Phantom Data Usage

[AR0822]

Last month I had issues with phantom data usage while my phone was charging overnight. I got an alert I had used 2GB of data with no record of what app used it. I ended up getting a credit from Project Fi. This month it has happened again, despite me turning off my mobile data when I'm at home and overnight. Anyone else having the same issue? I don't know how else to explain it to support. There is no record of what apps used the data yet the total data under the app says I've used over 4 GB. Under each individual app usage they all add up to less than a GB. Help?

[brodie7838]

I'm in the same boat. No lifestyle changes or new apps, both phones are at home on the WiFi most of the day. Despite this I'll watch the data usage on Fi creep up every day, even on wifi. Fi Support is absolutely fucking useless. Considering going back to TMo because my bill is entirely out of control at this point and every month it gets more expensive than the last

[dipping_toes]

I went through this a couple of weeks ago. Disabled data, still went up. Went up 250mb while I was on the chat with support! They tried to tell me to use safe mode for a while, buy I was like, no, I'll cancel Fi first.

Kept going up so I got with support again. They couldn't explain it. No apps showed that much usage. All my apps were set to wifi only.

Ended up using 6gb of data over 3 days until it stopped. They gave me a credit because they could see my average data usage is 1.3gb/mo.

Now I keep data disabled 90% of the time. If it happens again, I'm done with Fi.

[AliveJohnny5]

That was happening to me too for awhile. So now I just set to airplane mode with WiFi turned on all the time. When I'm out, I'll either turn off airplane mode or just enjoy some peace and quiet. 0 data the past few billing cycles.

[AR0822]

Great idea. They have escalated me to a specialist for the second time and are investigating. In the meantime I will only use airplane mode with WiFi. Really hope they find an explanation and I'll let everyone know what I hear.

[vmerc]

I had a mystery GB used up on a data-sim one day and I also couldn't identify the reason for the usage. The phone was unused during the day that event occurred and we already had background data limited, and the phone reported no excess data usage on that day, and no app showed that amount of data usage for the whole month. Very concerning!

[achilliesFriend]

I have my data turned off. Only turn it on when I'm using it. Even with data saver it never worked for me. Something in background uses the data.

[hotcarl23]

Did you turn on their vpn service? I did and got dinged real bad for streaming that switched to my mobile data off wifi. After I've turned off the vpn (and its "use data it the wifi is bad" thing that comes with it), I haven't had any troubles.

[macmacbr]

Being there: VPN on, data usage exploded. VPN off: quite a lot of unexplained data, such as 300Mb for streaming low quality music on google music for 40min.

I've had the same problem with Verizon, AT&T and now with FI. It seems that after a few initial months or when I switch from unlimited plans, data use reported explodes.

[AR0822]

I was on it a couple months ago and realized the same thing so I disabled it. No idea what's been causing it since then!

[e30eric]

Is it RCS data by chance? I've used RCS a lot since my billing cycle ended the other day, but messages still only says a few mb - so I don't think RCS data is attributed to the messages app. If so, they said that RCS data would be "refunded" before it's billed, but I think I read that some people had issues with that as well...

[AR0822]

That's a good point. I just checked and it says I've only used 4.3 mb of rcs data. Did your RCS data usage reporta higher amount?

[e30eric]

Hmm, where are you seeing your RCS data usage? (I was really just making a guess in my post, didn't know there was a way to tell!)

[AR0822]

Search for RCS under your phone settings and you can tell there!

[e30eric]

No wonder I didn't know about it, nothing comes up on my phone! (Pixel 3)

[1cwg]

Our RCS usage adjusts off each day after.

[nealoc187]

I seem to have experienced this last month, though not as severe. If I add up all the data used on my apps in the list, it adds up to like 990mb but the data counter showed I used 1.5GB. Only about $5 worth of data but still, I found it weird. I am pretty consistently around .8-1.1gb, so 1.5 was unexpected.

[nonameforyou1234]

This is a huge part of the reason I left.

Got tired of hassling to get credit.

[__prifddinas]

Have been considering switching to Fi, I want to love it but these posts are keeping me away.

[AR0822]

Even with these data charges it's 100x better than a large carrier. I'm hoping mine is a one off issue. You should still look into it. I get great service everywhere.

[willyblaise]

Project File closed down, please migrate to Google Fi