Erroneous hotspot data charges on iPhone 5
Bob423
Newbie

My iPhone 5 has repeatedly recorded data usage that I have not used over the past month. I have a 6 Gb plan that I've used for the past two years with sporadic, occasional problems in "sudden data jumps" in recorded usages that I've lived with. However, the problem has gotten much worse of late.

For example:

9/19/14 at 8:04 am,    1550.9 Mb

9/21/14 at 3:00 pm,      930    Mb

9/24/14 at 8:00 am,      260   Mb  (the iPad showed usage of 30 Mb)

Background:

I own an iPhone 5 and an iPad 4. I use the hotspot on the iPhone to access the internet via the iPad 4. Both are at iOS 7.1.2. The overages are given as from the hotspot (using the iPhone's usage page in General) the apps on the iPhone using cellular data are fine.

Both the iPhone 5 and iPad 4 have the following settings

1 - Background app refresh is turned off

2 - Auto update is turned off

3 - The iPhone 5 hotspot is password protected

To further diagnose the source of the spurious data reporting I've taken the following steps:

1 - I've installed DataUsagePro from the Apple iTunes Store on both the iPhone and iPad. It measures data usage realtime and keeps a daily tally for both cellular and WiFi data. I have found it to be very accurate, having tested it against the labeled sizes of downloads when updating apps manually.

2 - I've installed Subnetinsight on both the iPhone and iPad. It will show a list of all current users on the iPhone hotspot and also any past users.

3 - No movies or videos are ever watched on the iPad which is the only hotspot user.

Data analysis:

1 - When the hotspot shows anomalous data usage (see the three cases at the top of the note), DataUsagePro shows the same totals on the iPhone but the same app on the iPad does not show the usage by the iPad (plus the fact that there's nothing I can do to pile up 1559 Mb anyway in such a short time, remember, no movies or videos and no updating of apps at that time).

2 - Subnetinsight shows no other users on the hotspot, just the iPad.

So what are we to make of this? It seems that the hotspot on the iPhone is recording anomalous data usage that is not being used by any device in the hotspot network. There appears to be a real stream of data since DataUsagePro on the iPhone detects the data stream through the hotspot but it is not being used by the iPad nor is it being used by a third party since there are no other users on the WiFi net per Subnetinsight. Furthermore, I'm on a boat in a remote anchorage, there's no one around. My wife and I travel on our boat a lot, thus the need for an internet connection.

What the anomalous data usage problem is not:

1 - It is not usage by the only device on the hotspot network, the iPad 4

2 - It is not usage by someone breaking into the hotspot system, otherwise Subnetinsight would have listed the user. Furthermore, we are often in remote anchorages, a different one every night.

So I request to be taken seriously and be assigned to a technical person capable of getting to the root cause of the spurious data usage. Looking around the message boards I can see that I'm not the only one with this problem. I await your response.

Labels (1)
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Re: Erroneous hotspot data charges on iPhone 5
Bob423
Newbie

The erroneous data charges continue to pile up:

9/26/2014   1:53 pm   35.96 Mb, the start point, a valid charge

9/26/2014   7:53 pm   724.2 Mb,

9/27/2014   1:53 pm   526.43 Mb, so I used 526 Mb while asleep. The iPad was on briefly and showed 35 Mb while looking at weather reports

9/27/2014   7:53 am   415.9 Mb, again usage while I was asleep. I did check the weather briefly at 7:00 am, the ipad showed  only 30 Mb of hotspot data usage 

So in 24 hrs I was charged for 1666.5 Mb of data usage I did not use. My Verizon service is becoming unusable. For the next four days I will be exclusively on WiFi (not on the iPhone's hotspot). I'll monitor my WiFi usage that way too. After all, the iPad shouldn't be able to tell the difference between WiFi and hotspot. Just to be clear, over 90% of the reported usage above was hotspot usage according to the iPhone's data tracking.

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Re: Erroneous hotspot data charges on iPhone 5
Bob423
Newbie

The 9/27/2014 charge should read ar 1:53 am, not pm.

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Re: Erroneous hotspot data charges on iPhone 5
Weth
Legend

Could it be iCloud backup?    I would also unclick each program can use cellular data and start adding a few back in at a time. Do you have a lot of pix or video on either device, with pictures going to photo stream?

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Re: Erroneous hotspot data charges on iPhone 5
Bob423
Newbie

Hi Weth,

The data is recorded by the iPhone5 as usage by the hotspot so the iPhone is out of the loop for iCloud backup. However, I will double check the iPad. If it used WiFi from the hotspot to do an iCloud backup, that would use a lot of data. I do have iCloud enabled on the iPad but only for Contacts, Calendar, Numbers and Pages and FindmyiPad. Not much data there unless something is repeatedly trying to access the iCloud and hanging up.Is that a possibility?

Thanks for the suggestion.

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Re: Erroneous hotspot data charges on iPhone 5
Bob423
Newbie

I just rechecked, iCloud backup is off on the iPad.

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Re: Erroneous hotspot data charges on iPhone 5
Weth
Legend

What about phone? What about photostream?

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Re: Erroneous hotspot data charges on iPhone 5
Weth
Legend

i Still wouldn't rule out phone entirely even with the hotspot indication, since your not seeing it on iPad. 

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Re: Erroneous hotspot data charges on iPhone 5
mama23dogs
Legend

Doesn't turning on hot spot also turn wifi off?   So until you turn hot spot off and wifi goes back on your phone is also using mobile data.

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