Develop Bugs

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?

[Q] Use data only when I ask for it, not behind my back

I have all sorts of auto-sync, auto-update etc. features switched OFF. My mail, contacts, and calendar only sync when I tap on sync, I've disabled auto-updating in every app on my phone, I've unchecked "auto system update", "background data" is switched off, etcetera. To cut a long story short: every available setting that disables automatic use of data has been applied.
But when I booted my Defy and left it sitting idle for a while it still downloaded almost a megabyte of data, even though I didn't touch my phone at all.
So I made a backup with Titanium and MyBackup Root, reset my phone to factory state, went into the settings again to disable all user-configurable ways of automatic data use, and rebooted.
And then my phone auto-downloaded 0.7 MB for reasons unknown.
I don't care about a bit of data when I'm in my home network where I have an unlimited data plan, but if I would have been roaming abroad this unsollicited data could have cost me 10 euros or more. International data roaming is horribly expensive.
I could use the sledgehammer approach and disable data completely to avoid unwanted data roaming charges, but this would also disable data traffic that I'm willing to pay for (like manually checking my mail). So I need something more sophisticated than a sledgehammer.
Tools available:
1) DroidWall
2) Titanium (with the "freeze" option)
3) AdFree
Question: which apps and services should I block/freeze to ensure that my phone only uses data when I tell it to, and to make sure that it never ever downloads a single byte of data behind my back?
If DroidWall, Titanium, and AdFree are not enough, which other apps give me full control over which apps and services can use data?

Give juicedefender a try
Sent from my MB611 using XDA Premium App

ApnDroid, but kills all data by rewriting APNs. I use it all the time. You can still use wifi, text and call and, if you choose, use MMS. Otherwise...?

I'm curious as to what is taking your data. When I disable the data connections, I don't use a single byte of data. Even with data enabled but background data disabled, I don't use any data.
I know you asked for an app to kill the data...but I think it's best if you can find the culprit...sounds like either your deactivation of the data isn't working, or you have some nasty app that could be overriding the setting and still downloading data (I'm thinking the first)...
For starters, which rom are you using?

Juice Defender and ApnDroid are both sledgehammers that switch data 100% on or 100% off.
I'm looking an app that let's me control data per individual app and service, so that when I fire up my email program it can download my mail without letting other apps/services hitch a ride on the open data connection.
@darule_2011:
I don't believe something nasty is eating up my data, because my phone is hungry for data even after a factory reset without any 3rd party apps installed.
I'm using firmware version 2.1-update1, which came with the phone straight out of the box. I doubt Motorola would have pre-installed malware, unless we count Motoblur as malware.
On my old Nokia, each and every app could only go online after asking me for permission first. No permission, then no data. Not even a single byte. And it was up to me to choose between "ask me once" or "ask me every time."
Is there an app that forces Android to do the same?

rogier666 said:
Juice Defender and ApnDroid are both sledgehammers that switch data 100% on or 100% off.
I'm looking an app that let's me control data per individual app and service, so that when I fire up my email program it can download my mail without letting other apps/services hitch a ride on the open data connection.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Understood. Can't see how that can work. If your data is on, everything that wants it is going to jump on it.

darule_2011 said:
sounds like either your deactivation of the data isn't working, or you have some nasty app that could be overriding the setting and still downloading data (I'm thinking the first)...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there an app that logs which app connects when and to what? The data meter in Android's built-in data manager is completely useless, and DroidStats counts the amount of data used but doesn't tell which app was using it.

Droidwall has a log function for blocked apps.
Sent from my MB525

I told DroidWall to block internet access for "MotoBlur Services" (I don't even have a MotoBlur account), and now the amount of unsollicited traffic is down to about 40 kb in the 30 minutes since rebooting my phone.
So it looks like I found the stowaway. Motorola tries to keep my phone hungry for data even though I never signed up for MotoBlur.
DroidWall's log told me it blocked some unsollicited packets from GO Launcher EX, so at least my firewall is doing its job. (Why would a launcher need to go online if you don't enable anything internet-related in its settings?)
Unfortunately DroidWall only logs what it blocks. It doesn't log traffic that it allows, so I can only guess about those 40 kb. Maybe even an unused data connection needs to talk a bit to stay alive?

You may also use AutoStarts to disable applications running automatically on background when specific events happen.

DroidStats has the possibility to watch for which app consumes data. Not only total amount. It is integrated in the donation-addon

There's an app to tell which programs and services been using data and how much, and it's on your phone already. It's way more informative than the disfunctional data meter in the data manager menu.
Dial *#*#4636#*#* (the 4636 part spells "info" on the dialpad) to launch an app called "Testing." Then hit "battery history->network usage->total since boot." It doesn't count the bytes of data that are pingponged back and forth to keep an idle connection alive, but it monitors everything else.
You can make a shortcut to "Testing" with Any Cut.
First offender: MotoBlur. Even without a MotoBlur account and every possible autosync option disabled the MotoBlur Service eats data. I blocked it with DroidWall so now it doesn't phone home anymore.
Second offender: GO Launcher EX. I also blocked it with DroidWall, because a launcher doesn't have to talk to the world outside my phone.
Third offender: An all-in-one package that's shared by GMail Storage, Google Apps, Google Search, Google Settings Provider, Google Talk Service, Google Talk Storage, and com.google.android.syncadapters.contacts. Doesn't matter if you tell your settings menus not to call Google behind your back, 'cos Big Brother doesn't listen unless you ram the message home.
Fourth offender: WinAmp. Play an mp3 from your local SD card and WinAmp still tries to go online to do things, even with scrobbling etc disabled. It probably sends out usage statistics without asking for permission first.
Fifth offender: NQmobile Anti-virus. Even if you disable all automatic connections in the settings the program phones home anyway. Most of the traffic is outgoing, so apparently it's collecting hundreds of kilobytes worth of usage statistics, even if you're not installing new apps or doing manual scans. A day of launching offline apps can easily make NQ burn a full megabyte of data where it shouldn't have been using any.
Sixth, seventh, etc. offenders: apps that go online for the sole purpose of downloading ads. All DroidWalled, of course. I'm not gonna pay international data charges to see the junk from AdMob.
I've firewalled MotoBlur, GO Launcher EX and the Google package away from the web and everything on my phone still works. Even Google Search can live without the all-in-one service, because it sends the search queries to the web browser. I guess it only needs to go online for web suggestions, which I don't use anyway. The Google Talk app is dead, but I never use it because fring and Nimbuzz are much better and they only go online after I tell them to do so. But just leave it to Google to make GoogleTalk dependent on a piece of code that phones home even when you're not using GoogleTalk.
But DroidWall is not a convenient way to tame NQmobile (NetQin), because then I'd have to manually unblock it everytime I want to update the virus database. Is there another antivirus app that only goes online when I tell it to instead of calling home on its own?

ABC_Universal said:
You may also use AutoStarts to disable applications running automatically on background when specific events happen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They'll probably just restart and in the end you will slow down your phone and drain your battery as you go through the kill-restart cycle.

scrannel said:
They'll probably just restart and in the end you will slow down your phone and drain your battery as you go through the kill-restart cycle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Freezing 'em with Titanium makes more sense.
But those are all workarounds, not solutions. As Android matures we should get an option to control the data behaviour of each and every app in full detail. If other operating systems can do it, why shouldn't Android be able to do the same?
If you think about it, it's totally ridiculous that you need to root your phone and jump through hoops to make sure that your phone bill doesn't explode when you set foot across the border. Didn't the inventors of Android ever hear of international data roaming rates?

Thanks for the useful info. I use Go Launcher too. I wondered how they moneterised their apps - probably collecting/selling usage stats.
Is roaming data being used even without the option checked?

When the G1 came out those of us who travel soon found out that certain apps would over-ride the option to prevent data roaming, thus programs like apndroid.

rogier666 said:
If other operating systems can do it, why shouldn't Android be able to do the same?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because that's not how it's designed to operate.
Pu simply, you've picked the wrong OS for your needs.
That's hardly Google's fault.

rogier666 said:
Is there another antivirus app that only goes online when I tell it to instead of calling home on its own?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try Lookout - that's what I use and it only updates when you allow it too (at least mine does).
What do you think about flashing a blurless rom? There is a barebones rom in the dev section (haven't tried that one yet), this will allow you to add back in apps that only you want...this might do the trick. I'm using Pays rom and loving it.

Thanx darule_. Lookout indeed doesn't phone home behind my back, even with automatic scanning enabled and a couple of new apps scanned.
Over two hours since last boot and not a single app has squeezed a byte through my open data connection without my permission. Looks like I've got Android tamed and fit to travel.

All I can say is, all the contemporary smartphone OS use background data stupendously.
Shut down data roaming if you don't want a hefty bill.

[Q] Data Uage meter inconsistencies

I've got a fairly limited data plan, so I try to keep an eye on data usage.
The built-in 'Data Usage' meter is very useful, but it also show some inconsistencies. For example (see the attached image) yesterday it claimed that I used about 10Mb of data, but also no apps used data during this period.
The total data appears roughly consistent with what my operator says (Sunrise, Switzerland), but I'd like to know what application was responsible, so that I could disable it.
I'd love to run Wireshark, or something similar to see what's going on here, but I guess that's impossible on a non-rooted device.
Is this a known problem? Is there anything I can do to limit this behaviour?
Device details: Stock Galaxy Nexus, running 4.0.1.

I tried switching 'Mobile Data' off altogether, and that appears to stop the data flow.
As soon as I turn it back on, however, I'm up to about 1Mb/hour 'background' seepage, that doesn't show up as any specific app.
What is the normal background data rate for things like Google services?
I tried to 'reverse tether' the device so that I'd be able to sniff the data coming through my Linux computer, but apparently the device needs to be rooted for that to work. (Something to play with over the weekend...)

Bump
Does anyone have any ideas?

Try Network Counter from mapeapps in the Market. It provides a per app breakdown...

danger-rat said:
Try Network Counter from mapeapps in the Market. It provides a per app breakdown...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I'll try that!

i have a 500mb data plan and last month the network said i hit the limit whilst the phone said I'd only used 430mb. using 3g warchdog to monitor this month......

[Q] Android OS data usage

Hi I bought my G Pro a couple of months back with a 2gb data bundle. Within the first few weeks, I noticed that Android OS was using quite a bit of data (around 600mb), I looked around on the internet and found that most sites' solution was to turn of backups under "Backup and Reset". I did that and it seemed to work for a while but now the problem came back, in the span of 1 week Android OS somehow managed to rack up 491mb of data. If this continues I'm going to have to pay extra charges. Is it possible that some of the data use recorded was from WiFi?

JerryBYong said:
Hi I bought my G Pro a couple of months back with a 2gb data bundle. Within the first few weeks, I noticed that Android OS was using quite a bit of data (around 600mb), I looked around on the internet and found that most sites' solution was to turn of backups under "Backup and Reset". I did that and it seemed to work for a while but now the problem came back, in the span of 1 week Android OS somehow managed to rack up 491mb of data. If this continues I'm going to have to pay extra charges. Is it possible that some of the data use recorded was from WiFi?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Data from your 3G/4G connection is calculated separately. There's an option to turn on the wifi tab in the data usage menu. Use the menu button and select "Show Wi-Fi usage"
I'm not sure how your backup settings affects Android OS in terms of data usage but in my case everything's running well, with Android OS usage is only at 12-18mb tops every month. Try see if you have any system app that's misbehaving and abusing data.

syngamer96 said:
Data from your 3G/4G connection is calculated separately. There's an option to turn on the wifi tab in the data usage menu. Use the menu button and select "Show Wi-Fi usage"
I'm not sure how your backup settings affects Android OS in terms of data usage but in my case everything's running well, with Android OS usage is only at 12-18mb tops every month. Try see if you have any system app that's misbehaving and abusing data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its all background data. where should i look

JerryBYong said:
its all background data. where should i look
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In settings/mobile data. It shows you how much data each app is using foreground & background. If you scroll down a little after clicking on an app their will be an option to restrict background data. Don't think you can restrict background data on Google play services. But you can the rest.
But I suggest you get greenify..It's one of my favorite apps EVER. It lets you auto hibernation apps when they are closed in other words they don't continue to run in background using data and battery.
_________________
Beavers & Ducks!

esimon311 said:
In settings/mobile data. It shows you how much data each app is using foreground & background. If you scroll down a little after clicking on an app their will be an option to restrict background data. Don't think you can restrict background data on Google play services. But you can the rest.
But I suggest you get greenify..It's one of my favorite apps EVER. It lets you auto hibernation apps when they are closed in other words they don't continue to run in background using data and battery.
_________________
Beavers & Ducks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
um its not google play. its just Android OS

Lol sorry I mean android services.
_________________
Beavers & Ducks!

Stop background mobile data use

Hello. I have RN9P Joyeuse on Miui RJZEUMI
Despite switching off everything that mentions hotspot and tethering in settings and forbidding the ("Tethering") app to use background mobile data - it is still reported as the highest user of my mobile data even though the phone is in standby mode and not in use ? Is something else masquerading as "Tethering" in my mobile data data usage stats ?
Also my banking app has used background mobile data despite that also being switched off - what is it that allows apps to override the "do not use mobile data" setting ?
Many thanks.

Can you attach the ss for more clarity?

Krish3333 said:
Can you attach the ss for more clarity?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

i think it might be some false positive. also it has just used around 300kb, so it shouldn't be a problem.
Maybe some files still are present [ as system files, like windows reserves around 20% bandwidth for its own use like windows updates ] , maybe its the same case with miui.