More and more people have an unlimited internet bundle on their iPhone, but not everyone has that luxury. In these iPhone tips, we’ll show you how to limit data usage on your iPhone. This way you will never be completely without internet!
iPhone tips: limit data usage on your iPhone
Don’t have a large mobile data bundle on your iPhone? Or have you gone too far this month and need to get through the last few days? No worries! In these iPhone tips we tell you how to limit the data usage on your iPhone!
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1. Find the big data guzzlers
As the first tip in these iPhone tips, we tackle the data guzzlers that you don’t see. Some apps secretly eat quite a lot of your mobile data bundle in the background. Fortunately, you can easily check the apps for data usage. You do that in the following way.
Check and turn off mobile data usage of apps on iPhone
- Tap on ‘Settings’;
- Go to ‘Mobile network’;
- Scroll down, under ‘mobile data’ you will find the usage per app;
- Turn off the slider per app to prevent the app from using your mobile data bundle.
So you can see exactly how much data an app uses. By turning off the slider, you can only use the app with a WiFi connection.
2. Use (free) WiFi where possible
Try to use Wi-Fi whenever possible when it is available. This way you can switch off your 4G or 5G and you won’t use MBs from your data bundle. As long as you don’t have to pay for WiFi, you can use the internet for free without affecting your data usage. Wi-Fi is almost indispensable, especially for avid users of YouTube and Netflix, for example.
Be careful with free and unsecured WiFi and do not arrange banking matters. It is also better to leave out privacy-sensitive messages on an (unsecured) WiFi network. It is better to use your own mobile data bundle for that.
3. Download music, movies and series in advance
Do you listen to a lot of music on the go? Or do you watch a lot of Netflix and YouTube when you’re on the go? If you know you can’t use WiFi, it’s best not to watch Netflix.
It is more convenient to download the films, series or music at home (or when you have a WiFi connection). You can then binge Netflix or listen to your playlist of 500 songs on Apple Music without using your data.
Read more: Watch Netflix offline (this is how you can download movies and series)
4. Enable Data Saver Mode
One of the quickest tips to save data on your iPhone is the “Data Saver Mode”. You can easily turn it on or off. To enable Data Saver mode, follow the steps below.
- Open the ‘Settings’ on your iPhone;
- Go to ‘Mobile network’;
- Tap on ‘Mobile data options’;
- Select ‘Data mode > Data saving mode’.
This disables automatic updates and background tasks for apps when you only have a mobile data connection. This does not affect the amount of data you use when you watch YouTube, for example. For that you have to go to the last tip from this week’s iPhone tips.
5. Check the settings for frequently used apps
Many apps often still have their own settings for mobile data. That is why it is also useful to check apps that you use a lot separately. For example, the Photos app has an option to send your just taken photos to your iCloud via your mobile data. That cuts quite a bit if you have a limited internet subscription. Therefore turn this option off immediately.
Another example is Apple Music. You can indicate in the settings that at ‘Mobile streaming’ the music can be listened to in high quality. Of course, this eats up much more of your data bundle than if you download the music in advance (via a WiFi connection).
In addition, many apps allow you to set the amount of data they use. For example, with YouTube it is possible to set that you watch a lower quality (and therefore use less data) of the video with a mobile data connection. Check out these options as well.
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