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How to control the Facebook App's appetite for data

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prepbgg

Well-Known Member
The Facebook App seems to be extremely data hungry. Today I noticed that it downloaded 5MB in about a minute. All I did was start the App to display my news feed then navigate to a friend's wall. I didn't follow any links to view any photos or movies or whatever.

Does anyone know why it should download so much? Surely some snippets of text and a few thumbnail pictures should only need a few tens of kilobytes.

More importantly, is there any way of using Facebook without it downloading huge gobs of data?

(I'm using a Samsung Galaxy Note, but have noticed similar behaviour on an HTC Hero.)
 
you can't adjust how much data the FB app decides it needs to download. All you can do is curb how often it checks in the background. You can try to use alternative FB apps...maybe those work more efficiently
 
Thanks for the advice. I'll try accessing FB through the Browser or Opera. Are there alternative apps you would recommend?

Do you have any idea what FB could be doing when it downloaded 5MB within a minute of being started? I thought perhaps it might have been caching lots of photos, but when I tried using the app off-line it said it had no internet connection and refused to show me anything.
 
Friendcaster is the best alternative Facebook app I could find. Just be prepared to be not able to access the walls and posts of certain friends who have disabled third party app access.
 
Friendcaster looks good, but it crashes frequently. (No force close message, it just disappears from the screen leaving an error notification which prompts me to email an error report.)
 
Try just using the mobile FB site, it's honestly just the same as the app but isn't constantly running. It's actually a heck of a lot faster too. It won't sync your contacts but if you don't care about that then give it a whirl.
 
Thanks for your answer.

By "the FB mobile site" I assume you mean in a web browser. Is it possible to upload photos using this? I find that uploading photos via the FB app uses surprising amounts of data ... if I reduce a photo to say 100 kilobytes before uploading the FB app uses a megabyte or more to upload it.

I ask these questions because I'm going to France soon and would like to be able to upload photos and view FB posts.
 
Yes, you can upload photos, I do all the time with no trouble. You can't upload them from you gallery directly (since you aren't using the app it's not an option) but when you are in FB you can upload them. I'm honestly not sure if the app can do multiple photos at once but through the mobile it's just one at a time. No idea how much data is used to upload.

It's m.facebook.com

I have a shortcut/icon on my home screen and it auto-signs in when I open it and when I back out it is totally closed, nothing running. Play around with it, upload some test pics and see if it is something that will work for you.
 
Clementine_3 said:
Yes, you can upload photos, I do all the time with no trouble. You can't upload them from you gallery directly (since you aren't using the app it's not an option) but when you are in FB you can upload them. I'm honestly not sure if the app can do multiple photos at once but through the mobile it's just one at a time. No idea how much data is used to upload.
Click to expand...
The reason I asked was because I tried first in Opera Mobile, which doesn't seem to allow photo uploading. However, the Android Browser seems to work fine.

[The reason I switched to Opera was that I had found that the built-in Browser intermittently stopped working properly ... when I tapped on links nothing happened. This seemed to be associated with RAM running a bit low (say, only 100MB free out of 800MB). Opera has its own niggles, but I've not encountered that problem yet.]

So, currently I'm using Opera for most web browsing and trying out the Android Browser for m.facebook.com. So far, I've not noticed it using multi-megabytes just to view my news feed and a friend's wall (which is what I saw the Facebook App do.)
 
I've never tried Opera, just use the stock browser so can't help you there.
Glad you are having success though! It's just like viewing any other website really so it shouldn't be such data hog. I haven't used the FB app in a long time, it was sooo slow and the mobile site is soooo fast. lol
 
prepbgg said:
I should like to try Fast Facebook but I can't get past a "you must login" dialog [after I have logged in].
Click to expand...

I have no idea what your problem might be....When I first ran the app, Facebook asked me about allowing a few permissions.....I just allowed all of them it asked for. I imagine if you unchecked particular permissions, the beta app might be screwy for you. After (or before, I can't remember), I just put in my facebook login and everything loaded up fine. Honestly, I think that Fast Facebook app is incredibly fast and streamlined...and its just in beta.
 
I have exactly the same problem. FB seems to use 5mb or more a day without me even going into it!

I have a Galaxy S2. Turned off Notifications, Background Data etc. Installed Onavo to monitor and restrict the app too, but no difference. emailed FB support but got no response.

Shame as I liked the app. Had to uninstall and go back to browser.

Seems fishy to me.
 
I noticed today that simply following a "View Post" link in an email to open the post in the Android Browser used 400 kilobytes. So, it's not just the Facebook app that is surprisingly data hungry. Why should a few lines of text and a couple of small thumbnails (one of them very small) require more than a few tens of kilobytes?
 
log in to facebook. click on account settings>security settings>deactivate account. type in the phrase in the confirmation box. check your email and click the link.

walk outside.... enjoy the freedoms of never having to deal with facebook again
 
You can email pictures to your facebook. I like to do that so I can pick the exact size/resolution that I want.
 
prepbgg said:
The Facebook App seems to be extremely data hungry. Today I noticed that it downloaded 5MB in about a minute. All I did was start the App to display my news feed then navigate to a friend's wall. I didn't follow any links to view any photos or movies or whatever.

Does anyone know why it should download so much? Surely some snippets of text and a few thumbnail pictures should only need a few tens of kilobytes.

More importantly, is there any way of using Facebook without it downloading huge gobs of data?

(I'm using a Samsung Galaxy Note, but have noticed similar behaviour on an HTC Hero.)
Click to expand...
Tested on iphone 5s, must be same for android users.

No settings can take away the fact the APP always refreshes and syncs and downloads DATA in background. Even if background operations are off, they will do it when you open the App and you will have to WAIT till your FB profile data is sync'd with the APP on your phone. Push notifications + background operations are Battery & Data eaters. Data Plan = Money in the world of Smartphone.

If i may Ask, Can you think of using FB on the Mobile Browser instead if you were to login only once into FB and 1 TAP takes you straight to LOGGED-IN FB Mobile Website for a Battery Friendly and Data Friendly approach to FB?

I ran a test on my iPhone 5s Today (27th october 2014)

FB app store data size - 70.5 MB ( this is what is written on the app store)
After Install app size - 104 MB (probably downloaded updates)
First time App opening size in settings - 114 MB ( not sure why it took 10MB just to open the FB app)
After login to FB, app size became - 131MB ( 17MB just to login to FB on the native APP)
So FB instaly became 131MB on my phone without even browsing it for ONCE.
After browsing my own profile + 50 photos. and 1 video link, FB App size - 197 MB

I tried a new app called "whats local today", it provides a mobile website to access fb,twitter,linked in,google+,tumblr on 1 screen.

SEE for yourself what were the results of the same test on my iPhone 5s.

Whats local today App store size - 56.6 MB (this is what is written on the app store)
After install app size- 64 MB
First time app opening size - 98.4 MB ( downloaded updates after opening the app for the first time)
After login and browsing on fb - 102 MB.
It presented a mobile website of FB where i only need to login once and it opens fb for me the next time i open this app.
After browsing my own profile + 50 Photos + 1 video link of FB through this app, App size - 119MB
Its a new style mobile browser. login once only. then fb mobile website available at a single tap.
uses 35-40 % less data than fb native app.

Please test it for your self. i tested it on iphone 5s by instantly switching in between Storage SETTINGS PAGE and the Steps i mentioned Above from App store to APP Install without even browsing once)

"whats local today" Doesn't run in background at all because its a browser loading a simple page.
Messaging is available but no push notifications because of the mobile website version of fb.

"whats local today" is a cool, battery & data efficient way of using fb and other social media. Only need to login once and browser automatically opens it next time for you so it works just like an APP ICON.

I have deleted the FB + other native apps from my phone and the battery has improved significantly.

whats local today works well for me as FB is still just a TAP away & provides Messaging as well.

please try it for yourself and you shall SAVE YOUR MONEY by using lesser Mobile DATA.
 
prepbgg said:
Thanks for your answer.

By "the FB mobile site" I assume you mean in a web browser. Is it possible to upload photos using this? I find that uploading photos via the FB app uses surprising amounts of data ... if I reduce a photo to say 100 kilobytes before uploading the FB app uses a megabyte or more to upload it.

I ask these questions because I'm going to France soon and would like to be able to upload photos and view FB posts.
Click to expand...


First of all how are you measuring the data? Because if your isp is poor say and loses packets regularly, your phone might send say 100k out get no response so resend it get a response that 30k of the packets were received so it would send the other 70k of packets again this would be 270k of data sent for the original 100, can't blame the app for poor data accuracy of the said isp.
 
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