download the new for android Start with Why

Once you have an idea of the worst offenders, figure out ways to dial back their data usage. You can also set an alert after a certain amount of data usage, so you aren’t caught off guard. If your billing cycle ends on a different day of the month (mine, for example, ends on the fifth), you can tap the gear icon to adjust the cycle date. (This location may vary depending on your phone - on Samsung devices, for example, you will find it under Settings > Connections > Data Usage > Mobile Data Usage.) You will see a graph of your data usage over the last month, along with the apps that have used the most data. If you’re using a phone with Google’s Android software, open the Settings app and head to Network & Internet > Mobile Network > App Data Usage. (Note: If you see a large amount of data under the Wi-Fi Assist option on this page, you may want to turn it off - this feature is designed to fall back on cellular data when Wi-Fi is weak, but can backfire in rare instances when you are connected to Wi-Fi.) Then you can come back to this screen and see which app is using the most data. Scroll down to the very bottom, tap Reset Statistics and go about your life for another few days.

So if you haven’t manually reset them in a while (or ever), there is a good chance you aren’t getting useful information here. Instead, it is reporting all the data you’ve used since you last reset these settings. Here’s where things get confusing: Your “current period” isn’t your current billing period.

Download the new for android Start with Why