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Home > Tips > iPhone Using Too Much Cellular Data, How to Save Data on iPhone?

iPhone Using Too Much Cellular Data, How to Save Data on iPhone?

With various surprising features and lots of powerful apps in iPhone, your iPhone would be easily running out of data and you will be charged for cellular data overages. So it is significant to monitor and manage your cellular data and save data on iPhone.

Updated Mar 13,2017 | by Shannon

It’s that time of the month when you have to pay bills…including your cell phone bill. Not the most pleasant time, I agree. But, the minute you lay eyes on your balance, you’re traumatized! Somehow, you managed to outdo 5 GB internet, exceeding your monthly usage capacity and now have to pay the overage fee…a hefty punishment that is. It’s your iPhone using too much data, but I’m sure you have no clue on how you overused your data.

 By being able to understand what cellular data is and what iPhone activities actually use it up, you can bypass these situations easily. Read on to find out.

 What is Cellular Data?

 Basically, your phone can access the internet in two ways, either through a Wi-Fi network or by through cellular data offered by your network carrier. Wi-Fi makes use of radio frequencies to wirelessly transmit internet service to various devices including smartphones, laptops, smart TVs etc. On the contrary, cellular data uses the same network provided by the cell towers that enable you to make phone calls. Wi-Fi, however, offers a limited range, while cellular data is accessible given that you are present within your carrier’s coverage.

 The key difference between Wi-Fi and cellular data is that you have to for a monthly cellular data payment while your Wi-Fi network at home has no monthly payment. This means you are never charged for Wi-Fi overages, but you are definitely charged for overusing your cellular data. For this reason, it is significant to monitor and manage your cellular data throughout the month if you think you might be at risk of going over your allowance.

 Essentially, any activity that you carry out on your smartphone that requires access to the internet will use cellular data in case you are not connected to a Wi-Fi network. Some online activities, including streaming a video or making a video call using FaceTime, use more cellular data than others. Activities such as sending and receiving emails, browsing or GPS navigation does not require a lot of data. It is a common misapprehension that phone calls as well as text messages require cellular data. In fact, these activities do not need cellular data at all and most carriers even offer package plans with unlimited talk and SMS services.

 How much data does FaceTime video calling use on the iPhone?

 This is a question that most of you want to get an answer for. While using FaceTime on a Wi-Fi network, your cellular data plan is not used. In the same way, no network calling minutes are consumed during your FaceTime regular or video call. In case, you are not connected to a Wi-Fi service, you can make a FaceTime video call using your iPhone’s cellular data connection (3G / LTE). It will, however, use your data plan.

 How to Turn off Data on iPhone and in iOS 10?

 There are 101 of reasons why you should turn off data on iPhone. Maybe you have low battery but there is an important phone call that you will need to answer, perhaps you have a limited cellular data plan and turn it on only when needed, or maybe your little one is getting bored and you want to hand your iPhone to them and don’t want them to open webpages that they shouldn’t.

 Whatever reason you may have, switching off your data connection requires only a quick setting. Tap "Settings" and jump straight to “Cellular”, switch to the “off” mode to turn data off on iPhone. Whenever you feel the need to use it, you can always go back, following the same steps, and turn it back on by sliding the toggle.

 You can even toggle off your LTE connectivity for saving battery life. When LTE is switched off, your iPhone will automatically use the 3G or 4G wireless network. For that, you need to basically toggle the “Enable LTE” to “off” and that should do the job.

How to Save Data on iPhone?

 Normally, more data is used when your iPhone apps are running in the background, receiving their updates. However, turning off the automatic app updates will avoid losing precious cellular data. You can disable the "Automatic Downloads" option on "Apps" and "Updates" and stop the "use cellular data" option. For doing that, simply click on “iTunes & App Store” in Settings on iPhone. You'll be able to change the settings.

turn off automatic downloads.jpg

 

l  Monitor your data usage and detect which apps consume more data

 To find out the apps that are data killers, simply go to “Cellular” in settings, scroll down to "Apps Using WLAN & Cellular" to view data usage of every app on your iPhone. The history data usage will display in the list. Now you will know which apps consume more data and can stop them from using more cellular data. All you need is to switch its settings to WLAN, allowing those apps which appear on the top to use Wi-Fi only. By doing this simple act, you will be able to stop running out of data and save massive MBs of data.

App Using WLAN & Cellular.jpg

 

l  Disable "Background App Refresh"

 People barely know this option, but if Background app refresh was enabled, apps can run in the background. It will certainly use your cellular data and reduce the battery life of your iPhone. By turning off background app refresh, you can save a lot of data. To get started, go to Settings > General, tap on "Background App Refresh", you'll see a list of apps supporting app refresh. Simply switch off the option in order to stop individual apps from running in the background and using data. However, you can also prefer to enable the option on specific apps that need to keep continuing refreshing regularly.

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l  Manage Location Services

Location services consume loads of cellular data. Hence, it is highly recommended that you should manage apps which are using location services and turn it off. Go to Settings > Privacy, along with a list of all apps that have location services support, you will have the access to each app and turn location services off. There may be 2 or 3 options in every app, "Never", "While Using the App", "Always", simply tap on Never or While Using the App. By making these essential changes, you can greatly reduce your iPhone data usage and save that data plan of yours till the end of the month.

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