[Android General] sandeepn81:
When using the internet on your device that has an active carrier data plan and no WIFI network is available, the device automatically switch to carrier's data plan.

There are many instances where people with limited monthly plans have run into bloated bills due to unintentional excess data usage.

I searched far and wide across the forums, to find any tips, tricks, tools or best practices for optimized data usage, but could not find much.

This is my humble attempt to come up with such a list.

Hopefully this will help someone avoid those surprise excess usages and bloated bills.

Please bare with me if this is insufficient or if the information herein becomes outdated due to new features in latest Android versions.

I'm not an expert. I am kind of a half-noob myself :)

1. Install a Data Monitor application.

There are applications which help you monitor data usage.

They show how much usage has happened through carrier's packet data and how much is through WIFI.

They also show data usage per application.

If your ROM does not already have these features, there are so many applications available on the android market (Google play store).

Search for one that suits your needs. I personally prefer My Data Manager

Note that all these data monitor applications monitor the usage at real-time.

That means, they can only monitor your usage form the day you installed them.

Don't wait till you run into an excess usage problem, install one now.

2. Explicitly turn off packet-data during huge WIFI downloads.

If you are downloading huge data over WIFI (say a 600 MB file), and in-between if your WIFI becomes unavailable, chances are that the phone switches automatically to carrier data and continues with the download.

This is a sure shot scenario to cause surprise excess usage.

The WIFI might become unavailable due to any number of reasons like:

Straying out of the signal area - if you are moving around

Source getting disconnected - I have a cabled broadband with unlimited data on my laptop, I make my laptop a WIFI hotspot (kind of reverse tethering) using a USB adapter (wireless N150 USB adapter from buffalo). Whenever there is a power cut, my broadband connection goes off until I manually reconnect. Also, my connection periodically times off if it's on for a long time, or my laptop might restart.

The router might malfunction or in worst case, the phone's WIFI connectivity might itself dysfunction.

The point is, keep in mind that the WIFI can go off half way through the download and you might end up using carrier data.

The best solution is to turn off your carrier data. [Uncheck Settings -> Wireless and network -> Mobile networks -> Use packet data]

You can turn it on once the download finishes or once you have stopped/paused the download and you are sure that it won't use up your packet data.

This way, you can ensure that you are actually downloading through WIFi.

3. Firewall - allow/disallow data access to individual applications.

There are firewall applications on the market that allow you to:

Block internet access to selected apps.

Many apps like offline games and simple tools require full internet access permission. At first glance, this looks suspicious as these apps do not seem to have any business going online.

The main reason most of them use this permission is to allow in-app Ads.

By using firewalls, you can block internet access to selected apps that do not require internet access for their normal functioning.

Separate packet (3G/GPRS) and WIFI data.

Some apps consume too much data, like Facebook, Google plus and some games.

If you don't need to be online on these apps all the time, you can allow them only WIFI access, so that they can sync only when WIFI becomes available and they can never use up your carrier data.

Toggle blocking status.

Useful when you want to occasionally turn it on for a while.

There are many such firewall apps available on the market and some antivirus apps also come with inbuilt firewall features.

I personally use DroidWall

Note:

Provide access to all android system applications, and apps which come pre-configured from your vendor (I guess they could be trusted)

Make sure all apps that require internet access are given the access - both in WIFI and 3G mode.

Make sure known data guzzlers are denied access - both WIFI and 3G (provided they do not require access for their normal functionality)

If in doubt about any particular app - I prefer to provide it access. Better safe, than risk impaired functionality.

4. Download Manager - pause/resume downloads.

Say you are downloading about 10MB of data and the connection drops when you are about 8MB completed.

At this situation, you do not want to start downloading from scratch again when connection becomes available.

This way, if you are moving in and out of connection, you will end up trying to download the same data again and again, drastically increasing the usage.

You need a download manager with pause, resume, auto resume features to handle this situation.

There are many available on the market, search and use a one that best suits your needs.

This works only for downloading from browser links, dropbox, etc.

The download manager does not come into picture if you are trying to download data directly from an app

(like many games download huge data when started for the first time after installation).

I am yet to find an app which can handle this kind of situation. Something like - intercept any downloads initiated from within other apps, and provide you option to manage those downloads.

If anyone knows of any such app, please do update us.

However, most games and apps which do huge data download have inbuilt capability to manage the download.

For example, Sygic has an excellent download manager that manages maps and other downloads for it. It comes by default with Sygic.

5. Push Notification Detectors.

When you install certain applications, they might have tie-ups with certain advertisers to send add notifications directly to your device's notification bar.

Such ads are called push notification ads. They allow the developers to make some revenue and help keep the free applications free.

These notifications show up on your notification area periodically, even when the original application which installed them is not running.

As of now, I cannot find any statics/benchmarks to understand how much data push-notifications consume. But they definitely do consume some data.

It is a personal choice whether you want such notifications or not, I personally feel a little bit of data usage is OK, as it is a small price to pay and helps the developers.

But some applications might be tied up with greedy advertising schemes that do extensive push notifications and consume excessive data.

One best way is to go through the apps description carefully before installing.

If the developer clearly states that the app uses push notification adds, it shows some responsibility on the developer’s part and you can assume he has taken the steps to ensure that the notifications are not excessive and does not consume excess data.

You can then choose to either install or not install the application.

However, there are many applications which are silent about the fact that they use push notifications.

There are many detectors on the market which detect all the installed apps on your device which appear to use known notification Ad frameworks.

They do not block the Ads, but inform you which applications are causing them.

You can then choose to uninstall those applications or give them only WIFI data access or freeze them for a certain period of time to monitor your data consumption.

I personally use AirPush Detector

6. Freeze / Unfreeze applications.

If you suspect some application to be causing excess data consumption through push ads, you can freeze it for certain time and monitor the data usage to check if there is any significant change.

There are many such applications on the market which allow you to freeze/unfreeze select apps.

Most of them require root access (I do not know of any such app which works without root)

Titanium Backup (Requires Root) is the best application out there as per my opinion.

It does much more than freeze/unfreeze. It's a must have app for any root user.

PS:

Be very careful which apps you decide to freeze.

There are many apps that should not be frozen, especially system apps and some of those that come preinstalled on your ROM.

If you try to freeze any such app which should not be frozen, you might render your phone unusable.

Please refer threads related to your device to get a list of safe-to-freeze apps for your particular device.

Rooting might void warranty and has an associated risk of rendering your device unusable if done improperly.

If you are unfamiliar with concepts, read through the forums here on XDA, use the search button :)

This is all I can think of for now.

If you have any more useful tips/tricks or best practices related to data usage, please add them here, so that it can help others as well.

Cheers,

Sandeep