home Wi-Fi. I'm currently looking for another wireless carrier Verizon has taken advantage for a very long time by charging the most, they simply don't appreciate the business they have.
@Reva313 wrote:In the last three months our data usage has skyrocketed and we're doing nothing different and use our phones 90% of the time with our home Wi-Fi. I'm currently looking for another wireless carrier Verizon has taken advantage for a very long time by charging the most, they simply don't appreciate the business they have.
No carrier controls your data use. It's either a defective phone, or you are using the data. "Not doing anything different"? So no app has updated, no new apps, no OS updates? Impossible. Software gets updated regularly.
'Your phones independently meters your data. How much does each phone say it used? Which phone is using more than typical?
And how much are we talking about? If you have a small data plan, and barely stay under your cap every month and are now suddenly going over but the difference is only a few megabytes, that not an extreme issue. It just means that you have outgrown your data plan.
Smart phones are designed to use data, all of the new applications and new operating systems are designed to be easier for the user, but that means they use more data.
Do you have the Play Store auto update turned off or at least have updates set to update only over wi-fi? Have you changed the data usage cycle to match your VzW billing cycle?
I turned off play store auto-updates the day I got my phone. It was still running in the background for the first week until I noticed and turned it off, but my phone says it only used about 20 megs of data in that time.
My phone's data use cycle matches Verizon's date.
What does your phone tell you whats using the data? Settings > Connections >Data Usage > Mobile Data Usage.
For this billing cycle, it's things like Spotify, Instagram, and Google maps. Each one has used less than 20 megs over the last week, which feels about right. But Verizon shows my data usage at .3 gigs just in the last day.
One odd thing though- there are a number of apps listed under mobile data usage that I don't use, either cause they are android system things like "android-ss-service-lib" or cause they came preinstalled. But instead of giving a number of how much if any data they used, they just say "restricted." Is there any reason these apps show up in this list? (Again, they can't be using data, it's turned off.)
gg5, I'm glad you reached out for some support. We wouldn't want to see such a large discrepancy between what we've been tracking and what your phone is reporting. I'd be happy to take a look at this with you.
As tikibar1 shared, it would be a good idea to check your Data Usage Cycle dates on your Samsung. Android is great at tracking data use, but it is important that it matches your cycle dates with VZW. Otherwise, the phone is going to be showing data tracking outside of what we track for your account. You can view your cycle dates in My Verizon or on your bill (these are the dates services are listed with your charges).
To change your cycle dates on your phone, you'd use the instructions listed under the bold heading 'Change Data Usage Cycle,' on the following page: https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/knowledge-base-203744/
Please check your dates, and if needed adjust them. Then compare what your Samsung shows compared to our website.
JohnT_VZW
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Samsung phones DO NOT have a WIFI assist switch. What exactly have you switched off?
If your phone is set to meter by your bill cycle and Verizon is showing 10 times more: Are you looking at kbs, mbs or gbs? The difference would be 1,000x off.
Call Verizon and update your IMEI. Make sure your old phone was blacklisted.
File an FCC complaint.
I know that wifi assist is an iphone thing, but there's a similar setting for samsung, I just forget what it's called.
Old phone was canceled the day it was stolen.
Verizon shows about 1.5 gigs used, my phone shows about 157 megs, hence the 10X factor.
Same with our plan, all of the sudden using a ton of data when in the past we'd barely come close to our 10 g of data per month. I've gone into Data Usage, and turned off Mobile Data. That will keep these wonderful phones from using both the Wifi and our precious Data. Think it is garbage, and this is verizons ploy to get us all to swith to their unlimited plan, which i hear terrible. Another way for a super wealthy company to action us.......Not impressed with Verizon anymore.
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