Mobile data limit android

How to set a mobile data limit on your Android phone

Smartphones are evolving at a rapid rate and as they do, we’re consuming a lot more internet based content on the move. While carriers have aimed to increase inclusive mobile data limits, some people still have low data allowances, so how can your stop your phone from going over and ending up with a large bill?

Most Android smartphones come with a data usage section that also allows you to specify a limit to the amount of mobile data your smartphone can use. While the exact location of this in the settings menu will vary according to which phone you’re using, the option should be present on most smartphones running Android 4.4.2 KitKat or later.

Here’s how to set a mobile data limit on your Android phone:

1. Navigate to Settings >Data Usage.
2. Toggle the Set Mobile Data Limit
   • If the date listed beneath this is different to the day your allowance refreshes, tap on this and select Change Cycle.
   • Then set the correct day your allowances refresh.
3. On the graph, you’ll now have two lines; one that specifies a limit to your data and the other, which lets you set a warning.
   • Drag the top line (the limit) up or down until you reach your data limit. Although you can set a limit equal to your allowance, we’d recommend setting it slightly lower, in case your carrier measures data usage differently.
   • You can also drag the lower of the two lines (the warning) up or down to set a limit and we’d recommend putting at around 75% percent of your data allowance. E.g. if you have 4GB data each month, the warning should be 3GB. This is a really useful tool to help ensure you don’t go over.

There you have it, a quick and easy way to set a mobile data limit on any Android phone. If you’ve got other tips, let us know in the comments below!

Источник

How to Lim­it Mobile Data Use on Android Jel­ly Bean

Ashish Mundhra

26 May 2014

We have covered some apps that help you manage your mobile data plan better on your Android device. Once installed, they monitor the amount of data each running app is using and sound an alarm when you are about to reach your threshold for the particular month, and finally deactivate it once you reach the limit thus saving your monthly bill.

Most of these apps are free but if you are using Android Jelly Bean and above, you can do without these apps installed on your device. With Android Jelly Bean and above, all these options are integrated to the Android settings and today I will show you how you can configure it to stay mindful of your monthly data plan without using any third-party apps.

Setting Monthly Data Limit

To get started, open the Android settings and navigate to Data usage section to have a look at the amount of data you have used. Here you will see your data usage for the particular month. Now to set up the data limit check, activate the check against Set mobile data limit option.

Now the next thing you need to set is the 30 days data usage cycle. This should be the time frame for which your bill is generated. Finally, just set the yellow and the red bar on the graph to set your data limit. The yellow bar is a warning threshold and once you cross it, Android will give you a warning notification in your notification drawer.

When you cross the red mark, the system will automatically disable the data for the current monthly cycle.

Limiting Background Data Use

In this page, you can also see the amount of data each of the apps on your system have used for the current time period. The value is the sum of the foreground and background data the app uses. Tap on any one of the apps listed there to see the total foreground and background data the app has used in the current data cycle.

You might want to restrict the mobile data usage of the apps that use more background data. These apps will then use the Wi-Fi network for their background services. You can also minimize your data usage by disabling the auto-sync of data. And when it’s a crisis and you are running too low on the monthly data plan, you may disable background data for all the apps at once from the three-dot menu at the top right.

Cool Tip: You can also enable Wi-Fi tab from that menu and check your Wi-Fi usage on the device. If you are using a portable hotspot with a limited data plan, you can configure it as a limited connection for the app. The defined Wi-Fi connection will then not be used for background data updates.

Conclusion

So that was how you can manage your mobile 3G/LTE data usage using Android’s built-in features. The calculations are quite accurate and as long as you don’t want to disable internet access on a single app with advanced settings (because then these settings won’t cut it, you’d need another app that does it better), I would recommend it to all the Android users.

Last updated on 8 Feb, 2018
The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.

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Did You Know

Google PhotoScan lets you scan your old photos, minus the flash.

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Tips for dramatically reducing your mobile data usage on Android

Smartphone owners are constantly lacking one of two resources. Either the battery is prematurely empty or the high-speed data volume is used up, so we have to surf at a snail’s pace. So, how can you reduce your data consumption? And what actually consumes so much data anyway? Here’s how you can stick to your data plan with ease.

Jump to section:

How much mobile data do you need?

There are certain data formats on the World Wide Web that unexpectedly cause higher data consumption. For example, animated GIFs are considered inefficient, which you might not initially expect. Not infrequently, it is more than a megabyte for a three-second animation. Even YouTube videos are more economical and should be expected to consume two to more than 10 megabytes per minute. For music, the consumption varies between one and five megabytes per minute, depending on the bit rate.

Measuring data consumption

Android tools

Android delivers control over your data consumption. Just hold your finger on the corresponding tile in the quick settings, and you’ll get to the consumption overview. For some manufacturers, you need to go into the Data Usage section in Settings.

Looks a bit different everywhere, but works similarly. / © NextPit

In the consumption overview you can also set limits, have it give you warnings and limit background data. We will discuss this in detail later in the article.

Provider apps

There is another way to check your remaining data volume, and this may be somewhat more accurate. You can look directly at your carrier’s app. Practical tip: with many providers, you can put the current status as a widget on the start screen.

Restricting data consumption

Set a data limit in the Android settings

This is done primarily via the settings menu of the smartphone. Here, you can see and manage your data consumption. First, set up a consumption cycle that is adapted to your contract and the monthly renewal of your data volume. You can also set a limit at which the mobile data is automatically deactivated or capped.

Only once you set a hard limit will the data consumption stop. / © NextPit

Force individual apps to save data

Here, you also have a list of the consumption of individual apps. Tap on one, and you’ll see in the following view how much the app consumed in the foreground or in the background. There are apps that secretly use your data volume in the background – if all else fails, you can stop it by limiting the background data here. But caution! This may cause some apps to stop working – especially Google apps and system apps.

Reduce the background activity of individual apps. / © NextPit

Using offline functions

Music streaming

Use stored videos and music on-the-go to save data, or use offline features of music and video streaming services.

• The best music streaming apps for Android

Spotify Premium, Tidal, and Google Play Music offer offline music playback. / © Spotify

Most music streaming providers offer an offline feature. This way, you can store your favorite songs on the smartphone and play them when you’re on-the-go. Alternatively, you can convert your CDs to MP3s and copy them to your internal memory or a MicroSD card and play them with a music player app.

Use Google Maps offline

Offline navigation in Android has become quite good. Google Maps will now automatically ask you if you want to keep your map excerpts offline for 30 days. You can now download and save maps to use later offline. This is an excellent way to reduce data consumption in the city you live in, for example. You learn how to do this by following our full guide at the link below.

• How to use Google Maps offline

You can download and save multiple maps for offline use. / © ANDROIDPIT

Alternative apps for offline navigation are here from Nokia/Microsoft or Maps.me. They all pursue different approaches and are well-suited to navigation in the car.

Compressing the data stream

Save data volume when surfing with Chrome’s compression feature

One of the many useful Chrome features is the ability to download compressed website data. You can enable this feature in the settings, almost at the very bottom. In our reviews, it has saved an average of 32 percent of our mobile data. This would equal, for example, 200 MB instead of 300 MB. This extra data volume is gladly accepted.

Compresses websites and saves load time and data volume. / © NextPit

Compress everything with Opera Max

Opera Max is a compression app that helps you save data while Internet surfing. The app sends all data via its own VPN server and compresses the videos and photos on apps and websites. Unfortunately, this is associated with a visible loss of quality. In the app, you will be shown which apps on your phone have the greatest data savings potential.

With the current version, you can save money when streaming music and videos. Thanks to the integrated Rocket Optimizer, MP3s and MP4s are converted to AAC+ format. At a lower bit rate, a similar sound quality can be achieved. Videos streams, like Netflix or YouTube, can be compressed on request by Opera Max. Buffering times are thus shortened, but the quality is visibly lowered. In our review, a 10-minute YouTube video saved more than half of the data, so that only 14.7 MB were consumed, instead of 31.2 MB.

What do you do when nothing helps?

If you are struggling, you have to switch to one of the many free Wi-Fi networks. Or, if you have a dual-SIM smartphone, you can use a SIM card with a pure data plan (without a telephone option) and thus surf cheaply.

What are your tips? Have you tried any of these methods?

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