How much mobile data usage does the GPS use?

[+ScooterChick]

How much mobile data usage does the GPS consume using the iPhone app?

 

I'm trying to determine if I need a larger data plan.

 

TIA - Scooterchick (Crystal)

[+on4bam]

The GPS in your phone does not consume any data. However, at some intervals your phone might download some satellite data which consumes very little data and, you can download that at home.

What does use data are maps. How much data depends on what area and what detail you download. I doubt it will be much. Even on longer drives with Waze active it takes a long time to use 100MB.

You'll use more data if you download cachedata on the go.

If you're worried about datalimits try to download as much as possible at home using WiFi.

 

While not caching with a smartphone, I get by with less than 200MB/month. That's Waze, mail, looking stuff up when out caching and looking at a spoiler picture if we can't find a cache (in case it's not available offline on my tablet).

 

You can always do a trial run resetting data counters when you start, go out and check when back home and calculate from there.

 

[+mustakorppi]

I have unlimited data so I don’t really care but the Geocaching app consumes by far the most mobile data on my phone. 28.9GB out of the 251GB total for the ”current roaming period”. An alternative app like Cachly has far better offline capability and might be well worth the initial cost.

 

But HQ should really do something to make the official app less of a data hog...

[+on4bam]

2 minutes ago, mustakorppi said:

the Geocaching app consumes by far the most mobile data on my phone. 28.9GB out of the 251GB total for the ”current roaming period”.

 

That seems extreme. Given that a PQ with about 1000 caches is less than 2MB I wonder what that app is doing. If your "roaming period" is one month that means you're using 1GB/day if you're out caching almost every day. That can't be right (well it can but it shouldn't).

 

[+kunarion]

3 minutes ago, on4bam said:

That seems extreme. Given that a PQ with about 1000 caches is less than 2MB I wonder what that app is doing. If your "roaming period" is one month that means you're using 1GB/day if you're out caching almost every day. That can't be right (well it can but it shouldn't).

 

 

A couple of weeks ago, I used satellite maps on a one-hour drive home to scout caches on-the-fly.  I'd bet that uses data like crazy, and it mainly depends on how a user uses The App.  I know, sure you can load things in advance, but my experience is The App never has enough stuff loaded, it's always loading more.  Even cache pages.  I saw gigantic images on pages, and wondered if the Cache Owners might consider sizing their images so The App (or even The Web Browser) doesn't need to load so much data on the road.  But I did kind of wonder if I really needed to be pulling up satellite map tiles like that.  The Apps don't really tell you when you're currently going crazy with the data.  Is it 2x more... 50x more?  I have to go calculate it later, plus the data stats reset on a schedule.

 

The OP can instead use an unconnected handheld GPS, or, yeah, Cachly or other App, although again, I see these Apps always wanting more.  I THOUGHT I loaded everything, I TESTED it, and when I arrive, it needs to load more, every time.  I'm likely not as thrifty with data as others, plus I just plain don't remember which function requires online data (or it's a surprise).  I'll tap something and ooops, it's waiting to load data!

 

But as a test, if the OP tried to run an App offline, that would a good way to tell if the data plan is enough.  If you seem to not need satellite maps and photos and more cache pages than what you pre-loaded, that's one way to tell.  You can load stuff at a wifi hotspot, and The App doesn't tax your data plan.

[+mustakorppi]

I had a brainfart there, it’s just ”current period”, not roaming, which just means ”since the stats were last reset”. In my case, that would be July 2018.
 

So data usage of Geocaching app for me would be less than 1GB/month, starting with 9 months of fairly casual caching and then literally caching every day since April 2019. Cachly has used an additional 7.3GB, Geo Bucket used 5.9GB and Adventure labs used 0.8GB. Google Maps has used a total of 11.9GB in the same time, I’d say a reasonable amount of that is really geocaching.
 

So I guess we can say that actively caching takes somewhere between 1-2GB/month if you don’t make any particular effort to conserve data.

[+ScooterChick]

Thanks for the quick responses. 

 

You've addressed the intent of my question.  My company has provided me with an iPhone with unlimited data for many years, and I have to return it.  I do have a Garmin GPS, but I've become one of those cachers that is mostly an opportunity cacher, meaning I'll use my phone for an hour or so in a specific area or when I have some time to kill waiting...

In other words I don't download much prior to heading out on a cache hunt.  

It appears that with my style of caching, I tend to consume a lot of data using the GC App on my iPhone.   Perhaps I could get by with a 2 or 3 GB monthly data plan.  For longer trips, I can use my Garmin. 

 

Thank you again - 

[+kunarion]

42 minutes ago, mustakorppi said:

I had a brainfart there, it’s just ”current period”, not roaming, which just means ”since the stats were last reset”. In my case, that would be July 2018.
 

So data usage of Geocaching app for me would be less than 1GB/month, starting with 9 months of fairly casual caching and then literally caching every day since April 2019. Cachly has used an additional 7.3GB, Geo Bucket used 5.9GB and Adventure labs used 0.8GB. Google Maps has used a total of 11.9GB in the same time, I’d say a reasonable amount of that is really geocaching.
 

So I guess we can say that actively caching takes somewhere between 1-2GB/month if you don’t make any particular effort to conserve data.

 

My reset date is the same -- July 2018.  I have 1GB of "Geocaching App" data usage.  But that doesn't include Waze and Google Maps, nor Cachly, nor Geocaching.com web browsing.  AND it doesn't include the fact that I was live caching with an Android phone until about a year ago when it exploded.  Then I switched back to iPhone.  AND I do most of any hike with a Garmin Oregon, using a phone App as a reference rather than Official Geocaching.  So, even if I accounted for months when I had a different phone, my data usage is way different from what phone App users would have.

 

 

Edited March 11, 2021 by kunarion

[+ScooterChick]

"My reset date is the same -- July 2018.  I have 1GB of "Geocaching App" data usage"

 

Where are you finding these stats?  In the Geocaching app or in your phone data usage somewhere?

[+kunarion]

6 minutes ago, ScooterChick said:

"My reset date is the same -- July 2018.  I have 1GB of "Geocaching App" data usage"

 

Where are you finding these stats?  In the Geocaching app or in your phone data usage somewhere?

 

I found it in Settings: Cellular.  Scroll down for various Apps.  The actual number-crunching may be a little nerdy and confusing, especially if you include other Apps you use while Geocaching. 

[+Gezocht]

Every now and then, for no apparent reason, my data usage on the Groundspeak app (Iphone6) is abnormally high. Several gigabytes if we do a round of traditionals (max 4 hours). No, there are no other applications or (e-mail) settings that cause this. It keeps happening when I forget to turn off roaming for Geocaching. Of course I now work offline via lists as much as possible, but it is still inexplicable why there is so much consumption. The maps themselves, I estimate, will surely be vector-based and will not use a lot of data? I have the impression that it occurs in certain areas. The first time I experienced it was a year ago in the area around Hoge Mierde on the Belgian border. The day before yesterday around Casteren (8 km from the Belgian border) the same again. Sometimes I forget to turn off roaming, I do exactly the same and have normal usage. I don't get it ... By the way, I searched here for "data usage" but I could not find it within the forum. Maybe I'm looking wrong.
Who knows more about it or can help me get started in the forum?

[+Lynx Humble]

3 hours ago, Gezocht said:

Every now and then, for no apparent reason, my data usage on the Groundspeak app (Iphone6) is abnormally high. Several gigabytes if we do a round of traditionals (max 4 hours). No, there are no other applications or (e-mail) settings that cause this. It keeps happening when I forget to turn off roaming for Geocaching. Of course I now work offline via lists as much as possible, but it is still inexplicable why there is so much consumption. The maps themselves, I estimate, will surely be vector-based and will not use a lot of data? I have the impression that it occurs in certain areas. The first time I experienced it was a year ago in the area around Hoge Mierde on the Belgian border. The day before yesterday around Casteren (8 km from the Belgian border) the same again. Sometimes I forget to turn off roaming, I do exactly the same and have normal usage. I don't get it ... By the way, I searched here for "data usage" but I could not find it within the forum. Maybe I'm looking wrong.
Who knows more about it or can help me get started in the forum?

Got a similar issue with the App for Android. 3 times in the last month my data usage for the day spiked over 1 GB just using the app. I hope the new map that will get released will correct that issue.