On verge of selling S3 - too much data being used. Help

[kazgor]

I am constantly on WiFi at home and also at work. I too also have Exchange sync on ... i only update/download apps on WiFi.

going on my usage monitor, November Wifi was 6GB mobile 293MB, October Wifi 3GB mobile 201mb, Sept Wifi 2.04gb Mobile 325MB

[HoochieMamma]

Please, good man, teach me the ways of your magical phone that can be used with youtube and google maps for hours and only use 300MB of data a month! I must know your secret! :laugh:

[CronicHazel]

If she uses Facebook rather frequently, it'll use a lot more data than one would expect :T

[Hardcore Til I Die]

Try using Facebook through the Opera Mini web browser, which compresses images by up to 90%. Should dramatically reduce data usage.

My initial advice would have been to log out of Facebook when she's not using it, but you said that she needs that for work so it's kinda out of the question.

Alternatively try looking at apps in the play store to see if there's a third party Facebook app which downloads less of the news feed at a time.

Edit:

OR log out of Facebook but stay logged in on Facebook Messenger. Maybe that will help.

[bmdixon]

Are you sure that it's not showing WiFi usage in the data usage? I don't have an S3 to check exactly what the settings are but on my Galaxy Nexus there is an option to view WiFi usage as well. Is it possible that she's seeing all usage and not just mobile data usage?

It does seem like the Facebook app is using more data than i'd expect. Just checked my usage and it has been 10-20MB for Facebook the last few months (each month).

[TheLegendOfMart]

I've got Galaxy Note and by default it doesn't show wifi usage

[hobsgrg]

And please give me a good credible argument as to why?

I don't want to ruffle any feathers here, but people are coming in with statements & not giving anything further to back their statements up.

Take ME for example, not my wife, but ME.....

I have 500mb per month. I think the MOST i've ever used in 1 month in the past 3 years has been 250MB.

So please, i am really interested in knowing ......... why then, based on what you've just said, >>>I<<< should be on a 1GB-2GB per month plan when the MOST i've ever used has been approx 250MB. Please give me a good argument as to why.

This is ignoring for a minute the fact that 1) I couldn't afford such a plan 2) i clearly don't need such a plan (despite you implying EVERYONE should be on one)

Honestly, i am grateful of the help given, but comments like that, unless you can back it up with something credible, is NOT helpful.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/07/24/average-smartphone-users-_n_1698342.html

"

Three has reported that its users have more than doubled how much mobile data they consume every month in less than a year.

It says that the average user now users 1.1gb, compared to 450mb last summer.

Three said that the rise of smartphones has seen customers with iPhones and the top Android devices use more than 1.5gb each per month, on average."

500Mb is not enough for the typical usage nowadays. For some people 500Mb will be enough but everything is getting more data hungry

[Phemo]

I've only used 1.5GB since september so 375MB a month average. I'm usually either at home, at work or at a friends' house - all of which have wifi. When I'm not using my data it's usually because I'm asleep or busy with something else. I could quite easily do with a 500MB a month data limit because I have wifi everywhere. Just because some (and maybe even most) people need more, it doesn't mean everyone does.

[hjf288]

5.5GB down and 384mb up mobile data usage since September and I'm on wifi most of the time (work)

[Ambroos]

My Facebook has used around 100MB in foreground and 40MB in the background in the last 20 days, all syncs on. Pretty normal if you ask me.

I go well over 4GB of monthly data use over 3G only. I only have WiFi during weekends though.

You know, you can set a monthly data limit for apps (for example 300MB) and then say limit background data. It'll avoid any optional background data once it hits the 300MB barrier.

[Technique]

Right we really need to stop this before it gets out of hand......

IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT >>>>>>YOU<<<<<<<< USE! It really doesn&#39;t. It doesn&#39;t matter what 3 says, what Vodafone says, or what anyone says about the "average" user. The "average person" is on ?xx,xxx per year. The average person gets paid more than me, but what does it matter to me? Because i am not paid as much. It doesn&#39;t matter is the answer. What matters is what i am paid &amp; only what i am paid, not what my next door neighbour is paid, or the chap down the street, or the chap in the next county etc.It&#39;s all IRRELEVANT. Why don&#39;t people understand that?

Yes you&#39;re trying to help &amp; it really is appreciated, but what does YOUR data usage matter?

It&#39;s like we can have the exact same car. I can get 40MPG out of it whereas you only get 30MPG. It&#39;s like me saying well i get 40MPG out of mine ...... so should you. What we&#39;re not discussing however, is that your journeys are constant stop/start, you only do 2 miles at a time &amp; you rev the hell out of your car. I am able to get into 5th gear, my journeys are 10 mile a time, my car has chance to warm up &amp; i don&#39;t drive like an idiot. Without this crucial information, just saying you should get the same MPG as mine is a waste of time statement.

Hoochie - absolutely no need for your attitude. You use a million GB per month, well good for you, but that doesn&#39;t help or interest me. You&#39;re happy with your usage, but again that doesn&#39;t help or interest me.

Anyway, so we ran a little test....

Went to town. Did not connect to WiFi. Turned on 3G on my iPhone 4S. Turned on mobile data & GPS on her Samsung Galaxy S3. Took screenshots of both....

Then when in town, i used my phone a LOT more than she did with hers. When we exited town i looked at her usage & it said only 1MB of mobile data used.

I then fired up Facebook on HER phone via the stock browser (the APP has been deleted). I let the news feed load, i scrolled & then i opened THREE photos. The usage jumped 2MB.

Here's the final shots as we got home:

As said, i used my phone in town quite a lot more than she did as i was using mine as she was clothes shopping. I was on the Quidco app, i had the MyFreeCarCheck app open. I had Facebook app open - she had none of these open. The only one she did have open was My Data Manager (i had that open too).

[Hardcore Til I Die]

Right we really need to stop this before it gets out of hand......

IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT >>>>>>YOU<<<<<<<< USE! It really doesn&#39;t. It doesn&#39;t matter what 3 says, what Vodafone says, or what anyone says about the "average" user. The "average person" is on ?xx,xxx per year. The average person gets paid more than me, but what does it matter to me? Because i am not paid as much. It doesn&#39;t matter is the answer. What matters is what i am paid &amp; only what i am paid, not what my next door neighbour is paid, or the chap down the street, or the chap in the next county etc.It&#39;s all IRRELEVANT. Why don&#39;t people understand that?

Yes you&#39;re trying to help &amp; it really is appreciated, but what does YOUR data usage matter?

It&#39;s like we can have the exact same car. I can get 40MPG out of it whereas you only get 30MPG. It&#39;s like me saying well i get 40MPG out of mine ...... so should you. What we&#39;re not discussing however, is that your journeys are constant stop/start, you only do 2 miles at a time &amp; you rev the hell out of your car. I am able to get into 5th gear, my journeys are 10 mile a time, my car has chance to warm up &amp; i don&#39;t drive like an idiot. Without this crucial information, just saying you should get the same MPG as mine is a waste of time statement.

Hoochie - absolutely no need for your attitude. You use a million GB per month, well good for you, but that doesn&#39;t help or interest me. You&#39;re happy with your usage, but again that doesn&#39;t help or interest me.

Anyway, so we ran a little test....

Went to town. Did not connect to WiFi. Turned on 3G on my iPhone 4S. Turned on mobile data & GPS on her Samsung Galaxy S3. Took screenshots of both....

Then when in town, i used my phone a LOT more than she did with hers. When we exited town i looked at her usage & it said only 1MB of mobile data used.

I then fired up Facebook on HER phone via the stock browser (the APP has been deleted). I let the news feed load, i scrolled & then i opened THREE photos. The usage jumped 2MB.

Here's the final shots as we got home:

As said, i used my phone in town quite a lot more than she did as i was using mine as she was clothes shopping. I was on the Quidco app, i had the MyFreeCarCheck app open. I had Facebook app open - she had none of these open. The only one she did have open was My Data Manager (i had that open too).

2MB doesn't seem unrealistic when you consider that it not only has to download post content, but also photo thumbnails, profile links, etc. The content is "rich" and doesn't just contain plaintext, so it will use a fair bit of data.

Maybe iOS uses different APIs to Android and uses compressed images or something.

[Technique]

2MB doesn't seem unrealistic when you consider that it not only has to download post content, but also photo thumbnails, profile links, etc. The content is "rich" and doesn't just contain plaintext, so it will use a fair bit of data.

Maybe iOS uses different APIs to Android and uses compressed images or something.

This is the thing.

They both have a "Facebook App" which we & probably others would assume operates in the same way as it's "a facebook app", but perhaps the Facebook App for Android operates TOTALLY different to the iPhone Facebook App? Who knows? I certainly don't.

She is now more aware of her data usage though. She's now aware of hitting the back button instead of home button. Exiting apps via task manager as a must, turning mobile data off. Add to this that she has DELETED the Facebook App & is using Facebook via the stock browser now.

So it'll be interesting (from this point forth) to see how her usage compares.

[UseLess]

Im not an android user, so I'm not sure entirely...but i believe the official Facebook app (for Android/WP) is HTML, while the iOS app is native...depending how it uses it, could impact on data.

Is there an unofficial app you can try?

[n_K]

In reference to having other apps open ^

I can't imagine myfreecarcheck having any images downloaded off the net so usage for that will be a few KB max.

Quidco, I haven't got a clue what that is but I'm again assuming it doesn't download images so again, a few KB max.

facebook on the other hand is full of images so it's going to use a few MB downloading them - remember for sites to maximise the speed they load at you will download the exact same image but in different dimentions, there's a small thumbnail, there's a gallery thumbnail, there's an image gallery thumbnail and then there's the full size image, that's 4 images per image you see being downloaded which speeds up page load time but uses a lot more data.

[Ambroos]

Im not an android user, so I'm not sure entirely...but i believe the official Facebook app (for Android/WP) is HTML, while the iOS app is native...depending how it uses it, could impact on data.

Is there an unofficial app you can try?

Not anymore.

It'd surprise me if you used FB with any images in your news feed at all if you only used about 100Kb of data. 100Kb is around 2 images in crappy Facebook quality.

There are so many things that determine data usage. It'll never be the same every day. You have apps syncing in the background or doing automatic backups. Sending statistics, ...

If you have a smartphone you should really get a data plan that allows you to not worry about data usage at all. You shouldn't have to limit your mobile browsing (unless it's really extreme). You shouldn't have to fully kill apps or turn off your data.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

Im not an android user, so I'm not sure entirely...but i believe the official Facebook app (for Android/WP) is HTML, while the iOS app is native...depending how it uses it, could impact on data.

Is there an unofficial app you can try?

I'm pretty sure the new 2.0 update switched it over to native on android as well (or maybe that was another app i'm thinking of) but I'm pretty sure it was Facebook

[Chris123NT]

I'm pretty sure the new 2.0 update switched it over to native on android as well (or maybe that was another app i'm thinking of) but I'm pretty sure it was Facebook

Yeah facebook on android is native now.

And as for the issue at hand, the OP posted a graph at some point proving that the background data usage for facebook was actually quite low, it was the foreground usage that was creeping up. I personally don't think this usage is excessive, especially if she is using facebook every single day. I don't use that much data but then again I am on wifi 90% of the time between home and work. Best solution is to get a better data plan ad I feel it's her usage habits rather than the phone. She's probably using the phone more now because the browsing experience is MUCH better than on the iphone. Things feel cramped on the iphone whereas on the S3 it feels more natural. I know I use my S3 more than I ever used my iphone 4.

[Ambroos]

Why don't you two switch phones for a week? Load up her apps and Facebook on the iPhone and let her use it the same way she did on her S3. You do the same. You'll see that it doesn't really matter what device, it all just depends on what you do.

[*RedBull*]

Um....take advantage of free WiFi everywhere?

And get off facebook?

Yes stop using Facebook, uninstall it, clear the data. I know you can't remove the app but you can cripple it. S3 is a nice phone. Better than Iphone.

[MillionVoltss]

Was this resolved ?

You could as a simple answer turn off Data Network Mode, Im PAY And GO 500mb and have no problems, I use Wifi at home and Sites like neowin and hot deals mobile version when im out.

[Technique]

I've asked on a couple forums - the more heads at this the better. I can't remember where i've said it, just that i know i've said it. I'll repeat though...

* Can't try every suggestion at once

* Can't try every suggestion at once

* Can't try every suggestion at once

* Can't try every suggestion at once

* Can't try every suggestion at once

* Can't try every suggestion at once

There you go. It may sink in with a few people now that it stands out. So just because YOUR suggestion may not be being tried, doesn't mean that ALL suggestions are being ignored.

Facebook app has been deleted. She will now use stock browser or Opera Mini to access Facebook.

It's 1 suggestion that will be trialled. If it works then great, if not then something else will be tried, BUT ........... CAN'T TRY EVERYTHING AT ONCE!!

She's probably using the phone more now

I don't know how this is possible (to answer it - the answer is "it isn't").

Beforehand, she had 1hour breaks at work in which she'd use her iPhone for everything she uses her S3 for now. She'd come home & use WiFi (i must point out, she'd set the phone to WiFi but use her Galaxy Tab for internet browsing & facebook).

NOW....she still has the exact same 1 hour break per day, she still uses her phone for the exact same stuff, and she still comes home & turns WiFi on.

So unless you're suggesting she's taking time off work to get extra time in on her S3, then she can't possibly be using it more.

[Soldiers33]

ill give you suggestion. Remove that facebook trash app and problem sovled.

[Luis Mazza]

I've asked on a couple forums - the more heads at this the better. I can't remember where i've said it, just that i know i've said it. I'll repeat though...

* Can't try every suggestion at once

* Can't try every suggestion at once

* Can't try every suggestion at once

* Can't try every suggestion at once

* Can't try every suggestion at once

* Can't try every suggestion at once

There you go. It may sink in with a few people now that it stands out. So just because YOUR suggestion may not be being tried, doesn't mean that ALL suggestions are being ignored.

Facebook app has been deleted. She will now use stock browser or Opera Mini to access Facebook.

It's 1 suggestion that will be trialled. If it works then great, if not then something else will be tried, BUT ........... CAN'T TRY EVERYTHING AT ONCE!!

I don't know how this is possible (to answer it - the answer is "it isn't").

Beforehand, she had 1hour breaks at work in which she'd use her iPhone for everything she uses her S3 for now. She'd come home & use WiFi (i must point out, she'd set the phone to WiFi but use her Galaxy Tab for internet browsing & facebook).

NOW....she still has the exact same 1 hour break per day, she still uses her phone for the exact same stuff, and she still comes home & turns WiFi on.

So unless you're suggesting she's taking time off work to get extra time in on her S3, then she can't possibly be using it more.

Look no further... It is the much higher resolution on her S3 that is dragging data. I used to have an S2 and resolution was much lower. I also had a 500GB plan and I could use it through a whole month without running low. Then I got the Galaxy Note and Galaxy Note 2, which have the same resolution as the S3. > Data-usage skyrocketed.

That is because her phone (S3) is now as powerful as a netbook or notebook and many times you browse the photos on Facebook and download them on original resolution, rather than "old smartphone-optimized".

If you are so worried about not spending more with a bigger data plan, then I recommend you to stay with the old 3GS as it's resolution is almost a quarter of that of the S3.

Cutting-edge technology has it's costs... Those beautiful high-resolution garbage pictures (sorry :p) she downloads on Facebook are beautiful because, well... they have thousands of pixels more than those of the 3GS. :)

Good luck with your tests, though... but I would recommend her using the mobile view of the Facebook site, not the full web browser view, as it consumes more data than the Facebook app itself.

[Technique]

So she ran it today as she was at work. Not a true reflection though as she had to come home at dinner time ill.

She used Facebook through the stock browser & not Opera Mini today.

With eBay - she opened that by mistake. That's all she did though - hit the icon. She didn't search or go through anything within eBay & it used 1MB. Quite a bit for just opening i'd have thought.

For comparison, i was on mine (iPhone 4S) in the doctors waiting room for about 30 minutes:

EDIT: She doesn't know what this News Daemon is though.