T-Mobile data overrides wifi; T-Mo auth request to blame?

[akuki]

akuki,

did you ever try a hard reset?

Sorry, didn't see this post until now.
Isn't hard reset a factory reset? And enough to ruin your whole day? I'm wary of it because I haven't looked into how to reinstate all my data/settings. What are the steps you're using Bigballer? Or would you lead me to a good link?

 

[akuki]

OK, here's an update since the month is over.

Phone measured data usage, 30 days: 3.44 GB. T-Mobile's measured data usage: 4.7 GB. (That's 37% more than the phone measured.) The numbers would have been much higher, except I had data turned off most of the last 2 weeks, and listened to downloaded media on my commutes.

I had contacted T-Mobile 3 times during/after the month, they told me to check allow data roaming in settings, and suggested watching what happens next month. I had also contacted a few reps at LG, but each deferred me to T-Mo, saying it's T-Mobile's software(?). I assume it's GMS Android or LG software on a Nexus 5.

At this point I'll wait to see what happens this month, or do a suggested hard reset. Thanks for reading and your suggestions.

 

[Jeremy8000]

Hmm... Have you noticed in any months past that sometimes your phone shows more data used than T-Mobile reports?

I don't know if it's still the case currently, but in the past, one would often see data usage and/or minutes used on a partner network not appearing on one's total usage as reported by the carrier for sometimes weeks, or even over a month, as the partnering carrier might only transfer that information (in bulk, for all users) on a weekly or even monthly basis. If that's the case, then perhaps you were using data on a partnering network during an earlier month wherein T-Mobile's then-current totals were shown as less than that as metered by your phone at the time.

 

[akuki]

I don't know if it's still the case currently, but in the past, one would often see data usage and/or minutes used on a partner network not appearing on one's total usage as reported by the carrier for sometimes weeks, or even over a month, as the partnering carrier might only transfer that information (in bulk, for all users) on a weekly or even monthly basis.

This would make sense, but there's no data roaming on this $30/100 min/5GB account. Could they have delayed posting some of August's data use until September though? I recall longer car trips that month, so lots of streaming music.

Sent from my Nexus 5 via Android Central App

 

[Bigballer]

Sorry, didn't see this post until now.
Isn't hard reset a factory reset? And enough to ruin your whole day? I'm wary of it because I haven't looked into how to reinstate all my data/settings. What are the steps you're using Bigballer? Or would you lead me to a good link?

All of the Google settings and all your apps would reinstall, only settings you would have to redo are the individual app settings.

That is if it's checkmarked to backup your apps and settings

 

[Jeremy8000]

This would make sense, but there's no data roaming on this $30/100 min/5GB account. Could they have delayed posting some of August's data use until September though? I recall longer car trips that month, so lots of streaming music.

Sent from my Nexus 5 via Android Central App

I'm inclined to suggest that in some areas, T-Mobile might partner with other carriers if they have a lack of service in an area they don't want to be seen as lacking, where they allow data usage as if it were on their network. I'm not sure if when provisioning service to the phone (where among other things they load the roaming database that allows/disallows service on other companies' towers) they are able to cause the phone to override the broadcast network ID to instead say T-Mobile, but you might easily not have noticed it. This might be a stretch, but it's the only thing I can think of that might explain it.

All of the Google settings and all your apps would reinstall, only settings you would have to redo are the individual app settings.

That is if it's checkmarked to backup your apps and settings

While all the basic OS settings and apps would reinstall, specific app data would not necessarily follow suit (e.g., you might lose progress in a saved game). I'm sure there are some apps/utilities out there by use of which you'd be able to fully back up all data and restore.

 

[nmyeti]

Bringing this post back from the dead. This month i'm having the same symptoms, although the discrepancy between data reported via Android and T-Mobile is much more extreme. T-Mobile sent me a text today saying that i'd use all 5GB of my data. Android's data usage app shows roughly 800MB for the same time period (since the 1st of this month). I've had this plan pretty much since the nexus 4 launched and i have never used more than 3GB in a month.

T-Mobile blames me, but opened a support ticket to "look into it." I'm pretty sure something is goofy on their end and they just don't really know it yet. I'm thinking of moving to a different carrier/mvno though because I do not want to deal with throttled speeds for the next 2 weeks. I'm going to try to stick it out till Monday when the info from the support ticket should be ready, but I'm starting to feel like Tmobile is being "carrier" rather than "uncarrier" here.

 

[akuki]

I also had trouble reaching 3 MB in any month with T-Mobile since November when I opened the account. I hope it's a temporary problem that I believe is on their end. I've been turning off data while at work and home, but won't continue that.

 

[gnr_2]

So what happened?

 

[akuki]

I wasn't able to get any additional info, but thankfully data usage reads are back to normal. T-Mo said their numbers are correct, and I can only guess there was a lag in posting the previous month's usage.

From Nexus 5 via AC App

 

[gnr_2]

I recently downloaded an app called Onavo Count because my data usage page in settings no longer works. Try using that and see if it gives you different numbers than your phone since it will count everything. I had AT&T for a month and liked that their app would notify you of your data usage. Onavo will do the same.

If T-mobile is getting data delayed, it should be counting against the month it was used, not the one they received it in.

 

[Bront]

Also, make sure your billing dates match up. If they don't, it's possible your records are off a day or two from TMobile's billing cycle.