Do you want to save internet data on your phone due to limited data availability or any other reason? If yes, then you have come to the right place. In this guide, we’ll show you how to restrict background data usage on Android phones, ensuring you save data for when you really need it.
The internet has become an important part of our daily lives. However, much like a luxury, it doesn’t come cheap. Internet costs vary by region, with unlimited data plans being expensive in many countries, and so users go for limited plans. So if you are worried that your internet data will be consumed by apps running in the background. Well, you don’t have to worry about it, because you can restrict background data on your Android phone.
Yes, many apps consume data in the background without showing up in your list of recently opened applications. These apps use phone’s resources and internet data. Fortunately, most Android phones come equipped with a feature that allows users to turn off background data for specific apps.
Before we move on to the steps to restrict background data, it is important to find the apps that are using the most data. So let’s see how to sort and find apps to restrict background data.
How to Check Which Apps are Consuming Data
Settings or the process to access specific settings may differ for different brands of phones. Here I will share the steps for Samsung phones, but the process will be mostly similar for others.
- Open Settings on your Phone.
- Now go to Connections > Data Usage.
- Here you will see Mobile Data usage, open it.
- You will find the accumulated data usage along with the list of apps in order of their data usage.
You can note down apps that use most data and do not require data in the background. Once done, it’s time to restrict their data usage.
Restrict Data Usage for Specific Apps
- Open Settings on your Android phone.
- Scroll down and you will find the Apps section.
- Open Apps Settings then search for the first app from the list you note down.
- Tap on the app and it will take you to its info page. Open the Mobile Data option from here.
- Turn off the toggle for ‘Allow background data usage’.
That’s it! Once you adjust these settings, the app will no longer consume internet data when it is minimized or closed. Now you can turn off the toggle for every app this way. However, it’s important not to disable background data for messaging apps, such as WhatsApp, as this could lead to issues – you might not receive messages in real time.
Additionally, there’s a quick method to access the ‘App Info’ page mentioned in Step 4. Simply tap and hold the app icon on your home screen, and a menu will appear. Look for and tap on the ‘i’ icon or the text ‘App info.’ This action will directly take you to that specific app’s settings.
Restrict Background Data for all Apps at once
If you’re using mobile data and are concerned that it might exhaust sooner than expected, but you don’t want to limit background data usage for each app individually, there is another solution. Android allows you to restrict background data for all apps at once. Moreover, you can easily remove these restrictions with one click once you are connected to WiFi. Follow these steps to know how.
- Open Settings on your Phone.
- Now go to Connections > Data Usage.
- Here you will find Data Saver. If you don’t find it, you can directly search for Data Saver in Settings.
- Open Data Saver and turn on the toggle.
Simply, it will restrict background data usage, and you can remove the restriction in the same way, you just have to turn off the toggle.
Data Saver is like Battery Saver but it saves data instead of battery. If you want to save data in other ways, you can follow some of these tips.
- Turn off Automatic System Updates
- Turn off App updates in the Play Store
- Turn off auto-play videos on YouTube, Play Store, Google Discover and other services
So this is the complete and quick guide on how to restrict background data usage on Android phones. I hope this guide clears all your doubts and questions. But in case you have any queries, you can ask in the comment section.
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