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Black Hole

Black Hole

May contain traces of nut
When I acquired this phone I set it to warn me at 3GB and limit at 3.5GB (on a 4GB allowance). I've been using more mobile data lately, because I dull the boredom of walking using BBC Sounds.

The phone is now having paroxysms because it reckons I have exceeded 3.5GB since 27th January (my billing cycle). I have checked with my BT account and that says I've used 2.3GB out of 4GB. It's going to be very annoying putting up with this until 27th Feb!
  1. Why has it got out of sync on the calculation? How can I correct it?

  2. Although I know I had to set the billing cycle and warn/cut off limits, I cannot now find how to alter them (I can only find them reported).
Any help appreciated.
 
It may vary with Android version and how butchered it has been by the phone maker - but on mine it's:
Settings / Network & Internet / Mobile network / App data usage / "settings cog" at top right.
 
(Samsung) Under Settings, I've got "Connections" (nothing else looks like Network & Internet), within which is "Data usage" which then gets me to what I was talking about... but no cogwheel.
 
They may have moved the settings for the data usage/plan depending upon the Android version and, in this case, Samsung UI.
Try to swipe down to get the notifications. Then if you've got the 'show data usage' already set, you can tap on the usage counter on this notification to take you to the settings (for data usage).
 
The cog is often 3 vertical dots. Looks like your usage may be including WiFi too.
 
Thanks for suggestions.

bottletop said:
Try to swipe down to get the notifications. Then if you've got the 'show data usage' already set, you can tap on the usage counter on this notification to take you to the settings (for data usage).
Click to expand...
Ends up in the same place

Scrat said:
The cog is often 3 vertical dots.
Click to expand...
Not got that either (kebab)

Scrat said:
Looks like your usage may be including WiFi too.
Click to expand...
Nope.

B5FE2A61-D89B-4002-BD6B-70B9BE74CE5E.png

Anybody know what this is?:

1613501315140.jpeg
 
From the first pic, it looks like the date is correct, 27th. Maybe it it only reports it now because you've got data mobile data off. Try 'on' to see if it'll allow changes to date, counters, etc
 
Can't help BH, my only Samsung is a tablet, no Mobile data.
 
Why do you have data saver on? And mobile data off? Do you need to save WiFi data?

The vanilla android screen looks like this:Screenshot_20210216-192646.png
 
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bottletop said:
From the first pic, it looks like the date is correct, 27th. Maybe it it only reports it now because you've got data mobile data off. Try 'on' to see if it'll allow changes to date, counters, etc
Click to expand...
Bingo. Turning on data un-greyed Billing Cycle, within which are the settings for Data Warning and Data Limit... which I can now turn off.

That doesn't explain the disparate calculations though.

Scrat said:
Why do you have data saver on? And mobile data off?
Click to expand...
Data saver is a mechanism for choosing which apps have access to data when in the background. Mobile data only gets turned on when I need it!
 
The little icon is data saver. I don't think you need mobile data off as wifi will always trump mobile.

4gb is a small allowance these days, my 12gb is £9pm.
 
MikeSh said:
Me and SWMBO have been running on 500MB/month for a year or more now - with the not travelling much thing. My usage last month was about 45MB :o_O:
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But BH is worried about exceeding his limit.
 
Scrat said:
But BH is worried about exceeding his limit.
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No I'm not, my limit is plenty (and I have no intention of paying for more). I am worried about an errant app eating data without my knowledge.

What brought this up was the miscalculation interrupting service! I'll turn the limiter back on again at the end of the month, and keep an eye on consumption in the mean time.
 
Black Hole said:
No I'm not, my limit is plenty (and I have no intention of paying for more). I am worried about an errant app eating data without my knowledge.
Click to expand...
So you are worried about data.
Black Hole said:
What brought this up was the miscalculation interrupting service! I'll turn the limiter back on again at the end of the month, and keep an eye on consumption in the mean time.
Click to expand...
We still don't have an explanation of why turning off mobile data most of the time makes the figure incorrect. It should be right whichever you do.

Data saver: of course, sorry, I use that too, but as a way of extending battery life. I thought for a moment you were using proxy servers that compress data.

I wasn't suggesting you pay more, just that you might be able to pay less if you shop around, or the same for more data.
 
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Scrat said:
So you are worried about data.
Click to expand...
Isn't everybody? Even if your contract was 100GB, a misbehaving app could still chew through it. I know 4GB is plenty for my personal needs, so I am no more worried than anybody else should be.

Scrat said:
We still don't have an explanation of why turning off mobile data most of the time makes the figure incorrect. It should be right whichever you do.
Click to expand...
I don't think turning off data makes the figure incorrect, it is still incorrect with data turned on. What turning data on achieves is allowing me into that part of the settings where I can set the warning and limit. (With data off, it can't exceed the warning or limit anyway.)
 
MikeSh said:
Apparently.
But I was merely questioning your assertion that 4GB was small. I've never needed more than 2, so 4 would be large for me.
Click to expand...
It all depends what you use your mobile is used for, and where. Away from WiFi, and used for big downloads, such as movies or software updates, or navigation, you can easily use that much.

My usage is small, too, but on some occasions I have used gigabytes in a month. One Scratlet has used 20gb in a month.

My point was not that BH needed more data but that if data is so cheap now, by shopping around he might get a better deal for 4gb.

What are going rates now? I mentioned mine was 12gb for around £10. What do people pay for lower data rates?

The cheapest I found with a 1 month contract, 3gb data, unlimited texts and minutes, was around £2.50pm. Sound right?
 
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Black Hole said:
When I acquired this phone I set it to warn me at 3GB and limit at 3.5GB (on a 4GB allowance). I've been using more mobile data lately, because I dull the boredom of walking using BBC Sounds.
Click to expand...
Do you know you can download most BBC Sounds programmes? Or even better use a podcatcher app to automatically download the podcast version of many of the BBC Sounds programmes? That way you can have a plethora of material to listen to on your walks without touching your mobile data allowance at all.
 
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