Data issue. Any help?

[solohikr]

My son has a droid razr w/4 gig data plan, billing cycle ends on the 6th of May. He has already used 3.75 gigs of the allotted 4.

Question;
is there any way to turn off data and still use the phone for calls, and txt or just calls?

 

[Laur3nNewm4n]

You should be able to go to Settings > Wireless and Networks and turn off Data. You might want to encourage him to use wifi whenever possible too, since that will save on data.

 

[Trash Can]

You should be able to go to Settings > Wireless and Networks and turn off Data. You might want to encourage him to use wifi whenever possible too, since that will save on data.

Your idea is much simpler than mine.

But it's Settings>Data Manager> uncheck "data enabled"

 

[solohikr]

thanks for the help

 

[SallyC]

You might also be interested in exploring Verizon's Usage Control options. It is $4.99/mo but depending on your situation, it might be worth it.

 

[FoxKat]

My son has a droid razr w/4 gig data plan, billing cycle ends on the 6th of May. He has already used 3.75 gigs of the allotted 4.

Question;
is there any way to turn off data and still use the phone for calls, and txt or just calls?

You might also be interested in exploring Verizon's Usage Control options. It is $4.99/mo but depending on your situation, it might be worth it.

This would be my suggestion, especially since your son could always figure out how to turn data back on, unless you set yourself up as administrator on the phone and locked him completely out of settings. I feel it may be more uncomfortable for him to know that you have "locked down" his phone than if you told him there was a limit of 4GB and once he hits that limit the data would stop altogether until the next month's cycle resumed.

You could tell him that you've set that limit so that you don't have to turn him off altogether, and to give him "control of his own destiny", and that you expect him to act responsibly with his data usage.

You can also tell him that you did this so that he doesn't go over by accident and cost himself (not you), a large overage fee. This would only work if you told him that any overages were his financial responsibility.

You may also gain brownie points with him if you install the Verizon Data Usage widget on his home screen so he can keep track of the usage himself. Not only will he see his actual real-time usage, but he'll also see the 4GB limit that will confirm what you've told him about overages as well.

View attachment 49137

This way, instead of being the "control freak" dad, you're the caring and concerned dad.

Also, not to be making any assumptions but 3.75GB in 7 days points to potentially questionable usage patterns. Not to say that it might not be all completely harmless usage such as online gaming, listening to streaming audio, or watching free movies, but there are plenty of things kids can download when given free reign of the internet, and unlike the home and school computers, you will have a much harder time monitoring the sites he visits and the content he downloads on his phone. Remember, this is a COMPUTER FIRST, and a phone second. Large volumes of copyrighted audio or video (or any amount for that matter) can land him (and you) in big trouble. The financial (among other) repercussions could be devastating.

It pays to be in the know with your kids. You can see what sites he's visited on the phone's history but if he clears it, it's gone. Same holds true with Peer to Peer downloading or BitTorrents. Using Torrents, he can download huge volumes of data in relatively short timeframes since the torrents use the storage and data throughput of everyone else's computers/phones as a source for any downloading.

For instance, if I have a song that is copyrighted on my phone, and I have a bit torrent utility installed that has indexed that song, and 200 other people around the world want that song, my phone can become a SOURCE for that song and sections of it can be going out to several, potentially dozens or hundreds of other users essentially simultaneously. Once all 200 users have downloaded my one song, the data my phone may have sent in this example could be potentially 200 times the 3.5MB that the song represents. This can be happening in the background and completely unbeknownst to me while my phone sits in my pocket, book-bag, or locker, or sitting on the table next to me.

Now in truth, there will be others out there who these 200 are pulling from at the same time, which is why torrents download so quickly, so ALL of the data going out to those 200 users may not be coming JUST from my phone, still it can be huge volumes over short times. This outgoing or "uploading" data racks up against the limits just like the incoming or "downloading" does. This can possibly be essentially THE largest reason for large data consumption when he may vehemently (and honestly) deny doing any "downloading" that could possibly represent that amount.

Good luck! :biggrin:

 

[thaDroidz]

Hey foxkat,
Do your fingers go numb?

Another great novel!

----posted maxx'ed out----

 

[guidot]

Hey foxkat,
Do your fingers go numb?

Another great novel!

----posted maxx'ed out----

I think he uses a headset with Dragon: Naturally Speaking

 

[FoxKat]

Hey foxkat,
Do your fingers go numb?

Another great novel!

----posted maxx'ed out----

Lol! I do at times use the speech to text on the phone particularly when driving, but much of what you read from me comes from Swype, and the larger portion comes from the desktop. If my sig includes the Tapatalk disclaimer, you can very it was done on the phone, and if it's grammatically correct (such as this post), it's Swype.

Anyway, thanks (I think...), for the complement!



Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk with speech to text translation. Please excuse any minor grammatical/punctuation/spelling errors.

 

[FoxKat]

I think he uses a headset with Dragon: Naturally Speaking

No, just the phone's own built-in ability and Google assisting.


Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk with speech to text translation. Please excuse any minor grammatical/punctuation/spelling errors.

 

[YellowJacket]

Is there a chance that your son is using a mobile hotspot app such as foxfi for sharing his data connection with friends? That much data useage seems a bit high coming just from the phone in such a short period of time.

David