How can I stop Android OS guzzling the GB’s and battery power on my smartphone?

[OJAS]

I was rather taken aback by SMS messages which had I received from AIS last week informing me that my monthly 14GB full speed internet allowance, for which I had paid them the princely sum of 1,099 THB, had been used up with still a fortnight to go in the current monthly period. Normally I am hard-pressed to use up barely a half of this allowance over a whole month.

 

A subsequent check of the Data Usage graph on my smartphone revealed a 12GB spike immediately beforehand, which was almost entirely attributable to Android OS. However, what does Android OS stand for, and what might have been the cause of the spike (which had apparently also led to a 50% depletion in the battery power on my smartphone)?

 

More importantly from my point of view, is there any way in which I could prevent Android OS from performing future similar GB-guzzling operations on my smartphone until I was within range of an AIS wifi connection (to which I have unlimited access under my current monthly package)?

Edited April 23, 2017 by OJAS

[Forkinhades]

Set up a data limit on your smartphone.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Forkinhades]

Settings

Connections

Data Usage

 

There you can set a slide bar giving you a warning when you reach a certain limit. At least you can analyse before your data runs out.

Unless your playing movies, it will be very hatd to use that amount of data.

 

Sent from my SM-G935F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

 

 

 

 

[janclaes47]

12 Gb download from the OS would translate to about 20 new firmwares, so clearly something got lost in translation.

 

Leaving the data plan on will cause unnoticed data usage, as the phone will continuously check for email, FB and other messenger updates.

 

But that would probably account for less than 200Mb in a month.

 

Clearly something is missing here

 

 

 

Edited April 23, 2017 by janclaes47

[KhunBENQ]

One thing I did (even though I am on WiFi):

Got to "PlayStore", "Settings", "Auto-update apps".

I selected "Do not auto-update apps".

 

I don't know whether this also applies to the huge OS updates (which I don't get for my old 4.x device).

Sounds like this was the culprit for you?

(though 12 GB sounds way over top)

 

It's amazing to see that some stuff comes up with updates about any other day (LINE, Skype and others). Sometimes I skip and wait.

 

Cleaning up used memory:

Also I go through the list of installed apps and set all the bloatware crap to factory default and/or turn off (to be used with caution). And of course I ignore updates for the crap.

And always useful to have a critical look on downloaded apps.

Do I really need that stuff?

 

This bloatware crap is a PITA and would be an argument for "rooting" and installing an OS where I have full control. I don't for security reasons.

 

[WorriedNoodle]

1 hour ago, OJAS said:

is there any way in which I could prevent Android OS from performing future similar GB-guzzling operations on my smartphone

I always have data turned to off unless I rely need it, say once every two or three months. Otherwise I use wifi on my smartphones. The thieving mobile companies get about 100THB or less from me per quarter.

[mtls2005]

12 GB for Android OS seems odd - even a bloated updated would only be 1 GB max.; the apps. included in this category are all minimal data users - you can drill down to see those. My Android OS usage (on mobile data) averages ~ 10 MB per month, while on WiFi the average is 80 MB per month.

 

This sounds like some sort of new issue? Everything has been fine until this week/month?

 

The Android OS battery issue seems like it's related? You can drill down on battery usage as well.

 

What is the make/model/OS version? Please feel free to share as much detail as possible.

 

Did you notice anything unusual, like in the notifications area?

 

Is this continuing?

 

I'd probably toggle mobile data off manually - easy to do with a two-finger swipe down - when WiFi is available until you get a handle on the issue(s).

 

Often people think they are on WiFi, may go on a YouTube binge and then later realize they were not on WiFi, and used up their mobile data allotment in a day. Some phones do not handle un-broadcasted SSIDs well, which leads to this sort of issue.

 

As mentioned, setting up notifications at 25 %/50%/75% can give you a heads-up on problems.

 

 

[OJAS]

On 4/23/2017 at 10:27 AM, Forkinhades said:

Set up a data limit on your smartphone.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

Thanks for the suggestion - have now set a data warning limit of 7GB (= 50% of my monthly top speed allowance)

 

23 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

One thing I did (even though I am on WiFi):

Got to "PlayStore", "Settings", "Auto-update apps".

I selected "Do not auto-update apps".

 

I don't know whether this also applies to the huge OS updates (which I don't get for my old 4.x device).

Sounds like this was the culprit for you?

(though 12 GB sounds way over top)

I don't get these prompts when clicking on Google Play Store, unfortunately. However, it would appear that I had chosen to launch this app by default for some actions. I have now cleared these defaults which should hopefully prevent any future problems. But I also note that I can launch this app "by main activity" (whatever this might mean). If I were to click the Launch icon when within AIS Wifi range (with the data setting turned off and the battery fully charged, of course), would this pick up any important updates which I might otherwise miss out on?

 

21 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

12 GB for Android OS seems odd - even a bloated updated would only be 1 GB max.; the apps. included in this category are all minimal data users - you can drill down to see those. My Android OS usage (on mobile data) averages ~ 10 MB per month, while on WiFi the average is 80 MB per month.

 

This sounds like some sort of new issue? Everything has been fine until this week/month?

 

The Android OS battery issue seems like it's related? You can drill down on battery usage as well.

 

What is the make/model/OS version? Please feel free to share as much detail as possible.

 

Did you notice anything unusual, like in the notifications area?

 

Is this continuing?

 

I'd probably toggle mobile data off manually - easy to do with a two-finger swipe down - when WiFi is available until you get a handle on the issue(s).

 

Often people think they are on WiFi, may go on a YouTube binge and then later realize they were not on WiFi, and used up their mobile data allotment in a day. Some phones do not handle un-broadcasted SSIDs well, which leads to this sort of issue.

 

As mentioned, setting up notifications at 25 %/50%/75% can give you a heads-up on problems.

 

 

I have never experienced this problem before and it certainly doesn't appear to be ongoing (on the basis of a further Data Usage graph check which I have just performed). My smartphone is a Lava Iris800 by the way.

 

It would be a PITA for me to keep turning mobile data on and off since I also use the smartphone as a hotspot for my laptop given the non-availability of alternative landline internet access services in my neck of the woods. I have, however, now got into the habit of turning my smartphone completely off overnight, which is when the problem appeared to arise.

Edited April 24, 2017 by OJAS

[CaptHaddock]

Set play store to update apps only when on wifi.  Probably the big data usage is due to video of some kind, either watching or downloading movies or skyping.  If you are monitoring security cams that can use a lot of data, too, so be careful to do all of these video activities on wifi as much as possible.

 

As for minimzing battery usage, the best approach is to root the device and then install one of the apps, like Greenify, that will manage battery usage efficiently.

Edited April 24, 2017 by CaptHaddock

[mtls2005]

 since I also use the smartphone as a hotspot for my laptop

 

Well that detail certainly helps. The Mobile AP app does draw a lot of battery power.

 

I assume you've enabled some sort of security protocols which would prevent a third-party from accessing your WiFi AP without your permission?

 

Maybe your PC usage, or some other WiFi device, contributed to this spike?

 

Obviously if you do not have access to fixed broadband services via WiFi then you can ignore the suggestion to toggle mobile data on/off.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2017 by mtls2005

[2008bangkok]

If your using your phone as a hotspot the data can quickly get eaten up, as webpages on a browser use more data than web pages on a mobile.

 

[JaseTheBass]

It sounds more likely to be an error at AIS's to me.

Not sure how you would prove it though.

Sent from my Cray II supercomputer

[Pib]

If you are using your phone as a hotspot for your computer and then downloading a lot on your computer, then that is probably where all you data allotment went.   Now just browsing doesn't use a ton of data, but if you are downloading large files, streaming video, etc., those can be data hogs.

[Richard-BKK]

Another jump in data usage can be that you installed or upgraded to the new Google picture/photo manager and didn't do a correct setup. You should set the settings upload picture to Google account for backup only when using WIFI... sometimes this is not default and means all and every picture you take will be uploaded to your Google account...

[Pib]

Another jump in data usage can be that you installed or upgraded to the new Google picture/photo manager and didn't do a correct setup. You should set the settings upload picture to Google account for backup only when using WIFI... sometimes this is not default and means all and every picture you take will be uploaded to your Google account...

And during install/upgrade it defaults to being turned on to upload/backup your pictures to you Google account cloud storage but it does notify you of this the first time you open it and gives you the option to turn off cloud backup. You can also turn cloud backup off and on in the app settings.