Enable data for MMS only?

[pawprints86]

I was hoping someone here could help me.

I had to call my carrier today as they charged me $5 for 0.24 or somethign of a megabite of data. I have a feeling that this happened because of facebook syncing (which, it shouldnt, i have it set to NOT auto sync in the settings, but anyway).

With my carrier MMS uses data, but it is included with my unlimited messaging.

Is there a way to tell my phone to use data ONLY for MMS messages and nothing else?

I have wifi everywhere i go. ifi could recieve MMS over wifi i could and just ditch the data entirely. but thats not the way it works unfortunately.

So i am just wondering if anyone who is more experienced with smartphones could help me?

I am on a samsung device running android 4.0.4 (rooted), with Koodo mobile if that helps at all.

Any help would be great, thanks!

 

[Golfdriver97]

I was hoping someone here could help me.

I had to call my carrier today as they charged me $5 for 0.24 or somethign of a megabite of data. I have a feeling that this happened because of facebook syncing (which, it shouldnt, i have it set to NOT auto sync in the settings, but anyway).

With my carrier MMS uses data, but it is included with my unlimited messaging.

Is there a way to tell my phone to use data ONLY for MMS messages and nothing else?

I have wifi everywhere i go. ifi could recieve MMS over wifi i could and just ditch the data entirely. but thats not the way it works unfortunately.

So i am just wondering if anyone who is more experienced with smartphones could help me?

I am on a samsung device running android 4.0.4 (rooted), with Koodo mobile if that helps at all.

Any help would be great, thanks!

You should be able to go into Settings>Data Usage. Select the monthly usage cycle, and could you give us screenshots of say the top 5 apps using your data?

 

[Golfdriver97]

UJ95x suggested to restrict background data for you apps. I would actually suggest restrict it on Facebook.

 

[pawprints86]

UJ95x suggested to restrict background data for you apps. I would actually suggest restrict it on Facebook.

It wont let me restrict it without having a limit set. It wont recognize the limit as i have data turned off (except for when i send or recieve an MMS). luckily i get a text message saying that theres a photo message waiting for me, so i dont need to randomly turn on the data to check. But still, when i need to turn on the data for that use, it would be good to know that thats the only thing its going to do.

My system tells me that in order of usage, first is messaging, followed by google services, then facebook, then chrome, then android OS, then android core apps.

But it does specifically say that this is what the device measures and that the carriers rates will be different.

just now, since i am in a wifi available place (home), i turned that on first, followed by data, and told the data to restrict on those that i mentioned. if anything somehow doesnt work i can go in and fix it, but since the phone itself has been working fine with data off i cant see that being an issue. the only thing that wouldnt let me restrict background data (i dont like that either, only background? what about everything else?) is the android OS itself. is that an issue?

 

[Golfdriver97]

I would try is as you have mentioned it. See how that goes.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[Mooncatt]

Most carriers require at least a minimum data plan for any smart phone, even if you have Wi-Fi available 100% of the time. Do you not have that, or do you and the extra $5 charge is for going over your cap?

 

[pawprints86]

I bought my own phone outright elsewhere and brought it over (unlocked) to my grandfathered (no longer exists) plan. no data included, but only $28 with taxes (im in Canada, the highest mobile price gouging country probably in the world). cant really afford to basically double that amount at the moment for a plan including data.

But like i was saying, no need for any data for anything else, just the MMS

 

[Vsweety]

ifi could recieve MMS over wifi i could and just ditch the data entirely. but thats not the way it works unfortunately.

Correct, it doesn't.
MMS and SMS are mobile network protocols only. Even if you're well connected via WiFi, if you send an SMS/MMS message it will always use the mobile network. Which is by far the slowest and most expensive m.o.

You say "With my carrier MMS uses data, but it is included with my unlimited messaging", MMS always uses data and I have a hard time believing that is included in your 'unlimited messaging' since data traffic via mobile networks is the only way telcos can make money off of messaging.
My own contract confirms that as I also have 'unlimited messaging'. But that is SMS only (within the country!), which costs the telcos next to nothing to operate. MMS, though, is not unlimited, uses data, and consequently eats into my monthly dataplan (very quickly). If I exceed the dataplan the charges for 'overs' are very considerable, if not to say obscene...
I'm guessing your contract won't be much different.

MMS is also very limited with regards to the size (resolution, image quality, duration) of pictures and videos you can send. Forget HD. Forget videos of more than 90 seconds. You will need to use the IM protocol, Instant Messaging, or other file transfer options via the internet for that.

 

[pawprints86]

Maybe im luckier because im with one of the "little guys" thats trying to keep its customers? But yes MMS is included. if im around a wifi connection so nothing else is using data, and i want to send 20 picture messages i can, free of extra charge. it uses the data network but its not considered "data" as far as their charges are concerned.

thats why id LOVE to somehow enable something to only use data for messaging and nothing else.

Just to add though... i did go in with data (and wifi) on, and disabled everything but messaging from using background data.... after my reboot this morning, i checked just for fun (again, within a wifi area) and those apps are no longer listed in the data section....

but i dont know enough about the data to know if i should disable even the messaging app as far as "background data" is concerned???

Luckily i dont send photo messages all too often, so its not a huge concern. id just like to know when i do that its not charging me extra from other things connecting to the data at the same time.

 

[Vsweety]

Maybe im luckier because im with one of the "little guys" thats trying to keep its customers?

"Little guys" can't do it for free either. They must make money or they go belly-up.

But yes MMS is included. if im around a wifi connection so nothing else is using data, and i want to send 20 picture messages i can, free of extra charge.

That doesn't sound like MMS but like IM.
Can you send, say, a 5 MB picture that way? Does it arrive? Or is it auto-reduced in size before it's sent?

 

[kg4icg]

You guys do know that MMS is data and is the protocol for sending pictures. SMS is unlimited but once you venture into sending pictures, you have sent data.

 

[Rukbat]

You can play with the APN and set it wrong for internet access, so any app trying to send or receive data, if data is on and wifi is off (or just not there) will throw an error. Make sure you screen-shot the current settings, so you can go back to them if you screw up.

But there's an MMS section and an internet section, and it's possible to set most phones to work on MMS and not work on any other internet data.

(Or you can go deeper and change the hosts file to work on MMS and redirect any other internet request to the round file, also known as 127.0.0.1).

 

[pawprints86]

So would the address called "APN" be for internet or MMS or both? Because other than that, by default nothing else is set until i reach MMSC in the APN settings, which is another web address. so things not set by default for me are proxy, server, port, username & password. but internet still works because it did fetch my facebook stats one time (before i told it not to).

So with these not set by default and still working im not sure how i could mess with them to make them work for MMS only...