topic Re: Phantom data usage in Mobile Data

Phantom data usage

Gregphil — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 08:25:57 GMT

I'm on holiday with no WiFi so I've been very careful with my data usage as last time I was in this situation I ran out of data. Yesterday I had used about 2G of my 10G allowance. However last night around 4am I had a text informing me I'd used 80% and a couple of hours later (phone not being used) I get another saying 100% used. The phone is running Android 12 so I've looked at data usage by app which says 10G used but looking at the breakdown it doesn't add up to more than about 3G, biggest being 400MB. There have been no updates I can see and even if there had I can't see it being that big! Any ideas what's happening or how to investigate further. I notice other similar posts with no resolutions. Thanks

Re: Phantom data usage

Katie_B — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 09:56:22 GMT

Hello @Gregphil.

Welcome the community.

I would recommend speaking with our technical care team who can see a full breakdown of your data usage and investigate this further.

The team can be contacted on +44 7953 966 250.

Katie

Re: Phantom data usage

bristolian — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 10:03:43 GMT

Can you post some screenshots of your phone's data counter? I suspect the answer will lie somewhere in "I've looked at data usage by app which says 10G used but looking at the breakdown it doesn't add up to more than about 3G"

Re: Phantom data usage

Gregphil — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 18:24:42 GMT

Thanks for the contact number, I tried to ring 150 but just was sent a link to the new visual service which didn't work. This is a really bad development by EE enough to make me look for an alternative operator as not being able to speak to human customer service is a real problem for me. There was a "speak to someone" link but that was just a call to 150 and into an infinite loop! I'll give them a ring in a few days when I'm back from holiday.

Re: Phantom data usage

Gregphil — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 18:43:37 GMT

So I've taken a number of screen shots. There are 3 or 4 further screens but they are all in KB.

Re: Phantom data usage

Katie_B — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 06:23:11 GMT

Hello @Gregphil.

Thanks for providing some screenshots of your data usage from each app.

To get in touch with our customer care on 150 without using the new visual service please wait at the first step then press option two.

Katie

Re: Phantom data usage

PaulRo — Tue, 11 Jul 2023 19:15:02 GMT

Did you get anywhere with this? I've got the same problem. Unexplained high usage. Phone says I've used over 10gb but app data usage adds up to 2.7gb. I'm not on holiday though, am at home in the UK and connected to my WiFi most of the time aswell!!

Re: Phantom data usage

Gregphil — Tue, 11 Jul 2023 19:51:31 GMT

Sorry I should have posted an update. I rang tech support and the guy immediately said oh it's YouTube and could see all the data that was not showing up in the counters. I wasn't entirely convinced as he was unable to explain why the app counters didn't add up and he tried to say they were just a days worth but they were set to the whole billing period. Anyway he thought the night time usage was leaving YouTube running , again I can't prove it was or wasn't but next time I'm going to ensure all apps are closed at night and maybe even go into airplane mode to prevent data use. Also keep a close eye on total data use. I think the app counters might be a phone fault, it's a Moto G60s. I've seen there was a similar issue on one of the Samsung models.

Re: Phantom data usage

PaulRo — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 09:00:32 GMT

Well this sounds familiar. I am on chat to customer services and they have looked into my (alleged) usage. They are saying I have used 6GB of YouTube data from the 10-12 July. Which is ridiculous. I hardly ever use YouTube when I'm out and about, and I've been at home on those days anyhow so permanently connected to WiFi.

I've cross referenced this on my phone and app data usage is reporting 461MB on YouTube since 2nd July.

I also checked my Youtube account itself and it says I use it for 0 mins on the 10th and 35 mins on the 11th (and I was at home on WiFi yesterday so wouldn't have used mobile data anyhow).

There's definitely something amiss here!

@Christopher_G FYI

Re: Phantom data usage

Gregphil — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 09:22:57 GMT

Only thing I can think of in your case is that maybe the WiFi dropped out and without you noticing you were using mobile data. However that sounds pretty unlikely. The thing with my case is that it's the second time it's happened, again whilst on holiday. The phone is actually my wife's and the first time it happened we weren't that surprised so I gifted her 3G from my account. That left my account but never seemed to appear on hers so I'm never doing that again. As a result the next holiday she was careful but this still happened. So the only thing I can think of is installing a data usage app to get my own information but I've not found a suitable one yet. Personally I think there is something very suspicious going on as there are a few posts on here that are similar. It could be a coding issue in YouTube and noone has noticed because they are on WiFi or have big data allowances. Be great to find out!

Re: Phantom data usage

PaulRo — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 09:30:44 GMT

Yeah definitely no WiFi drop outs. I've installed GlassWire and a couple of other data usage apps to keep a close eye on it. I've also turned off Background Data for YouTube and turned off AutoPlay just in case that was doing something.

Re: Phantom data usage

Leanne_T — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 09:34:12 GMT

Hi @PaulRo

Thanks for coming here.

Please call us on 150 and our tech gurus can get this looked into in more detail for you.

If you are connected to WiFi at home and using an iPhone, please check WiFi assist is turned off in your Mobile Data settings as this will use data if the WiFi connection drops.

Leanne.

Re: Phantom data usage

Gregphil — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 09:44:48 GMT

Yeah we turned off background data and also set data quality to the lowest rather than auto as it may have been choosing 4k or something daft. If you get anywhere with GlassWire let me know as I'd like a solution before we go away again. One thing I'd say for EE is that they didn't cut us off or charge us, just reduced the data rate.

Re: Phantom data usage

PMEE — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 09:52:46 GMT

Be interested to know if you have the same experience as me when downloading a 512MB file from this trusted test page

http://xcal1.vodafone.co.uk/

It cost me 1.7GB of data when my phones data usage monitor showed I had only used 560MB

It's a simple test

Appreciate your feedback

Re: Phantom data usage

dickytwo — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 14:24:37 GMT

I have exactly the same thing. My data usage going up constantly when I'm not using the phone. Have spoken to EE twice now and now they said I am using Youtube, don't even use it on my phone! I've now disabled it but it's still going up - I had even reset my phone to factory settings to try to stop it. Ay my wits end with this. Only thing I can think of now is to get a PAC code and go elsewhere.

Re: Phantom data usage

Christopher_G — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 14:44:47 GMT

Hi @dickytwo

Welcome to the community.

Have you noticed a difference since factory resetting your device? What do the data counters in your phone settings say? It should give you a breakdown of your usage?

Chris

Re: Phantom data usage

dickytwo — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 16:18:37 GMT

App usage is in the MB, no change at all since the factory reset. It's definitely an EE issue but they have given me no time frame that it will be sorted so I have had to go the PAC route. Currently averaging about 2 GB per day which I am not using.

Re: Phantom data usage

Christopher_G — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 17:33:10 GMT

I'm sorry to hear that, @dickytwo

You mentioned you disabled something. What was it that you disabled?

Chris

Re: Phantom data usage

dickytwo — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 11:47:32 GMT

I disabled Youtube in the app settings as EE support said that as what was using the data (even though I never use it). Didn't have any effect and data usage still going up and up and up.

Re: Phantom data usage

Christopher_G — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 12:51:25 GMT

I see, thanks @dickytwo. It may be worth speaking to the technical support team to let them know you've done that and don't see an improvement.

Chris