Data Charged For App Removal?

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Android Central Question

Hello -

Re: LG Stylo 6, v10

A little backdrop to my story; my phone carrier started capping my unlimited data plan, and lately I've been reaching the cap limit awfully quick! So, I decided to go through my phone and delete/uninstall apps I'm not using, and turn off the background data on my apps to save more data, but yet I still seem to be consuming a lot of unexplained data, and so I click on my mobile data tab, and start scrolling through the apps, and I come across an app "removed Apps", and then I noticed dozens of apps that had five digit numbers; example: 10452, 10450, 10448, etc. In one billing cycle the "removed apps" consumed 4.97 GB of data; and the strange 5 digit apps close to 2 GB of data! I later figured out that every time I would delete/uninstall an app, one of the 5 digit number apps would show up right afterwards! It's almost like a double bubble! If I were never to have noticed this - these two app groupings would continue to be silent data killer's, and they don't just trim around the edges either!

My question is; do phone carriers charge data for removing an application? Why are these 5 digit numbers appearing in the app column immediately following an app being uninstalled?

Thank you!

Matt
 
Your phone resets the data counter monthly, and the day that happens may be customizable so you can line it up with your carrier's reset date. Those 5 digit numbers are simply place holders to account for the data those apps used during this counting period. It's not double counting data use. For all intents and purposes, it's renaming the entry until the next cycle starts and is no longer needed.

Look at it this way, if you used 10 GB so far this month and deleted an app that used 2 GB. The data counter would still show 10 GB used. If those place holders didn't exist, you'd count up 8 GB of use from other apps, and then be questioning where the other 2 GB mysteriously went.

For tracking actual data use, you should rely on what your carrier is reporting. Phones don't always track accurately, especially if your carrier offers free online services that don't count towards any data caps. Uninstalling apps shouldn't use any data, except for maybe a few kilobytes to report back to Google Play that the app no longer exists on your phone. Even with that I'm not sure of.