Something on my son's iphone is using his internet data allowance at midnight every single day???

[LynneTurpin]

Something on my son's iphone is using his internet data allowance at midnight every single day ( unless he remembers to turn the wifi or mobile internet off) He went over his data allowance because of it and is now reluctant to use the mobile internet.I have been into the store and also phoned 191 but they haven't been able to help us, all they suggested was to turn the internet off at night but we want to stop whatever is accessing his phone and using his data allowance. Can you help please.

[jeffkinn]

The midnight thing is a red herring. All the data used during the day is rolled up and reported at midnight - if the people you spoke to didn't tell you that it was very poor.

iPhones are notorious for using data in the background and there are data managers you can download to track what is happening from the App Store.

Turning off mobile data when you are on Wi Fi is essential as Wi Fi sleeps when the phone sleeps (i.e. the screen goes off) and mobile data is used instead unless the phone is plugged in to the charger.

[drey_p]

Hi there

As you will have seen from a serach of the eForum, this question does get asked a fair bit.  I'm afraid that, just because the bill shows usage at midnight, it doesn't mean that the phone is actually using data at that hour.  What usually happens is that the day's usage gets totalled up and put on the bill at midnight.

Now, regarding WiFi.  If you are connected to WiFi and the connection drops for even a split second, iPhones have a nasty habit of maintaining a data connection by switching to mobile data in the background. This also happens when the WiFi goes to sleep.  The only way to prevent this is to make sure that mobile data is turned off. 

I would also suggest checking the settings on the phone and disabling any iCloud syncing. Also, change the frequency at which apps update.  Check Facebook - this is another data hungry cuplrit. Make sure you have disabled the auto play of videos (they sneaked that into the latest update but didn't tell anyone and it uses up loads of data).

Also, install a data monitoring app such as Onavo so you have some idea of what is eating through the data.