MacBook Pro excessive bandwidth usage

Hi there

I just received a new MacBook Pro 13" from Apple (replacement), and noticed it has been using excessive amounts of bandwidth. Normally, this wouldn't be much of an issue, but I currently have a very limited amount of internet data usage per day.

I downloaded TrafficBot to monitor my usage, and it says I have used about 200MB in two hours, with not a single application running, or a background app that I can think of that would be using it. SkyDrive, Google Drive, everything turned off. I opened Activity Monitor to be sure, and I'm not too skilled when it comes to trying to decipher it all, but it didn't look like any apps were running.

If you might have any idea why this might be happening, any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Do you have anything that's synced with iCloud? 100MB/hr seems pretty high, considering you didn't have any downloads going or doing any major streaming.

I could see if you had photo stream turned on, and you took a few photos/videos with another device on your iCloud account, or you bought something from the apple store that automatically synced to your mac via iCloud without you knowing, that might add up. But I'm not 100% sure.

It could be software update automatically downloading updates ready for installation, check in system preferences, software update and see if the download in the background is enabled.

Thanks so much for the help!

apinson34: I turned iCloud off on my computer completely, as it did have Photo Stream syncing, and it is still constant. The strange thing is, according to TrafficBot, I am using about 5KB/s, 2KB up and 3KB down (average). Obviously, that's a very small data amount, but quickly adds up

halo200: Automatic downloads are not turned on, but thanks anyway for the tip! I didn't even know that panel existed in system preferences

If anybody has any other suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Are you perhaps watching local (on your own network) traffic? Some of these apps monitor all traffic on an interface without differentiating the destinations.

I am a PC user in the process of switching to Apple. I have encountered a similar problem with excessive band width after acquiring an iPhone and iPad in January, and then an iMac at the end of February. Based on information provided by my internet provider, my internet usage increased from about 2.5 GB/month one year ago, to 12GB/month when I obtained a Denon receiver with internet radio and local FM (internet radio up to ~6 hrs/day), then to 65GB/month by the end of February this year. I have a rural internet provider with a 50Gb/month maximum and receive from them daily updates on internet usage.

Other than having more devices, my pattern of use has not changed. Lately, I have of course surfed the net to find out solutions to apple related issues but other uses have declined. My data was transferred from my PC through the migration assistant and using ethernet cable. I only downloaded Pages, an update to light room, and printer driver files, in total ~2 GB for all 3. I have turned off iPhone, iPad, iCloud, and have not purchased anything from iTunes for over one month. Yesterday, I used the internet radio for 1 hour and watched an internet news video for one hour. My resulting usage was 2.1GB in 24 hr, which included 550MB of upload. Yet I only sent out 3 emails, without attachments.

Hopefully, someone has a solution. Thank you.

I have this exact same problem and am hoping others have some new suggestions.

I use Google Drive, but have automatic syncing turned off. I only have Find my Mac on in iCloud. I have automatic downloading of updates turned off, as well. I have gone through all the settings I can think of and nothing is turned on. Although I am only responding to email and doing basic (non-video/streaming) web browsing, I can watch my usage clip away. Even when I'm doing nothing at all my download allowance seems to be decreasing. I have two PCs in my house besides the Mac, and I never have this problem with them. It is only with the Mac. I love my mac, but if I can't find a solution to this problem I'm going to have to get rid of it.

Please, someone help!

excessive bandwidth use uncontrolled

strawberrybirds said:

I have this exact same problem and am hoping others have some new suggestions.

I use Google Drive, but have automatic syncing turned off. I only have Find my Mac on in iCloud. I have automatic downloading of updates turned off, as well. I have gone through all the settings I can think of and nothing is turned on. Although I am only responding to email and doing basic (non-video/streaming) web browsing, I can watch my usage clip away. Even when I'm doing nothing at all my download allowance seems to be decreasing. I have two PCs in my house besides the Mac, and I never have this problem with them. It is only with the Mac. I love my mac, but if I can't find a solution to this problem I'm going to have to get rid of it.

Click to expand...

Please, someone help

I have the same problem as from 6 July 2015. Used 2Gb up in one day without me knowing it. Every time I link up on the internet, the excessive downloading stars again. Is there any movement or news about this massive problem with the Mac's?
Someone told me that Apple now updates or replace your operating system via your data connection any time without informing you thereof. And the downloading of the operating system can not be stopped. It will carry on until the end even if you disconnect your connection many times in between. Not sure if this is true??

louis boshoff said:

Someone told me that Apple now updates or replace your operating system via your data connection any time without informing you thereof. And the downloading of the operating system can not be stopped. It will carry on until the end even if you disconnect your connection many times in between. Not sure if this is true??

Click to expand...

I find this quite doubtful. OS updates, especially the multi gigabyte ones, usually require a restart. That you would notice because they also tend to requite that you enter an administrator password.

Slydude is right, this is not happening. This is an option (background pre-downloading of updates) that you can enable on the Mac, but actual installation is not done without express consent and your password. You can check to see what kind of background downloading you might have turned on.

As for other other people asking about this, in my experience helping clients with this issue, it nearly always turns out to be the same cause: someone in the household (usually not the person who is concerned about the bandwidth usage/paying for it) is running a torrenting, gaming, or other downloading service and has forgotten how those things work. Or has recently signed up for Netflix/Hulu/Spotify/et al and has forgotten how those things work. Or has a Windows machine in the house that is infested with viruses and bots.

In short, turning off all your own services may help, but not mitigate, the issue. You need to check everything on the whole network, and in the case of Wi-Fi networks check to be sure no unauthorized persons are using the network.

Check also iTunes and Spotlight. Turn off syncing phones etc, and getting stuff from the Internet in Spotlight.