Exceeding your data limit can be
costly. Follow our tutorial to ensure you never find yourself paying those
excess charges. Smartphones are always changing, and we now live in a society
where we’re using phones that enable us to browse, download and stream.
Although we have all these capabilities, it’s important to remember that they
all require data to function. If you took your phone out on a contract, there’s
no doubt you have a strict amount of data you can use per month, if you happen
to go over that limit, chances are your bill will increase.
You may think that you’ll never go
over your data limit, but it can be a surprisingly easy mistake to make. Apps
can run in the background, and while doing so they can still use up your precious
data. Therefore making sure you’re monitoring your data usage is a very
important job. Luckily, all of you with a device running Ice cream Sandwich have a handy page that you can play around with
to make sure you never breach your data limit. Here’s how to get started with
it.
- Wireless & Networks Your data usage is buried within the various settings menus on your ICS device. To kick off this process, open up the setting app from your app drawer and navigate to the wireless & Networks menu. Next press the data usage tab from the options provided.
- Data usage screen
At this point, it’s good idea to
familiarize yourself with the data usage screen. At first it can look a little
confusing, as there are several things
all going on at the same time. However, after a few minutes exploration, you
should be able to navigate it easily enough.
- Monitor app usage
Scroll down the Data usage screen
and you’ll soon find all your installed apps written out in a list. Your apps
are listed in order of which use the most data on your device. You’ll often
find that any downloading or streaming, apps will be the culprits at the top of
the lineup
- Check your charts
For this tutorial, press on one of
the apps listed. This will now take you to a screen that outlines how that particular
app is using your data. In addition to the graph at the top of the screen,
there’s a pie chart at the bottom that’s a bit more user friendly to
understand.
- Reset your cycle date
When you first start using your
ICS device, chances are your data usage monitor isn’t set to record the correct
timeframe. On the data usage main screen press the data usage cycle tab and
then select the correct timeframe that lines up with your monthly contract
dates.
- Disable mobile data
If you decide you want to temporarily
disable all your mobile data-thus stopping your apps from self-updating and
other such data intensive activities-then all you have to do is press the off
button on the mobile data switch that’s located on the main screen.
- Limit data usage
Instead of going to the extreme
the extreme of disabling sall of your mobile data, you can choose to just limit
it. Raise or lower the red bar on the chart located on the main screen to set a
limit for your device. If you surpass this limit, then your mobile data connection
will be automatically disabled
- Other option
While on the main screen of the
data usage page, press the option symbol in the top-right of the screen. This
will trigger a dropdown menu that outlines some further ways of altering your
data usage. Take a look at them and tick any of the options you want to try
- Monitor apps There are plenty of other application on the Google play Store that will help keep an eye on your data usage. For instance, apps like 3G watchdog can be installed and tasked with keeping tabs on both your 3G data usage as well as all the data you use over a Wi-Fi connection
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