Help me troubleshoot a phone!
September 26, 2021 10:21 AM Subscribe
What sorts of DIY phone diagnostics/analytics can help me troubleshoot a really weird iPhone problem?
We had a very strange thing happen yesterday. My wife and I went outside for a walk, and in less than one minute, we went from 50% data remaining in our monthly plan to "you're running low on data" to "you're out of data" to "you've been charged for another gig of data". We got about six texts from Verizon in a row documenting the rapid immolation of our monthly data.
Looking at the My Verizon app, it appears that my wife's phone, an iPhone 8, was the culprit, but there's no obvious reason that we can see for this to happen. She wasn't even using the phone at the time - it was in her bag - and she only had, like, a handful of websites and a couple apps open.
The My Verizon app is spectacularly unhelpful - it shows what type of app consumed what percentage of data, but that's as deep as it goes. It doesn't break down "social" into the various social apps, for example. And looking at the breakdown for her phone in the My Verizon app, nothing really looks out of the ordinary anyway.
So I had a chat session with Verizon just now and they were as spectacularly unhelpful as their app was - largely because they use the same My Verizon app to "troubleshoot" customer problems. I was repeatedly told, basically, "sorry but there's no way to know anything", which I struggle to believe is true.
They also say "sometimes apps use a lot of data" which, well, fine, but why doesn't this happen every time my wife's phone goes outside? Something was different this time, and I really want to try to find out what. She's not a gamer, there was no streaming media running on her phone at the time, none of the "usual" data hog suspects seem to be in play, given what we were doing.
So that's my question - is there any way I can do any sort of troubleshooting of phone/data activity from my end? Are there apps we can use to look back at data use over a time period and at least come up with some theory about what happened, even if we don't drill into a precise solution. I'd at least like to be able to know more than we know right now, which can be summed up as "Verizon are ridiculous".
We had a very strange thing happen yesterday. My wife and I went outside for a walk, and in less than one minute, we went from 50% data remaining in our monthly plan to "you're running low on data" to "you're out of data" to "you've been charged for another gig of data". We got about six texts from Verizon in a row documenting the rapid immolation of our monthly data.
Looking at the My Verizon app, it appears that my wife's phone, an iPhone 8, was the culprit, but there's no obvious reason that we can see for this to happen. She wasn't even using the phone at the time - it was in her bag - and she only had, like, a handful of websites and a couple apps open.
The My Verizon app is spectacularly unhelpful - it shows what type of app consumed what percentage of data, but that's as deep as it goes. It doesn't break down "social" into the various social apps, for example. And looking at the breakdown for her phone in the My Verizon app, nothing really looks out of the ordinary anyway.
So I had a chat session with Verizon just now and they were as spectacularly unhelpful as their app was - largely because they use the same My Verizon app to "troubleshoot" customer problems. I was repeatedly told, basically, "sorry but there's no way to know anything", which I struggle to believe is true.
They also say "sometimes apps use a lot of data" which, well, fine, but why doesn't this happen every time my wife's phone goes outside? Something was different this time, and I really want to try to find out what. She's not a gamer, there was no streaming media running on her phone at the time, none of the "usual" data hog suspects seem to be in play, given what we were doing.
So that's my question - is there any way I can do any sort of troubleshooting of phone/data activity from my end? Are there apps we can use to look back at data use over a time period and at least come up with some theory about what happened, even if we don't drill into a precise solution. I'd at least like to be able to know more than we know right now, which can be summed up as "Verizon are ridiculous".
Did some of Verizon's texts get delayed, then sent all at once?
posted by theora55 at 10:36 AM on September 26, 2021
posted by theora55 at 10:36 AM on September 26, 2021
Definitely check the "Cellular" settings - it should show you things broken out by app.
It could be something like, "One of her favorite podcasts messed up while updating their feed, causing her phone to re-download a year's worth of episodes." Or an iOS update trying to download, something like that.
posted by mskyle at 10:41 AM on September 26, 2021 [2 favorites]
It could be something like, "One of her favorite podcasts messed up while updating their feed, causing her phone to re-download a year's worth of episodes." Or an iOS update trying to download, something like that.
posted by mskyle at 10:41 AM on September 26, 2021 [2 favorites]
You might check the app update history to see if any auto-updated while you were on your walk. And if so, I would make sure that app updates can only be downloaded over wifi, not cellular.
posted by mezzanayne at 10:46 AM on September 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by mezzanayne at 10:46 AM on September 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
And if so, I would make sure that app updates can only be downloaded over wifi, not cellular.
Yeah - once in a while I need to download a parking meter app or something while I'm out and about, or a transit app while I'm on vacation, but in general I don't let the App Store use cellular for exactly this kind of reason.
posted by mskyle at 10:51 AM on September 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
Yeah - once in a while I need to download a parking meter app or something while I'm out and about, or a transit app while I'm on vacation, but in general I don't let the App Store use cellular for exactly this kind of reason.
posted by mskyle at 10:51 AM on September 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: @theora55 - nope, they were pretty much real-time. Both I as the account owner and my wife as the phone in question got them.
@vert canard et al: Good call on the wifi-only updates; we've done that and have reset the stats so in a day or three we may be able to see which apps may be contributing to the problem. I'm still hung up on the fact that the amount of data in question is so big, though - it was over 3 gigs of data in almost no time. That's a lot of apps if that's the only cause!
Updating apps as a cause makes sense, but considering that apps update automatically on wifi, and my wife's phone is on wifi about 99% of the time, it's strange to me that just leaving the house would all of a sudden force 3 gigs worth of updates.
posted by pdb at 11:16 AM on September 26, 2021
@vert canard et al: Good call on the wifi-only updates; we've done that and have reset the stats so in a day or three we may be able to see which apps may be contributing to the problem. I'm still hung up on the fact that the amount of data in question is so big, though - it was over 3 gigs of data in almost no time. That's a lot of apps if that's the only cause!
Updating apps as a cause makes sense, but considering that apps update automatically on wifi, and my wife's phone is on wifi about 99% of the time, it's strange to me that just leaving the house would all of a sudden force 3 gigs worth of updates.
posted by pdb at 11:16 AM on September 26, 2021
Some apps do background syncs, and the way Apple designs its OS and apps hides all the details from you in the name of "user experience", means a LOT of background data, SOMETIMES, if you don't restrict apps to Wifi only and/or get on WiFi all the time.
The long-term solution is move to Visible, which is $40 a month and still uses Verizon's network.
posted by kschang at 11:18 AM on September 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
The long-term solution is move to Visible, which is $40 a month and still uses Verizon's network.
posted by kschang at 11:18 AM on September 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
It sounds like your wife's phone was in the middle of some kind of update via WiFi, then when you left the house, the update continued but switched to cellular as the WiFi dropped out.
Here is a Verizon-hosted page about a complaint similar to yours, in which people blame an iPhone feature called WiFi assist which is designed to switch to cellular when WiFi is inadequate.
posted by jamjam at 12:56 PM on September 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
Here is a Verizon-hosted page about a complaint similar to yours, in which people blame an iPhone feature called WiFi assist which is designed to switch to cellular when WiFi is inadequate.
posted by jamjam at 12:56 PM on September 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
> I was repeatedly told, basically, "sorry but there's no way to know anything", which I struggle to believe is true.
Just want to say: I used to be a Verizon chat agent and this was entirely true. Maybe at some higher tier of troubleshooting or network administration that you're likely to never be able to talk to, they can see and know more, but as far as teir 1 internet chat or phone reps, those folks have pretty much the same level of access to your data usage info as you do. You actually have more because they can't look on the phone itself at the Cellular settings and stuff like mskyle mentioned above.
posted by glonous keming at 5:18 PM on September 26, 2021 [2 favorites]
Just want to say: I used to be a Verizon chat agent and this was entirely true. Maybe at some higher tier of troubleshooting or network administration that you're likely to never be able to talk to, they can see and know more, but as far as teir 1 internet chat or phone reps, those folks have pretty much the same level of access to your data usage info as you do. You actually have more because they can't look on the phone itself at the Cellular settings and stuff like mskyle mentioned above.
posted by glonous keming at 5:18 PM on September 26, 2021 [2 favorites]
iOS15 is causing a ton of apps to update right now, so 3 gigs does not seem that high to me. I have both my phone and iPad set to auto update apps on wifi, but I can still go in to the app store and find a few apps that need updating almost all the time. I think that, like the OS updates, the phone is not checking for updates all the time. You would think that time frame would be less than 24 hours, but when the app servers are busy, it may be less often.
We had limited minutes on our (nonVerizon) plan up until last year when we both started taking multiple work calls from home. I changed our plan and now we get everything unlimited for the same price. It might be worth checking if they have a better option if you haven't changed your plan lately.
posted by soelo at 9:20 PM on September 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
We had limited minutes on our (nonVerizon) plan up until last year when we both started taking multiple work calls from home. I changed our plan and now we get everything unlimited for the same price. It might be worth checking if they have a better option if you haven't changed your plan lately.
posted by soelo at 9:20 PM on September 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
FYI, kschang mentioned Visible @ 40/ month. You can join a party and get service for 25/month. You can find a party on Reddit, or memail me and you can join the one I’m in. It’s a gimmick, no obligation or anything. Visible uses Verizon’s network, no contract, but or bring your phone.
posted by theora55 at 6:10 AM on September 27, 2021
posted by theora55 at 6:10 AM on September 27, 2021
Since other's have mentioned it, I'll plug Visible too. I'm in a party I found on Reddit. $25 a month for unlimited everything. Occasionally, I'll get data slow down, but it's not too bad. I can also tether, if that's a concern.
posted by kathrynm at 10:23 AM on September 27, 2021
posted by kathrynm at 10:23 AM on September 27, 2021
This thread is closed to new comments.
I’d suggest resetting stats, and then seeing which apps consume how much data, if you haven’t tried that already.
posted by vert canard at 10:31 AM on September 26, 2021 [8 favorites]