Android bandwidth usage help...

How can I prevent programs/apps from doing stupid updates while on 3G/4G LTE? Trired of these useless apps that I don't even use thinking it's a good idea to go ahead and do an update anytime they feel like it. Eating up all my, very little mind you, data each month.

Running Android 4.4.4
HTC Sense 6.0

Phone is an HTC One M8.
Carrier is Verizon

I am not against rooting the phone and deleting/removing nearly all of those useless apps either. (Looking at you Amazon Kindle

Do note that it doesn't seem that disabling said apps/programs prevents them from auto updating either.

Many anti-virus apps such as AVG and Avast has bandwidth monitoring with blocking data on 3G, 4G, and wifi. I don't know how well those work though. But good luck.

Google is your friend:


Android
Android gives you a fair amount of freedom about updates. You can turn off all updates, or limit updates to Wi-Fi downloads only. You can also enable updates for only specific apps - so for example, you might want the latest versions of apps you use very frequently, but you don't want to waste bandwidth downloading updates for other apps that will be launched only once every three months.
To turn updates on or off, follow these steps:

1. Open Google Play.
2. Tap the hamburger icon (three horizontal lines) on the top-left.
3. Tap Settings.
4. Tap Auto-update apps.
5. To disable automatic app updates, select Do not auto-update apps.
6. If you want to instead auto-update apps only when you're connected to a WiFi network, tap Auto-update apps over Wi-Fi only in the same pop-up.

Android also lets you choose which apps you want to update automatically.

1. To turn on auto-update for any app, go to the app page in the Google Play app.
2. Tap the three vertical dots in the top right.
3. Check Auto-update.

You can also go to settings > data usage, scroll down to the app(s) you don't want to use cell data > restrict background data.

I fear the day I have to use these features (still on unlimited data on Verizon with my One M8 ).

Oh nice. Thanks.

Yeah I wish I had got in on the unlimited Verizon plan. Back when that was out I was on an unlimited C.Spire (formerly Cellular South) which happened to be under a partnership with Verizon at the time. After Verizon stopped their unlimited plans, suddenly Cellular South changed their name to C.Spire and their coverage sucked ass. Supposedly they went with a partnership with Sprint. So I went to Verizon due to the fact that I heard they were the reason why C.Spire was so great with coverage.

Love Verizon's coverage, but I hate their data plans. I have their 2GB data w/out contract. Man it sucks, but I don't really use much data anyway. Most I do is Facebook, Snapchat and picture texts which doesn't take up much data. (no video streaming and I don't download apps on 4G) I occasionally use GPS to navigate since I'm not local to this area, but I use a third party app where I downloaded all the maps on WiFi prior. So no data usage there either.