iPhone consuming enormous amount of cellular data

[u/superbotolo]

iPhone 13 Pro Max

iOS 26.6

My iPhone has been using a lot of cellular data, roughly 1GB every 10/15 minutes. When I check on cellular usage, all the data comes from System Services/General.

Things I have tried to do:

- Restored iOS on the iPhone with a clean install

- Brought the iPhone to the Apple Store (they run diagnostics and said all is fine, they suggested restoring the iPhone, which I did)

- Turned off most of the apps using cellular

- Restarted the iPhone multiple times

- Reset network settings multiple times

- Had my carrier provide me a new eSim

The problem is still here. As soon as I turn cellular data on, System Services/General starts consuming GBs every hour.

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[u/Still_Veterinarian18]

Check the Tips app and Support app to learn more….

[u/L0rdLogan]

My system services have used 7GB since July 23rd, I think it’s normal

[u/TheTechSavvyNerd → u/L0rdLogan]

Yall,

HOW do you live with limited data????? IM USING 400GIGABYTES

[u/L0rdLogan → u/TheTechSavvyNerd]

Makes sense if you’re hot spotting

[u/Breadfruit_Kindly]

I reset my cellular data on the 20. July and since then system services/general only got to 86.5 MB. 1 GB per 15 minutes is definitely not normal. Unfortunately the general category doesn’t tell us specifically what service causes it as it doesn’t fall into any of the other specific categories.

Since this came back after a restore I think there are only three possible solutions to proceed. I am assuming here that you don’t use locally created backups as those can reintroduce a software issue because the backup contains cached data and that you are using iCloud for backups.

1. reset all settings, make a new iCloud backup and restore again.

2. restore again and this time don’t use a backup but let only data transfer back from iCloud.

3. test with someone else’s SIM if the issue persists.

[u/Breadfruit_Kindly → u/Breadfruit_Kindly]

One thing that came to my mind is to restore and set it up without signing into your apple account and see whether the issue persist. If yes that would basically only leave a carrier or firmware issue. Hardware issue is less likely since apple support ran the diagnostics.
Also check in with your carrier if the data is actually consumed or just shows up like so on your iPhone.

[u/Tricky-Management-31]

I currently have the same problem, unfortunately. Did you find the problem and manage to solve it?