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532 Messages

Thursday, December 15th, 2022 3:16 PM

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Outdoor Camera recording every 3 minutes at night

There is a known issue where at night, the Outdoor Camera's motion sensor may and initiate recordings repeatedly, without any confirmed (ongoing) triggers.

 

Outdoor Camera Firmware Update 1.10.x has been rolling out, and it includes some fixes that may resolve this issue. You can check if your camera is already updated by going into the Camera Settings section of the SimpliSafe app.

 

If you are still experiencing this issue after your camera has auto-updated, please let us know here.

Our engineering team has identified a similar issue with a different underlying cause, which has surfaced in versions 1.18 and 1.20. You can follow updates for that issue here.

Official Response

Community Admin

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5.6K Messages

7 months ago

Hi all, 

This issue should be resolved as of firmware version 1.10. However, a different issue with similar issue is now IN PROGRESS of being resolved. You can read more about it here.

2 Messages

I posted this question......how do I delete or disable my post so I don't continue getting comments emailed to me???

61 Messages

2 years ago

At 3:00 am today one of my outdoor camera starting recording every 3 minutes. I turned off detect monition, but it still kept recording throughout out the night. I got up at 6:30 am and removed the battery from it. 

Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation originally titled Outdoor Cam recording every 3 minutes

3 Messages

I have a new outdoor camera above the front door.   This has worked fine for several days but this morning I started receiving continuous notifications every minute.  I can't see anything outside that would activate it.  I have the sensitivity set to low and "people".  I also tried narrowing the vision field.  There isn't any wind today.  If I turn notifications off for a while and then back on, it will stop.  But then I go through periods of phantom notifications starting again after notifications are back on.    Is there anything else to try or is the camera defective?

Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation originally titled Getting continuous notifications from outdoor camera when no motion activity

99 Messages

The same thing happened to me. I took the battery out and put it back in to force a "reboot" of the camera. This seems to have corrected the issue for the most part. I still get occasional phantom notifications and sometimes it does not alert at all when someone walks right by it.  

29 Messages

My back door outdoor camera started doing this yesterday. It's battery was 43% a couple of weeks ago when the percentage part worked. ( Bring it back please)  now it just shows 1/4 mark. Every 7 minutes it would trigger. I put in a fresh battery and it all stopped. Maybe that is a sign of low battery.

Captain

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5.9K Messages

There are a lot of questions to ask, many causes which is why best to call support. I have 2 outdoor cams and don't have this behavior, and work as expected. 

What was the weather like? Heavy rain? Snowing? In those conditions you can get frequent recordings and, based on what side of the house it is mounted, it can effect just one camera. (In heavy rain, my front camera has been fine but the back yard camera recording every few minutes.  If you call support, they should ask for you to download some clips and to send them or upload them where they can review. Also, with one unit doing this, it could be defective, where SS will replace it at no charge under the 3 year warranty.

  If you do call, please post your outcome here.

983 Messages

2 years ago

This is what we call the death loop as when it gets stuck in this loop there is absolutely nothing can be do e except go out and pull the battery out and if that doesn't solve it then a un install and reboot on camera and reinstall. I have 5 and have had all of them go through it over and over and just had one do it last week and I believe it has something to do with the spotlight because if I have it off non do it but when spotlight is on they sometimes get this death loop and the spotlight will stay on the whole time until battery dies or pulling battery, I would keep the spotlight off but I really need it. Another thing that I see that triggers it is if motion is on high and set for all motion then it is easier for it to get this death loop. Kinda  Embarrassing when you keep going outside on a ladder and all your neighbors see you on a ladder and they all have ring and they say, camera problems again. 

983 Messages

2 years ago

One of my cameras is on a 1.12 version and the rest are on the 1.10 version and the one with the 1.12 did it tonight and another one did it a few minutes later so here I go on Christmas eve and it's 20 degrees out to pull them down and delete and re add again, please please fix this as it gets stuck and the spotlight stays on the whole time and even though I have mine on all power or solar it will kill the battery fast

66 Messages

2 years ago

Same 1.10 update. While much more responsive my camera death looped last night. Only happens at night and stops death looping during the day but starts up again at night. Medium sensitive people only. Spotlight on.

983 Messages

@Lsp999​ yea not sure if they will ever figure this one out lol

983 Messages

1 year ago

I have noticed as well that when the sun goes down I have one camera on the side of the house that about every 10 minutes you will see the spotlight come on for about 3 seconds then flicker off, it does not record or do I get notifications and it's not all cameras and it really doesn't bother me I'm just more curious as why it would do that. My son will be in his room and see the light come on then off so I go in there and wait and it does, comes on for 2 seconds or so then flickers off, strange 

7 Messages

1 year ago

Lots of people complained here about a common bug with the outdoor SimpliSafe cameras.  It would get into a loop where it detected motion constantly, giving you notifications every 2-3 minutes, when there was no motion.  I was about ready to cancel my service when firmware version 1.10 came out, and it fixed the problem.  Great.

Well, now I have 1.12.  There aren't even official patch notes for this version - these forums claim that 1.10 is the "latest".  And... the problem is back.  My camera is giving me false notifications every 2-3 minutes again, and the battery will be dead by morning.  I called customer service.  They have no knowledge that anyone has ever encountered this problem.  They also can't revert me back to the "latest" 1.10.

They told me to go to the forums to look for a fix.  So here I am.  I highly doubt this will fix my problem, but at least I can warn others about how terrible these cameras are.

Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation originally titled Outdoor Camera firmware 1.12 brings back the dreaded "record every 3 minutes" bug

Community Admin

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3K Messages

Hi @steves, 

Our devs are currently working on a solution to this issue. I've forwarded your case to our engineers so they can look into it further.

1 Message

My month-old outdoor camera is experiencing the “random recordings every three minutes at night” issue on software version 1.15.3.387. I’ve tried removing the battery and resetting the camera to no avail. Please help.

Community Admin

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3K Messages

@Paulisaaceli  I'm sorry to hear this! I've forwarded your case to the engineers investigating this issue.

4 Messages

1 year ago

We now have 5 outdoor cameras, and all I can say is dealing with them is kind of like dealing with children.  They each have their own personality and they all behave badly at some point.  All 5 of our cameras are running v1.12.2.384.  I have invested a lot of time trying to optimize our setup, so I'll post all of my observations here to maybe help other owners.

Of the original 2 cameras we bought, one of them is the golden child and the other is a troublemaker.  I have swapped their locations to confirm it is indeed the camera and not something in one location triggering motion.  One of them used to death loop with the notifications every 3 minutes.  I swapped their locations and the problem moved with the camera.  It's been fully reset, and it doesn't do that anymore, possibly because of the firmware update, but it is much more prone to false motion alerts than the other, regardless of location.  Even though it doesn't death loop any more, it still gives several false alerts each day.  I've tried adjusting the sensitivity and disabling Activity Zones with tree branches to minimize them.  I may return this one.

We added three more cameras and one of those may be a problem child too.  It sends bursts of false motion alerts, sometimes more than one per minute.  I'm still adjusting the Activity Zones and sensitivity on this one to see if it will be manageable.  It sent 46 alerts in about 40 minutes yesterday with no apparent motion.  The one thing we have learned from these frequent alerts is that the spotlights misbehave on at least two other cameras. The original problem child, and one of the new cameras that doesn't have alert problems, the spotlights go on and off for no reason.  Both are set to Night Vision Mode "Standard", and not "Spotlight".  But it looks like the spotlights coming on may be triggering alerts on the new problem child.  I can see that one of those two spotlights are on sometimes (not every time) when the recording starts, then the spotlight turns off after a few seconds.  The new camera with the misbehaving spotlight does not send motion alerts when the spotlight is going on and off.  Also, the spotlight does not come on when I view that camera, nor when there is actual motion that does trigger an alert.  It seems to be random.

Why do the spotlights come on, seemingly randomly, when they are set to "Standard" night vision?

Another thing I have noticed is the original problem child seems to get stuck between day vision and night vision.  Sometimes, during the day, if motion is triggered, it will start recording in black and white night vision, then click over to full color day-vision after a few seconds, even though it is bright and sunny outside. 

My last observation is with the two problem cameras as well.  I've noticed that frequently, when you wake up the camera to view it, just doing that will trigger motion alerts.  This really seems to only happen with the 2 problem cameras and not the other 3.  This happens with these cameras during the day, and at night.  All of the other issues seem to only happen at night.

Why would viewing the camera cause it to detect motion?

My suggestions to other owners:

If you have multiple cameras and one is finicky, try swapping the location.  If that camera is still a pain, return it.  There is definitely a difference from camera to camera.

If one camera has trouble with alerts, try to disable the Activity Zones with tree branches, or any areas where the camera may see car headlights moving in the distance.  Also, if there are nearby trees, its helpful to watch the camera for a while on a windy day to see if any branches may be blowing into view that are not normally in view.  I think it is possible the camera can detect motion outside of the field of view, but I'm not sure.

4 Messages

@Lou​ 

I need to update one thing about the spotlights.  It seems most of the time the spotlights are not coming on and what I'm seeing is the infrared of the other camera "lighting up" it's surroundings.  I can see that area is lit up on the night vision, but when I look out the window the spotlight is not on most of the time.  I have seen the spotlight through the window a few times even though it is set to"Standard", but I'm not sure how often that is happening.  Regardless of whether it is the spotlight or the infrared, that camera does not send an alert most of the time when it "lights up", but the other camera detects it's light and sends a motion alert.

16 Messages

1 year ago

I just had this exact issue, and I'm on the 1.12 firmware.  Any additional updates on a fix here?

Community Admin

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5.6K Messages

1 year ago

Hi all,

We're getting reports of similar symptoms to this issue resurfacing after FW1.12. Our engineering team is INVESTIGATING and we'll keep you updated when we know more.

8 Messages

1 year ago

I have an indoor camera with the same issue. 

Community Admin

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5.6K Messages

@brohomous​ are you talking about the SimpliCam Indoor Camera? If so, then this issue does not affect that model.

Could it just be possible that there's just something triggering your Indoor Camera more frequently than expected?

As a reminder, the cameras all use infrared for motion detection - they trigger when there are warm objects moving around within view. So it could potentially be set off by pets, appliances, or even hot air moving out from air vents.

1 Message

1 year ago

My camara night vision spotlight keeps turning off and on for no reason. How do I fix this issue?

Community Admin

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5.6K Messages

@fcjones57​ I moved your comment to this thread because it sounds like a similar issue.

This should have been resolved way back when Outdoor Camera firmware 1.10 came out, but we've been seeing some more recent reports as firmware 1.12 started rolling out. We'll keep you updated when we have news.

1 Message

Our outdoor flood light had been doing the same for a few months and we just ended up turning it off altogether but would like to have it working.  We did a reset and it still didn't do the trick.  

Community Admin

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3K Messages

@jayharp2003​ Is it just the Outdoor Camera's spotlight that was flashing, or did you notice that your camera was creating multiple recordings when there was no motion in the frame?

If the camera kept recording, our engineers are working on rolling out a solution as fast as possible. Once this issue has been resolved, we'll provide an update over in this thread.

1 Message

1 year ago

My camera started doing this last night and is on firmware 1.15.6.391. What should I do? I think it might be bugs flying around it

Community Admin

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3K Messages

Hi @jsabo7​, 

Our engineering team is currently investigating this issue. We'll let everyone in this thread know when we have updates!

1 year ago

I just installed 5 outdoor cameras a week ago and 1 of them above our front door has the spotlight constantly flashing on and off all night. It is plugged in and doesn’t give us any motion alerts unless there really is something there, but continues flashing when there isn’t anything. We live in the Midwest and the weather has been clear all week. This camera is running version V1.15.6.391. 

Community Admin

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3K Messages

@amandamdephillips​ have you tried resetting the Outdoor Camera? You can do this by pressing the button on the back of the camera for 16 seconds. When you release, it will go back into setup mode and you can set it up again through the SimpliSafe app. 

1 Message

1 year ago

Our camera just started triggering every 2-3 minutes yesterday. There is nothing new in the yard. The weather is clear. I was advised to set on people only but that defeats the purpose of seeing cars drive up in our driveway.

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