Bug: Extremely high mobile data usage

[AndreTkacenko]

Reproduction steps

I have been using Grayjay on my old Samsung Galaxy S10e (running Android 12 and One UI 4.1) for about two months, and while I have loved the app, I have recently noticed that it has been consuming a very high amount of my mobile data (see the attached screen capture of data usage for this month).

Currently, I am using the default settings, and have installed the YouTube, Rumble, and BitChute plugins. Regarding the plugins, I have kept the default settings as well, although I did log into each of these platforms. I mostly use Grayjay at home on my WiFi (so that shouldn't be consuming any mobile data at all, essentially), but I do step out everyday for about an hour and watch/listen to a video (typically something on Rumble).

I have noticed that the mobile data usage is positively correlated with how much I use Grayjay while not on WiFi, which makes sense. However, the amount of data usage seems way too high to me. Prior to using Grayjay, when I was using YouTube and Rumble, my data usage was close to an order of magnitude smaller than it is now.

Actual result

Mobile data usage was about an order of magnitude larger than what I would have expected compared to using the source platform apps like YouTube and Rumble. This was using the default settings on Grayjay.

Expected result

I was expecting my mobile data usage to be on par with what I saw previously with source platform apps like YouTube and Rumble, especially in light of the fact that I was using the default settings on Grayjay.

Grayjay Version

391

What plugins are you seeing the problem on?

All

Plugin Version

No response

Which android version are you using?

Android 12

Which device are you using?

Samsung Galaxy S10e

Which operating system are you using?

One UI 4.1

When do you experience the issue?

• While logged in
• While logged out
• N/A

Are you using a VPN?

No

References

No response

Relevant log output

[Zvonimir-FUTO]

Samsung is known to report incorrect data for mobile usage. Can you please confirm the usage with your data carrier? Usually data usage can be seen inside the carrier app.

[AndreTkacenko]

Thank you for your response, Zvonimir. It is much appreciated.

As for carrier usage, I have the following screenshots of usage from T-Mobile (my carrier) from May through today where you can see how much my usage jumped up after I downloaded and started using Grayjay (which was in the beginning of July).

As can be seen, my data usage jumped from about 10 GB per month to about 50 GB per month (the last screenshot showing the data usage from Aug. 9 - Sep. 8, which is 27.15 GB, is only about halfway completed and set to come close to the 50 GB per month number mentioned earlier).

My overall behavior has not changed over the months. I would use my phone to listen to and watch videos on YouTube, Rumble, or the now defunct BitChute Android app. Back then, my usage would lead to about 10 GB per month. Now that I am using Grayjay almost exclusively, that usage has shot up to 50 GB per month.

If you have any idea how to mitigate this, with any app settings, that would be great. Thanks again for your help with this.

[Zvonimir-FUTO]

Thanks for confirming.
Are you watching videos on data or are you downloading them on wifi? Are you downloading videos using data?

[AndreTkacenko]

No problem with the confirmation. Thank you for the continued feedback.

I simply watch videos and don't download them. Part of the reason is that I have an unlimited plan from T-Mobile. However, last month, on account of the high data usage, I got a notification from them as I was starting to approach 50 GB worth of data usage for that month.

I hope that this input helps. I noticed that there are similar issues that have been reported in the past, including #3109 and #3290. At least I'm not alone in this.

[Zvonimir-FUTO]

Hm... these are hard to figure out. Are you sure you are not just watching more? Not trying to downplay your experience here :)

Could you try and keep an eye if you are getting more UMP streams or VisionOS streams? You can see that under video options.
Do you usually play videos in background (audio only) or watching the video?

Can you try checking data usage before and after watching/downloading a bigger video to see if it's expected usage?

[AndreTkacenko]

I'm watching videos about as frequently as I have in the past, so that behavior hasn't really changed much since I started using Grayjay.

When looking at the video options for most of the videos that I have watched, I've noticed the following:

• YouTube ones are only VisionOS streams;
• Rumble ones are only mp2t;
• BitChute ones are MPEG-4.

I'll try to check out the data usage before and after watching a larger video to see how much the usage actually is. The problem is that there is quite a bit of latency with T-Mobile in terms of when they actually log the data usage compared to when it occurs.

[Zvonimir-FUTO]

Since it seems your phone shows accurate data usage you can just reference that.