topic Re: High data traffic, even with background data disabled? in XPERIA archive

High data traffic, even with background data disabled?

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 08:22:40 GMT

I have a very limited data plan (30mb per month), so I use 3G watchdog to monitor internet usage

With my old xperia mini pro this was never an issue, but the xperia play has a long list of xperia related apps (e.g. Xperia PLAY, Diagnostics tool, Download agent etc) which are using more than 2mb per day, even though I have background data disabled. Killing everything with ATK has no effect, as the following apps are always restarted:

Liveware Manager

Media Server

Get Games

Diabling data traffic not an option as I use my 30mb a month for receiving work emails. Does anyone have the same issue, is there a setting I have missed? I cannot see why Sony Ericsson think their own apps are so important they can be excluded from the background data disable option!

Re: High data traffic, even with background data disabled?

Uliwooly — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 17:49:52 GMT

you can try

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup&feature=search_result

Re: High data traffic, even with background data disabled?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 11:33:05 GMT

From the description this looks like it would only work with a rooted phone?

Re: High data traffic, even with background data disabled?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:17:23 GMT

Cyanogen mod had a great feature called "Phone Goggles" - http://www.cyanogenmod.com/features/phone-goggles

Not sure if this is exclusive to the ROM, you may try searching for it in the market?

Re: High data traffic, even with background data disabled?

Johan — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 13:05:26 GMT

Note that all applications might not be encoded to use the background data feature. Which means that some applications have no option to turn off automatic communication with Internet.

But I can say that the Liveware Manger, Media Server and Diagnostics tool does not communicate with Internet, so I doubt that those app's consumes any data for you.

But here's some settings that you can check that could effect the automatic consumption of data.

Menu > Settings > Sony Ericsson > Usage info > Uncheck Send usage info

Menu > Settings > About phone > Software update > Uncheck Auto search

Also check what third party app's you are using, maybe some of them are not encoded to use the Background data option.

I believe that the Get games app only communicates with Internet when you open it. At least it seems that way, because it starts to update when opening it.

The usage of Android phones and applications are mostly based on Internet connectivity, so to get the most out of a Android phone you might need a larger data plan (note that's my very personal opinion)

But check what I've suggested above and see if it makes any difference.

Looking forward to hear from you.

Re: High data traffic, even with background data disabled?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:27:31 GMT

Thanks for the reply

I checked the settings and the send usage info was already unchecked but i have unchecked the auto scan for new software. No noticable difference yet

I use 3G watchdog pro which shows exactly how much mobile data I have received and by what. It lists usage by each installed application. No apps I have installed use a significant amount of data. The problem is 1.4mb was used in the last 10 hours by one or more of the following pre-installed services (they are all bundled together in watchdog unfortunately)

Xperia PLAY
Diagnostics Tool
DownloadAgent
Customized App Installer
Settings
com.sonyericsson.mtp.extention.update
com.sonyericsson.android.server.dormant
Account and sync settings
Service Menu
Settings Storage
VPN Settings
Customised Settings
Android System
Status Bar
Crash Monitor
com.sonyericssson.accessorykeydispacher
CredentialManagerService_1_5
com.sonyericsson.usbux
QC SEMC Service
Playstation Pocket
Google Backup Transport

I would love to have a better data plan, but actually this is a company SIM card and their allowance (I get to pick the phone). This is normally perfectly sufficient for exchange email (using touchdown), so I am completely stuck in that respect. By not using internet hungry apps (google maps etc) data usage was kept under 30mb per month with my old xperia X10 mini.

Re: High data traffic, even with background data disabled?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:37:04 GMT

Sorry mis-posted

Re: High data traffic, even with background data disabled?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:37:43 GMT

Thanks for the answer, but this seems to imply installing the phone with non SE firmware.

My opinion is that this is a regression in SE software or android 2.3 if it is not a simple setting I have missed. I accept it will be absolutely trivial to most people with unlimited contracts for SE apps to be using 2mb + a day, but in my situation or to those who have a pay as you go contract unfortunately it is a big problem.

Re: High data traffic, even with background data disabled?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:38:29 GMT

Further info:

Thought the culprit could be google backup transport, having read this

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/android/thread?tid=40921007d2f649cc&hl=en

and this

http://socialtimes.com/tracking-down-android-data-usage_b48336

but "back up my data" is already disabled under privacy. My old HTC also had this enabled and the data usage is insignificant. So I think I can rule out google backup transport.

Re: High data traffic, even with background data disabled?

Johan — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:08:40 GMT

I've been investigating this and I can see that the Xperia PLAY and PlayStation Pocket applications consumes data in the background even though background data is disabled.

I believe they do so to check for updates and licenses for games.

Another thing that I came across were that the free games I've tested shows commercial banners even though background data is disabled which also will result in data consumption.

So I'm sorry but I believe your options will be to either expand your data plan or disable data traffic, because it's unfortunately not possible to make any settings to these signature applications regarding the data connection.

I have been checking for an app which would allow you to select what applications you would like to block or enable data traffic for, but I have not found anything.

I will forward some feedback about the Xperia PLAY and PlayStation Pocket app to concerned team, but I can't promise that any changes will be made.

Re: High data traffic, even with background data disabled?

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 11:43:32 GMT

Thanks very much for looking into it further.

I appreciate that you have forwarded the information to the concerned team, and hope they will make it possible to distable data usage for these apps. Unfortunately in the meantime I have no option to change my contract so have exchanged the phone for an Xperia X10. The X10 only runs android 2.1 but it is my suspicion android 2.2/3 use more data in the background than 2.1 anyway.

Re: High data traffic, even with background data disabled?

Sun, 01 May 2011 15:21:58 GMT

Hi eumecon,

before you change your phone try Droidwall ( http://www.appbrain.com/app/droidwall-android-firewall/com.googlecode.droidwall.free ). It's a firewall for android phones and after having issues with high data usage on Xperia Arc it proved to be most useful tool. You can block every program from accessing internet and give access only to your email client.