Push email - data leech or just normal?

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floydthebarber71

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Hello there.

I've recently purchased a Samsung Galaxy S2 and I've had some unusual data usage (to me) so far, amongst other issues. My previous phone was a prehistoric Nokia so I can't tell if this is normal or not.

On one occasion, it used 20mb overnight (!!) and after fine tuning (turning off syncing, etc) it is still using a bit much. This morning it used 5mb (from 8-12:00) and I didn't even use the phone.

I've used Droid Wall to isolate my apps etc to see what is sucking my data. It seems like the email app is the culprit. I have a Microsoft Exchange email account set to push email. I only received one or 2 emails this morning....does it really use that much??

I've done some googling and found it to be not uncommon to Android phones. I will try disable the standard email app and install K-9 to see if that helps. I can't see that usage being normal!

Anyone else with these issues?
 
It is normal with Android, but you can set it so it doesn't auto sync your email - you do it manually AFAIK. Can't recall if there is a setting to download headers only as well (in case you get loads of junk).

What I used to do is download a wireless toggle app - you just tap an icon on the desktop to turn your 3G / wifi on or off at will. No hidden surprises.

That said, 20mb for two emails is not normal unless there were big attachments / resends etc.

floydthebarber71 said:
Hello there.

I've recently purchased a Samsung Galaxy S2 and I've had some unusual data usage (to me) so far, amongst other issues. My previous phone was a prehistoric Nokia so I can't tell if this is normal or not.

On one occasion, it used 20mb overnight (!!) and after fine tuning (turning off syncing, etc) it is still using a bit much. This morning it used 5mb (from 8-12:00) and I didn't even use the phone.

I've used Droid Wall to isolate my apps etc to see what is sucking my data. It seems like the email app is the culprit. I have a Microsoft Exchange email account set to push email. I only received one or 2 emails this morning....does it really use that much??

I've done some googling and found it to be not uncommon to Android phones. I will try disable the standard email app and install K-9 to see if that helps. I can't see that usage being normal!

Anyone else with these issues?
Click to expand...
 
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Ye thanks. I don't really need push email I guess. Set it to sync every hour and will see how that goes. I just didn't realise how much data push uses!
 
Are you sure it is pushing and not polling? I have a gmail account set up with WhatsApp running in the background and mine uses very very little. I have only used 23megs so far for this entire month. Gmail uses push.

A real push email service will actually bring your data usage down instead of increasing it.
 
I don't know about polling. I just know it was set to push and was just leaking data. I switched it off now and it's not doing it anymore - for the time being.
 
It is probably activesync, turn off contacts and calendar sync. Please reply if this helps.
 
Howzit. I did try it now and it doesn't work, it's still draining data like before if set on push. I've heard from a couple of people now that this is probably normal...
 
I dont think it is normal. Push helpes save battery life. I think active sycn polls like crazy to make it look like you are actually getting push. It is this polling that is upping your battery usage and data.
 
Hmm I could try remove the account and set it up again from scratch. Not sure what else to try..
 
floydthebarber71 said:
Hmm I could try remove the account and set it up again from scratch. Not sure what else to try..
Click to expand...

Surely your email server needs to support push also? As far as I know...this is what Blackberry BES does for corporates. Gmail and Yahoo etc also have push support on Blackberry and Android. The rest I think is basically just polling.
 
you could also try a data compression app like onavo...
btw, how many droid users here use onavo?
 
Spoke to someone and he said it should be set to download headers only. I looked through all the settings on email and can't find that option.
 
floydthebarber71 said:
Spoke to someone and he said it should be set to download headers only. I looked through all the settings on email and can't find that option.
Click to expand...

Does that someone own an android because that option does not exist, its IMAP mail, essentially all it downloads is headers & text until you open the mail. Once option you have the option to download the images and attachments.

Your usage does seem a tad high, but that does also depend on how many emails you receiving, although i never paid close attention to email usage.

I always just used the gmail client, your exchange server may not actually support push, most of them don't as its an additional application that needs to be applied, its a special imap protocol so your phone is probably polling, ie checking periodically for new mails as the server does not have the ability to actually push mail.

Push works that if the server receives a mail it sends it directly to the phone, unless the server actually supports that function the phone will poll the server probably every 5 minutes or less to check for new mails, each poll request uses data.
 
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Perhaps a work around for this is for you to set up a forwarding rule on your work email to your Gmail account. Once Google receives the mail in your gmail account, the mail will then be sent to your phone using true push. What some guys are also doing is setting up other email accounts in their Gmail account so gmail basically goes and fetches the mail, then pushes it to your phone (this can be delayed though as goole will poll your work email server every now and then on a set time interval I think)

You can then remove the corp sync from your droid and this should void the battery and data issues you are having.
 
ocleroux said:
Perhaps a work around for this is for you to set up a forwarding rule on your work email to your Gmail account. Once Google receives the mail in your gmail account, the mail will then be sent to your phone using true push. What some guys are also doing is setting up other email accounts in their Gmail account so gmail basically goes and fetches the mail, then pushes it to your phone (this can be delayed though as goole will poll your work email server every now and then on a set time interval I think)

You can then remove the corp sync from your droid and this should void the battery and data issues you are having.
Click to expand...

The forward to gmail will, work, having gmail check will not work as well as gmail only checks other pop accounts every 60 minutes so you will have up to a 60min delay in pushes.
 
Yeh I'm willing to try that out. I just can't find any push options in the settings of my Gmail app?? I guess it gets set when you set up the account? I can't remove it as everything is linked to it, but I'll be flashing to another ROM soon so I'll try it then.

Does anyone know what exactly "Background data" does? There's that and "Auto-sync" in my account settings on Samsung. I've had auto-sync turned off all this while, but I've just turned off background data and my battery life is MUCH better. I recall Market asking for it to be turned on, but I don't know what other apps would need this? I don't have push email active so my email shouldn't need it? My weather on my home screen is updating itself at its specified setting, so I know of at least one app that's updating fine without Background Data turned on. Does Whatsapp etc need it? I can't find any specific answers on google..
 
If you have IMAP enabled on your Gmail account (this can be done in the settings when you log into your gmail on your PC) then push is automatically enabled. Might be for Pop3 also but I am not sure. If you disable "background data" this will stop the push messages from reaching your phone from the C2DM push server (this is the server that notifies your phone of new messages for gmal and whatsapp).

Disabling your back ground data would help your battery as your corp sync account no longer is able to poll constantly either.
 
floydthebarber71 said:
Yeh I'm willing to try that out. I just can't find any push options in the settings of my Gmail app?? I guess it gets set when you set up the account? I can't remove it as everything is linked to it, but I'll be flashing to another ROM soon so I'll try it then.

Does anyone know what exactly "Background data" does? There's that and "Auto-sync" in my account settings on Samsung. I've had auto-sync turned off all this while, but I've just turned off background data and my battery life is MUCH better. I recall Market asking for it to be turned on, but I don't know what other apps would need this? I don't have push email active so my email shouldn't need it? My weather on my home screen is updating itself at its specified setting, so I know of at least one app that's updating fine without Background Data turned on. Does Whatsapp etc need it? I can't find any specific answers on google..
Click to expand...

GMail, and any instant messaging clients like whatsapp, im+, msn, skype and the lot will need background data as well as other apps. Weather updates on a time schedule so it checks periodically and the time you set is an assumed permission. Foreground data would be somethign like the web browser, it uses data only when your browsing websites.

It simply means applications updating in background without user interaction. Your GMail calendar and contacts will be using that as well although they will need autosync

What i really want to know is whats everyone's fascination with battery life, as long as it lasts between the time you leave the house and lasts until you get home at night who really cares, its not like charging all night will shorten your batteries life expectancy. Personally i follow the very well recommended method of keeping it charged up via USB. PC provides a much slower charge rate and also does not have enough power to actually get the battery to 100% so its impossible to overcharge the phone and then once every 3-4week let the phone run down completely and do a full charge via mains power, this does a nice little memory refresh and actually extends the life expectancy of the battery.

Been doing that for years and my batteries always live long and prosper and their rate of power consumption stays consistent through their usage life. Did it with my berry and the battery lasted 3 days off charge when i got it and it lasted 3 days off charge before i got my nexus just over a year later. Yes i am that kind of weird guy who actually testes such things. Had to prove teh advice somehow and its been working the same every since i had my iphone 3g. Every month or so i let my phone run down on normal usage and the battery does not degrade very much.
 
Yeah I just got the phone so I'm playing around with what affects what. I also don't see the point of extending battery life on a phone like mine. I need to charge it every night, and even if I find ways of extending the battery life to last 1 and a half days, it still doesn't get me through day 2. Eye roll.

I might do the USB charging top up like you are doing just to stop overnight charging every single night.

Thanks for the info OC, I will try that and check my data usage with gmail push alone before I start forwarding emails etc.
 
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