Tuesday 5 July 2016

Android OS uses an incredible amount of data in a short time



Hello guys

I recently upgraded my monthly available data. Got in to a deal, was 5$ for an extra Gb. Now that I have two, I still felt like it wasn't enough for my usage. My cycle restarted today and i busted my 2 gb. I looked in the usage and noticed that the "Android OS" used 800mb of my data. That's a lot of data that I don't actually "use".

This screenshot was taken one week ago. Since I noticed Android OS used that much data, i tried many things to stop it. As you can notice on the screenshot, data saver is ON, its always ON.

I tried some kind of firewalls. Looked like i was able to block different apps from using data, but it didn't seemed to work well, so I uninstalled. Later during the day, when i was in the train and had left work, I noticed Android OS used up to 840 mb of data. 40mb/day is a lot more than my normal usage. All of this, in less than an hour, makes no sense.

I was on Android N beta, developper preview 4, and because of this data usage going crazy, I rolledback to MM and required to wipe the device at the same time, so i am now on a fresh device.

The day I wiped my device, Wednesday last week, I was at work for the whole day, connected on wifi, reinstalled a few apps.

I turned OFF completely the data during the weekend, because I wasn't in town, and I had no cellular network connection there, so no data usage.

Today was a "normal" day in terms of my usage. But still not for Android OS. LTE was turned off uring the whole day, except when I was in transit. Android OS still managed to use 3mb. I took two screenshots, showing how much data is used by this, and here they are.
Notice, I took them with 3 minutes in between. The used data keeps going up, 0,05mb. Doesnt looks like a lot, but at the end of a month, makes a huge difference.

Since then, i keep turning off my data connection when i am on wi-fi and i try to keep it closed as much a possible. I compared the amount of data used by this "app" on data versus on Wi-fi and the quantities are close to each other.
I would say i am connected on wi-fi 90% of the time, and the other 10% on my data connection. This ratio isn't reflected on this data usage of Android OS

I already tried restricting everything, blocking sync of Google account, Google Photos backup, Google Play Store Updates, stopped the bugs and issues reporting, data saver on Android N I think I blocked everything that could potentially use data.

I discussed with an other guy on Reddit with the same issue, he wiped his phone too, booted in safemode, and there too, approximately 1mb/hour of data usage.

This problem is getting very frustrating, i pay for data that I don't actually use for what it should be used. I also feel like I am loosing control over my device, or like my device is controlling me.

I am open to any fix suggestion, even though I probably already tried it. I have really no idea what to do next, I really love this phone for the big display and good functionalities, but this is getting so annoying.

Since I am a new user on XDA, I cant post links for pictures, kind of a bummer, but i hope you get the problem. If you really want to see the screenshots, I will keep them and I have no problem transfering them to you via an other platform. Thanks for understanding

Thanks a lot for your help guys!



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