Help Investigate surge in data usage?

[Winfried]

Hello,

I have a 5GB monthly Internet data plan with my cellphone network provider. I never use it all: January 1608MB, February 760MB, March 750MB, April 3615MB, May 800MB.

But we're only half of June, and I just got a text message warning that I'm over 4GB 😒

In Settings, it says that 3,47GB were downloaded in the Backround.

FWIW, I use USB Tethering daily to sync a personal information manager between the phone and Windows, and always connect to my modem's wifi hotspot at home before downloading updates from Google Play.

Is there a way to investigate if there's a rogue/virus app lurking?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Winfried]

After reading this article, I might have found what it was. For some reason, "Carrier Services" and "Google Play Services" had unrestricted data access. I turned both off, and turned on "Use Data Saver" just in case.

As to why I didn't have that problem until now…

 

[ocnbrze]

You should have a setting for data usage. On my z find 4 it's under settings>connections>data usage.

It should list your apps and how much data was used.

 

[mikedt]

After reading this article, I might have found what it was. For some reason, "Carrier Services" and "Google Play Services" had unrestricted data access. I turned both off, and turned on "Use Data Saver" just in case.

As to why I didn't have that problem until now…

This indicates it's your "Hotspot & tethering" that's used most of your data, 3.47GB, which is whatever is tethered to your phone, i.e. your Windows computer used 3.47GB of hotspot data, assuming it's the only device that was tethered. It's NOT Google or carrier services.

Is your Windows and installed software set to do automatic updates? Were you streaming anything on the computer, like video?

Of course your hotspot & tethering can't determine which softwares and services on a tethered computer are actually using the data.

 

[Winfried]

(Couldn't figure out how multi-quoting works on this forum → old-fashioned way)

ocnbrze > You should have a setting for data usage. On my z find 4 it's under settings>connections>data usage. It should list your apps and how much data was used.

Yes, it's shown in my first screenshot ("Opera beta", etc.)

mikedt > This indicates it's your "Hotspot & tethering" that's used most of your data, 3.47GB, which is whatever is tethered to your phone, i.e. your Windows computer used 3.47GB of hotspot data, assuming it's the only device that was tethered. It's NOT Google or carrier services. Is your Windows and installed software set to do automatic updates? Were you streaming anything on the computer, like video?

Yes, Windows updates automatically, but it's the first time I experience that issue. I don't watch videos on the phone (I just read articles on the web).

If the computer is also connected to the Internet through Ethernet → modem → Internet, doesn't Windows use that connection instead of the smartphone + data plan when it's connected to the computer through USB tethering?

Is there a drawback with 1) disabling Carrier Services + Google Play in "Unrestriced data", and 2) enabling "Data Saver"?

 

[Winfried]

Thanks for the idea (Windows Update using the smartphone's data connection while Windows has its own Internet connection through Ethernet), but that option is Off by default and I didn't touch it.

Since the PIM I use relies on USB tethering to sync the phone and Windows, and I've been using that app for years without experiencing this issue… it must be somewhere else.

 

[Dannydet]

Check your phone for usb tethering, make sure it's off. Contact your carrier to make sure you are not being charged for usb tethering

 

[Winfried]

Like I said, I need to enable USB tethering to sync a Windows app with Android. I've been using that app for years, and never had a problem.

How can the carrier tell a computer might be accessing the Net through a USB-tethered smartphone?

 

[Dannydet]

I'm not saying tethering on your computer, I mean tethering on your phone only.
What app needs to be tethering? That may be the culprit

 

[Winfried]

I'll ask if someone experienced this issue with a recent update. Thanks for the idea.

 

[AugieTN]

Like I said, I need to enable USB tethering to sync a Windows app with Android. I've been using that app for years, and never had a problem.

What Windows app are you syncing with your phone?

 

[Hadron]

Are you actually sure you mean "USB tethering" to sync a Windows app with Android? I generally understand that term to mean "sharing the phone's internet connection via USB", which isn't the same as just allowing file transfer between the computer and phone. It's not obvious to me why you'd need USB tethering to sync an app, but of course I don't know what this app does.

If the computer is also connected to the Internet through Ethernet → modem → Internet, doesn't Windows use that connection instead of the smartphone + data plan when it's connected to the computer through USB tethering?

Computers generally only use one internet connection at a time, e.g. if I plug my laptop into the wired network in my office it uses that instead of WiFi (which it is also connected to). So the question is, if you connect to both, which one will it use? And if you do have USB tethering running but the ethernet connection taking precedence, it will certainly switch to using the USB internet connection if the ethernet is interrupted.

In any case I agree with others: that screen is saying that some other device, presumably your PC, ran up your data usage via either USB tethering or WiFi hotspot.