Data usage limit doesn't help

Hi there, I hope not many of you had the same problem because it is very pricey. I wish to be (or actually having been) warned about the feature with data usage, i.e. what to do to turn it off and HOW.
Having had unhappy experiences with data usage cost in the past, I changed the data warning and data usage limit on my new FP2 to zero to avoid unnecessary cost. After a couple of days I checked my balance (I used a pre-paid SIM) and discovered that it has significantly dropped. The mobile data usage showed that Google Play Store was very active and downloaded something during the time I didn’t do anything.
I checked settings -> data usage -> google play store -> app settings -> It says: “Auto-update apps over Wi-Fi only” and further below: “Notify when app udates are available”. It means that the app should not have downloaded any updates by itself. I have no idea what it did with this high data usage. I didn’t use internet, didn’t dowload any apps and am frustrated about this.
I don’t know if something wrong with the settings or is it just me who is not nerdy enough to know all this stuff. I would prefer to have a hand-book like in old good times to learn all functions; the tutorials on fairphone2 are just far insufficient for fairphone/android beginners.

It took time to find the setting to change the SIM to G2. For those who might still look for it: settings -> data usage -> the menu in the upper right corner: mobile networks -> preferred network mode. Why is it hidden so far? It should be under settings -> SIM cards.
Will G2 prevent the phone from downloading anything? I hope so, otherwise I will need a dumbphone that will only do what I ask for.
Thanks and have a nice weekend, everyone!

No, this will just limit the data connection to the 2G technologies GPRS and EDGE.

I only can change the warning (black line) to zero, the limit (orange line) will jump to 1 MB.

Decreasing the limit to 1 MB however disables my mobile data connection because I already used 427 MB this month.

But you can also really turn off the mobile data usage in the data usage screen. It’s the first switch on the top labelled with “Cellular data”. That will also disable the mobile data connection. (If you use two SIM cards, please look at both SIM cards if the mobile data is disabled.)

If you tap on the “Google Play Store” in the data usage monitor, you can see how much data it used in the foreground and in the background.


Also, there is a switch to disable background data when using mobile data. Maybe you should toggle the switch on the Google Play Store app.

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Hi tofra,
thanks a lot for your comments!

Does it means, the connection will be slower, but if you give it time, it can still download a lot of data?

That’s why I was sure I didn’t have to be worried about the data usage as the limit is immediately exhausted. As I explained above, it was not the case.

Yeap, I’ve found it out. All this stuff is new to me so I thought mobile data has to do with being connected to the network and being able to receive and make calls. First wenn you lose money, you learn things better (my case) :relieved: As I started with only one SIM, I don’t know how to disable mobile data connection only for one since you make this change in general settings. Or do you have two switches for both SIMs?

Ok, it was background. I will try to find where to disable it. The app settings here (settings → data usage → google play store → app settings) don’t include this option.
I appreciate a lot your help, @TobiasF!

Yes. But this affects only the mobile data connection, not Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

Yes.

Let’s calculate a bit:
GPRS has 53.6 kbit/s. You can download 6.5 KB per second, 392.6 KB per minute, 23.0 MB per hour, 552.1 MB per day and 16.7 GB per month.
EDGE has 217.6 kbit/s. You can download 26.6 KB per second, 1.6 MB per minute, 93.4 MB per hour, 2.2 GB per day and 67.8 GB per month.

If you pay 0.24 € per MB, your monthly bill for 67.8 GB would be 16674.61 €.

Yes, in the data usage monitor you have the data usage for each SIM and therefore switches to turn off mobile data for each SIM.

Also, in case of two SIM cards, you set a preferred SIM card for data. The setting will be in Settings - SIM cards. There can only be one data SIM at the same time.

Thanks for all your help, @TobiasF! I was not convinced in the right functionality of some features; some questions remained unsolved. Also microphones and speakers didn’t work properly, so I decided to live without FP2 at least in the close future.

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