[hab]

Is there any log available to track app data usage on the iPhone?

My daughter keeps bumping into her data plan limit and then turns 3G and data off until the billing cycle ends. However this time, she turned it on for literally 5 min to receive some textfree messages and associated with that some 30MB data were sent? We are dumbfounded as to what caused this usage. Is there some way to log program activity so we can see what app is driving this type of thing?

[mduell]

What apps are you running in the background?

This is the problem with platforms that have background apps but prohibit accountability (battery usage, network usage) apps.

[The Godfather]

I hope Apple and iOS5 has a measure against going to overage-land and cell-carrier fees.

[P]

Try disabling push notifications in the iPhone Settings and see if that helps.

[Thorzdad]

And disable Location Services for as many apps as possible.

[hab]

Thanks much for all the tips. We are going to experiment with different settings to see if we can home in on the data hog. We have had no luck finding a reference to a data log file or utility to more directly track data flow which I was surprised to find does not seem to exist.

As to her settings, she said that "mail, settings, ipod, and textfree were the only apps open. however, I had location services on." She had Push set to Off with Fetch set hourly. She had 3G and Data off for the day. Then when she turned it on at 9 pm for "5 min" to collect her textfree messages, she was hit with a 30MB "sent" data use charge. It is a mystery to us but I guess by the process of elimination we will try to find the culprit.

[robynsjw]

There are several apps to track your data usage:
- Search Results 1 to 20 of 1000 for "data usage" in All Categories
Although some of them require you to open the app before rebooting your device to keep the data up to date. Which isn't always possible when you unexpectedly crash.