IssueTracker

I didn't change any settings ( no data services when roaming), until I recognized the
phone was using data services despite roaming.

I was using the G1 phone to record my gps data. The network provider was changing
very often and some what on the way the phone was showing some map data downloaded
from the internet.
This happened not right away, but on the second or third day of the trip.

Could it be possible if the provider changes again before the user has time to accept
the roaming warning, some unpredicted state may occur?

As mentioned before only destroying the apn helped.
 

I have experienced the same problem. On my trip i suddenly had internet connection,
while data roaming was off. My phone company charged me for the data... On the moment
my internet connection worked i had no service for GSM. Could this be the cause of the
problem because then there is no roaming? I hope this can be fixed soon!

Me and 2 of my collegues are working aboard (5 days a week) and all have up to date
G2's  (build RC1) with data roaming OFF.
All of us have more than 20$ of unexpected charges per month due to data roaming not
working.

While data roaming is off, and the phone being on a network different from the SIM
card one, ALL connections must be aborted.

For all the unexpected connections, we noticed that it was mainly when changing
between countries (but not every time) and without using the phone at that particular
moment, as if android didn't noticed the phone network changes soon enough.

I think this bug should be changed to high priority since it costs money to almost
everyone going aboard for extended period.

Changing the APN manually is defintely NOT an option.

It's the same for me. When I was in Switzerland, near the German border (my home
network), it seemed to be charing me a few seconds, every time I switched between the
countries.

But I was also charged for several secounds, when I was in France, far off the German
border.

My German home network is Blau (E-Plus), not T-Mobile (if that matters).

I also, would like to get this fixed quite urgent, for it means to me, that I always
have to put my SIM-Card in a different phone, when going abroad!

Yet another 15$+ charges this month and for all the three of us !

This starts to become really really annoying as our phone provider wont refund us
everytime since they are arguing that is our fault.

As a new feedback, we can now confirm that all the charges are due to connecting to a
foreign network. I mean, everytime the phone detects a foreign network, there's a
sligth chance that it doesn't recognize immediatly that it is a foreign network, no
matter if data roaming is disabled.
It can happen that the phone loose the network, find it a few minutes later, and yet
another charge ! Seems like the phone try to connect before knowing it is a foreign
network and with data roaming off.

Same for me. I'm french and I work in Luxembourg.
Everyday at the same moment I lose 1.50€.
Please, change the priority. Because it starts to hurt the wallet.

Hi, I'm experiencing the same troubles.
I'm working abroad, forced to be logged on a foreigner network more than the half of
every working day.
This bug combined with #3048/#2554 (seems to be the same bug) makes my android phone
a pretty expensive useless gizmo.

Please keep in mind that some people are crossing borders not only for holidays but
as part of their working day.
This bug is really poisoning my android experience.

WiSyncPlus goes a long way toward at least providing a mechanism to manage the issue. With it you can
completely defer traffic until you have a WIFI connection. It also has a scheduler and helps protect
against accidental data roaming. Not to mention your battery life is drastically improved for most.

Go to the market a search on wisyncplus or gearsoft.

Well, thx, but a commercial app is NOT a solution. The free version doesn't have any
scheduling function.
By the way, a 3rd party software never should be a solution to fix an issue.
Rigth now, the best workaround is to manually use APNdroid, which is kinda risky,
espacially when using it twice a day and sometime forgot about it.

I get this problem here in Australia too, and my phone is using an Eclair-based ROM.
It's the carriers fault for not setting up their towers properly, so I had this problem
with my Nokia as well (this is not just an Android problem, but Android ought to be
agile enough to fix this where every other OS vendor ignores it).

The problem for me is the the Cell Text is "Roaming", but the Cell Roaming Status is
"Not Roaming". Because Android only checks the Roaming Status, it doesn't know
that I am physically roaming because I am technically not roaming.

I would suggest giving us whitelists and blacklists for Cell IDs, so we can say which
ones we consider Roaming and which ones we don't. That way everyone can manage
this setting themselves and Google doesn't have to do any research on this matter
themselves. A short term fix that would solve this for me personally would be to
check if the ID=="Roaming" and if so force Roaming=true.

I would have suggested this problem to my carrier, but all carriers profit considerably
from this issue. Also, it was probably hard enough to get the carriers here to play
nice with each other (way nicer than in the US, BTW) so asking more of them all might
be rocking the boat.

Yes, it looks like the provider has problems to. As of us, the problem seems to have
been fixed on the provider side since we didn't get excessively charged the last couple
of months while not having new software updates on our HTC Magic. It may be due to some
changes in the way our provider charges data roaming: we'r now charged per day of
roaming instead of per connection.
I still think it is an Android issue since other non-android phones with the same
provider didn't get charged with data roaming off.

I'm an user of Magic, and right now I'm about to sue my network operator VIP for not
giving me important information: despite of manual phone disabling to update apps
while in roaming, Magic CAN hook on the roaming network by itself! WTF?
VIP mobile charged me 0,7 euro per 100KB. When I looked at the specification of a
bill, I noticed that phone was mostly downloading data of 2-25KB size and operator
was rounding the amount to 100 KB, make that 250 times of (unwilling)connections, and
you'll get a problem. Then you regret for being abroad with a stupid device,instead
of enjoying in beautiful impressions you've got there :(
 

This is really a big issue. See issue 36914681 too.

same for me:
26.06.2010      15:09   30 Kb   INTERNET        GPRS Outbound Roaming   0.00 CHF
26.06.2010      15:09   30 Kb   INTERNET        GPRS Outbound Roaming   0.00 CHF
26.06.2010      13:42   30 Kb   INTERNET        GPRS Outbound Roaming   3.99 CHF
Provider Orange Switzerland, traveled to Austria

Same problem here with Orange Switzerland also and data roaming switched off:

01.08.2010    10:27    870 Kb    internet;GPRS Outbound Roaming    3.99CHF


Some days ago (but after August 1st) I installed 2.1-update1, anybody knows if this is fixed there? If not, priority must be set to High, this is definitely a big issue!

I've just been having the same discussion with my provider having been charged for data roaming (background sync) when seemingly the handset should have prohibited it.

This is on an HTC Legend (Vodafone UK) with 2.1-update 1, so no it's not fixed.

Same issue - HTC Incredible w/ 2.2.  Absolutely unacceptable.  Come on google, this is ridiculous... maybe we should start sending you the bills.  Providing a costly service that cannot be disabled.  I wonder if Iphones have the same issue?

I can confirm you that iPhones don't have the same issue on the provider I am using.

My provider recently changed the way it's billing data roaming operation: instead of per connexion fees, one must now text a special phone number in order to activate roaming for 24h with fixed fees (and unlimited roaming for 24h). This means that as long as one haven't texted the activation number, data roaming doesn't work even if one have it activated on his phone. As a result, I am no more experiencing this bug since data roaming is blocked on the provider side.

I can't believe that this issue is still open as of Android 2.2. This is not a small bug since it costs money to the users.
One year and a half now...

Fellow HTC/2.2 users:  it appears that switching off 'mobile network' will kill all data connections (while roaming or not).  HTC has a widget for this that you can put on the home screen.  It's the same as disabling data through the service menu (*#*#4636#*#*).  It's a temporary workaround, not an acceptable solution.  

I'm in Quebec, Canada with Videotron as provider. My Nexus One have the same issue. I'm just back from another province and I was billed for some data roaming while it is disabled.

The phone display a warning message saying that data roaming is disabled. I've seen this message more than once and I never got billed before now. This time I was using the Google navigation app from a wi-fi. I suppose that it switched to roaming when i left the building but it shouldnt since it was disabled.

Thanks you for looking into this.

same bug...fix it soon...it cost us money!

[Comment deleted]

Same problem for me. In a week, it happened at the German/Czech border German/French border: got charged 5 euros altogether. 5 euros/week a "Medium" issue ? Nah !  This is ridiculous !
Looks like this bug has been out for 3 years already ! Shouldn't that be fixed by now ? Or should i buy an iphone ?

I haven't had this issue since Android 4.0, but obviously my phone book is different to yours. Can anyone confirm that this is still a problem with 4.0.x devices?

Submitting complaints about older version of Android here will unfortunately fall on deaf ears. It's clear to me, after watching this bug tracker for years, that only issues with the latest code have any chance of getting any attention at all (they will basically ignore a bug in Android 2.x or 3.x).

I have had the same issue travelling in Europe (from Australia).  Data Roaming was turned 'off' for my phone the whole time, but I have still been charged for data roaming from German, Swiss and French telcos.  My bill doesn't say what the data was for.  Was using a Motorola Backflip (Android 1.5, I believe).  I agree that silently failing to turn off a (heavily) billable service is a critical issue which should be fixed for all versions.

Patrick, do you think the roaming-off feature failed completely (you had
alot of data use) or do you think it mostly worked but leaked some data
(little data use)?

Thanks for the prompt response.  I think it mostly worked but leaked some
data.  The roaming bills were for relatively small amounts of data at
sporadic days and times.  I can send those details (ie how much data and
when) if it's any help.

What would be best is noticing what your were doing when the data leaked.
 Things that come to mind would be:
Change mobile operator - country boundaries
switch from wifi to mobile
send/receive mms
run market or buy things on market
turn the phone on
turn off airplane mode

Some of these are special activities like using market (it tries to talk to
your carrier to see if you're eligible for carrier billing (where your
purchase appears on your cell bill instead of a credit card)) or sending
mms (it has to talk to your carrier to retrieve the content).  Others are
just times where there may be a race condition between the network becoming
available and the phone figuring out your are roaming.

I know it's not easy to do this stuff after a long trip when you see your
bill, but if anybody is any situation where they can do some experiments it
could help track down this problem.

Will do - it will take me a day or so to track down my itinerary and
compare against my billing.  I'll be back in touch then with what detail I
can put together.

The things I noticed (but this has been about 2 years ago) were:

- It didn't happen when I was abroad and stayed abroad. (Or maybe it
did, but only so little amount of bytes that my carrier didn't bill it)

- It did happen when I was very close to the German border for a while.
Sometimes the Dutch network had coverage and sometimes it didn't. So I
guess each day at least 20 swaps were made, and each time a few hundred
bytes were transmitted over the German network..

- My workaround was turning packet data off completely, and just use the
WiFi connection over there.

Kind regards, Harm

I have a Galaxy Nexus on T-Mobile USA running Android 4.1.1 and I just got a bill for $2.23 for 2.23 MB of data roaming onto Rogers Wireless on a trip I tool last month to northern Vermont near the Canadian border.  I had data roaming turned off the entire time but apparently a bit of roaming data usage leaked through.  I believe I did reboot my phone once during the trip, and all of the data charges are on the same day, so perhaps there's a moment after reboot when it doesn't respect the "no data roaming" setting.  Here's the T-Mobile data roaming report:

"DATA SERVICE ROAMING CHARGES"

Call Origination,Date,Service,Volume,Measurement,Total
"Canada (Rogers Wireless)","7/29/12","Internet Access","0.0019","Megabytes","0.02"
"Canada (Rogers Wireless)","7/29/12","Internet Access","0.0625","Megabytes","0.63"
"Canada (Rogers Wireless)","7/29/12","Internet Access","0.1582","Megabytes","1.58"
"SUBTOTAL",,,"0.0002",,"Gigabytes","2.23"

I spent three days in france a couple of weeks before and now received my bill stating I had used 8.5Mb of data which my carrier (Sunrise Switzerland) charges me 130Chf for. During that trip I noticed that I had a new Email which shouldn't be there as it was sent while I've been there already, so I checkt my data roaming settings and the option was unchecked.

I have a Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.1.1

I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 using Android 4.1.1. My provider is Wind in Canada. I live near the edge of my cell phone providers coverage area and drive out of and back into the coverage area on the way home. On average 2 times a week (out of 5) the phone uses some data on roaming and I have never enabled the roaming option in the settings.

I have installed a data management app (My Data Manager) and according to it the following apps are using roaming data:
OS Services - this is always there when I have roaming
Samsung Push Service - this is there most of the time, but maybe 1 in 5 it's not
Viber - this was always showing up when I had it installed so I uninstalled it thinking it maybe causing the issue, but since removing it I have still had the above 2 showing up.

I also have Galaxy S3 4.1.2 ( I9300XXELKC ). I have data roaming options off, and very often phone is use some data roaming ( 1KB - 20KB ) ( usually Android OS and Samsung Push Service ).

It's very annoying because charge for data roaming are very expensive :|

I've notice that when android connect to mobile data, there is no R on signal notification. ( Phone is searching for network, or service is not available when I trying to make a phone )

Marianob85, do you see continuous data use or do you think it's happening
just a little while at switchover time?  Neither is good, but I'm trying to
understand what you experienced.

We saw this on an AT&T s3. Dataroaming was disabled.

android 4.1.1
Baseband l747ucdlk3
Kernel 3.0.31-274808
Build number jro03l.l747ucdlk3

Stuart, was this a little leak at switchover time, or continuous data when
you were well away from the border?

Continuous.

Thanks Stuart,

Can you take a bugreport and send it to me (rgreenwalt@google.com) if this
is happening now?

Our data account has been suspended,  so not happening at this moment.

Hi all,
I also have Galaxy S3 4.1.2 ( I9300XXELLA ). My office is on the border between Italy and Swiss so my phone switch frequently between I TIM and CH swisscom. I have deactivated data roaming options bet very often phone is use some data roaming.
This is a problem, because the first connection under roaming in the day cost 3E, even in the "real" roaming is deactivated

Here the lists of roaming connection:
Roaming         n.d.    n.d.    16/05/2013 12:05:51     28 KB   3.00    TIM X SMARTPHONE ESTERO
Roaming         n.d.    n.d.    16/05/2013 12:06:19     37 KB   0.00    TIM X SMARTPHONE ESTERO
Roaming         n.d.    n.d.    16/05/2013 12:06:49     48 KB   0.00    TIM X SMARTPHONE ESTERO
Roaming         n.d.    n.d.    16/05/2013 12:10:09     38 KB   0.00    TIM X SMARTPHONE ESTERO
Roaming         n.d.    n.d.    16/05/2013 12:11:12     41 KB   0.00    TIM X SMARTPHONE ESTERO
Roaming         n.d.    n.d.    16/05/2013 12:11:29     54 KB   0.00    TIM X SMARTPHONE ESTERO
Roaming         n.d.    n.d.    16/05/2013 12:12:29     49 KB   0.00    TIM X SMARTPHONE ESTERO
Roaming         n.d.    n.d.    16/05/2013 12:13:02     29 KB   0.00    TIM X SMARTPHONE ESTERO
Roaming         n.d.    n.d.    16/05/2013 12:13:20     53 KB   0.00    TIM X SMARTPHONE ESTERO
Roaming         n.d.    n.d.    16/05/2013 12:13:39     55 KB   0.00    TIM X SMARTPHONE ESTERO
Roaming         n.d.    n.d.    21/05/2013 13:54:25     11 KB   3.00    TIM X SMARTPHONE ESTERO
Roaming         n.d.    n.d.    21/05/2013 13:54:44     34 KB   0.00    TIM X SMARTPHONE ESTERO
Roaming         n.d.    n.d.    21/05/2013 13:55:03     41 KB   0.00    TIM X SMARTPHONE ESTERO

Here are more details about the phone:

android 4.1.2
Kernel 3.0.31-836582
Build jzo54k.i9300xxema2

Two Samsung S3 phones, both with Android 4.1.2

First phone has ENABLED roaming data
Second phone has DISABLED roaming data
Travelling together, so equal conditions for both phones.
5 days travel from Russia to Germany (Dresden/Berlin) - almost sure that Poland mobile operators can NOT be used there... in any case all bills from German operators.

Travelling gave the following results:

Phone with ENABLED roaming - mobile data was turned on several times per day for 10-30 minutes mostly to get/sent emails + IM. As a result - expected data usage, mobile operator charged money for roaming, android native built-in data usage statistics shows reasonable values which correspond to the bill.

Second phone with DISABLED roaming but turned on mobile data (all five days) - android native built-in data usage statistics shows ZERO for these days, no emails were received BUT mobile operator charged for roaming having noticed ~75 sessions (!) in two different mobile networks (both in Germany). So I assume data usage was very small but regular.
Obviously all these sessions were rounded up to 100kB. And final bill for the phone with switch off data roaming is three time higher than for the phone which was really used for data connections!!! So without using the smartphone I still have to pay - this is awful!

Please - increase severity for the current issue, we are losing real money!

Just noticed two issues (Issue 36949173 and Issue 36949180)- probably they describe the reason of the current problem... In my story above there really was unstable WiFi network usage (poor wifi connection) with a skype call.
Now I do not remember if phone indicated roaming but I'm 100% sure that we were still in foreign country and data roaming was off!!! :)

I confirm the issue with SGS3 and TIM operator moving across borders (Germany to Austria). I had data enabled and data roaming disabled, I was charged 5€ for 1 kb (just 1 connection, I didn't stay along the border so the operator didn't change anymore).

Also ran into this issue (SGS 2 with android 4.1.2) while travelling in the US (T-Mobile in the US, while my subscription is with Proximus in Belgium). I can clearly see the data usage logged in my data usage history, for an assortment of services (mostly background services) on a continuous basis. I was billed for 120 connections over the course of 10 days. It does not have anything to do with border crossing, as my phone was turned off while in the airplane. This little joke has now cost me 15 euro.

According to my operator it is due to having wifi enabled, where it will sometimes use the data connection when the wifi signal drops away. I did use wifi on plenty of occasions while out and about, so it seems a plausible way for this bug to get triggered. They recommended me to disable data roaming with them instead of on my phone, which is what I've done as a workaround.

Phone model: LG Nexus 4
OS: android 4.3

I have this same issue with data leaking both when roaming is turned off AND when data itself is completely turned off, so I was charged even though I assumed that I wasn't using data. Not sure what apps used the data as my phone says 0 kb used--I'm guessing because I had officially turned data off. This was in Italy, visiting from Switzerland where I am on Orange CH. They cannot turn off data roaming for me, so I am now unable to use my phone at all while travelling unless I want to pay exorbitant fees. Is this issue still being tracked?

I live in Switzerland,every day I pass Germany. I have HTC One X, Orange. Every month I get 330kb data roaming, and pay CHF 30. I have been to the stores, called customer service, they only say I need to have mobile data to be turned off all the time. I think I will buy an iPhone.

This bug is being tracked - internal bug number 9086959.

We suspect that this is a race condition between the carrier->modem->android communicating that you're roaming and the framework turning off the data connection vs apps on the device trying/continuing to send/receive data.  Even if we push the logic to the modem so it could turn off the data connection more quickly, we think we'll still have some leaked data (though it should be less).  We're investigating.

Note that the iphone may have the same problem (http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1785714-Need-help-data-roaming-problems-on-AT-amp-T-during-quick-road-trip)

Hello,
I live in Switzerland near the german border and I have the same issue! I have a Samsung Galaxy S3, Android 4.1.2, Kernel version 3.0.31-13144362, Build number JZO54K.I9300XXEMG4 , Network carrier - Orange.CH Almost each time I go to Germany I get a session of 29KB for which I have to pay 4 CHF = 3 EUR. Of course I have the 'Data roaming' unchecked but somehow it generates traffic. I have another friend with the same phone, he has the same issue. Interesing part is that I have another phone - a Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the same on Orange.CH. With this phone I didn't had this issue until now... so maybe there is something also related with the model of the phone, not only in Adroid code... Until now the only thing which works to avoid this issue is to switch off manually the mobile data...but this is not a solution.  Would be nice to get a fix for this as soon as possible!

I've just been to Canada for 3 weeks and had approx. 20 sessions each week à 29 kB with 'Data roaming' unchecked. HTC One X, Android 4.2.2, Baseband 5.1204.162.29, Kernel 3.1.10-cyanogenmod (10.1.3-RC1-endeavoru), but it did happen also before flashing cyanogenmod. Network carrier Orange.CH.
Nice to hear that this bug is being tracked. Any progress yet?

[Comment deleted]

I have just come across the problem. I live close to the border and in the night the telephone connected to a foreign operator, probably because my operator's network (Sunrise, Switzerland) was down or had weak signal. Despite the data roaming option was off it started to send/receive  few hundreds kbytes of data.

I have a Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Jelly Bean 4.3 JWR66Y, Baseband I9250XXLJ1.

I have prepaid option and I had got a negative balance after this. Moreover, this traffic does not appear on the online bill. I have the feeling that the Sunrise's system has also some problems. I got the tip from them to manually choose the prefered network, but I not sure that will solve the problem.

Dears,

Phone: LG Nexus 4
OS: Android 4.3 JWR66Y

I spent one week in Singapore in September and I got the bill yesterday and I am not happy at all...my phone tried to connect 35 times to the data roaming network even if the data roaming was turned off. This means 35x100kByte data usage which costs 50$ for me now in Hungary. The only listed processes which used data: Android OS (43kB), Google Services (0.00kB but still listed) and Google Calendar (0.00kB but still listed too).

I travel a lot and I have not turned on the data roaming at all. Previously I had two Motorola phones (Defy+ 2.3.6 and Razr HD 4.1.2 both are non rooted, non hacked OS) which I used the same way, I had no problems.

What will guarantee this will not happen again and when will you be able to provide a reliable solution? Do you have a 100% working solution now to prevent this until the bugfix will be released?

Thanks in advance,
Andor

Hi,

I have had this issue for almost a year with my Motorola XT910.
In home network (Bosnian BH Telecom) data connection is always on. Data roaming is always set off so I can avoid unneeded charges...But this setting is always overridden when I travel abroad and phone somehow makes data connection in roaming producing me costs form 10 to 35 EUR!

Phone: LG Nexus 4
OS: Android Jelly Bean 4.3 JWR66Y

October 13 and October 15 the phone has used data wile in roaming.

Unfortunately I could not figure out which app or the OS used the data.

This is a serious issue which costs us money!

Hi guys,

I have a new info... I am not sure if this might help, but it worth giving a try:
Like I said above on 13 Sept, each time I go to Germany I get a session of 29KB (I live in Switzerland, very close to the german border)

Recently I raised this issue in a long complaint email with Orange.ch and their answer was that this issue is caused by having active the 'Location Services' and they can't do nothing about it. I tried this - I turned off all location services and until now I didn't experienced again the issue.

I don't know if this is really the reason for this issue... but if I will keep my location services off for the next 6 months and it will be ok... then this is it.

You might want to try this for yourself and see if it works.

I have had 20€ charge for roaming data (I'm in Brazil now, and my home network is TIM Italy). Naturally the "Data on roaming" is disabled. Searching I found this topic and actually when I am on wifi the "R" disappears to me too. Disconnecting from wifi it reappears.
Could be that in the few seconds switching off wifi, it connects rapidly to data network, thus exchanging that 1 kB of data that's enough to bill me for Roaming???

Nexus 4 with Android 4.4 here. In the past have used Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0.4 ---> 4.3 and never had such problem.

Nexus 4 with Android 4.3 with data roaming disabled on the phone. Today got an SMS from my operator (orange.ch) while on a train in France, saying I'd just used 150CHF worth of Mobile data. 10 minutes later got a message I'd used over 500CHF worth of mobile data. I also turned off all mobile data right after getting the first SMS. The data usage graph doesn't show any significant mobile data being used (46MB total over the previous 3 days, 26MB of that was tethering that I stopped using well before the border, and based on the graph there would've been about 20MB of data used in previous 2 days).

The operator can't yet say how much traffic that 500CHF would've represented or where it was to, but clearly it must have been a very significant amount (500MB would be a safe guess). This is not some race condition for a few seconds. However, my impression was that the problem was triggered by trying to unsuccessfully connect to the WiFi network of the train (it was failing the DHCP lookup). It's as if mobile data was getting misclassified as WiFi traffic, for extremely long periods of time, and at all layers of the stack.

Hi guys,

Yes, I've got the same issue! Data Roaming is turned off and I find sessions of 29 KB on my bill. Of course, each session is billed individually, so it's quite expensive...

I'm on a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 with Android 4.3. As some others I live in Switterland, close to the German border and my provider is Orange.ch.

This bug is very annoying, but I doubt it will be fixed anytime soon.

Hi,

I'm having the same trouble with my nexus 5 and Orange in Switzerland ! There are sessions of 29KB on my bill. I was in France for some days. Strangely I didn't received any email. I connected to a wifi to see them.

I'm not very often out of my country, but this is quite annoying.

Thanks for the bug fix

I also am using Orange in Switzerland.

Weird that most of the reporters use Orange...

Same situtation here.

I am living in Switzerland and have orange.ch as a provider. Every time I go to France I end up with 29kb data sessions, billed 4CHF each, even though my roaming is definitely turned off. My phone is an Alcatel One Touch Idol X running Android 4.2.2.

I'd like to know what I'm paying for ...

We'd really like some logs and bugreport. Could someone start taking "Full Android Logs":

  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ughG0OHl64vTRGAdTGRMKdKoTNR0-4kd-v9hWP9kT38/edit?usp=sharing


prior to when they know they will be roaming and then collect the logs and attach them as a compressed file to this bug when they have started roaming. You'll need to lug a laptop and have it connected to the phone during your travel from one country/operator to the next, but it could provide us valuable information.

Thanks,

Wink

Any update on this issue?

I'm very surprised to see this issue is open for four years now. Definitely not on top of the priority list to get resolved as it adds to a lot of profit of the operators.

I'm having the same problem. SGS4 with Android 4.4.2. It happens when traveling from The Netherlands to Belgium and switching from Vodafone NL to Proximus.

Data connection when on roaming is switched off. Phone indicates no data connection is possible because of roaming when I'm in Belgium. So that is fine. But still the bill shows small traffic of 12-105 kB. Small, but enough to trigger a 1.68€ a day (ex VAT) charge. The traffic takes place at the time at which the phone switches operator. So that supports the possible cause raised on August 30, 2013 above.

The Vodafone usage manager app doesn't show any traffic during roaming.

This started somewhere mid December 2013, after I already had traveled the same route for many months each day without any data network traffic. So something must have changed...

This is a difficult issue for a consumer. If you switch off data traffic when on roaming you've done all you can to prevent this from happening. But if it happens it is a big struggle to get a refund.

Is there any more information about this issue? I searched the web but couldn't find anything.

Hi, I have had a similar issue while traveling in India with a French SIM card in June (phone / OS specs below). Roaming was set to off, but the phone still downloaded data (not small amounts in my case, according to my bill, it looks like one session was 1.4 MB e.g. [charged 18€]). I only realized that this was happening when I got a text message from my provider (Orange) saying that I had reached 40€ data consumption and that data will be deactivated automatically when I reach 50€. At that point, I double checked that roaming was indeed set off; I checked the box in and unchecked it again; rebooted; etc., and then still witnessed some data connections. I solved the problem by also turning data off; and only turning data on when I wanted to actually use roaming data (I did this during my later travels in China and Malaysia; I didn't investigate at this point whether I really had to turn roaming data on to be able to roam -- when I wanted to use data, I would turn on both data and roaming). I traveled to USA, Canada and Switzerland with this phone in the past year (before this trip) without any issue (roaming data off seemed to work).

Similarly to post #46 above, wifi connectivity might be in cause in my case as well. Thinking back about it, I remember seeing the icon of cell phone data transfer when I was in hotels where the wifi connectivity was poor. In particular, I think that the session of 1.4 MB might have happened when I thought I was using wifi but then it appeared that I was using cell phone data. I also remember in India having issues with the R icon not being present. I thought at the time it meant "registered" (as sometimes I would try to send a text and would get the "not registered to a network" message; at this point, there was also no R beside the cell phone bars). But from what I read above, R means "roaming"; and it was often the case in India where I would have cell phone strength bars but no R sign. This indeed happened when wifi was around; I also have a vague memory of no R sign when I was not connected to any wifi, though not sure about this one.

Phone: Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini -- GT-I9195
Android Version 4.2.2
Kernel: 3.4.0-2451589
Provider: Orange France

Same s#@t with Russian sim-card in Iceland's roaming. Been charged for several 1Kb transactions using SimInn mobile network.   Absolutely sure that "Data roaming" button was left untouched during the journey.  And no chance for refund from my mobile operator.
Disappointed that this ticked is in open state for several yrs. Obviously google has more important things to do than fixing such an insignificant issue ((
Device: LG Optimus G.

I'm getting this issue too.

This issue has been active for 5 god damn years. Perhaps Google should do their own internal testing and have THEIR OWN employees get charged for roaming first before releasing something that costs every consumer money.

Same over here. Nexus 5, provider "O2 Germany". Spent 2 weeks in spain recently and got charged 4 "day packages" on 4 different days - every time nearly no traiffc but each 8.50€. Can't believe this is a change request since '09 already. Hope it will be fixed "by accident" with lollipop.

Also happening to me.

I have a Nexus 5 with Android v 5.0.

My telecom provider wants to charge me 35€, and counting, of roaming.

I have the data connection switch off and even in flight mode.

I would like to know how to redirect this to google.

Regards,
Raul

Same happening here with N5 Android 5.01 provider Smartone HK (turn off Roaming + data access) yet still got charged

Had the issue twice  in France and Belgium on my Nexus 5, data roaming off, provider Vodafone CZ. "Android system" consumed a few Kb.
Next time I go to FR I will try to get some logs, but it's very sporadic.

Same problem on latest Android 5.0.2!

I live in Switzerland. I recently traveled to France. I have data roaming off. The phone leaked 20KB of data on the French network, for which I got charged 4 CHF.

I see this issue has been around for over 5 years now. How come it is still not fixed, Google?

I believe I have important news.

After having experienced this issue (with no little annoyance) and having tryed to go in deep with the problem, I believe I found something:

If you leave open the possibility to switch between a 3G network and a 4G network, once the device register to 4G, from a network perspective it drains bytes regardless data roaming off or even all data services off.

Note that this might be an issue in addition to the android bug reported here (for sure when this discussion opened, 4G networks weren't even in the installation phase).
But this is an issue for sure since I tested and replicated it personally a couple of times in three different countries (Romania, Ireland and Jordan) with a BlackBerry OS 10 and an Android Lollipop device.
So maybe I'm off topic, but I thought it was nice to share this experience with you.

Of course the solution is to force the terminal to stay connected only to 3G (or 3G and 2G), obviously still keeping data roaming off.

to #78: that's the best investigation ever, congratulations! I gave up on my side and asked my operator to switch off data roaming from their side.
Thank you for sharing!

I just had this happen to me this morning. I snoozed a clock alarm and the next thing was an SMS that I had been charged for data roaming (which of course was disabled).  Nice wake up call!
Android 4.4.2, network mode was set to full auto.

I'm in a foreign country now and I noticed that "Android OS" eats a couple of KB every time I switch from plane to online mode. I captured the logs with logCat, let me know where I can send it (I prefer not to publish it here)

Thanks,
Martin

Same behaviour with Sony Xperia Z3 and Samsung Note 3, both with Lollipop. I have disabled the roaming data connection but my telephone company charged me with 3 euro/day at first connection of the day.
Many connection during the day with 0kByte of data exchange, but sometimes it happened that a connection of few kbytes was made by the phone (max 3kb), and this let the telephone company charge the 3 euro.

@Daniele (and everybody else): DISABLE the possibility to register (even just to try to register) to 4G network.
In other words, in network mode menu, USE ONLY 3G and/or 2G.

Disapointet that this is still an issue. Just came back from 3 weeks in asia and had a extra charge of 50+ euros. Data Roaming was of but the phone still made dsily 1-3kb data connections.
I sometimes used gps navigation with offline maps (here navigation app).

Using a honor 7 with Android 5.1

This bug is marked as obsolete but it's actually happening also in Lollipop. Anyway could it be possible that the automatic MMS retrieval is causing the issue?

I think it is related to AGPS, it usually matches times when I try to use location services.

Hi,

Everytime i pass in roaming, i end up with a roaming data charges even through i disable the roaming data.

Samsung S7 Marshmallow 6.0.1

This issue dated from 2009 and now, it's still not fixed. It's impossible.

It happens with Android, IOS but not WindowsPhone :)

For informations, it's about some leak of data, 1K, 10K. Not alot.

The workaround for me was to disable my carrier daily flat rate for data abroad, so they don't charge me with 5 EUR every time but only some cents...

Not obsolete at all! This is still happening on 5.0.2. The symptoms are identical: data OFF, roaming data OFF, network set to allow LTE (but who knew?), and the phone keeps making "leak" connections, incurring roaming charges. I'm now disputing a €120 charge, for example.

Google, ELEVATE THIS please. This issue is hardly obsolete, and it's a MAJOR bug that is costing users hundreds of [currency]!

Hi,

The solution proposed by #78 maldrova is worked.
After many test, disabling the connexion auto to an 3G or 4G network will not charge you. Select connexion auto to an 2G or 3G network (before you go abroad)

I confirm what proposed by #78. That's a shame...

Can anybody take a bugreport showing android ignoring the roaming setting?

You can send it to me at rgreenwalt@google.com

Hi Walt, could you explain me how to collect the bugreport you asked for ?
Thanks

You'll need to turn on developer options first:

Settings -> About phone, tap on "Build number" at the bottom 7 times.
Back out one menu and there's a new "Developer options".  Go into that menu.
You can take a bugreport from here I think, but it's easier to turn on "Bug
report shortcut" and put a bugreport option in the power menu.
Repeat the issue (have roaming setting ignored), long press the power
button to call up the power menu, tap "Take bug report".

I think it'll then spend a couple minutes doing its thing and then give you
the option to email it.  If your android version is old you may need to use
adb to pull the file off (which is more involved).

Will do next time I'll go to Switzerland.

@ rgreenwalt: you'll have to remember that this bug doesn't ALWAYS happen instantly for everyone, so it's not always easy to demonstrate this behaviour in 5 minutes. For example MY phone (and another, not mine) only ever displayed this bug... while far abroad, on roaming. They never, ever do it locally, for some reason. Go figure.

However, a billing with dozens of sub-50k data sessions, happening in 13-14 minute intervals, should be enough to prove there IS a bug somewhere, shouldn't it?

Unless you need that bug report file to investigate in more detail than just prove or disprove its existence :)

In my humble opinion is not a problem with Android, but with the mobile carrier.

If you leave the possibility to register to a 4G network, the phone tries regardless data roaming is off; and since 4G is "only data" technology (no voice service) as soon as the device exchange the very first bytes, the carriers records it as data usage while roaming.
Basically it is the mobile operator that doesn't make any distinction between registering and data usage on 4G networks (while it does on 3G and 2G).


Well, thinking out loud, it should be a wise improvement if on Android devices, once disabled data roaming, also 4G/LTE option will be disabled.

Please try to do this far from a border.  There is an issue near borders as
we get momentary transitions to non-roaming networks.  We're looking here
to see if there's another issue when you're well in the body of the roaming
network

Yes - I know it may not be easy to repro.

I'm not asking for reports to prove existence, I'm trying to get data to
explain what's happening.

[Comment deleted]

For what it's worth, I observed this in the transition from a spotty wifi network (regularly losing connection) and the cell network with data roaming off on the phone.

That would be an ideal bugreport to collect.

There's no issue when i'm already in the roaming network.

It only occurs when transition from non-roaming network to roaming network.

At first I only witnessed this issue when crossing the border (Switzerland - Germany), but I can confirm it also happens well within a country. The combination of 4G 'dial-in' and foreign provider could explain it, as I've had zero problems in a number of countries.

Glad to have stumbled over this thread. I've referred my provider here and asked for my data roaming to be blocked on their side; but if the issue lies with the foreign provider like #98 suggested, that may not help either?

I have a Samsung 7S. how can i stop it from network  roaming. even when I select a network it goes into roaming mode when i cross the border from Switzerland to France?

Same issue here :
1.) Crossing border. Roaming to Switzerland and France
2.) 4 connection was billed. Each 10k
3.) Switching from wifi to mobile sometimes
4.) Using google map for navigation (gps)
4.) Roaming data is off

Phone LG G5

How is this bug marked as Won't fix - Obsolete? This is costing many of my friends and me money every month as we live close to the border. For me, I am billed 30KB every time (which translates into 4CHF/4USD every time). Btw., this is also on Salt (formerly Orange), so maybe someone should talk to their team to figure out what is going on? It seems as if this is mostly just this provider, with a few exceptions.

Also: this bug deserves a rating a lot higher than S3. I myself have already paid the phone company enough money for an hour of Google engineer time. Reading through this, quite a few others have experienced the same.

This bug was tracking continuous data use (data roaming switch doesn't work at all) while it sounds like you're dealing with a more limited form of leak.

We have a fix coming out soon for the data leak but it requires modem changes.

This still happens even in 2019 :( I have S7 with the latest updates.

Hello - Wrt #105 May 15, 2017 - "We have a fix coming out soon for the data leak but it requires modem changes."
Two years later is it in Prod? Please provide the issue tracker number.

Indeed, this is still an issue for me, perhaps because my Lenovo P2 stopped at Android 7.0.

I cannot imagine how much money this issue costed users through all these year! Would have deserved much higher severity from the start IMHO.

The interfaces to the modem for this fix landed in 2017.  It was not required of OEMs.  This will be required of OEMs for new devices this year.  OEMs could implement it for all devices if they chose to, but we have no control over that.

Android 7.0 came out in 2016 and did not have this API.  I'm not sure what you mean for "issue tracker number".  This issue is 36907469.

Wow! this seems to be an age old issue!
I faced the same issue last month, and its 2021.
Data roaming off, connected to WiFi most of the time, still charged for data.
Phone: Mi A2, Android 10
The status of the issue shows Won't Fix (Obsolete). What's that supposed to mean?
Hope someone wakes up and takes this seriously.
I've asked my provider to activate data barring for International roaming from their end. Seems to be working.

Hey Anomitrac,

Did you take a bugreport when you hit this?

Do you know if the toggle didn't work at all or if it just had occasional leaks of data?