Develop Bugs

TP2 ate up 400MB of data in a Month w/o actual use!!

Hey everyone,
Last month I gave a TP2 as a gift to a relative of mine, who is not the most tech savvy. Now, after having been in use for a month, my relative complained about an unsually high phone bill. So I checked it out, and it turns out that the phone used just short of 400 MB in a single month!!! The itemised bill showed that the phone sent or received several megabytes (usually around 4 MB) during times, when the noone was using it (like the middle of the night, 5 in the morning and so on).
The following services were enabled on the phone, that potentially use data:
- Automatic downloading of weather data
- Push notifications for Windows Live Hotmail (
- Windows Update
- Windows Customer Feedback Program
I've now disabled all of the above. Nevertheless, I have to say that blocks of 4 MB without actual use seem pretty excessive. I get push emails on my phone with Google Mail and I never have any more than a couple hundred kilobytes a month. And things like the Customer Feedback Program shouldn't use any data at all (if i recall the dialog explaining the service correctly).
Does anyone have any idea what could be the cause of all this? I actually feel bad for giving someone a phone that causes an astronomical phone bill without having been used excessively. Do you think my relative has some chance of getting at least part of the bill refunded?
Thanks for your input.

Easy.
Just delete the t-mobile setting under connection.
Or change the server to epc.1tmobile.com
Done!

Thank for the input, but I'm sorry to say that that does not actually apply in this case. It is a generic HTC Touch Pro 2, bought in Germany, running on the E-Plus network. Deleting the internet settings all together is not an option, since the phone is supposed to be able to go online (eg. to check stock quotes).
What I'm really wondering is:
- What, out of the services I mentioned, would use up such rediculous amounts of data for no aparent reason?
- How much data do other users see, who do not go online with their phone all day long?
PS: I forgot to mention that Google Latitude was also engabled at some point in time, but was then disabled on account of the fact that it does not update the location when the phone is in standby, and is thus, utterly useless.

Is there some kind of data service on that line? Is this a prepaid line or a post paid(monthy bill). The bill for this overage shows what? Does it show a charge per mb?

A program like SPB wireless monitor can report usage split between which applications are using the data. I don't know whether the trial version would be good enough to get to the bottom of this, but even paying for the full version would be worthwhile if it saves the big bills.
I agree that this is a very large amount of data for the phone to be using by itself!

Did you use Google Maps?
Edit: If not, I would definitely install spb wireless monitor.

xanthene said:
- How much data do other users see, who do not go online with their phone all day long?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I go online with Exchange push, Gmail every 4 hours, Hotmail push, weather, web browsing, facebook, upload pictures, etc
and my monthly useage are around 100-150MB on average.
User who are not go online with their phone all day would be much less than my usage.

Check if she has websites set to push during those times.

Hey everyone,
The phone is on a prepaid plan, but it shows you very exactly how much data was used when.
By now I am fairly confident that the problem lies with Windows Live and Hotmail push notifications. I have in the meantime reactivated the Windows feedback thing (after all, we all benefit from the information I submit to MS ) and have not noticed any additional data charges. I have disabled automatic updating of weather data, but syncronized once manually and was shocked to find that it used a whopping 1.2MB!!! Absoulutely rediculous.
I have not reenabled Windows Update, but since there are no updates available anyway, I fail to see how that might cause as much data as was used.
Which only leaves Windows Live as the culprit. What I fail to see is how it managed to use up so much data when downloading E-mails. Even newsletters, which arrived on the phone too, rarely have more than a hundred or so KB.. and that includes pictures, which the phone does not download automatically.
Well, I'll install the SPB Monitor and let you know what my findings are.
xanthene
PS: There are no push pages set up

I 100% agree with you about the SPB Wireless monitor.
The new version of SPB wireless monitor is great. It will break down which programs are using what data amounts, which connections are being used and will even give a chart showing these things. You can view daily, weekly and monthly. It monitors USB, MMS, GPRS, and even WiFi but all you want is the gprs.
A weather program that uses 1.2 megs is rediculous. I use Weatherpanel (free) it updates once an hour including radar images for 3 cities and it uses about 400k per day!
It is a necessity on my Kaiser and if and when they bring the HTC to North America it will go on that as well.

Do you have facebook sync set up up? When I had it set to auto sync on the 2.1 beta I use on my Touch Pro it was blowing through data and battery.

She may have used less than the bill shows...some carriers round up on up on the data use/cost.

Thanks again for all your input, the matter is basically settled now. I've disabled data connections on the phone, preventing it from accumulating such rediculous charges without reason. Now the data connections just have to be manually turned on before going online - which isn't really an issue considering how little the phone is being used to surf around the net.
SPB Wireless Monitor obviously shows next to no data, on account of the fact that data has been turned off. I used it to read two news pages once and SPB reported 2.5MB. Again, pretty rediculously high amounts for some news. Looks like Opera isnt the most efficient browser. I should benchmark it against Skyfire and Opera 9.7b with Turbo when I have some time.
Regarding the units that get charged: data gets counted in increments of 10 kilobytes, which is more than fair on a prepaid plan.
Facebook sync is turned off.
I guess the matter is settled. Weather uses way more data than it should, and the only other service that I haven't tested yet is Hotmail Push. The cold, hard process of elimination clearly blames Hotmail.
Thanks for all your input.

3G Watchdog

You all have no problems with this app?
For me it shows a lot less have been downloaded than it actually was.
Example:
app shows 400MB, but on my providers page it shows 600MB has been downloaded this month!
I need a nice widget that shows correct 3G download numbers!

A number of factors can effect the readings and monitoring of your device.
When did you install can effect the reading as you might have been downloading prior to installation.
Incorrect date setting with regards to when your monthly data download starts.
Not running. If you tend to kill applications you might have killed watchdog by accident so was not running at the time you were downloading.
I think some kill applications allow for you to add other applications to an exemption list, applications you don't want to kill. You might need to check these settings.
Hope this helps you solve your data miss match.

yani2000 said:
You all have no problems with this app?
For me it shows a lot less have been downloaded than it actually was.
Example:
app shows 400MB, but on my providers page it shows 600MB has been downloaded this month!
I need a nice widget that shows correct 3G download numbers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the "month" of your provider, is not usually the "month" that you have in mind.
they go by your billing cycle
so reset your data count to match the next billing cycle

I'm using Automatic Task Killer and I've also double checked that 3G Watchdog isn't starred.
The moment I installed 3G Watchdog I've also set "Last started on" to 1st July 2010.
Now, I have corrected my quota under: Menu->Set quota Counters... to reflect my providers data and will see how it will go through.
Thx for all your replies!

yani2000 said:
Now, I have corrected my quota under: Menu->Set quota Counters... to reflect my providers data and will see how it will go through.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thankyou for sharing this information. I didn't know that myself.

I'm back to inform you all that 3G Watchdog is still off target!
First it showed 20MB less now it shows 40MB less.
First I thought that it doesn't count 2G, but I double checked and saw that in fact it did took 2G data into account.
Now I'm leaning towards that my network provider is cheating or something.

Does your provider count your network traffic exactly like 3g watchdog or e.g. 100kb-parts...that would have an impact!

Does any one know how to find out if your provider counts the data in blocks?

Send them an e-mail and ask them.

Is there an alternative to 3g watchdog it is definitely not calculating my usage correctly and this could potantially be very costly for me, unfortunately an unlimited data plan in this recession hit country is like everything else way too expensive so i just pay 69 cents a day for 50MB and if i go over than (which i have done before) they charge you a fortune which is why i use 3g watchdog which incidentally used to run fine on my old HD2 but since ive got the GS2 it's been constanly wrong if i send a text to check my balance which ive just done i can see ive used 41.69MB so far today yet 3g watchdog tells me ive only used 20.69 that is over half so imagine i forgot to send a text to get my balance and just keep surfing the net,suddendly i discover all my credit is eaten up, Meteor don't care they aint in the business of warning people who go over their 50MB daily limit which is why it's imperative i have the correct usuage.
Sorry for the long post but you can see my prediament.

Try Dodol phone usage. In settings, make sure the refresh time is 1 minute (which should be the default value).

Hi!
Yes, I see 3G Watchdog had some problems:
Overview:
* KNOWN PROBLEMS:
- [June 2011] Inaccuracy reported on Samsung with Gingerbread 2.3.3. Might be solved in 3GW 0.28.2 with the new option to use the old counting interface.
What's new:
Fixed accuracy problems on some Samsung phones with Gingerbread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope the updated version helped!

Data hungry Defy

Hi
Wonder if you guy's can help. Just got a sim free defy and have noticed it seems very data hungry from the off.
Installed a data app and its saying im using 5 mb + a day.
What is it doing, to use all this data all i seem to have done is put my location in the weather app thats built in, logged on to my face book and thats about it. oh and set up my o2 email account.
Cant seem to find how to limit the size of email download in the accounts.
How can i monitor each individual program and find out which ones causing the problem.
Dave

doliver55 said:
Hi
Wonder if you guy's can help. Just got a sim free defy and have noticed it seems very data hungry from the off.
Installed a data app and its saying im using 5 mb + a day.
What is it doing, to use all this data all i seem to have done is put my location in the weather app thats built in, logged on to my face book and thats about it. oh and set up my o2 email account.
Cant seem to find how to limit the size of email download in the accounts.
How can i monitor each individual program and find out which ones causing the problem.
Dave
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you could try setting up something on 'data manager'

Whats everybody else's usage average out each day only asking cause its my works phone sim and don;t want to get stung for data usage.

Today it's 2,76MB, though I've used 1,39GB over the last month.

I have 3GB included in my contract. couldn't care less about traffic ...
but if you want absolute control install droidwall and see what connects to the internet.

doliver55 said:
Whats everybody else's usage average out each day only asking cause its my works phone sim and don;t want to get stung for data usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
An Android phone was a mistake if you're looking to avoid heavy data usage.

my average is about 30 mb on weekends (out of wifi range) and like 2 mb on weekdays as I'm on school holidays and moslty always in wifi range

[UT] X-RAY said:
I have 3GB included in my contract. couldn't care less about traffic ...
but if you want absolute control install droidwall and see what connects to the internet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cheers for the droidwall tip, seems a good way of restricting a lot of things

I also observe that Android sometimes produces traffic without an order to do so. 3gwatchdog counts the traffic and shows the origin-applications, some are just google or motoblur stuff but without any option to deactivate traffic or updates or whatever they're doing.....

mrt3k said:
I also observe that Android sometimes produces traffic without an order to do so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course, the OS is designed to be used with an always-on data connection.
If you don't have one of those, an Android phone is not a good idea.

I do have unlimited traffic, but a speed limitation after 200 MB to 64kbit/s which isnt fun anymore.
Thats the problem of the big ans usually good providers in Germany, even the highly priced agreements have that little traffic included.
Thus, I think it should be possible to deactivate useless data traffic even in Android, mh? There should be some options that deny traffic usage in general and also for single apps. (btw. I tried droidwall, but some apps tunneld the firewall and produces traffic anyway!)

mrt3k said:
Thus, I think it should be possible to deactivate useless data traffic even in Android, mh?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are ways to completely disable data usage but I'm, not sure it's possible for individual apps.
But, like I said, if heavy data usage is a concern, Android is not the right OS for you.

Ignore Step666 his talking crap, android is a good OS even if ur not connected all the time, (I dont even use 3g connection, I mostly use only wi-fi) ..not everyone hangs on facebook all day or needs those weather widgets and stuff like that... really depends on a user.
but if u have a problem with heavy data usage i can help
-first a program that will help u monitor your usage (u can also reset counters monthly) - try traffic counter extended, there are also other apps that help u limit how much data u can transfer over wifi/cell
-second i think droidwall is the app u are looking for
(its a firewall for Android. This is for users that don't have an unlimited data plan. It allows unrestricted WiFi access, however it blocks all access over the cellular network unless you add the application to the whitelist.)

Also, try disabling auto sync on the power control widget.

Peglezn said:
Ignore Step666 his talking crap...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I'm not.
The fact you're having to install third-party apps to prevent the phone from automatically connecting to the internet merely proves my point - it is designed to be used with an always-on internet connection.

there was a third party app called DROIDWALL...it allows you to block all the unwanted apps from connecting with internet.. and yes it allows only specific apps to be blocked..

yeah use droidwall, its easy - set it to "white list (allow selected)" then select the google system apps and the apps you like to have internet access, any new apps you install wont get net access unless you add it to the white list, making it easy to manage.
you can also restrict wifi and/or 3G per app.
nice for apps like notepad that somehow need internet access.

Thanks for your ideas.
I did already use Droidwal for some time, but it did not function properly.
I blocked certain apps and for some time I blocked all apps, includig system apps. And what happened? There was data usage by any program, at least the traffic counter showed traffic usage. Thus, it seems not to block really what I set to block. :-/

Thx for the tip with Droidwall! Works great
mrt3k said:
...Thus, it seems not to block really what I set to block. :-/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had to apply the rules manually... Did you try?

What do you mean by "manually"? You can manually set apps to white- and blacklist, yeah, or what u mean?

Unusual High Data Usage Reported

Hi,
I am currently using Samsung Focus Flash on AT&T network. It shows I have used 45 mbs in just over 3 days and most of them like yesterdays nights 12:48AM 21mbs are at odd times when I am at home and on wifi. I previously used Blackberry Bold 9000 and never exceeded 100mbs of usage per month. Before that I had iPhone and it too stood around 120-140mbs per month.
I mainly use it for mails and hardly any multimedia. One thing I suspect is when downloading podcasts its not considering Wifi, as other then that I can not think of any other reason as I do not use it for any video streaming like intensive activities.
I came across few threads but all from early 2011 like on engadget etc. Few suggested it has something to with Yahoo mail. I have one yahoo mail account.
To debug this for now I have turned off cellular data as will be home over the weekend. Please suggest.
Thanks

dub123 said:
Hi,
I am currently using Samsung Focus Flash on AT&T network. It shows I have used 45 mbs in just over 3 days and most of them like yesterdays nights 12:48AM 21mbs are at odd times when I am at home and on wifi. I previously used Blackberry Bold 9000 and never exceeded 100mbs of usage per month. Before that I had iPhone and it too stood around 120-140mbs per month.
I mainly use it for mails and hardly any multimedia. One thing I suspect is when downloading podcasts its not considering Wifi, as other then that I can not think of any other reason as I do not use it for any video streaming like intensive activities.
I came across few threads but all from early 2011 like on engadget etc. Few suggested it has something to with Yahoo mail. I have one yahoo mail account.
To debug this for now I have turned off cellular data as will be home over the weekend. Please suggest.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you don't have it plugged in, you aren't on WIFI. WIFI turns off when the screen goes off unless the phone is plugged in to power.

Please ignore will monitor and update if still an issue

how are you able to tell when the data is being used?
I did notice that this month, my past bill was pretty high on usage. I usually don't ever use more than ~200 mb...this bill, i hit over a gig...don't know how

I can check minutes and data used from AT&T website as well as their mobile apps.
Thanks

It might be AT$T cheating u on ur data. I have Tmo and I don't notice any leaked data usage.

Thanks, I have done complete reset of phone and started with minimal settings to narrow down to leak if possible. Does any one of you download podcast directly to phone ? As that is only thing which would have bandwidth, but when downloading I was always connected to Wifi so should not have been charged to Cellular data.

Yea there is a setting that will make it only download podcasts over WiFi.

Downloading Podcasts
dub123 said:
Thanks, I have done complete reset of phone and started with minimal settings to narrow down to leak if possible. Does any one of you download podcast directly to phone ? As that is only thing which would have bandwidth, but when downloading I was always connected to Wifi so should not have been charged to Cellular data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I download a lot of podcasts to my phone, using several different Apps including "Bringcast", "Podcasts Pro", and "Podceiver". As someone else pointed out, if your phone is not plugged into usb or wall charger and receiving a charge, as soon as your screen turns off, the download will revert to cellular data and stop using your Wifi.
Garrickus

I think i know what was my jump in data...that damn game Fragger. I remember the install was 85 MB's and it wasn't coming down correctly. I kept having to retry the download and it was telling me to get on wifi,,which I was. I bet those hiccups caused the jump for me last month

After rest usage went down but still between 12-1 in morning I see few mbs used. I have connected phone to fiddler2 to monitor the network usage, and shut down cellular data. Will update my findings if anything serious.

Mystery outgoing SSL traffic. Lots of it

Few days ago I installed the new Kernel that fixes the network counters from here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1468626 (thanks to ardatdat).
Immediately I noticed that the traffic is counting up way too quickly. I looked at my bills to see if this is new, and realized that since I got the phone, my monthly traffic was consistently at 200-400MB per month, even though I can explain maybe 30MB per month (I have access to wifi pretty much anywhere I go).
So, started digging. In the last 3 days there's been 25MB down and 50MB up. With all the testing I was doing, I can explain maybe 10 down and 5 up. So, using the TrafficCounter app, I found that a system app called "Task Manager" is responsible for the traffic (attached screencap displays traffic over 4 hours).
It doesn't slowly count up. Instead, it will stay at the same mark, then all of a sudden change by 2.2MB. Every time. So it looks like it packages something and sends it off. The most interesting thing? It only does it when on 3G. If I'm connected to WIFI, it's silent. Like it doesn't want me to see what it's doing.
So, installed Shark, and made a traffic capture. I was able to capture the outgoing SSL stream that was exactly 2.18MB. Destination IP 74.125.226.65 resolves to yyz06s07-in-f1.1e100.net. Browsing there gives google's front page......
Checked the TCP stream, right before the transfer, there's a DNS lookup for android.clients.google.com, which responds with that IP address.
Checking SSL Cert gives me *.google.com cert. Same one as for all of their sites
So it turns out every 3 or so hours there's a 2.2MB transfer from my phone to the google servers via encrypted channel.
Looking further, my wife's and my mother's androids are showing just as much data on their bills, they got Nexus S and Galaxy S. While I can see my wife using so much data, it's doubtful my mom has even figured out how to consume so much traffic.
Anyone else notice this?
What is the purpose of it? If it's legitimate, how can they justify using so much of my limited monthly bandwidth?

You've checked the "keep my phone backed up to my google account" button on setup. You can re-run the setup to uncheck that option, but until then it'll continue to send those big packages, and it prefers the 3G connection. I've taken to leaving my WIFI on and connected at all times. With a measly 200MB/month plan (AT&T can blow me for un-grandfathering my unlimited data), a 15MB backup nightly was killing me...
L4T

If it is the sync feature using all this data, you can disable the automatic sync from Settings > Accounts and Sync. It doesn't appear there's any way to tell it to only sync on Wifi, but I'm sure most of the data monitoring apps out there can stop apps from using mobile data. Onavo, for instance, claims to have this feature, but I haven't had cause to use it yet.

Lookin4Trouble said:
You've checked the "keep my phone backed up to my google account" button on setup. You can re-run the setup to uncheck that option, but until then it'll continue to send those big packages, and it prefers the 3G connection. I've taken to leaving my WIFI on and connected at all times. With a measly 200MB/month plan (AT&T can blow me for un-grandfathering my unlimited data), a 15MB backup nightly was killing me...
L4T
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that was it! Didn't expect that setting there. It's upsetting that there's no way to configure that feature - such as how often to send data, to only send incrementals, or such an advanced setting as upload only when connected to WIFI.
Problem with leaving wifi on all the time is the fact that it eats battery a lot. If my wifi is on all the time, the battery life is about 40% shorter

kvantum said:
Thanks, that was it! Didn't expect that setting there. It's upsetting that there's no way to configure that feature - such as how often to send data, to only send incrementals, or such an advanced setting as upload only when connected to WIFI.
Problem with leaving wifi on all the time is the fact that it eats battery a lot. If my wifi is on all the time, the battery life is about 40% shorter
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem, could you append [SOLVED] to your original post?
Thanks
L4T