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Xiaomi - 1GB from google play and youtube daily ?

highland7

highland7

Lurker
Hello Team,

I have Redmi Note 4 with all updates (Android 6.0). Latest security patch 2018-05-05.
I had everything working fine, but had phone shut down for 2 weeks (i was on holidays).

When i powered it on 3 days ago after return from holidays i have noticed that it's constantly downloading data (via wifi or mobile) around 1GB daily. It's hot all the time and battery consumption is crazy. Looking at the data usage i can see that is consumed by two applications:
- Google Play Store (background data)
- YouTube (background data)

I am not using any of those actively, why those applications consume ~1GB od transfer daily in the background ?

I have tried to reboot phone multiple times, no luck, removed cached data, no luck. I have a constant transfer of around 10-40KB/s from those two apps combined.

The funny thing is: that transfer can not be blocked, background data transfer per apps seems to work only for mobile transfer. I can not disable wifi transfer for those. The only way to stop that craziness is to completely disable wifi.

Any ideas ?

Thanks,
 
Hi Danny,
Thanks for the tip, but those are system apps, i still want to use youtube or play store from time to time.
I would like to understand what is happening and why - and then solve the issue. Not to use a workaround.

Any ideas why that is happening ? Some pro-active caching for youtube/play services ? Activated recently ? Can it be somehow disabled ?

It looks like youtube preload feature is not configurable anymore. Google Play service does not have anything similar :(

Thanks,
Michal
 
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highland7 said:
Hello Team,

I have Redmi Note 4 with all updates (Android 6.0). Latest security patch 2018-05-05.
I had everything working fine, but had phone shut down for 2 weeks (i was on holidays).

When i powered it on 3 days ago after return from holidays i have noticed that it's constantly downloading data (via wifi or mobile) around 1GB daily. It's hot all the time and battery consumption is crazy. Looking at the data usage i can see that is consumed by two applications:
- Google Play Store (background data)
- YouTube (background data)

I am not using any of those actively, why those applications consume ~1GB od transfer daily in the background ?

I have tried to reboot phone multiple times, no luck, removed cached data, no luck. I have a constant transfer of around 10-40KB/s from those two apps combined.

The funny thing is: that transfer can not be blocked, background data transfer per apps seems to work only for mobile transfer. I can not disable wifi transfer for those. The only way to stop that craziness is to completely disable wifi.

Any ideas ?

Thanks,
Click to expand...

Make sure auto update for playstore is shut off.
 
It is odd that just those two apps are doing this, and the problem is compounded by the fact that they're system-installed apps. Just a couple of things you might want to try:
-- Restart into your phone's Recovery Mode and select the 'wipe cache' option:
https://www.hardreset.info/devices/xiaomi/xiaomi-redmi-note-4-snapdragon/recovery-mode/
The system cache partition is separate from your data partition so this won't have any affect on your saved data, and all cache files are essentially non-vital anyway (they're needed but when deleted just get automatically rebuilt).
-- Go into your Settings >> Apps menu, open the Play Store app and Youtube app entries, and use the 'Clear data' option for both. You initially mentioned that you '...removed cached data...' so I'm only assuming you were referring to the 'Clear cache' option. Using 'Clear data' will return both apps back to their first time used status (Clear cache just wipes the app's cache), so you might need to enter re-authentication info (user account) the first time you launch either app. And since they are both system apps you might instead encounter some reference to 'uninstalling updates'. So go ahead with that, and just let the apps update themselves later (which hopefully this time will only result in a few MBs to download and not the GB data drain mess.)
 
Thanks guys for the help here.
Yes - i have already tried both clear data and clear cache previously. I do also have autoupdate disabled in play store.
Now i have uninstalled patches - but still do see the transfer.
I have noticed few other apps which are draining transfer (but much less then Play + Youtube):
- Linkedin (9MB per hour constantly - also in the middle of the night) -> i have uninstalled it
- Gmail (11MB per hour constantly - also in the middle of the night, i receive avg 1 email per hour, small one)
- tripadvisor (3MB per hour constantly - also in the middle of the night)

All those apps doing background transfer which can not be limited for wifi (only for mobile), i barely use those apps.

So definitely that looks strange and is system wide. Phone is hot all the time and battery is drained after few hours.

What could it be ? I have started to afraid phone might be compromised somehow ?

Thanks,
 
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I would still recommend wiping the system cache at this point. You might also want to just try starting your phone into its Safe Mode and at least see if the phone is heating up even when idle.

A last resort option is to do a Factory Reset. Just be sure all your data is backed up and restorable.

Regarding those other apps you've noticed to be updating themselves in the middle of the night, have you taken a look at the battery optimization (a.k.a. Doze) feature in your Settings menu?
https://lifehacker.com/how-android-doze-works-and-how-to-tweak-it-to-save-you-1785921957
But if you have, you could just disable WiFi and mobile data every night. Phone calls and SMS still come through as those will work through your basic cellular service.
 
Man! I feel ya! See I have the same problem. It appears that somehow Google apps (all pre-install apps) are remaining active. The above mentioned clearing cache of 'Google' and 'Play Store' from the app manager and the rebooting the phone worked for me. Also try one other thing just to verify if we have the same problem. In my case once I was at the settings menu and just wiped down a bit and the waiting (without tapping into a setting) the phone strangely jumped to the top menu on its own, see if its your case too! I have no clue whats going on but when I plug in the charger, the problem comes back. Thanks Xiaomi! If you find something else post it here. I 've made a thread myself but had no replies till now! One more question, do you have the Mediatek version or the Snapdragon one? I have the Mediatek stuck at Android 6.0 (Woohoo for Xiaomi support), the Snapdragon version is on Nougat, I think.
 
Hey pgper - i do have Mediatek (deca-core) with Android 6. It looks like the problem has just solved itself within the last 5-6 hours. I've did a lot:
- cleared cache & data
- installed no root firewall and blocked traffic for youtube + google play
- rebooted multiple times
- removed the patches for youtube+google play (automatically reapplied)
- reinstalled some apps (like linked in)

The only thing i have not executed is mentioned wipe out of cache partition.
I do not have a problem with charger, after i do connect it's still OK.

I will track for 12 more hours and then will try to disable firewall to allow all traffic again.

BTW: there are similar issues for Google News app (this is a bug which is still not fixed by google):
https://www.komputerswiat.pl/aktual...e-wykorzystac-caly-pakiet-internetowy/tcrgq5p
(sorry for polish version, i was not able to locate english source quickly)
 
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