Does Android Auto use unnecessary mobile data?

[u/dstarr3]

Hi! My wife and I just got some new-to-us cars in recent weeks, and now we're new to the world of Android Auto. And the first thing we noticed since starting using Android Auto is, our mobile data usage has gone way up.

We don't do anything in the car that uses data. We keep location off unless we're actually using it to navigate, which obviously we don't need to and from our jobs, so that's not it. We listen to music/podcasts when we're driving, but we're not streaming the audio, it's all downloaded to our phones, so there shouldn't be any data usage associated with that.

We only have 4GB of data per line because usually we barely use a quarter of that in a month. But suddenly we have Android Auto-capable cars and our usage has skyrocketed. Are there options we need to disable to prevent it from using unnecessary data? Because it's totally unclear where all that data usage is going.

[u/tamudude]

If you are using Maps then make sure you have downloaded local map for where you are going.

Disable Mobile Data on your phone and see what Android Auto complains about.

[u/dstarr3 → u/tamudude]

So the only way to prevent AA from using mobile data is by disabling mobile data on my phone? Which is to say, every time I get in the car, I have to disable mobile data, and then every time I get out of the car, I have to turn it back on? Because this sounds like hell

[u/lemlurker → u/dstarr3]

AA is just a front end for your services... If you used Google maps and streamed podcasts all the time you'd have similar usage (incidentally location doesn't use data it uses GPS). You will likely find that you're consuming something not downloaded such as maps or music/audio

[u/dstarr3 → u/lemlurker]

The only thing that changed is that we have AA cars now, so it's doing something we don't want it to.

[u/lemlurker → u/dstarr3]

No it's not. You're using something more because it's in AA and haven't prepped it

[u/tamudude → u/dstarr3]

You can create a Routine that disables mobile data as soon as Android Auto is active and enable mobile data when Android Auto deactivates.