‎Blocked activity zones not registering | SimpliSafe Support Home
 
ruairidhhamilton's profile

Monday, December 13th, 2021 9:29 PM

Blocked activity zones not registering

So I've blocked out areas where I don't wish the camera to pick up 'activity' but it doesn't seem to be registrating. That is to say during night you can hear the camera 'click' with the infrared coming on, and when spot light activated, and is clearly being activated in a black out zone. Any known issues and/or fixes?

Official Solution

Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

3 years ago

Hi, sorry for the confusion. The Activity Zone feature uses the main camera to analyze the scene. Unfortunately, the Night Vision camera doesn't allow for that. So as a result, Activity Zones work only during the day - or when there's enough light for the camera to work in daytime mode.

64 Messages

@davey_d

Does this also apply to the doorbell/outdoor camera?

Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

@gregter Yes, this is for both the Outdoor Camera and the Video Doorbell Pro (Activity Zones are not available for the Indoor Camera).

1 Message

@davey_d​ on my video doorbell, I have reduced the motion view to low.  I have blocked out the zones I want it to ignore. I have stopped notifications, not no matter what I do, I get a motion message every few seconds.  I do live on a busy street, but one would think blocking out zones would do the trick.  Advice?

1 Message

3 years ago

Same problem with mine. Not promising that it’s still broken almost a year after your post. And not even a response from SimpliSafe. But, er, I’m sure my home is totally safe…

Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

@john_8d64ca​ apologies for the inconvenience, but there's an issue with the Community right now that prevents older replies from displaying correctly. Here's our response to the original post from December 2021:

Hi, sorry for the confusion. The Activity Zone feature uses the main camera to analyze the scene. Unfortunately, the Night Vision camera doesn't allow for that. So as a result, Activity Zones work only during the day - or when there's enough light for the camera to work in daytime mode.

1 Message

This is a really bad limitation. Does SimpliSafe not see how irritating it is to get recording after recording on your doorbell at night because cars are driving by. In case you hadn't noticed, most doorbells face roads. There needs to be a workaround for this!

2 Messages

1 year ago

I’ve the same problem with the camera block activity zone. Sensitivity setting to medium as recommended and motion type sets to “people only,” but it picks up everything that move. People walk by cast a shadow on the driveway the camera turn on and record. At night “Night Vision” the camera turns on and record car headlight. A day I get notification 150 times. Battery life only last for two days.

Six incidents when people deliver a package to my front door, the camera motion sensor did not turn on the camera to record. The SimpliSafe outdoor camera is unacceptable!! 

So, when are you going to update the firmware on the camera to fix this problem?

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@xieu_hang​ When set to People Only mode, the Outdoor Camera is first woken up by motion, and then it analyzes the image for tall shapes that may be people. If the shadows on your driveway are person-shaped, that could explain why the camera records them; but it shouldn't record every time there is motion around it.

It sounds like your camera's motion settings aren't sticking properly. If you haven't already, I would try toggling them off, saving the settings, and then toggling them back on again.

It can also help to reset the camera by pressing and holding the button on the back for 30 seconds. Once you release the button, you will be prompted to reinstall the camera again in the SimpliSafe mobile app.

1 Message

1 year ago

We are having the same issue with the doorbell camera. The activity zones do not appear to work at all. We only have 1 box open, sensitivity set to low and set to only record people but it picks up every car that goes by which are two boxes removed from the only box that is open.

Any other solutions other than what is posted above? 

6 Messages

They sent me a replacement for the original doorbell we had. Guess what. It doesn't work and is just as bad. They keep asking me to just reset it.

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@gunsta and @504MSD​ I'm sorry to hear about all of this trouble. I've forwarded your cases to our engineering team so they can look into this further. A member of the team should reach out to both of you soon, so keep an ear out for their call.

1 Message

Same problem.  Tried reset , low sensitivity, people only,  and hard reset and blocked out all activity zones and the doorbell still picks up passing cars 

1 year ago

I am also having problems with it not registering people vs all motion. I just want to receive notifications if there is a human on my porch not every car that goes by even with it set to “people only”. The sensitivity doesn’t seem to impact it either. I have only had it a few days and was expecting a product similar to the features of the google nest doorbell. 

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@meredithlevine319​ As a first step it can help to reset the Video Doorbell by pressing and holding the large button on the back of the doorbell for 30 seconds. After you let go of the button, you'll be prompted to set it back up in the SimpliSafe mobile app. 

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4 Messages

1 year ago

I just bought this camera yesterday and having the same problem. i even set EVERY square to not activate for motion and it still does. I restarted it 100 times and reinstalled it and nothing works. Is there a fix or should i just return it as it serves no function working like this.

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@wi11iamp​ When do you notice this happen? Is it during the night only or does this happen regardless of the time of day? The Video Doorbell's Night Vision does not allow for Activity Zones, so once the sun sets and Night Vision kicks in those blocked zones will not register. But if this is happening during the day as well that is different issue.

6 Messages

@wi11iamp​ don’t listen to them. Return it. It’s trash. I wish I would have done my research. A simple Reddit search will show that people constantly have issues. When they finally do get fixed they tend to only work for about 6 months and then break again. 

I’m going back to my old video doorbell I had before as they have a security system as well and are cheaper per month. 

I liked the idea of simplisafe being about to look at my cameras in case there was an alarm but if they don’t work then it doesn’t matter. 

3 Messages

1 year ago

I need to some of the camera’s views. How?

3 Messages

1 year ago

How do I block some of the cameras views?

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@psmcgehee​ Using the SimpliSafe mobile app, go to My System > Camera Settings > select [your camera] > Motion Detection. Then, under Activity Zone, tap the boxes where you do not want the camera to detect motion. Once you have made your selection, be sure to tap Save to lock in this setting.

1 Message

Just installed my system and no matter what I set on that zones it detects everything. Are they working on a fix for this??

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@Astrosteve​ What camera are you experiencing this with? While the Outdoor Camera and Video Doorbell Pro's Night Vision do not allow for Activity Zones at night, they should be working during the day.

Our engineering team is working on resolving an issue where the Video Doorbell Pro is registering motion outside of its set Activity Zones, though.

3 Messages

@emily_s​  Are there any updates on this? I am having the same issue with motion being detected outside my activity zones during the day. 

2 Messages

1 year ago

I'm having the same trouble. I live on a main street and have activity on the road blocked off, but still get notifications every2 minutes or so. I don't even check the alerts anymore and have reset the camera numerous times. Never had this problem with Blink and I regret switching. 

Captain

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6.4K Messages

@drewtlo​ Suggestion: change the angle/direction of your camera, even slightly.  My house back faces due east, the front due west and an outdoor camera on each. I had an issue with the front camera similar to yours, made a small adjustment in the direction and angle, and no more erroneous alerts.  Suggest you try the same. Please post your outcome here if you do it and get a chance. Good luck.

8 Messages

4 months ago

Same issue here with an outdoor camera. The masking zones used to work fine but now are next to useless.....all I got told was to point the camera so they would not be needed....sort of defeats the point of them! Mine detects motion all the time.....!

Community Admin

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1.3K Messages

@sgreynolds189 do you notice this happening at all times during the day? While in Night Vision, the Outdoor Camera's Activity Zones will not work, but they still should during the daytime. 

 

If you haven't tried this already, we would recommend resetting the Outdoor Camera and then setting those Activity Zones back up again.

16 Messages

3 months ago

The issue has always occasionally happened with both my outdoor and doorbell cameras. In the last month it started happening every day at least 4 or 5 times per evening after dusk. Yesterday the issue became much worse with 100% of the false reports being entirely in blocked zones. Both cameras, outdoor and doorbell are set to medium activity and people only. This issue worsened on both cameras at the same time, which to me indicates the cause to be more system wide than single device. I am loathe to reset cameras as both require dismount and reset, which is a major PITA. I am also loathe to call support because the larger majority of times I do results in frustration and waste of time. 
as far as I know, there is no way to check for firmware updates on individual devices and also no way to determine if new firmware loaded at the time the issue worsened. I looked yesterday and there were no available updates at the keypad.  Does anyone have any thoughts on resolution? 

Community Admin

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1.3K Messages

@rhallman Do these motion events happen all day long, or only at night?

 

When Activity Zones are enabled, the Outdoor Camera and Video Doorbell Pro use their main camera to look at the scene. The Night Vision camera does not allow for that though, so Activity Zones will only be followed during the daytime. 

 

But if your Activity Zones are not being followed all day long, we do recommend resetting the cameras to troubleshoot this issue.

 

You can check your cameras' firmware in the SimpliSafe app, but we have not released any new firmware for them in the past few weeks.

16 Messages

Mostly at night but some during the day as well. Both cameras have always done this to a degree but not to the same degree that is happening now. Both cameras increase in activity happened at the same time and I think that rules out the issue being individual devices. IF Simplisafe developers would rethink and modify so that cameras could be reset remotely, especially the outdoor and doorbell models then I would be more receptive to resetting them. Since I can delete devices from the app then the requirement for pressing buttons on the devices serves ZERO as security feature. Re-adding from the app without requiring a visit to each device along with other tools and actions to dismount the device is a MUST for the long term viability of this system to be a major player in the market. 

While I'm on this subject, the blocking feature also needs to be more granular. Suggestion might be to set the blocks as is done today but also providing a drag feature to raise, lower or move side to side. On fixed cameras such as the doorbell, the blocks have the possibility of blocking areas you may NOT want blocked in order to block areas that you DO want blocked.

Also, IF there were a "reload firmware" option within the app, and even on the keypad that may well solve many issues as MUCH frustration and likelihood of causing additional issues occurs simply by having to take down and reset devices JUST TO GET A FIRMWARE RELOAD.

Lastly, if you can give me a link to initiate firmware loads when my schedule allows, please do so. Otherwise, I guess I'm just waiting for the issue to go away - likely the next time firmware pushes.

16 Messages

@rhallman​ I also want to add that the outdoor camera is in spotlight mode with an additional motion sensitive spotlight in the area, so there is plenty of light even at night. The outdoor camera is in Spotlight mode. The outdoor camera also exhibits the undesired behavior during daylight, the doorbell camera not so much but some.

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