I wanted to confirm this with my carrier before making this post, and it is true–auto play videos in your Facebook News Feed do affect data usage.  If you have noticed your usage has doubled, auto play videos are most likely the cause.  Below are instructions on how to fix this problem from Facebook’s Help Center:

I see videos playing silently when I scroll through News Feed. How does this work with my data plan?

You can adjust your auto-play settings to On, Wi-Fi only or Off. If auto-play is On, the data used depends on the amount of time you spend watching a video. If you scroll past an auto-play video in News Feed, your phone will use less data than if you stop to watch it for a longer period of time. If auto-play is set to Wi-Fi only, no data will be used.

To adjust your auto-play settings:

Android

1. Open the Facebook app
2. Tap your phone’s menu button
3. Tap Settings
4. Scroll down and tap Video Auto-play
5. Choose an option

iPhone and iPad

1. Go to your phone or tablet’s settings
2. Scroll down and tap Facebook
3. Tap Settings
4. Below Video tap Auto-play
5. Choose an option

You can also adjust these settings on your computer.  You can view those instructions here.

I have an iPhone so I have created step-by-step screen shot instructions on how to do this for those of us who are visual learners:

1. Open the Settings App on your iPhone (mine was inside my Utilities folder, but I placed it on the home screen for this tutorial)

2. Scroll down till you see Facebook

3.  Click on Facebook

4. Then click on Settings

5. Make sure you have “Auto-play on Wi-Fi only” set to “On” (green means on)

For more tips like this, be sure to become a Fan on Facebook and subscribe to my Video Tips.