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"Removed apps" data usage in Android

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umand18

Lurker
I have a Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime+ running Android 6.0.1.

For the last few months data consumption has increased from under 20GB/mo
to more than 90GB/mo. This has been through WiFi and has used up all
my internet monthly data quota (I am on a metered DSL data plan).
Data usage shows that "Removed apps" has used about 90GB the last month and all other apps combined have used less than 8GB.

I have installed/uninstalled a couple of apps but nothing as large as the above usage. Phone memory and SD cards are 4GB each and full.

My internet provider data usage shows it was 90% download, not upload.

IMG_usage.jpg
Screenshot-2018-5-30 Consumption.png
 
"Removed apps" means data used in your last billing period by apps that you have since uninstalled. That may be one app or many, the system does not keep separate records for apps that have been removed.

The good news is that since those apps have been removed you should not have any more problems as long as you don't install them again.
 
Well, since those apps that had consumed 80+ GB of data are now removed, I don't think you should be worried about it anymore... It could have been some media streaming app or some data heavy game etc. that you must have used and have uninstalled now...

But if you to stop this from happening again, consider using a firewall like Glasswire. It tells you when an app has accessed the internet and it tells you which app has used how much data in real time. However, Glasswire cannot stop apps from accessing the internet. If you want something like that, try NoRoot Firewall.
 
Thanks. I have not used a data heavy game in a while.
Why wouldn't a streaming media app appear in the Data Usage list ?

I turn off the router every night and the usage is still excessive...
 
A media streaming app would appear in the usage list if you used it enough. But if you uninstalled it then any data usage from it would just be added to the "removed apps" total, which is the sum of all data used by apps which you have since removed.

Actually I expect that if you removed an app and reinstalled it the data it used prior to removal would still be part of the "removed apps" total; it wouldn't be able to add those back to the reinstalled app unless it had kept a record of what app had used them even after the app had been removed, which we know it doesn't do.
 
umand18 said:
Thanks. I have not used a data heavy game in a while.
Why wouldn't a streaming media app appear in the Data Usage list ?

I turn off the router every night and the usage is still excessive...
Click to expand...
Do you still have the streaming app? If you've uninstalled it, you can't see it anymore...
 
umand18 said:
....
I turn off the router every night and the usage is still excessive...
Click to expand...
Turning off your router won't magically wipe your previous data usage clean. But since your broadband is capped, if you have an unlimited data plan with your cellular service, you might be better off disabling Wi-Fi on your phone and rely more on mobile data.
 
I get what you are saying but I do not know which app was doing this because the phone
belongs to someone in my household whose software and English language skills
are very limited... I know that the person was using the phone without understanding
the data usage consequences. So I am trying to solve the problem with limited information
to avoid excluding internet access with MAC filtering.
I have restricted background data usage on that phone.
Is listening to music on Google Play Music a problem despite apparently accessing only music
saved on the SD card (no plan subscription).
The data plan resets June 1st but the data usage increase the last two days tells me
the problem is still there for now.
 
umand18 said:
I get what you are saying but I do not know which app was doing this because the phone
belongs to someone in my household whose software and English language skills
are very limited... I know that the person was using the phone without understanding
the data usage consequences. So I am trying to solve the problem with limited information
to avoid excluding internet access with MAC filtering.
I have restricted background data usage on that phone.
Is listening to music on Google Play Music a problem despite apparently accessing only music
saved on the SD card (no plan subscription).
The data plan resets June 1st but the data usage increase the last two days tells me
the problem is still there for now.
Click to expand...
Restricting background data wont work on WiFi. If you do want to restrict background data for WiFi, set it as a metered connection by going to "Network Restrictions" in the data usage menu...
 
umand18 said:
I get what you are saying but I do not know which app was doing this because the phone
belongs to someone in my household whose software and English language skills
are very limited... I know that the person was using the phone without understanding
the data usage consequences. So I am trying to solve the problem with limited information
to avoid excluding internet access with MAC filtering.
I have restricted background data usage on that phone.
Is listening to music on Google Play Music a problem despite apparently accessing only music
saved on the SD card (no plan subscription).
The data plan resets June 1st but the data usage increase the last two days tells me
the problem is still there for now.
Click to expand...
If you've blocked that phone from being able to access your home WiFi through MAC filtering, it won't be using any of your broadband data. That's an indicator some other device connected to your LAN is the culprit.
 
svim said:
If you've blocked that phone from being able to access your home WiFi through MAC filtering, it won't be using any of your broadband data. That's an indicator some other device connected to your LAN is the culprit.
Click to expand...

Have not blocked it yet. The data usage snapshot is from the phone and this has been going on for a few months on the same device.
 
Daniel Fernandes said:
Restricting background data wont work on WiFi. If you do want to restrict background data for WiFi, set it as a metered connection by going to "Network Restrictions" in the data usage menu...
Click to expand...

Thanks. This is what I did. The menu says "Restrict networks" and I turned on every network.
 
To be honest you have a bit of a problem here: you have a user who doesn't know what they are doing, and you don't know what they are doing, but is using your wifi quota. Maybe if you can identify what they did (difficult since they deleted the apps) you'd be able to tell them to not do it again, but will they just do something similar? It sounds like you are stuck with monitoring useage constantly and looking at their phone if it starts to increase rapidly. Or cut off that MAC address if things get crazy again. Perhaps you could persuade them to install an app called 3G Watchdog, which allows you to look at WiFi usage by application in the last day or last week rather than just in the last month, which might allow problem apps to be identified sooner if a problem does recurr?
 
Hadron said:
To be honest you have a bit of a problem here: you have a user who doesn't know what they are doing, and you don't know what they are doing, but is using your wifi quota. Maybe if you can identify what they did (difficult since they deleted the apps) you'd be able to tell them to not do it again, but will they just do something similar? It sounds like you are stuck with monitoring useage constantly and looking at their phone if it starts to increase rapidly. Or cut off that MAC address if things get crazy again. Perhaps you could persuade them to install an app called 3G Watchdog, which allows you to look at WiFi usage by application in the last day or last week rather than just in the last month, which might allow problem apps to be identified sooner if a problem does recurr?
Click to expand...

Yes, spot on...
Thanks. I'll check out 3G Watchdog.
 
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