Unexplained High Data Usage ALL OF A SUDDEN

[Gwalk900]

A shill is a shill of course of course ....... and no one can talk to a shill of course ...

[wbdavis]

I left the room with 100% data. I came back 5 min later and had lost 50%.  

[wbdavis]

Checked out Birddogs information and think both Windows and HP were attempting to download even though I've turned off  "automatic updates" for both.  
Also took his advice and changed to Metered Connection which immediately stopped the downloads.

[Gwalk900]

As I stated in an earlier post, you really can't turn off Win updates on Win10 in the same manner that you could previous versions of Windows.

If you are connected by wire, you are going to get the updates.

If you only connect wirelessly you can prevent any and all Windows updates if you set your connection type to metered.

When you do again update Windows be sure to check your wifi settings again as the update will likely have reset everything to default values.

[GabeU]

wbdavis,

So it looks like Windows 10 updates were the culprit.  It would make sense, as the latest update was released on Sept 29th, which would correspond with the ten days that this has been going on.

I wonder if it's the mentioned loop problem that has been happening for some people, or that the update may not be able to finish due to not enough data allowance being available.  If the update is larger than your daily allowance, it would blow through it, of course, then when you shut down and start again the next day, it may start downloading all over again, especially since a shutdown probably wipes out what has already been downloaded. 

At least with it set to a metered connection you can control it. 

Edit - Just read a little more and see that HP was trying to download, too.  Surely that would just add to the problem of not enough data available.  Again, though, I'm glad you got it figured out and were able to adjust the settings accordingly. 

[debbie.jean.bro]

So I'm thinking it would be a good idea for us W10 folks to periodically check all our settings just to make sure nothing has changed.

[Old Labs]

After any major Windows 10 update, certainly. In this case, Windows 10 Anniversary moved the metered furniture around - setting metered previously applied to all WIFI connections, under the anniversary edition it's now maintained on a per WIFI connection basis - prevents having to change it every time you switch connections (e.g. work, home, school, McDonalds, Starbucks, library, etc.)   

[donsmith2000]

Well, I am running Windows 7 and do not allow automatic updates. I also don't have wireless enabled, nor do I have it on my switch. My phone doesn't connect through the switch nor through wireless on my CPUs. Yet I have the same spikes. And HughesNet can't explain that either.

[GabeU]

donsmith2000,

wbdavis discovered what the problem was, which turned out to be updates from both Windows and HP. 

My advice for you is to download and install Glasswire on your computer (this helped wbdavis, too).  It will tell you what is using data on the computer it's installed on.  It's free. 

https://www.glasswire.com/

[donsmith2000]

Windows can only update when I give permission. And I don't have an HP machine. And why did this only start last week?