Learn how to stop Spotify, Apple Music and similar apps from gobbling up cellular data on your iPhone and instead restrict them to Wi-Fi connectivity.
You can save mobile data on your iPhone or iPad, which comes in handy if you’re on a metered cellular data plan or roaming in a different country. Preventing streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music and similar from using your iPhone’s 5G or 4G connection is among the easiest ways to curb your cellular data usage.
Note: The steps to turn off per-app mobile data also apply to other streaming apps, including Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Apple TV+ and more.
Stop Spotify from using cellular data on your iPhone
- Open the Settings app and tap Cellular. In some countries, this option is called Mobile Service or Mobile Data.
- Scroll down and select Show All to reveal the full list of apps.
- Turn off the switch next to Spotify to prevent the app from using cellular data..
Stop Apple Music from using cellular data
To restrict Apple Music to Wi-Fi only, follow the Spotify instructions in the previous section but turn off the switch for Music instead Or, do the following.
- Open the Settings app, scroll to the bottom, and choose Apps.
- Select Music from the list of apps.
- Turn off the Cellular Data switch under the Allow Music To Access section.
Help, my favorite app isn’t listed in the Cellular settings
- If it’s a newly downloaded app, open it at least once and it should be listed there.
- If the app still won’t show up in your cellular settings, turn off Wi-Fi to force it to switch to cellular data, thereby appearing under Settings > Cellular.
- Force quit the Settings app and retry.
- Restart your iPhone.
- If nothing helps, read our tips right ahead.
Use in-app settings to manage cellular data
Many streaming apps offer in-app options to reduce cellular data usage. Poke around your favorite streaming app and you should find options like Data Saver, Audio Quality, Video Quality, Streaming Quality, Download Quality, and such.
Use them to configure the app to use more or less cellular data. Reducing streaming quality is one of the best ways to cut down on cellular data usage.
Many apps give you more flexibility by allowing you to separately adjust bandwidth consumption for streaming and downloading. Some apps may even let you choose refresh frequency or turn off autoplay to save mobile data. And with apps like YouTube, you can completely block downloads over cellular.
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