REDUCE & MANAGE MOBILE DATA USAGE

The lockdown is real. What’s more real is the fact that you will be prone to using more data, working from home, staying at home, entertaining the kids at home, you name it. We will be sharing a few tips on making sure that you’re not using too much data on your data plan. You can start by checking and changing your data usage.

CHECK YOUR MOBILE DATA USAGE

1. Open your phone’s Settings app.
2. Tap Network & internet  Data usage.
3. Under “Mobile,” you’ll see how much total data you use.
4. To see graphs and details, tap Mobile data usage.
   • To pick a time period, tap the Down arrow .
   • To see how much data each app uses, look below the graph.

SET MOBILE DATA USAGE WARNING OR LIMIT

1. Open your phone’s Settings app.
2. Tap Network & internet  Data usage.
3. Tap Mobile data usage  Settings .
4. Tap Data warning. If needed, first turn on Set data warning.
5. Enter a number. To switch between megabytes (MB) and gigabytes (GB), tap the Down arrow .
6. Tap Set.

When your usage reaches the level you picked, you’ll get a notification.

SET LIMIT & AUTOMATICALLY TURN OFF MOBILE DATA.

Important: Some features won’t work when mobile data is turned off.

To set a data usage limit:

1. Open your phone’s Settings app.
2. Tap Network & internet  Data usage.
3. Tap Mobile data usage  Settings .
4. If it’s not already on, turn on Set data limit. Read the on-screen message and tap Ok.
5. Tap Data limit.
6. Enter a number. To switch between megabytes (MB) and gigabytes (GB), tap the Down arrow .
7. Tap Set.

When you reach your limit and your data automatically turns off:

• You’ll get a notification.
• To turn mobile data back on, follow the steps above and turn off Set data limit.

Note: Some of these steps work only on Android 8.0 and up.

USE LESS DATA WITH DATA SAVER MODE

This mode lets most apps and services get background data only via Wi-Fi. Currently active apps and services can use mobile data. How?

Turn Data Saver on or off

1. Open your phone’s Settings app.
2. Tap Network & internet  Data Saver.
3. Turn Data Saver on or off.
   • In your status bar, when Data Saver is on, you’ll see the Data Saver icon  .
   • You’ll also see a notification at the top of your phone’s Settings app.

Now there are some apps that actually need to run in the background otherwise they will not work as expected. So for such cases, particularly those working from home, let those really important apps like Outlook run in the background even when you’re not using them. To let apps run in the background using mobile data, you can turn on “Unrestricted data” for those apps.

1. Open your phone’s Settings app.
2. Tap Network & internet  Data Saver  Unrestricted data.
3. Turn on the app or service you’d like to use mobile data while Data Saver is on.

Use less data with data saver mode (Android 7.0 & up)

To help use less mobile data on a limited data plan

Restrict background data usage by app (Android 7.0 & lower)

Important: Restricting background data usage can affect an app’s performance. For example, you could get no messages from an app until you next open that app.

Before restricting data usage from your phone’s Settings app, check whether you can restrict data usage from the app’s own settings menu.

To view and restrict background data usage by app:

1. Open your phone’s Settings app.
2. Tap Network & internet  Data usage.
3. Tap Mobile data usage.
4. To find the app, scroll down.
5. To see more details and options, tap the app’s name.
   • “Total” is this app’s data usage for the cycle.
   • “Foreground” is how much data the app has used while you’re using it.
   • “Background” is how much data the app has used while you’re not using it.
6. Change background mobile data usage.
   • To restrict background data usage for this app, turn off Background data.
   • To allow unrestricted mobile data usage when data saver is on, turn on Unrestricted data usage.