Monitoring data downloaded via a phone in real time

[MtB]

1 hour ago, Mike Tee said:

I know this is no use to MtB whatsoever, but 60gb a day equates to 1800gb a month - I watch very little TV, but lots of Netflix, Amazon and TV catchup and I think the most i've used is about 150gb a month. I want to avoid what has happened to him - how can you get through 60gb a day?

 

I typically use 10gB a month, but once in a while the whole 60gB allowance mysteriously gets used up before the end of a month. In this case it happened on day 2 of the month hence my focus of spotting it happening in real time, rather than figuring out what caused it, after the fact.

[MtB]

9 minutes ago, Tumshie said:

If you go to the App Store on your Mac and look at the updates section it will tell you what the last few updates have been, if they weren't that long ago. 

 

 

 

Hmmmm.... found the "Updates" section. It simply states "No Updates, all your apps are up to date"

 

 

 

[MtB]

 

 

However, looking at Activity Monitor, I see a process called "nsurlsessiond" has downloaded half a gB in the ten minutes I've had this lappy turned back on and connected to a wifi service!!

[Tumshie]

2 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Hmmmm.... found the "Updates" section. It simply states "No Updates, all your apps are up to date"

 

Hmmmm...... mine tells me that Pages and iMovies updated recently and that numbers is pending (but that's cos I won't close numbers to let it update)............

 

Even if they had update they wouldn't have chewed though 60gb. 

[Tumshie]

8 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

However, looking at Activity Monitor, I see a process called "nsurlsessiond" has downloaded half a gB in the ten minutes I've had this lappy turned back on and connected to a wifi service!!

What is photos doing at the moment ? if you go into photos and scroll right to the bottom of the page is it down / up loading anything?

 

 

[MtB]

A brief google revels lots of forum threads discussing nsurlsessiond downloading many gB per day endlessly, for reasons never fathomed. 

 

It seems to be related to WhatsApp backing up though. Some peeps are saying turning off WhatApp backup stops it.

 

 

[Tumshie]

2 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

A brief google revels lots of forum threads discussing nsurlsessiond downloading many gB per day endlessly, for reasons never fathomed. 

 

It seems to be related to WhatsApp backing up though. Some peeps are saying turning off WhatApp backup stops it.

 

 

It seems to cover a multitude of sins with WhatsApp being one of many but a really big one of them. If you have a WhatsApp thingy it might be worth checking your settings. 

 

[MtB]

2 minutes ago, Tumshie said:

What is photos doing at the moment ? if you go into photos and scroll right to the bottom of the page is it down / up loading anything?

 

 

 

Says its "downloading 1 original". 

 

The photo library appears up to date and identical in every way to the photo library on my office mac right now. 

 

I've paused the photo download, and nsurlsessiond has stopped download stuff though. Progress!!!

[GUMPY]

Think that rather than getting a warning that its happening stopping what is doing it could be the way forward.

 

[MtB]

Just now, Loddon said:

Think that rather than getting a warning that its happening stopping what is doing it could be the way forward.

 

 

I disagree. There are many possible causes and it could be a different cause every time.

 

I'd much better stop it before all the data is used up than try to head off, in advance, every possible cause. One slip up and its back to paying £6.50 per quarter of a gB until my next monthly reset. Far better to get a warning system installed to stop it in the first place. 

[Tumshie]

Photos can be really hungry at times, especially if it's syncing to all your devices. 

 

nsurlsessiond can also be responsible for uploading loads of different information and for different reasons so it'll be worth keeping an eye on it for a while. 

 

 

If only we still had @Robbo he's pretty good at this stuff...... ?

[MtB]

But in this instance pausing the photo syncing has stopped the data tranfer by nsurlsessiond dead. A trickle of data by other processes continues in trivial amounts.

 

2 minutes ago, Tumshie said:

Photos can be really hungry at times, especially if it's syncing to all your devices. 

 

The odd thing is the photos appear to already be fully synced. Same number of photos and videos being reported on all my devices. And the screens all look the same too.

[MtB]

Oh now this is weird. I just turned nsurlsessiond back ON again and the data it has received jumped from 1.07gb to 2.80gb in about half a second. 

 

Now that isn't possible on a home fibre connection so I think the downloading must have continued in the background while nsurlsession was halted. 

[Tumshie]

3 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

The odd thing is the photos appear to already be fully synced. Same number of photos and videos being reported on all my devices. And the screens all look the same too.

Yeah I've had the too but there is obviously something going on in the background.

 

 

 

 

Ooops crossing of posts again. 

 

[MtB]

 

But now the rate of transfer has subsided to near nothing, with nsurlsessiond ON. So maybe it was within an ace of finishing syncing.

[Tumshie]

Just now, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

But now the rate of transfer has subsided to near nothing, with nsurlsessiond ON. So maybe it was within an ace of finishing syncing.

Till it finds something else to get excited about ?

41 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Hmmmm.... found the "Updates" section. It simply states "No Updates, all your apps are up to date"

 

 

 

Do you see that bit at the bottom left hand side of the screen shot ???

 

That might be why it's not registering any updates, possibly.

[MtB]

1 minute ago, Tumshie said:

Till it finds something else to get excited about ?

 

Yes it just had a leetle blip. Downloaded 0.04gB. 

 

That may not look much but it is still 40mB, the total hard disc capacity on my first IBM compatible PC running Windows!!

5 minutes ago, Tumshie said:

Do you see that bit at the bottom left hand side of the screen shot ???

 

That might be why it's not registering any updates, possibly.

 

I just signed in and it still says the same. All my apps are up to date. Nothing else. 

[GUMPY]

nsurlsessiond also is used to cache the contents of icloud on your device so thats another possibility.

At least you are not alone the interweb is full of angry mac users.

[Tumshie]

1 minute ago, Loddon said:

nsurlsessiond also is used to cache the contents of icloud on your device so thats another possibility.

Yeah that's why I asked about the photos thing. If I'm going to be away from my home broadband then I turn all my sincs and updated to manual. I've noticed the slowing up that nsurlsessiond causes but didn't realise just how bad it was because I'm not using a mobile as a hotspot quite so much any more. 

[David Mack]

1 hour ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Hmmmm.... found the "Updates" section. It simply states "No Updates, all your apps are up to date"

 

 

Could that be because its just used all your GB updating everything in sight?

[TheBiscuits]

This thread is why I posted the "All you can eat" data plan from Three recently ...

[MtB]

2 minutes ago, David Mack said:

 

Could that be because its just used all your GB updating everything in sight?

 

I guess it could be, but I was hoping for answers not more questions!!

 

 

Just now, TheBiscuits said:

This thread is why I posted the "All you can eat" data plan from Three recently ...

 

Does it allow unlimited tethering? I think not.

[Mike Tee]

2 hours ago, Tumshie said:

Are you using a MacBook and or an iPhone?

 

 

Now I'm just using a normal router in the house to a Windows computer, but when we lived on board a few years ago I had one of the unlimited 'Three' deals through my mobile onto an Ipad. Was getting through 100 - 150 gb a month, same as I am now. I just don't understand how MtB got through 60gb in a day. Surely its all just data - whether you watch a film on home internet or through a mobile onto another device, its still just 2 hours of film?

[Mike Tee]

MtB - its annoying what is happening to you, but a simple fix is an unlimited data deal which 'Three' are currently offering at £24 / month. Not an ideal answer, but at least no scary shocks like having no data left on day 2!!

 

eta- I now see from subsequent posts your data surge was not from binging on 'Game of Thrones' or similar!

Edited March 31, 2019 by Mike Tee

[john6767]

19 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I guess it could be, but I was hoping for answers not more questions!!

 

 

 

Does it allow unlimited tethering? I think not.

Yes it does allow unlimited tethering.  They changed with the Black Friday deals to be £20 a month for unlimited calls, texts and data with tethering included.  I switched to that as I was on a package the was limited to 30 gig tethering.  It may since gave gone up to £22 a month, but with the unlimited tethering at least the impact of this sort of thing is not so big.

Edited March 31, 2019 by john6767