Bug: Data counter is highly unreliable

asked 2014-02-04 20:58:42 +0300

typo
1798 ●22 ●40 ●50

updated 2019-07-24 19:35:20 +0300

12631 ●154 ●230 ●225

There seems to be a serious problem with the device's data counter reliability. Simply put: the device seems to be synchronizing the numbers for data traffic between home network and roaming, in addition to spontaneously resetting them (my current suspicion is of an integer overflow or something similar - like there was in the Media Player prior to 1.0.2.5).

Here's what my Jolla had to say about mobile data usage in January (notice how close to each other the numbers between home network and roaming were):

Home network:
Sent: 445.7 MB
Received: 1.0 GB

Roaming:
Sent: 440.5 MB
Received: 914.8 MB

Considering that my 10GB/month data plan was exceeded in January, there is no way those figures could possibly be accurate.

I reset the counters on Feb 4th and then did some experimenting with NetCounter, comparing the values it gave me with the values the device was giving me and, during that experimentation, the results seemed credible and were well in line with each other. However, given just a few days of active network use, the device's own data counter went way off. Here's what the data counter said 5 days later (for the record: I never left the home network during that period):

Home network:
Sent: 12.4 MB
Received: 250.4 MB

Roaming:
Sent: 12.4 MB
Received: 250.4 MB

The values were Identical!

For that same 5-day period NetCounter, which was also reset on Feb 4th, said that I'd used a total of 1.8 GB of mobile data - a much more credible-looking figure, even if that too seems too low, considering that I watched 4 or 5 movies and 5 or 6 episodes of a TV-series from Netflix during that time (yeah, I got a flu so there wasn't much else to do while lying in bed).

Roughly a week later, on Feb 13th, the numbers were as follows (for the record: I didn't touch the counters after Feb 4th):

Home network
Sent: 126.7 MB
Received: 62.8 MB

Roaming:
Sent 126.9 MB
Received: 64.3 MB

Notice how the device claimed that there'd been considerably less incoming traffic. Also notice how close to each other the sent/received numbers between home network and roaming were. Again.

Definitely worth looking into and fixing, IMO.

Update 2019: more than five years after this issue was posted, on Sailfish OS 3.1.0.11, the data counters still cannot be trusted at all.

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2

yes, i found my data counter low after using netflix and my provider warned me about the usage

teun ( 2014-02-05 09:56:51 +0300 )edit

It's unreliable for me also and slightly worrying that it shows roaming data usage when it hasn't. I've had at least two monthly bills now with no roaming in the bill but the data counter showing many megabytes.

aegis ( 2014-02-13 23:58:13 +0300 )edit

I am not sure about Mobile data counter because used Mobile data very less. Mostly I am in WLAN and I have also noticed that it is not showing proper data counter. Like It was showing Received 1GB received data 2 days ago and now 512MB received data. I didn't clear the counters. There is definitely something wrong there

Saqib Iqbal ( 2014-02-23 17:07:18 +0300 )edit

Update 5 will include fixes that improve the accuracy of the data counters.

Aaron McCarthy ( 2014-04-07 04:44:49 +0300 )edit

still same behaviour as described above by "typo" even with 1.0.5.19 - don't see any improvements

argonius ( 2014-05-16 13:35:54 +0300 )edit

12

answered 2014-07-17 22:48:05 +0300

nthn

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In 1.0.8.19 the data counters are still completely unreliable. They don't show correct amounts, they reset every time you even think of them, ...

I believe it would be best to remove that part from the settings entirely until it works properly, and urge users to install an app that tracks their data usage instead. Currently they serve no purpose other than to make you wonder how you managed to use up 2GB of data when the data counters show 2MB was used. This is the only bug that manages to frustrate me to no end.

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1

SFOS 3.1.0.11. After having been in a foreign net work abroad, the home net work counter has stopped to count on the bytes. The equal number of bytes after three days a surfing at home. Thus something wrong indeed.

N9Sailfish ( 2019-07-24 15:53:00 +0300 )edit

4

answered 2019-02-01 04:32:41 +0300

Pohli

188 ●5 ●13 ●19

updated 2019-02-01 04:45:44 +0300

I got my Jolla Phone in October 2017 and the mobile data counter for home network (didn't use roaming) seemed to be always correct while running SFOS 2. But since Sailfish 3 it counts too less data, several hundred MiB are not counted any more. I can tell cause I reset the counter every month and have a look at it now and then. I have a 2 GiB limit of free data and get a message from my mobile network operator when my data usage exceeds 80 % (1.6 GB) of the limit. Any ideas what has changed in SFOS 3?

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2

answered 2014-02-05 15:39:11 +0300

c.la

4963 ●108 ●137 ●137

updated 2014-02-05 15:40:27 +0300

Try to install NetCounter from the f-droid.org store (opensource android apps, no registration required) to see if you have correct data usage displayed. In my case it looks like it includes both android and sailfish traffic.

I too noticed a slight delta but my android apps don't use much data.

(I know it isn't a real answer but it might solve your issue of tracking data usage quickly)

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NetCounter comment moved to being a part of the problem description.

typo ( 2014-02-14 01:19:30 +0300 )edit

2

answered 2014-07-18 00:07:13 +0300

1chb

416 ●10 ●14 ●20

My data counters seemed to reset themselves every now and then and only showed too small amount of data. I was going to log them and compare their readings with my operator's counter. But actually resetting the counters manually they started to behave correctly. So if you don't have done this yourselves, give it a try.

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I resetted roaming manually and after leaving roaming area the values jumped back to zero. At the moment the counters are not trustable.

axaq ( 2014-10-03 22:49:04 +0300 )edit

0

answered 2014-07-07 13:01:33 +0300

Mariusmssj

10982 ●111 ●150 ●146

https://twitter.com/Mariu...

Not sure if I am the only one but my data counter duplicates the mobile data values with WLAN values. So it's impossible to assess how much of mobile data I have used.

In this case the data counter is useless

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@Mariusmssj The bug where similar values were shown for both mobile network (home) and mobile network (roaming) has recently been fixed and will be made available in a future update.

I haven't seen duplicate data counters between mobile data and WLAN reported before. Can you provide any additional information?

Aaron McCarthy ( 2014-07-10 04:32:34 +0300 )edit

0

answered 2015-04-10 10:36:56 +0300

Nrde
1103 ●20 ●25 ●26

I have a roaming package that includes 10MB of "free" roaming data. I use data counter to keep track of that free use. Unfortunately it seems the counter still isn't reliable as my last weekends roaming use was suddenly zeroed. The counter tells it has been reset last 17.3. This is with the currently latest 1.1.2.16 Yliaavanlampi.

I suspect there's inaccuracies in the actual data logging and then some problems keeping the log data when the user changes roaming data allowed setting or something. In any case it's annoying and potentially causing users extra expenses.

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@Nrde Hmm.. clearing the counters is not possible when roaming data is not allowed as the system responsible for counters does not allow it. Also home and roaming counters are both kept separate "databases" for each SIM-card.

Did the home counters also reset?

Personally I haven't seen this happenning since the counters were fixed and I have had one phone with roaming SIM about 6 months running 24/7.

tigeli ( 2015-04-10 13:25:02 +0300 )edit

I'm not sure what actually caused it, just a guess because that was only thing I did. Or addition to manually selecting my home network close to border.

So what I did:

enable roaming data, use some data, see counter piling up
come closer to home, manually select home network instead of the foreign network
(edit) disable roaming data
(then change to automatic instead of manual)
some days later check data counters and roaming data is 0, even though last reset date is 3 weeks earlier

UPDATE:

I didn't notice the question about home counters. I can't be sure as I can't remember what I had before and I used data since I came back from the trip.

Anyway, now the roaming data counter is back to normal. I can see the amount of data I've used. The only thing I did was rebooting the phone.

Nrde ( 2015-04-10 16:05:29 +0300 )edit

Bug: Data counter is highly unreliable

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