Find My iPhone and Data Usage

[bethbethbeth]

Due to lack of funds I had to downgraded my data plan on my iPhone to 200MB and I am nervous to go over this limit. Does anyone know if the Find My iPhone feature on the new 4GS uses data when kept "ON". I am finding mixed reviews online. Some say yes it is constantly using data, others say no and that only when you log into your iCloud account to see your iPhone's location it will use data to ping you. Thoughts? Any help would be appreciated.
<3 Beth

 

[fury]

It maintains a connection with Apple's servers so that it can be activated on demand, but it only uses a minuscule amount of data while it's activated--all it has to do is send GPS coordinates, or display the message that you send it, etc. The connection itself is idle, so it's not actively transmitting data until you log into iCloud.com or Find My iPhone to look for it. I just semi-confirmed this by throwing my iPad into airplane mode and then checking to see if there was any data on its location in the iCloud interface. There was not, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't pinging the server to tell it where it's at.

I don't believe that anybody has actually been able to measure the data usage. That could just mean that there is so little it's not worth mentioning.

Bottom line, it's not likely going to tip the scales on your data plan.

 

[bethbethbeth]

It maintains a connection with Apple's servers so that it can be activated on demand, but it only uses a minuscule amount of data while it's activated--all it has to do is send GPS coordinates, or display the message that you send it, etc. The connection itself is idle, so it's not actively transmitting data until you log into iCloud.com or Find My iPhone to look for it. I just semi-confirmed this by throwing my iPad into airplane mode and then checking to see if there was any data on its location in the iCloud interface. There was not, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't pinging the server to tell it where it's at.

I don't believe that anybody has actually been able to measure the data usage. That could just mean that there is so little it's not worth mentioning.

Bottom line, it's not likely going to tip the scales on your data plan.

Thanks so much for your quick response, I really appreciate it
Beth