{"id":26089,"date":"2019-07-26T17:26:18","date_gmt":"2019-07-26T21:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=26089"},"modified":"2026-01-27T11:24:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T16:24:57","slug":"broken-ios-cellular-data-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2019\/07\/26\/broken-ios-cellular-data-switch\/","title":{"rendered":"Broken iOS Cellular Data Switch"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s late in the iOS 12 cycle, but with iOS 12.3.1 I’m seeing a resurgence of an old bug from the iOS 7 days<\/a>. Specifically, iOS is letting apps such as OmniFocus and Overcast use cellular data, even though I have them unchecked in Settings > Cellular. I’ve had this off for years for certain apps in an effort to reduce my data usage. OmniFocus, in particular, can use more data than all my other apps combined, if I let it, and it’s unnecessary because I’ve already synced the latest data via Wi-Fi before leaving my Mac.<\/p>\n\n

Of course, the reason I noticed this is that my cell plan ran out of data two weeks early, and I never<\/em> run out of data. The first thing I did was check Settings, and there were all the data-using apps, at the top of the list, despite being unchecked. (I also confirmed that Wi-Fi Assist was off and that the problem persisted after rebooting.)<\/p>\n\n

Omni’s support confirmed that the app has no control over this—it couldn’t override the OS setting even if it wanted to. But they had a helpful suggestion: toggling cellular data on<\/em>, restarting the phone, toggling it off again, and restarting again. I hate this sort of voodoo, but it indeed seems to have worked.<\/p>\n\n

Update (2019-07-29): Marco Arment<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

This is killing me. I get reports every day from people saying Overcast is using cellular data despite it being turned off in system settings.<\/p>\n

I’ve checked back with many of them, and Wi-Fi Assist is disabled, so it’s not that.<\/p>\n

My app is getting the blame for a clear iOS bug.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Philip<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Have had the same. 20 GB Data Volumen used up within a few hours over night.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Dan Merfeld<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

I picked a bad time to go over seas! I was hit by this bug hard. $0.50 \/ text message.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Rene Ritchie<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

I’ve experienced this as well. Worse was tethering when the other device would just start updating everything assuming it was on Wi-Fi.<\/p>\n

iOS 13 low data mode might be helpful but it’s like a zombie bug that just keeps coming back.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Eric Goodwin<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Huh. Yup. I’ve always had it off to concerve data. Definitely showing overcast using cellular data.... not enough to matter and I hadn’t noticed. Hope they fix it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

idgaftw<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Spotify too. Everything.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Octavius<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Now that you mention it, I see that Overcast is using cellular data on my phone despite being disabled and WiFi assist being disabled as well. That explains why I’ve gone over the past 2 mns.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Update (2019-08-13): Unfortunately, the workaround of toggling the settings and rebooting was short-lived. Multiple apps are now using cell data again, and I’ve again used up all of my plan’s data.<\/p>\n\n

Update (2020-01-19): The cellular data switch is still broken in iOS 13.3.<\/p>\n\n

Update (2020-06-18): Sebastien Boisvert<\/a>:<\/p>\n

So I upgraded to iOS 13 this weekend.<\/p>

Nice to see that \n@Apple\n STILL hasn’t fixed the cellular data switch bug dating back to at least iOS 7.<\/p>

I guess the improvement in this release is that the feedback about it not working is immediate now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

At the moment, the switch seems to be working for me with iOS 13.5.1.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s late in the iOS 12 cycle, but with iOS 12.3.1 I’m seeing a resurgence of an old bug from the iOS 7 days. Specifically, iOS is letting apps such as OmniFocus and Overcast use cellular data, even though I have them unchecked in Settings > Cellular. I’ve had this off for years for certain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2019-07-26T21:26:20Z","apple_news_api_id":"7056a517-a938-42a0-86d8-0e905292af8d","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-01-27T16:25:01Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABg==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AcFalF6k4QqCG2A6QUpKvjQ","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[131,986,31,1610,526,647,2878,1227],"class_list":["post-26089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-bug","tag-cellular-data","tag-ios","tag-ios-12","tag-omnifocus","tag-overcast","tag-tethering","tag-top-posts"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26089"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29247,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26089\/revisions\/29247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}