Turn Off Background Data for Specific Apps on Android and Save at Least 10% of Your Data and Power Usage. Have you thought about how much data traffic you consume each month, and which apps are the biggest drain in your monthly data allowance? This is one of the biggest problems for those of us who don’t have an unlimited plan and can’t afford apps that constantly connect to the Internet. Apps like Facebook, LinkedIn, Dropbox and others like them are pretty big data hogs, and sometimes they connect to Internet in background and consume those valuable MB of data. While turning them completely off isn’t a good option, we must find the next best thing and turn off cellular data only for certain apps, so they work only over WiFi or at certain times. Today we’ll be investigating this aspect and show you some solutions for this program. How to turn off cellular data for specific apps on Android? Android users have at their disposal many apps that allow them to restrict background data to certain apps, as well as turn off their background connections from the settings of the device. Here’s how easily this can be done. 1. Tick the magic “Restrict Background Data” box (see inserted photo) If you’re on a limited data plan, then you should figure out which apps consume the most data traffic, and this can be done very easily by going to “Settings” and then to “Data Usage” and scroll down. You will see a list of all the apps that have Internet access and how much traffic they make. In order to turn off the background data for any of the apps in this list, tap on it and at the bottom of the menu that opens, you will find this feature. This approach has the benefit of only restricting background data, but when you open the app, it can still connect to the Internet. Also, this feature allows apps to connect to the Internet in the background when the phone is on a WiFi network, but if you want to restrict both cell and WiFi data, this option will not work and you might want to look towards a dedicated app. 2. Use a dedicated app to restrict mobile data for certain apps Another way to go about this problem is to use an app that will block mobile data for different apps. There are many apps that offer this functionality, and they can become your best friends when you want to save your data for a longer time. Most of these apps offer the same functionality, having a list of all the apps that need Internet access and two options, one to restrict cell data and one to restrict WiFi connectivity. If you want to turn off cell data on specific apps, just uncheck the box that corresponds to 3G connectivity and you are all set. The Android apps that allow you to do this are as follows: => Root Firewall => DroidWall – Android Firewall => Android Firewall Note: Modifying features like restricting cell data usually requires apps that need root access, so be sure to root your device before installing them. Of course, there are other apps that have this function, but these three were tried and tested by thousands of users (including yours truly) and have proven their functionality time and time again. Also, there are some Automation apps for Android that can offer this functionality. /////////////// Background Data is a feature that lets an application use data when its running in background. For example GMail, Calendar and Contacts are being synced in background and need background data = on. Weather apps and gadgets need background data to update forecast, Latitude needs background data to update your location, etc. If you turn background data off, applications can only access internet on your demand. For example, Browser is a classic example of application which uses data on demand. When I checked my smartphones background data usage, it was 10% of the overall usage so I realised I was wasting a lot of data without my need and demand for it. This exercise will also help in saving power in your batteries. Please Share this post on your walls if you find in worthwhile.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 12:28:14 +0000
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