Do iPhone Background Apps leaks bandwidth?

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
I mean do they constantly download Advert in the background ... etc?



I can understand bandwidth being taken from Push notification. But these are in Kb size and it would take 1000s for them to be relevant.



I cant understand where my bandwidth is gone. On my old iPhone 3G i used only 120 - 200MB. Now on iPhone 4 i am up to 350MB within 3 weeks!!!!!!!!!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,326moderator
    Yeah it definitely uses more bandwidth with multi-tasking. If you have news feeds that update frequently and they are left open, it can use a fair amount - 64k of text every 10 minutes for 1 week is >100MB of usage. A web page with Google ads might update regularly too. They should really allow you to break bandwidth usage per app so you can find the culprit even if it's a diagnostic mode.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    ksecksec Posts: 1,569member
    Isn't that basically passing money to Network Operators? How is this fair? Even though i want Multi Task. I want it to resume automatically, not running in the background leaching bandwidth all the time.



    If having Saferi Opened in the background means it is constantly running Web Ads, then i think i have to fire an email to Steve Jobs for complaint.
  • Reply 3 of 7
    ksecksec Posts: 1,569member
    I am also reading that Background apps are not suppose to constantly leaking bandwidth under the current implantation. Any iPhone dev could explain?
  • Reply 4 of 7
    akacakac Posts: 512member
    Apps have 10 minutes of background time to run and that's for long running tasks. So no, apps won't be downloading ads or refreshing news feeds in the background.
  • Reply 5 of 7
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,326moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Akac View Post


    Apps have 10 minutes of background time to run and that's for long running tasks. So no, apps won't be downloading ads or refreshing news feeds in the background.



    I thought it would allow unlimited background tasks if you for example had a GPS app running speaking directions and had to take a call. I guess 10 minutes is long enough though and makes sense to preserve battery life.



    The data usage might be down to the following instead:



    http://discussions.apple.com/message...ageID=11963683

    http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/new...om-data-usage/



    You'd have to check the data usage bill. Data usage per app and timestamps would be quite useful to store on the phone to check where the usage is coming from.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Akac View Post


    Apps have 10 minutes of background time to run and that's for long running tasks. So no, apps won't be downloading ads or refreshing news feeds in the background.



    Hmmm... I'm pretty sure this is inaccurate. There are a few kinds of "background apps", the usual one being an app that just knows how to put itself to sleep... and it only has a couple of seconds to do so. This sort cannot use any CPU or bandwidth. Other kinds are GPS navigation apps (unlikely to be the cause here), phone services (e.g. Skype ... potentially could "leak" bandwidth), and background audio players (e.g. internet radio ... definitely will use bandwidth while playing). These complaints seem to be common enough, however, that this isn't related to multi-tasking. There are also reports that this happens on the 3G, which doesn't support multi-tasking at all. I've seen a few suggestions on the Apple support forums for things to do in order to eliminate this problem.
  • Reply 7 of 7
    tulkastulkas Posts: 3,757member
    Programmer is correct. There are 7 distinct APIs for multitasking in iOS 4.

    Background audio, Voice over IP, Background location, Push notifications, Local notifications, Task finishing and Fast app switching.



    Some of these will result in actual background task running. Background audio, Voice over IP, Background location and Task finishing are good examples. Task finishing will only continue to use bandwidth as long as there is a task to complete, i.e. uploading a video. Once that is done, the process will terminate. Background audio, being audio, should be fairly obvious to the end user if it is still running. If you are streaming audio over the network, then this to will continue to use bandwidth. VOIP will maintain a network connection to the VOIP system but shouldn't be doing much more than keep alives. Background location would be using wifi triangulation and wouldn't be using data unless the app is a nav app that pulls data from the network.



    What most people see as background task, Fast app switching, shouldn't result in any bandwidth since these apps are no longer running but are in a suspended state. They are basically closed, but their state is store in memory for fast retrieval.



    I don't think there is an API for apps like newsreaders that would allow them to keep updated in the background. Nor one that would allow an app to sit downloading ads in the background.



    OP: You said your usage went from 120-200MB to 350MB over three weeks. Is it possible that some of this is simply because you have a brand new, vastly faster iPhone 4 and have been using apps that use data more often?
Sign In or Register to comment.