Square register using obscene amount of mobile data

[Twmr1989]

I manage a small snack bar.  I am using an Android based tablet with Square Register app to take credit/debit card payments.  This is the only thing I use the tablet for.  I recently had to upgrade my mobile data plan from 1.5Gb to 2.5Gb becausethe Square Register app by itself is using 1.5 to 2Gb every month.  Does anyone know why and how to fix the issue?

[DaoDeJing]

I've experienced the same issue. My data costs have increased from $20 a month to $40 a month. Unfortunately I don't feel there is much I can do about it, so I just take it as another point to consider when deciding what days and times to be open for business.

Rather sad that using Square is causing me to consider decreasing my hours of business. But on the whole I feel Square brings me enough revenue to be worth the trade off.

The only thing I can really say is that Square Register seems to be more for permenant locations (non-mobile businesses) where issues like data caps and charges are usually not something to be considered. Mobile businesses seem better taken care of by the basic point of sale app. Is there a particular reason you are using Register? The main benefit it seems to have (as far as I'm aware) is more robust inventory management tools, which I'd imagine a mobile business would be less likely to need.

[Twmr1989]

I am using the square app to take credit payments at a snack bar (similar to a concessions stand); so it is a permanent location, however, the location prohibits regular internet options.  Also, the option I should be using if Square was working  right is only $10/month.  Now I am paying $45.  A landline based internet would also be fairly expensive, comparatively.

Jist is, I have no option but to continue with my current setup.  I just need help figuring out how to stop the excessive data use.  If there isn't a fix, I'm going g to have to find another app to use.

[DaoDeJing]

I'm not sure you're going to find another payment processing app that uses less data. I'd imagine an app that's constantly having to reestablish secure connections whenever you want to run a card might run rather slow. Assuming such an epp even exists.

If there is downtime in your customer flow perhaps you could try closing the square app at those times. There's also a chance that other apps on your device are using the data. Even if you don't think they are open, some apps might be running in the background.

I'm not sure what to say otherwise. I also use mobile data and square exclusively with my business, and moving to a constantly connected ipad setup from my previous method of using a dongle on my phone has noticibly increased the data usage from about $10 to $20 a month. But since so many of my sales are by card and my average transaction amount is over $30 this increase in cost is well worth the convenience to me.

[Twmr1989]

Well it wasn't an issue three or four months ago.  Suddenly two months in a row, my plan hit it's limit and cut off.  Previously it only used, at max, a quarter of the data, and that's a high estimate.  Even shutting the app down, it still pulls data in the background...