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Here’s a question for the iPhone users in this forum. Check your AT&T Wireless bills for the past few months and pay special attention to the “Data Detail” section of the bill. Look at the early hours of the morning and then look closely at the time you’re pushing OUT data……and note the size of the data being pushed out. More on that in a minute…
As you may or may not know, AT&T has recently eliminated their unlimited data plan from their lineup. This can be a good thing if you want to save a few dollars and rarely use the phone for other than checking the occasional email and movie times. Heavy bandwidth users will have to use the phone’s built in statistics to keep a watchful eye to ensure they don’t go over their plan’s data limits.
My wife and I are both iPhone 3G users, running OS3x. In looking at my recent bills I have seen that my wife’s phone seems to transfer data during the middle of the night, usually between 1am and 3am. And not just a few kilobytes of data either, we’re talking 3 to 5 megabytes. Our phones are set up identically for email using Google Sync (fetch, not push).
The only difference in our apps is that she has a Facebook app and I don’t. Before anyone jumps on the “it’s the app” explanation, please keep in mind that iPhone OS 3 doesn’t support multitasking; therefore an app couldn’t run in the background. The upcoming Apple iOS 4 will allow multitasking, but only on iPhone 3GS and 4, not the “older” 3 and 3G.
Our phones are not “jail broken” and are set up for WiFi here in the house. And the WiFi will only run when the units are unlocked. Persistent WiFi will be available in the upcoming iPhone iOS 4.
My own phone shows similar nightly data bursts; however they are significantly smaller data amounts (30 kilobytes compared with my wife’s 4 megabytes). I know a smart phone will automatically check in with the mail server periodically resulting in data output.
So what we have here is unexplained data usage at various hours of the night when no one is using the unit, data is outgoing and, in the case of my wife’s phone, in the 3 to 5 megabyte range whereas mine is 30 kilobytes on average but still “phoning home” as it were…… at the wee hours of the morning.
AT&T reps are clueless as to what this is and with AT&T eliminating their unlimited data plan, I have concerns over such large amounts of unknown data being sent who knows where that is counted against your monthly data limits. I understand if an application is transmitting an error log, but 3 megabytes worth? This is not a simple upload of statistics or error logs for developer analysis.
Before posting this I searched Google and found articles where others are experiencing the same thing. Check your bills folks, if you're on the new data plans, this "phantom data" could put you over the limits...
Last edited by Bo; 06-10-2010 at 11:51 AM..
Reason: Moved from San Antonio forum.
That's extremely odd. I figured that when it was locked, both 3G and Wifi were not persistent.
It does sound like some sort of mail (or other) syncing... Is there some reason why your wife's mailbox would be larger than yours? Photos attached to drafts, etc?
I wonder if you could do something like create a Wifi hotspot with your Mac (assuming you have a Mac), then connect the iPhone via Wifi to it while running something to monitor network traffic on the Mac... I guess that wouldn't work though if Wifi gets disabled upon lock...
As far as I know there is no network activity monitor app for the iPhone. There should be!
Some apps, like the eBay app, the Facebook app and certain games, can receive pushed data in the background. Could your wife's phone be receiving data from more app pushes than yours?
Some apps, like the eBay app, the Facebook app and certain games, can receive pushed data in the background. Could your wife's phone be receiving data from more app pushes than yours?
It is possible, but I do believe once you exit an app it doesn't run in the background. I may have to find a way to get the WiFi to be persistent and then use Wireshark to look at the packets going out (assumes the behavior will be the same under WiFi as opposed to when its on 3G.
Oh, and sorry I didn't post it here originally under cellphones. Shame on me!
That's extremely odd. I figured that when it was locked, both 3G and Wifi were not persistent.
It does sound like some sort of mail (or other) syncing... Is there some reason why your wife's mailbox would be larger than yours? Photos attached to drafts, etc?
I wonder if you could do something like create a Wifi hotspot with your Mac (assuming you have a Mac), then connect the iPhone via Wifi to it while running something to monitor network traffic on the Mac... I guess that wouldn't work though if Wifi gets disabled upon lock...
As far as I know there is no network activity monitor app for the iPhone. There should be!
I agree, there should be! If I can connect into it via Terminal (as on my Mac), then perhaps I can dig further.
OK folks. I have apparently found an origin of the mysterious late night outgoing data transmissions on the iPhone.
A company called Pinch Media makes software that app developers can place in their apps. Among other data it collects such information as:
- iPhone's unique ID
- iPhone Model
- OS Version
- Application version (in this case, camera zoom 1.x)
- If the application is cracked/pirated
- If your iPhone is jailbroken
- time & date you start the application
- time & date you close the application
- your current latitude & longitude
- your gender (if facebook enabled)
- your birth month (if facebook enabled)
- your birth year (if facebook enabled)
All of this information is stored locally on the iPhone in a SQLlite database and uploaded to the developer.
Among the many iPhone apps that have this Pinch Media data harvesting enabled are Facebook and Top Gun. I don't have the Facebook app but do have the Top Gun app (ok, ok, let the "talk to me Goose" jokes begin ).
What I would appreciate, and I suspect many other users would also, is an opt-out feature to prevent the uploading of such data, some of it personal and all of which counts towards your monthly data totals. But these apps don't even disclose this is happening, let alone ask your permission to upload data!
Seriously, if when buying an app I knew it would chew up a good 75 megabytes a month in just "phoning home", I certainly wouldn't download it, let alone pay for it (as I did with the Top Gun app).
For a list of apps that are Pinch Media enabled go to this site.
I have an iphone, and had noticed the sent data from the early morning hours (I never have push data enabled, and have no apps that "call home.") I actually called AT&T when I started noticing it, to ask about it. Of course, I got no sensible explanations, but because I have unlimited data, didn't choose to continue wasting my time arguing with AT&T customer service.
Edit to add: Now that I saw this thread and started searching, I also found this apple discussion thread about the issue.
Last edited by suzco; 06-11-2010 at 04:02 PM..
Reason: add links
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