5 Tips to Reduce iPhone Data Usage on Any iOS Version

Reduce iPhone data usage

Yelling at your kids for playing online gaming apps might help you reduce iPhone data usage, but there are actually more peaceful ways to achieve this!

How to Reduce iPhone Data Usage 101

If you’re on a fixed monthly data plan you’re constantly thinking about how much data you use. But did you ever think about how much data your iPhone itself uses whether you’re using it or not?

Here are five tips that were published a few months ago by CNET author Matt Elliot that I think are the simplest ways to control a lot of your “data leakage” over cellular networks.

Tip #1: It’s cheaper to download rich media than to stream it

Streaming music or videos or podcasts is convenient because you don’t have to wait for it to download. However, streaming with cellular data can use up your data allowance quicker than you can say “Netflix.” Try making a habit of downloading before you listen to audio or watch videos. Of course, you can’t do that with apps like Facebook, but if anything can wait until you get into WiFi range, let it.

Reduce iPhone data usage

Tip #2: WiFi Assist is cheating on you with cellular data

WiFi Assist is a very cool feature because it compensates for weak WiFi signals by using your cellular data. Convenient, but more expensive from a cellular data perspective. Simply turn off WiFi Assist and save your cellular data for when you really need it.

Reduce iPhone data usage

 

Tip #3: Restrict your iCloud Drive usage to WiFi-Only

If you work with a lot of documents and you’ve set up an auto backup to iCloud, you may want to rethink that. The Megabytes add up, and before you know it you’re poorer by several Gigabytes and your billing cycle is still a week away. Turn off iCloud Drive backup off or simply prevent it from using cellular data.

Reduce iPhone data usage

 

Tip #4: Restrict App updates to WiFi-Only

The same goes for app updates. You can prevent apps from using cellular data to auto-update, or you can set them to only update when you’re connected to a WiFi network. Believe me, this is one of the best ways to reduce iPhone data usage, especially if you have a ton of apps on your phone.

Reduce iPhone data usage

 

 

Tip #5: Background app refresh could be draining your data

App refresh is nothing but a constant stream of data retrieval between the app and its source. It’s a good thing because it keeps your app data up to date and ready to use whenever you access it. However, it sucks up an unbelievable amount of data on a regular basis. As with the other tips, set your apps to refresh only over a WiFi connection.

Reduce iPhone data usage

You should be able to save several Gigabytes of data just using these tips. There are more advanced methods you can use, which I’ll cover in a subsequent article.

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