• General
  • Updater downloaded A15 update over mobile connection

Looks like the updater suddenly downloaded the Android 15 update over my mobile data plan, even though the settings should have only allowed it to download over an unmetered network.

The System Updater used 1.24GB of mobile data, the App Store used 271MB.
The System update settings:

  • Release channel: Stable
  • Permitted networks: Unmetered

Pixel 7A

    SovereignCopper It won't use mobile data if it's set to unmetered. It uses the required network type as part of making each connection and also schedules the job to only run when the network is available. What you're describing shouldn't be possible.

    This is exactly what happened, though. It's clear that the System Updater used all this data from the mobile plan.

    The Permitted networks setting was always set to Unmetered.
    The Check for updates button was never tapped while on the mobile plan.

    • de0u replied to this.

      de0u Yes, Windscribe Free. (Can't believe I forgot to report this! 😳)

      • de0u replied to this.

        SovereignCopper I am not familiar with details of VPN client implementation on Android, but I can't help wondering whether clients might be responsible for coloring their tunnels as metered or unmetered according to which kind of connection they are running over.

        If so, and if some specific VPN client got that wrong, that might explain why System Updater thought it was running on an unmetered connection.

        FWIW here is a complaint alleging the opposite behavior: https://www.reddit.com/r/Windscribe/comments/k9law7/android_11_vpn_connections_are_treated_as_metered/?rdt=58133

          de0u I'll try to find some info about it at Windscribe's channels.

          For the record, I just saw Windscribe v3.79 F-Droid was installed (even though v3.80 was already available).

          I wonder if it's possible that, with a big download like this, the System Updater checks beforehand if the connection is unmetered, but doesn't do so during the download. So if you leave the house, connecting to a mobile provider, the download just continues.

            SovereignCopper

            SovereignCopper I wonder if it's possible that, with a big download like this, the System Updater checks beforehand if the connection is unmetered, but doesn't do so during the download. So if you leave the house, connecting to a mobile provider, the download just continues.

            This is the most likely answer. Cant think of much else. VPN does not bypass this metered/unmetered settings.

              gsture @GrapheneOS Great, if this is indeed the case, then I guess it could be fixed, for example by adding a check to a broadcast receiver for android.net.conn.CONNECTIVITY_CHANGE:

              • Am I currently downloading an update?
              • If so, is NetworkCapabilities.NET_CAPABILITY_NOT_METERED?
              • If not, pause the download.

                SovereignCopper I wonder if it's possible that, with a big download like this, the System Updater checks beforehand if the connection is unmetered, but doesn't do so during the download.

                Not sure I follow what you're saying here, but the updater app schedules jobs using Android's job scheduler and the job is set to only use unmetered connections using this method, setRequiredNetwork. Part of the documentation for that method says:

                Calling this method defines network as a strict requirement for your job. If the network requested is not available your job will never run.

                So, if the updater app is set to only use unmetered networks, the job will only run while the phone is connected to an unmetered network. If the download starts while the phone is connected to wifi and you leave your house, sure, I guess the download will continue. But in practice, this won't matter much considering the fact that incremental updates really aren't all that big. Sure, the recent Android 15 update was probably bigger (I didn't check the size), but, for the most part, incremental updates are very small and usually can be downloaded in less than a minute.

                  other8026 Well, the Android 15 update was probably at least 1.24GB, judging from my mobile data use 😉

                  Even though it might not usually come to transfers as large as this, I would argue this isn't a reason to only partly make the setting Permitted networks hold true 🙂

                  12 days later

                  SovereignCopper I wonder if it's possible that, with a big download like this, the System Updater checks beforehand if the connection is unmetered, but doesn't do so during the download. So if you leave the house, connecting to a mobile provider, the download just continues.

                  @GrapheneOS Does this make any sense?

                  SovereignCopper if this is indeed the case, then I guess it could be fixed, for example by adding a check to a broadcast receiver for android.net.conn.CONNECTIVITY_CHANGE:

                  Am I currently downloading an update?
                  If so, is NetworkCapabilities.NET_CAPABILITY_NOT_METERED?
                  If not, pause the download.