Check and manage mobile data usage on your Android phone

The amount of data used by our phone is a constant worry because there is usually a limit to the amount we can use. Check the data usage for each app and stop the worst offenders.

Unless you pay a lot for your cell phone contract there will be a limit to the amount of data you can use and it may be as little as 0.5GB or as much as 10GB. Contracts vary, but what doesn’t are the bills you receive if you exceed your limit.

Bear this in mind:

• Phone data is limited
• Keep an eye on the amount of date used
• Don’t go over your data limit

This is obviously a greater worry for those people with low data limits, but if you watch a lot of online video and listen to streaming musics, anyone can use too much data and pay the price.

Which apps are using too much data? How much is each app using? Is it foreground or background use?

These are important questions and there are different ways to get the answers you need. One method is to go through the application manager and it has features you probably never knew existed.

Let’s take a look at a popular Samsung Galaxy phone running Android 7. Other phones and other versions of Android may be different - it is impossible to cover every phone version of Android because there are so many in use.

Go to Settings

Pull down from the top of the screen and tap the gear icon to open Settings or go to the apps drawer and tap Settings. Menus vary with each version of Android, but somewhere is an Apps or Application manager. Press it. This is Android 7 on a Samsung phone:

Select an app

Scroll down the list of apps and select one that you would like to check the data usage. Let’s take a look at Facebook for example, and see how much mobile data it has been using.

Check the data usage

Under the buttons at the top in the Usage Info section is Mobile data. Here you can see the data used since the data displayed. What date does it use? Press Mobile data to dig a bit deeper into data usage.

Monthly usage

The Data Usage screen shows the amount of data used monthly. Tap the date and there are options to select the time period and you can see the last 1, 2, 3 or 4 months data usage.

The foreground data used is when you are actually using the app and it is on the screen. The background usage is the data used when you are not using the app and it is not on the screen. Apps that use a lot of background data can be avoided or blocked with the switches if you need to cut down on your data usage.

Facebook has used very little mobile data on my phone and there are a couple of reasons for this. One is that I spend a lot of time in areas with Wi-Fi and rarely use Facebook on mobile data.

Another is that the two switches are off: Allow background data usage and Allow unrestricted data usage. These limit the app's ability to run in the background. There is still some background usage, but considering the time period, a whole month, the usage is insignificant.

These switches stop the app downloading or uploading data while on the mobile data network. You might not see notifications, but they will appear when you are next using Wi-Fi or you run the app while on mobile data. Foreground usage is unaffected, so notifications appear when the app is run.

Allow background data usage for apps that need them, like email and messaging, but turn off the switches for apps you don't need notifications and updates from.

Data usage overview

Leaving the best till last, those that are familiar with Android will know that there is another way to see the amount of data used on your phone. Open Settings > Connections > Data Usage.

The features you have here may depend on your phone and version of Android. Here is Android 7 on a Samsung Galaxy phone.

• Usage: The usage for the current billing cycle.
• Data saver: Earlier we saw how to limit the data usage for a single app and Facebook was used in the example. Data saver applies this to (almost) all apps. It saves you having to configure each app separately. It may reduce updates and notifications from apps you need, so only use it when you want to reduce data usage because you are near your limit.
• Mobile data: Turn this off if you reach the data limit on your contract. It stops all apps using mobile data and can therefore avoid extra charges for data usage. It does not affect apps when you are connected to Wi-Fi and they will work unimpeded.

Data usage charts

Press Mobile data usage at the bottom of the Data Usage screen to view this interesting chart that shows several interesting things. One is the data usage over time in a chart, so you can see when you used most data.

The list of apps below the chart shows the apps on your phone and the amount of data they have used. If an app has been set to limit background data, such as in the example using Facebook above, it says Restricted, otherwise it shows the data used.

Set usage warnings and limits

On the chart above are red and black lines and Limit and Warning. Press the gear icon in the top right corner to set these.

• Billing cycle: Set this to the day of the month your minutes/data contract starts
• Data usage warning: Set this to 40 or 50 MB below your limit. You will then see a warning on the screen when this amount of data has been used and you can use the data savings methods described above.
• Data usage limit: Set this to 10 MB below your limit. Why? Your phone may not record data usage as accurately as your phone service provider, so allow a little room for error.
• Apply data usage limit: If you ever reach the data usage limit, mobile data is automatically turned off.

People often install data manager apps that monitor the data usage and display warnings or prevent you from going over your data limit, but ask yourself whether you actually need them.

All the data management tools you need might be built into your phone. Look in the settings and if you have similar features to these here, get rid of your data manager and reduce the number of apps on your phone. It will work better.