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Something has to be wrong

N

new2pixel2

Lurker
Hi all,

Still in the process of learning about my first android device (pixel 2) but I am afraid at this rate I am just going to throw in the towel and go back to IOS.

I don't know why, but my data usage is THROUGH THE ROOF and I can't figure out what the heck is going on. I have every app turned off for background data, I installed a firewall allowing me to only allow certain apps access to data. This has generally helped manage my data usage for unexpected usage. I am now facing an issue with apps just sucking back the data.

I tested this using the Youtube app. Before opening the app I had used 460mb of data. I simple opened the app, clicked the first video link, made sure the resolution was at 480p and watch 1min and 30sec of that video (the total length of the video was 5min and 34s). Right at 1min 30sec I closed the app completely and checked my usage.... 17.7mb used. Please note that the video wasn't even fully buffered yet, it was maybe 3/4 of the way done buffering. At this rate I would blow through my data limit in a week. I feel like I can't even use my phone while not on wifi because every app just sucks back the data. A couple of articles with no video on my sports news app... bam 20mb. I was using a fraction of this on IOS.

If anyone knows what I may be doing wrong please help me out because if I can't figure this out in the next day or two I'm going to have to return this phone.
 
When I got mine it was quite normal for a few days, then I had a couple of days when my data usage went through the roof. I remember turning a lot of stuff off then, e.g. turning the data saver on, turning off Google Assistant, installed an ad-blocker (DNS66 was the one I tried, from F-Droid - you will find the F-Droid app in the Play Store) and my data usage came dramatically under control.

But since then I've actually turned the data saver off, have often run without an ad blocker, and even turned Google Assistant back on for a bit (I've no real need for it so turned it off again after a few days), and the data usage didn't spring up again. So unfortunately I can't tell you what the secret was, because none of the things I remember seems to be a magic bullet, but something squashed that behaviour.

Just a few thoughts: look in Google Photos' settings (which in Android are in the app itself) and check that the option to back up photos using mobile data is unticked - it's unlikely that photo backups can't wait until you are next on WiFi after all, and that certainly could burn a few MB. And I'd certainly try an ad-blocker of some sort to see whether that makes a difference.
 
I will definitely look into an ad blocker. I have the photo back up off. I kind of lost my mind when I saw how much data I used and went on a tirade to literally turn off everything that would use data. I'm hoping things slow down
 
As an example. Opening chrome searching up this site, logging into my account and posting that reply above used 21mb of data...... How is that possible? I probably just used 20mb more of data typing this. I don't get it.
 
Ok, just as an experiment I've turned my WiFi off, used Chrome on my phone to log in and type this. Doing so my data usage has changed by... 6MB.

It doesn't seem to be changing while I sit here, so I'll post this and see whether it changes noticeably.

Edit: nope, it didn't. Still sitting at the same value, so those 6MB came from loading the site and the thread it seems.
 
Yeah, just reloaded the front page, returned to this thread, opened the BBC news website in another tab, and my data use increased by 1MB. There's definitely something different with yours.

Now I have "VIP" status, so I don't get ads here. And the BBC site is ad-free. So maybe turning-off my ad-blocker and using Chrome to visit those 2 sites wasn't a good test of whether ads may make the difference...
 
That is strange. I just got the Pixel 2 as well and after a week of use both on wifi and not with GPS use and what not I have only used about 95Mb. Maybe contact your provider? I'm not sure if they could help but it might be another place to start
 
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