Why would my iPhone 6 use cellular data when there is wifi access?

[JJL46]

Why would my iPhone 6 use cellular data when wifi is available?  I turn off cellular when home with wifi access, but I thought  the phone would do it automatically?

[vzw_customer_support]

We never want you to have to worry about data. To answer your question, the phone will use cellular data if your wifi has timed out or if the wifi has a weak signal. What you can do to avoid the use of cellular data is to turn it off. Go to settings and cellular and turn off data.

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[Ptmc518]

It doesn't do it automatically.  You have to turn off Cellular and turn on Wifi.

[muvotx · Accepted solution]

Its not automatic... you have to manually turn off cellular data usage, either globally for all apps or individually for each app that you do not want to consume.

Here are the measures took to throttle down my iPhones cell data consumption:

!!WARNING!! iPhone 5C Verizon... Monitor your data usage!!! - YouTube

You also need to turn off location tracking services: Settings => Privacy => Location Services => scroll down to System services => scroll down to Frequent Locations => Clear them and turn this function OFF.   The factory default is set to monitor and track your where-abouts, and yes it uses cellular data to accomplish this.  I do not know if the phones location tracking uses any wifi data at all.

[JJL46]

Ok - I have been turning off cellular after I realized it.  The upper left corner of the phone indicates it is using wifi, when it is using cellular.  The LTE indicator is not showing , so it was confusing because data usage kept going higher and higher.  Thanks JJL46

[JJL46]

I have turned off since.  The indicator top left indicates the phone is using wifi, not cellular because LTE doesn't come on even though cellular is being used. That was the confusing issue.  I wish it was automatic.  Will there be an update coming for IO8 to remedy?  Thank you.  JJL46

[Ptmc518]

It's not an issue that needs remedied it's the way iOS is built.

[muvotx]

Its doubtful there will be an auto-prioritize-wifi feature built into iOS.  Its been that way for a while.... which makes sense since a lot of users exist outside a wifi for most of their time.