Doorbell camera not automatically switching to night vision

@ mdolfan by chance is there a streetlight or some other light source directly in front of your doorbell cam? There is at my house and, for that and other reasons, night vision is not really great and needs improvement. To be clearer, mine is on but is far from acceptable, in my opinion.

I'm seeing the same thing happen with my doorbell after it's been "up' for a while. If I pull it off the wall and reset it, night mode will work for some time before it stops automatically switching to night mode and recorded clips triggered by motion (generally false triggers from cars going by in my case) will just show up dark.

My doorbell pro is set to auto night vision but the night vision turns off every night between 10:00 and 12:00. This started sometime in October/November and has been going on since then. My system worked perfectly fine for the preceding year and a half and nothing has changed in my environment, so it's definitely a back-end change they made. I've contacted support and they've sent me two brand new cameras, both of which do the exact same thing.

I've probably opened six or seven tickets on this and they either send me a new camera or just blow it off. I finally got a manager and his solution was that they would log into my system every night and manually reset it... Absurd.  I work in IT, all they have to do is check the logs for the times it happens on my system and see what the issue is.

I'm supposed to speak with a manager again tomorrow and if it doesn't get resolved, I'm returning my entire system because it's useless without a working video doorbell. Non-existent support...

I am having the same issue. The night vision does NOT switch automatically.. They have sent me 2 doorbells and still having the same issue. The DB cam is basically useless at night. This has to be due to an update that was done by Simplisafe. PLEASE fix this issue be you lose more customers

This is great to see others having the exact same issue I have been having for months.  The standard support answer is to send a new camera, which as others have reported, does not fix the problem.  The last person I spoke with 6 weeks ago said they were aware of the problem and would be issuing an update to resolve this.  So far, no update.

It is disappointing to have had this issue for 5 months now with no resolution.

@ Simplisafe... I am not having this issue while many others are.  Here is the question: why? To add, I contacted a friend of mine in a different state and he reports no issues too.  We all know you are working on outdoor cameras, which to work properly, night vision is very important to work consistently and well.  If not working optimally on the doorbell video camera does not bode well for outdoor cameras. A SS post in this thread is needed, and, politely requested.  Thanks!

These issues may have to do with either the infrared light or the daylight sensor in the Video Doorbell Pros. In order to find out which part may be at issue for each customer having these issues, try changing the Night Vision setting from auto to on and saving. If, after making these changes, the issue continues to occur, then it most likely has to do with the infrared light, while if the issue seems to be "fixed" by this change then we know that it is the daylight sensor that is not operating properly.

SimpliSafe Social Team
SimpliSafe Home Security

I did change the night setting from Auto to On.  The infrared works all night just fine with that change.  Of course the problem with this solution is,  in the daytime the camera only works in B&W,so you have to go back into settings in the morning and change it back to auto.  Then at nighttime you have to go back again and change it to on....and so on.


I reported this behavior back in September and finally in October was sent a new camera.  Every time I have called in on this subject (at least 6 times), I have reported I can get around this by changing the setting from Auto to On and vice versa.

So where do we go from here?  After 5 months and 3 cameras, I am still without a functioning camera at night.

Hi @IowaGuy,

It is a known issue that our engineering team is actively investigating. In the meantime, leaving night vision on at all times would be the best workaround for now.

We apologize and thank you for your patience!

- Harriet C.
SimpliSafe Home Security

Hi @albertoruz,

While we can't give any ETA for a fix with this issue, it is something that our engineers are actively working on resolving. We'll try and post any updates we have regarding this issue to this thread.

SimpliSafe Social Team
SimpliSafe Home Security

Two SS video doorbells.  They obviously run the same software version, one has been installed about two weeks, the other a few weeks longer.  OK,  one doorbell the night vision works properly.  The other doorbell camera shuts night vision off usually before midnight, then it stays pitch black until the sun rises in the AM.  Very strange to have two products work so differently.  Software settings are exactly the same, night vision default setting to auto.  

The result for security is questionable.  I need to walk in front of the doorbell camera on front porch (with night vision off in error) after midnight to see if it triggers motion and records and if that is black and totally dark.  That would say "return to sender", ID unknown.

What is interesting is this seems totally unrelated to extraneous light sourcing.  The doorbell which has night vision on all the time during nighttime is at my deck in rear of home.  Just about 40 ft away is a very bright LED light which is on dusk to dawn installed by power company on top of the power pole providing power to house.  In addition there are two motion sensor LED lights on exterior wall above the deck and one is directly above the doorbell - no issue at all and those are incredibly bright LED floodlights, anything moving trips them.  When those are tripped the night vision stays on and that doorbell camera is set to "auto" just like the other doorbell camera which turns night vision off by magic every night around midnight and it stays black until sunrise.

Mysterious.  Oh, It is well over 1000 feet to the road and there are no other houses, vehicles, people within 20 acres of either of those doorbell cameras.  It is 3500 feet from the deck camera to any other dwelling and about 2000 feet to another house in the front doorbell case.  In addition there are heavy woods in the rear and a treeline about 300 feet in front, then a pasture to the road.  So...I struggle to see light sourcing as the problem unless some strange thing is happening like a trespasser shining a light on the front doorbell.  Hard to believe that since it has been a bit chilly recently at night.

I'm on my 4th Video Doorbell Pro due to the same issues.  At times the night vision works fine on "auto' and then it reverts back to it not working and needing to go into camera settings and manually turn on night vision.  It's getting old.

As noted above, I have been having this problem for months, as are others.   Other than hearing " we have some of our best people working on this', no fix has come forward.  

Can Simplisafe provide an update?

Thank you

Same problem here, I started experiencing this issue over a month ago and have been manually switching from "auto" to "on" every night. The doorbell had never had previous issues and there have been no environment changes. I contacted customer support who sent me a new doorbell pro I installed 2 days ago and it has been the same problem with the new doorbell.

Can Simpisafe please provide an update?