Mobile internet usage - is your allowance still being used even when you're not browsing the internet?

[♥ FLUMPS ♥]

In the last two months i seem to have used up all my 500MB of internet allowance halfway through the month, even though i'm hardly using it! I end up having to turn off my connection to the internet. Any ideas why this is happening? Is something running in the background which could be draining my internet allowance? I'm using an HTC Wildfire on 3 mobile and have Facebook and Twitter on it (I've set twitter to update every 30 mins) and my Yahoo mail seems to come through straight away. I never watch youtube videos or download big things on it. I recently upgraded to the new Android operating system and wonder if it's anything to do with that? Help! Thanks

[puffin57]

If you keep the mobile internet switched on all the time, then some data will be used, even if you aren't browsing anything. It won't be using data all the time, but now and again. This is due to apps or the phone updating things, checking for updates etc. For example, your Facebook. It will update every 30 mins as you set up on it, and it will do so regardless of whether you are actually looking at Facebook.

It shouldn't be down to the new system update, although there may be preinstalled things that update every so often - such as news feeds, the weather app eetc. But this would have been the case in the previous version as well.

500mb seems a lot, though, but I suppose if things update constantly it can eat it up.

What the best thing to do is only switch on the mobile internet when you are actually going to browse. Any updates will still come through, so you won't miss anything. Also, set your Facebook updates to less time - it will update when you turn it on anyway. Another thing to do is check what apps are running in the background. If you haven't got it, download a task killer app (I use advanced task killer) and this stops running apps on the phone - many run quietly in the background without you knowing, even though you think you switched them off.

Another thing to do to save your allowance is to use the WiFi instead of 3G where you can. If you have a wireless router at home, set up your phone to use that.

[Natalie]

That does seems really excessive. I get 1gb and nowhere near use 500mb of it at all. I have loads spare each month. I would your network provider up and speak to them about it xx

[wdaniel84]

Yes you allowance is still being used. I suggest you go to your settings menu and under the "accounts & sync" option, switch off "background sync".

I know that the FB and Twitter widgets use a lot of data so it might be best to only use those applications when you want to or maybe just reduce the auto update interval. Your Yahoo Mail could also be the issue especially if you are receiving emails with attachments of HTML emails which would show up with pictures and web links in the email itself.

Some apps do continue to use data so be sure to check any apps that you may have downloaded to your phone, including some games as well. But its not to do with the operating system, a huge percentage of the current phones on the market have an "always on" internet connection, so its best to make sure that only the apps and programs you want to be updated are not consuming too much data.