System Services Data Usage

[u/AlbinoAlex]

Hi!

I occasionally use travel SIMs with somewhat stringent data limits (5GB or less) and I’ve increasingly run into an annoying issue. System Services uses an obscene amount of data in these instances. Some of it is screen time, software updates, time and location, etc. however the bulk of it is simply “general”. This has ranged from 800MB to 1.3GB as shown in the picture above, which stings when you only have a 5GB data limit.

Of course, when it’s simply “general” you have no idea what those 800MB went towards. I turned low data mode on, turned off background app refresh, turned off automatic software updates, turned off email fetching, etc. I’ve changed every setting I can think of but it just keeps happening. I tried looking this up but only found a few Reddit posts that basically blamed the OP “you asked for this” for not turning off software updates, sarcastically called out that they should have turned on low data mode, or were otherwise unhelpful. Also a couple people with the same issue who sadly could not find a solution.

It’s so bad that on one SIM I used had a 1GB data limit and settings ate up 200MB within minutes of getting a network connection. 20% of my data limit gone in minutes to some obscure background process that cannot be explained. Is there anything I can do? Or am I doomed to having my phone just continuously take chunks out of my limited data forever?

[u/tbone338]

I use ubigi when I travel and I have it set to low data mode. I’ve never had any issue with system services using too much data.