Joshua Fish
Lurker
I'm not an expert on any level, I won't even root my phone. I bought Net Guard and it is a fine app, there is a slight learning curve for me. Once I get the hang of it I'll try to start watching the logs.
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kieseyhow
Newbie
My 'android.os' process is behaving itself so far this month, at only 142MB. Very acceptable compared to the gigabytes of use for previous months. My worst month logged a 17GB data usage just for that one process, not including the other apps.
Has anyone made any new discoveries?
Someone asked me before if my device was rooted, and no, it is not. I did however disable several core proceses and apps using ADB, and a terminal. This improved things, but did not solve the problem. The low data use this month (Nov-2016), seems to have no correlation to changes made using ADB specifically four or five months ago, but the changes did considerably increase the device's battery life.
Has anyone made any new discoveries?
Someone asked me before if my device was rooted, and no, it is not. I did however disable several core proceses and apps using ADB, and a terminal. This improved things, but did not solve the problem. The low data use this month (Nov-2016), seems to have no correlation to changes made using ADB specifically four or five months ago, but the changes did considerably increase the device's battery life.
chanchan05
The Doctor
It varies. For example, I started playing a game called War Robots and started seeing a huge increase in Android OS data use. If I don't play, I don't see the data usage increase. So it appears that for some reason, that app's data usage falls under OS usage and not under the app.
Basically I could post here and say I have a similar problem, but I don't think everyone plays the same game I do. This means that there is no single reason for increased usage counter on the Android OS data use, hence no single fix. The fix in my case was stopping play of War Robots on mobile data. I sort if doubt that will work for everyone with the problem.
kieseyhow
Newbie
I had thought about that also. I could not seem to pin the data down on my device though, and saw a massive usage of 26GB during the worst month.
This 'android.os' grouping seems akin to the 'svchost process' issues that plagued Windows computers for years, until they finally updated the Task Manager with Windows 8.1. This 'android.os' process seems to be many processes that are combined and hidden under one arbitrary group. The severe problem with this is prevention of auditing data use easily. Malware could use this method to hide anything (of course this might be the purpose, so that Google can data-mine people without them knowing.) Android needs to expose those bundled processes clearly, seperating the data so it can be identified easily.
This 'android.os' grouping seems akin to the 'svchost process' issues that plagued Windows computers for years, until they finally updated the Task Manager with Windows 8.1. This 'android.os' process seems to be many processes that are combined and hidden under one arbitrary group. The severe problem with this is prevention of auditing data use easily. Malware could use this method to hide anything (of course this might be the purpose, so that Google can data-mine people without them knowing.) Android needs to expose those bundled processes clearly, seperating the data so it can be identified easily.
chanchan05
The Doctor
The list of processes under Android OS are easily viewable using GSAM battery monitor.
kieseyhow
Newbie
It clearly shows in the screenshots, that GSAM Battery Monitor bundles a lot together under "Android System". Sorry I looked into it, and while it does give a lot of useful battery information, it is not useful to identify where data is used and how within the the android.os system... It does seem like a good battery monitor app though. I may try it out for that.
The problem with battery apps is they run all the time, and thus drain the battery ... lol
Well, I installed it, and it is "calculating" It does seem to be one of the better quality battery apps out there. Thanks for the heads-up about this. Too bad it will not really give any insight into data use though. I guess we can have a little better guess according to the amount of energy each app uses though.
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Hi Sessios, forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is Pikek? I haven't found any useful info on Google, and it isn't available in Play Store.
I'm also interested to know how you identified it as the culprit.
Closed Indefinitely.
http://pikek.com/
It was an unofficial Kik client. Possibly the excessive data usage was it repeatedly trying to access the Kik service, and it not taking NO for an answer, just a guess.
http://pikek.com/
It was an unofficial Kik client. Possibly the excessive data usage was it repeatedly trying to access the Kik service, and it not taking NO for an answer, just a guess.
Thanks Mike, I did wonder. What I would call a crap app and to my thinking doesn't fit in with :-
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kieseyhow
Newbie
I know more about this now. If you have a rooted device, and know Linux, you can install a shell, then install "Perf" and profile the threads and processes on the system to figure out what is going on. If not rooted, it is a game of "pin the tail on the app" to guess which one is the culprit.
My tablet is not rooted, so I can only run linux in a VM, and that does nothing to expose the android core properly. Some battery monitors have started listing threads, but that does (as yet) not identify which thread is linked to high data usage.
The search continues....
My tablet is not rooted, so I can only run linux in a VM, and that does nothing to expose the android core properly. Some battery monitors have started listing threads, but that does (as yet) not identify which thread is linked to high data usage.
The search continues....
So I never even heard of this problem until recently when it happened to me over the last month or so. I ran out of data for the 1st time ever and was like WTF??? I figured it was something new I installed since it started right after I started a new job, and I had to update my email app and install a couple other things. Since I'm rooted I did a total wipe of everything and reinstalled an updated ROM and Kernel. Everything seems to be fine now after 5 days, but will report back if anything changes. This got me thinking though, instead of it being a problem in the android OS, is it not possible that it's some kind of virus ? I say this because as others have pointed out if it were an android bug, you would think it would be a much more common occurrence.
kieseyhow
Newbie
The issue continues for me. I have been using Gsam Battery Monitor, as it does a fairly good job of auditing power and data use, and I got rid of a few greedy apps, but nothing remotely accounting for these levels. Last month, my Android kernel used 62.58Gb of data between Jan-3 to Jan-31 2017, and 4.6GB for my browser (Youtube) for the same period. This is more than my workstation used, including updates, and downloading two AAA games. There is no cellular plan that would make this level of data-use remotely affordable. Either the reporting is incorrect, or there is some odd method of calculating data-use that eludes me. I can find no files, or software proces that can account for anywhere near this level of data-use.
Are you saying that you have clean wiped your system, cache, delvik cache and installed a new rom / kernel and the problem persists?? If so, then that almost rules out the OS , and I would say it's got more to do with the SIM card going crazy or something.
kieseyhow
Newbie
This is a wi-fi only business tablet from Samsung. And I am not the only one with this issue, as I have found many posts citing many versions of Android and many different models, carriers, from several countries, in several langages.
Wiping it and rooting, then installing a custom ROM, would be like burning your house down when the roof leaks. How am I going to discover the cause, if I take the lazy way? I want to find out precisely what causes this, as no one else seems to have done that. I have read a great many suggestions and ideas, but most of them have no relevence or are because the person did not understand the issue.
OK, I thought maybe you were saying that you tried wiping and it still persisted. If not, then I'm still saying it's a virus. So unless someone comes out with a way of fixing it, reinstalling is always an option.
kieseyhow
Newbie
I have never installed any "risky" apps, nor do i use the default insecure browser, nor is this a rooted device. I have AV and anti-malware apps and there does not seem to be any suspicious behaviours, other than this data use. What I suspect is that it is either some form of sanctioned data-mining, or a calculation error in the system.
Petr Cihelka
Lurker
I know this thread is answered, but this occured today. Got a note in the morning that I exceeded 2 from my 3gigabites. I thougt that I might have watched youtube too much, put the mobile to charge and upon trying to use chrome on my way home, I got over 20GB used.
Does anyone have any idea how and why?
Does anyone have any idea how and why?
Attachments
kieseyhow
Newbie
This is exactly what I am talking about. I have seen some months where the usage is a couple of hundred MB and then a space of time where it is 30GB, and nothing else has changed. The worst month was a usage of more than 60GB. I have no backups configured, no live streaming apps, no remote video, no automatic live feeds, and only normal well-respected apps installed. I have seen people with this problem on many different phones, and Android versions from 4 through 7. Most of these are on non-rooted devices (most devices ARE non-rooted), so really there is not consistent pattern. It seems random.
Petr Cihelka
Lurker
I don't even know how to root the phone. My situation is the same, really nothing else but stuff from google shop and updated system.
As per the OP. Are you using Samsung Cloud?
id crad
Lurker
I tried everything! The ONLY resolution is to remove your google account from the phone when not in use.
I tried installing a firewall and blocking androidOS but this failed to reduce data use. I tried blocking google account or play services which also failed. It is clear that google has tied root level processes into their own applications (such as photos, mail, etc) so there is no way to block data use. The only option is to remove the google account when not in use and re-add it when you need to update apps via google play. As a side benifit google will also no longer track you when you use gmail or their apps in the browser. YAY!
I tried installing a firewall and blocking androidOS but this failed to reduce data use. I tried blocking google account or play services which also failed. It is clear that google has tied root level processes into their own applications (such as photos, mail, etc) so there is no way to block data use. The only option is to remove the google account when not in use and re-add it when you need to update apps via google play. As a side benifit google will also no longer track you when you use gmail or their apps in the browser. YAY!
getsoutthere
Lurker
I realize this is an ancient thread now but I couldn't agree more that there is something seriously wrong with this. I went from a Windows phone to my first Android less than a month ago. I had a 2GB data plan and assumed nobody really needed much more than that but literally four days after I got my Android I started having to pay for data overages. Within a week I'd used 4GB. That's *before* I had set up any google accounts, phone backups, anything. Google Play services hogs so much bandwidth I literally am switching back to Windows. There is no way to shut it up. I thought at first it just needed to update existing apps, so I gave it some time, but I'm getting data overage messages again.
What an absolutely ridiculous way to run a system.
If there's a way to extract Google from Android I'm all ears, if anyone is still monitoring this thread.
What an absolutely ridiculous way to run a system.
If there's a way to extract Google from Android I'm all ears, if anyone is still monitoring this thread.