Youtube data usage

[kellyseyeno1]

I have been notified by EE that I have used 8GB of my monthly data allowance only 6 days into my data cycle. My allowance is 10GB a month.

I checked my app usage in settings and found that the highest user was only around 800MB. In total the app usage to date this cycle is around 1GB according to my phone record.

I rang 150 who told me that according to their records the biggest user this monthly cycle is Youtube with a whopping 7GB in the last 6 days! I rarely watch Youtube on my phone and certainly do not recall doing so over the past 6 days.  According to my app usage information I have used 1MB on Youtube and 97KB on  Youtube Music over the past 6 days, both piffling amounts. 

EE could not explain why there is this discrepancy between my phone record and their record of my data usage. Clearly there is something fundamentally wrong here.

I would be grateful if anyone has any views on how this issue can be remedied, 

[Ali_A]

You're welcome! @kellyseyeno1 
There is no need to switch off mobile data on the device- as @bristolian has said devices are set to use WIFI as default if it's available. 

Data counters usually record the Mobile data and WIFI data separately, particularly with Android phones there is usually two tabs you can swap between to see the Mobile / WiFi usage. 

🙂

 

[kellyseyeno1]

Hi Ali,

Thanks for this.

I'm still nonplussed as to why the data usage graph on my phone shows 8.3GB used yet the sum of data used by individual apps according to my data counter is only 1.3GB or so. According to EE over 7GB is accounted for by YT let my individual data counter for YT shows only 1MB consumed this accounting period. 

You mentioned data used accessing YT which is hosted in another website. I appreciate that the data used might not be formally recorded against the YT app but surely one would expect it to be recorded against the app used to access the website so that it would be recorded somewhere. However it appears not as the discrepancy above is a massive 7GB.

I thought maybe that my SIM has been cloned but speaking with EE this morning it appears that the IMEI responsible for the data consumption is the same as my phone. 

I have asked EE for more information about the timing and frequency of this data consumption. 

Regards

[Leanne_T]

Hi @kellyseyeno1

Thanks for raising this with our tech team, hopefully they can get you the answers you are looking for. 
Let me know how you get on when they get back to you. 
Leanne 🙂

[kellyseyeno1]

EE has provided me with a breakdown of the data downloads made by my phone during this period (29th July to 3rd August). The information does not show the websites visited but it does show the amount of data used, the time the data was downloaded and the duration of the download.

Oddly on two of the days during this period (30th July and 2nd August) there were in total 137 downloads using up each time around 50,000Kb . 65 of the downloads were at night when I would have been asleep. Others were during the daytime but would have taken place at home where I have Wifi. These downloads, totalling 6.8Gb, probably account for the majority of the discrepancy referred to in my original post. Since the 3rd August usage seems to gone back to normal.

So EE what are these phantom downloads which you are recording against my data allowance but which are absolutely nothing to do with me? Some constructive suggestions from you on this matter would be helpful.    

[Lesley_W]

Thanks for coming back to let me know @kellyseyeno1 

I'm pleased our team were able to provide you a more detailed breakdown. Being a public forum, we don't have access to your account here, so I wouldn't be able to shed any further light on what these downloads could be. I'd recommend getting in touch with our technical team again who may be able to help further. If not, they can discuss next steps for raising a complaint. 

Lesley

[kellyseyeno1]

Lesley,

To be honest I originally approached your so called technical team and they couldn't help me apart from giving me an enhanced data allowance to get me through the last cycle. I will try again but I am not hopeful. 

For information, my data cycle started again today and guess what? Yes at 2.50 pm I supposedly have used 1.91Gb even though the sum of my individual app data usage is less than 0.1Gb! 

[kellyseyeno1]

A postscript - Having contacted EE I was told that most of the 1.91Gb was spent accessing YT even though I know for a fact that my use of YT since the start of this data cycle is piffling. Anyway I have agreed with EE an increased data package which hopefully takes this issue out of the equation. The bottom line though is that EE cannot explain why large amounts of my data are supposedly being spent on YT .

Having researched this matter it would appear that other people on both EE and other networks have also experienced the problem without receiving a logical explanation as to why their data is being spent in this way.   

[Leanne_T]

Hi @kellyseyeno1 

Thanks for coming back to us with an update and letting us know you have increased the data usage. 

If you would like to discuss the used data further, please give us another call to see if the team can investigate this in more detail for you. 

Leanne.

[Smvs]

I have the same problem, my disabled daughter gets through about 3gb a month absolute maximum. I transferred 5gb to her yesterday and within 24 hours she has no data left - only at school for 2 hours and at home on WiFi on her iPad after that and never left the house. Went into the EE store who put me through to technical, who accessed her data and told me 4.2gb used on you tube. She doesn’t have the YouTube app. Checked her safari history and once she tried to log into kids YouTube for school and it wouldn’t allow her to log in and tab was closed. Technical said she WAS on YouTube app - that she doesn’t have - and must have somehow turned WiFi off on her phone while she was at home - using her iPad?  An absolute con. Now my daughter is scared of using her phone at all in case she cost me more money! In the mean time my son, on WiFi at work and at home is getting through up to 60gb month from about 10gb. Despite only using his phone at lunch time at work? It’s driving me mad and I’ve been a customer for 29 years!

[kellyseyeno1]

EE don't seem to possess any urgency or interest in getting to the bottom of this matter. If I was in your shoes I would say to them that if they do not get give you and your daughter an unlimited data package then you you will move to another phone company.