The joy of having a smartphone or tablet is obtained when you are able to use your limited data to browse whatever you want or use apps that require internet connection for them to function.
It is obvious that your phone has some in-built apps that consistently make use of your data at the expense of the main apps that you installed yourself.
I have checked almost all the apps in my phone and found out that 95% of them connect directly or indirectly to the internet. Some of these apps run in the background while you actively use your major apps. This results in a high data consumption causing your limited data to get exhausted when you least expected it.
Here are the steps you can take to stop some apps from wasting your precious data.
1. Find the apps that are using internet connection
You have to first determine the apps that are using your internet connection. If your Android version has the Data Usage feature, you will have to go to:
Settings->Wireless & Networks->Data Usage
From the picture above, you can see that Chrome browser used the most data. As your scroll down, you will see all the apps using your internet connection. If your phone does not have the in-built Data Usage feature, you can still view the apps using your internet connection by downloading My Data Manager. The app will keep an eye on all the apps you installed recording the sizes of data they used.
2. Restrict Background Data
Most of these apps that use your internet connection run in the background. In order to prevent theses apps from running in the background, you have to do the following:
Go to Settings->Wireless & Networks->Data Usage
Select the app
Check or mark the Restrict Background Data checkbox
For some Android versions, you will need to do the following:
Settings->Account & Sync
Uncheck or unmark Background data checkbox
3. Stop Automatic App Updates
Some apps are set to automatically update to the latest version even when you do not need the new version. In order to stop this automatic updates, do the following:
Launch Play Store app
Tap the menu button
Select Settings
Select Auto-update apps
Then, select Do not auto-update apps
You can alternatively choose to update the apps over Wi-Fi by selecting Auto-update apps over Wi-Fi
4. Install a Firewall app
A firewall application will deny internet access to any app whether it is running in the background or opened directly. I have been using the Avast Antivirus firewall feature to block some apps that are consuming my precious data. This Avast firewall requires the phone to be rooted as it is not possible to realize meaningful firewall features without root access.
That’s it on some ways you can stop apps from wasting your data. Do you have any other way of reducing data consumption? Let us know in the comments.
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