14 DAY TRIAL // Google’s recently announced Android Oreo comes with a bug that causes mobile data to be used by devices even when a Wi-Fi connection exists, leading to huge spikes in data usage and some devices to max out their monthly data plans.
Posts on reddit seem to indicate that the one to blame is a setting in developer options which is called “mobile data always active” and which Google more or less forgot to disable when rolling out the final version of Android Oreo. The beta builds shipped with this feature enabled for testing purposes, but it was supposed to be toggled to off once the operating system was finalized.
Turning this option off is actually the manual workaround for the bug, though there were users who decided to disable mobile data completely when connecting to a Wi-Fi network.
Google already preparing a fix
One user who turned to reddit to report the bug explained that they reached out to Google support for more information and engineers explained a fix is already being developed. This means a patch should land anytime soon, though specifics on the timing have not been provided.
“After updating to Oreo last night, I received a huge spike in data usage, all the while being connected to WiFi. I contacted support and was told that they are aware of the issue and are working on a fix. In the meantime I have turned off mobile data while at home, so only WiFi is being used,” one user explained.
For the time being, it looks like not everyone is affected by the bug, but what’s also important is that Android Oreo is not yet available for all devices, so the numbers of smartphones seeing the issue is likely to be very small.
Disabling “mobile data always active,” however, until a patch lands is a good way to make sure that your data plan isn’t maxed out without you knowing about it.