How to Change Your Settings to Save Data
If you’re not connecting two Android devices—maybe you’re connecting a tablet to a Mifi or any other non-Android mobile hotspot like the iPhone—this hidden setting should come in handy: This should help you conserve more mobile data when you’re sharing your wireless data with your tablet, phone, or another mobile device.
Tap Data Saver and then enable Use Data Saver. Skip to Step 5.Open the Network restrictions or Restrict networks settings from the Wi-Fi section.Select the three dots in the upper-right corner and then choose Mobile HotSpot or Mobile hotspots.
This option might be a slider toggle or checkbox space in older versions of Android, and enabling it next to the network will turn the feature on. These tactics, while designed to minimize data usage on your wireless hotspot, could also help limit your data usage (most importantly, data roaming) when you’re traveling. Just set any wireless network as a mobile hotspot to limit the kinds and amount of traffic that gets pulled.
Put a Limit on Data Usage
You can also put a limit on how much data can be used so that the device will not use more than what you allow. The limit can be set to whatever you like but would make sense to be set up to be the same amount of data you pay for, or less if you share your plan with others. This works great whether you use a hotspot or not, but is especially helpful when tethering since your connected devices might use more data than you anticipate. When this data limit is reached, all mobile data services on that device are disabled until the month renews. You should enable this limit on the device through which all the traffic is flowing—the one that’s paying for the mobile data. For example, if your phone is used as the hotspot for your Wi-Fi tablet so that it can get mobile data, set up this limit on the phone since all the traffic is flowing through it. Here’s how to do it:
Use Data Alerts and Settings
There’s also an option called Data warning (or Set data warning) that you can enable if you don’t want data to be disabled but instead want to be told when you’re reaching a specific amount. Some Android devices call this Alert me about data usage. If you’re on a version of Android that isn’t the current version, choose Cellular data usage or Mobile data usage. If you don’t see one of those options, select Set mobile data limit instead, and then skip down to Step 5. Something else you can do is change settings in your biggest data-demanding apps, like Netflix and YouTube. Since these are video streaming apps that are commonly used on bigger screens like tablets, tethering that to a phone can use data quickly. Adjust the quality of the videos to be low or of a lesser-than-HD quality so that they don’t use as much data. Another app that uses lots of data is your web browser. Consider using one that compresses data like Chrome’s Lite mode option in the app’s settings.
Turn Off Your Data
For a foolproof method of saving on data usage, turn everything off manually, without waiting for a data limit to be reached. Open the Network & internet screen and then tap Mobile data or Cellular data to disable Mobile data so that your device only uses Wi-Fi. This means that the device can only connect to mobile hotspots and other Wi-Fi networks, but it will prevent overage charges.
