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.

My phone downloaded data the whole day. Why?!

Hi guys,
So, my battery has just been dropping the whole day, no matter how little I've used my phone. Then I check my Wifi connection, only to find that my phone has downloaded about 265MB of Data today, at about 10KB/s average. I can't figure out WHAT it's been downloading though. Everything is synced, so I don't need anything to be downloaded. I had to turn the phone off and on again to get it to stop.
Any idea how I can figure out what is was doing?
(using a modded DJ Droid ROM)

had a similar, but not so extreme, issue with mine (about 50mb a day) ~ turned out leaving iGoogle active in the browser not such a good idea!

I had similar problem, i got a text from vodafone saying i had exceeded allowance for that day! it was the Engadget widget, downloads 25mb an hour!!

[Q] High Data Usage Problem (Tilt 2 on ATT)

Hey all, I did not have much luck using the search. Tried to find other people who have had this problem.
We have 4 ATT Tilt 2 phones in my department. All with the same rom, radio, settings, etc. The difference in the phones is that 2 of them were purchased about a year earlier than the other 2.
*PROBLEM* TWO of the phones (the newer purchased Tilt 2's) we are getting alerts for high data usage from ATT. Looked at the ATT data logs, sure enough they have high data usage, large amounts at odd times. like 20mb - 100+mb transfers in the late night early morning, during the day. Not good, it is all adding up quick with no suspect in sight. The 2 users with this problem, use the phone data less than I do for day to day tasks and I am way under the alert limit, its not something they are causing---some of these data periods are while the user is ASLEEP (and no, we do NOT use MS myphone sync). Its got to be a phone software or software compatibility with the newer Tilt 2 hardware or something. I tried a couple different ROMS, same problem. Right now we are all on Energy.RHODIUM.21684.Sense2.5.Cookie.sencity.Nov.08
Radio: 4.49.25.77 (best signal in our area) Michigan
Please help. Thanks to anybody who can provide some guidance.

MOD feel free to close this thread since nobody seems to be able to help, I will try the ROM Devel thread instead.

what are your settings for weather , mail and Google locations services ?
I set all my mail to check once a day, and manually update it as needed, same for weather...also have you turn off any other automatic services ...

F2504x4 said:
what are your settings for weather , mail and Google locations services ?
I set all my mail to check once a day, and manually update it as needed, same for weather...also have you turn off any other automatic services ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Keep in mind its the same for all 4 phones: weather updates every hr, mail every 5 mins (all text,no pictures), location serv on.

whiffer2 said:
Keep in mind its the same for all 4 phones: weather updates every hr, mail every 5 mins (all text,no pictures), location serv on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay first off i am sure you can monitor your data service, so pick a start time and turn your mail/weather setting to once a day, turn off location service , watch it for 24 hr's then only change the location setting back on for the next 24 hrs leaving the mail and weather the same...compare the results...if it is still using high data, then flash a stock rom...if the usage is still high then i suspect it is a hardware issue..just a guess but it kind sounds like it..

There was a PPC "virus" that was passed around not long ago where the program that was installed contained an executable that would dial long-distance numbers late at night. Try comparing the list of installed programs on the affected devices to the stable devices. Most likely, this sounds like a user generated issue. Feel free to post the list of installed applications here. I will try them out if/when I can find them.

I haven't used it before but have seen it recommended several times on this site...SPB Wireless Monitor (http://www.spb.com/pocketpc-software/wirelessmonitor/) should be able to tell you what's using the data on your phones.

I wonder if this has anything to do with it (SEEING THAT BOTH OF OUR USERS WITH THE PROBLEM WERE LINKED TO YAHOO MAIL ACCOUNTS! And not the rest of us)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20030159-75.html?tag=cnetRiver
And yes i realize this ref's phone 7 OS, but still...fishy

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

web network login lost quickly. - is it an LG thing

I haven't. Had this problem on android and not since iPhone 3g years ago in college. Here is an example - you go to, school, hospital, wherever and log in through their website. Click accept to the rules and bang u r riding waves. But 10 minutes later after not being on your phone, class is done, etc you open your browser and... U want to throw the phone - now its time to hit retry, which never works, so u have to open another page to something different than Google until the website login page comes up and you can sign in by hitting accept again. I Sat next to my wife and we tried the same pages, ate lunch, opened up and her note 2 would surf no issues, my LG g3 lost connection and had to,back to the accept/login screen. So is it a setting, LG thing, or android 4.4 thing, please save my sanity and data plan.
Stew
Sent from my phone

stewbuntu said:
I haven't. Had this problem on android and not since iPhone 3g years ago in college. Here is an example - you go to, school, hospital, wherever and log in through their website. Click accept to the rules and bang u r riding waves. But 10 minutes later after not being on your phone, class is done, etc you open your browser and... U want to throw the phone - now its time to hit retry, which never works, so u have to open another page to something different than Google until the website login page comes up and you can sign in by hitting accept again. I Sat next to my wife and we tried the same pages, ate lunch, opened up and her note 2 would surf no issues, my LG g3 lost connection and had to,back to the accept/login screen. So is it a setting, LG thing, or android 4.4 thing, please save my sanity and data plan.
Stew
Sent from my phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
probably an network thing after 10 min of inactivity it breaks the connection, you wife's note was probably syncing something in the background, so the inactivity wasn't quite as long it is that or you have ennablede the option to shut down wifi when screen is off(settings/wifi/settings/keep on durring sleep/always

I knew someone would try and say that even after it happening at multiple places and having a good test proving it. If your answer is the case, then what is her phone doing that keeps he continual, connection? Bc I can't stand this and need to,make it happen on my phone. My shoutcast is doing it too. I open Pandora to fast forward and it says connection lost and Pandora starts playing a different song than what is still playing on the shoutcast. It is not a shoutcast or network issue if I loose network connection everytime on different networks and never had the issue before with other tablets and phones except a ijunk phone5 years ago. Shoutcast streams a link sent to it, My phone should not drop the connection regardless. I don't loose WiFi connection to my house and it logs in no problem. Its the way my phone is handling the network connection. Ok maybe u r correct, in that other phones sends a continual ping, but how to fix my phone. Oh now that I think,about it, I lost connection 3 Times last night at work if my screen was off for more than a minute or so with the Amazon chat customer service for a return. I had to put my screen on no-time-out to finish the chat. This network feature to hold a connection at school years ago was one of my favorite things after coming from,iPhone. No need to mess with connecting every time if u stayed in the building.

Please pardon my thumbs, oh and the WiFi on when screen off was oem set to "on"

Solved - So Verizon tier 2 support said it was an anti virus app closing the connections. I didn't have anything which reminded me to get something good for avg i suppose. Anyway he said likely myVerizon security which I didn't set up. Anyway I downgraded and used the flash tool method to go to 10b, rootee, then used titanium and uninstalled everything on the safe bloatware to remove list. All is work now, I did have 30 minutes last night where I kept looking and instantly regaining home WiFi while watching videos on a website, no YouTube app. Networks that require web login looking connection is solved. Also, pandora issue is solved