‎Outdoor Camera Recording Every 3 Minutes on firmware update 1.18 and 1.20 | SimpliSafe Support Home
 

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Monday, December 11th, 2023 3:46 PM

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Outdoor Camera Recording Every 3 Minutes on firmware update 1.18 and 1.20

We are seeing a resurgence in reports of users who are seeing sudden and repeated motion triggers, resulting in a new recording every 3 minutes, and eventually a rapid battery drain for their Wireless Outdoor Camera. These repeated triggers seem to be occurring both during the day, and when Night Vision is activated.

A similar issue was resolved on firmware update 1.10 (November 2022), but users are now seeing new cases after their Outdoor Camera updated to firmware 1.18 (September 2023).

Our engineering team has identified the issue, and a fix is IN PROGRESS. A new firmware update will be rolling out soon to address the issue.

In the meantime, it can help to adjust the following settings for your camera experiencing this issue:

  • Change your camera’s motion detection setting to All Motion
  • If you have Activity Zones set up, adjust them to also block off the zones around the image that your camera is detecting
  • Turn your camera’s sensitivity down to Medium or Low

You can make the above settings changes to your Outdoor Camera in the SimpliSafe mobile app by navigating to Cameras on the bottom navigation bar > select the gear icon in the top right corner > select [your camera] > Motion Detection.

2 Messages

1 year ago

Just started to happen to me on one of the camera and I tried to change setting including remove motion but no change … any solution 

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@Fgrosoli​ Is there any motion in any of these recordings? If nothing is moving in these videos, I would try resetting the camera that is experiencing this to see if that prevents it. You can reset the camera following the steps in this Help Center article.

6 Messages

TEMPORARY WORKAROUND:  Turn on all your outside lights for 10 minutes and the false triggering will stop!


MODERATOR:  Please make this answer stick at the top, or repost so it does.  People need to know how trivial it is to work around this problem.


More specifically, my triggering occurs only at night and only after a legitimate trigger.  Following that legitimate trigger, the camera will erroneously claim motion every three minutes.  This will repeat until either daytime comes around again, or the battery runs out.  Well, make daylight come around early by turning on enough lights outside to make the camera think it's daylight.  I've tried this multiple times and I can guarantee it works in my situation.  Try it in yours.  I've gotten it reduced to simply turning on my single front porch light for 10 minutes.  The false triggers cease, and I turn my porch light back off.  You may need to experiment with which or how much light you need.  I picked 10 minutes to be well more than twice the 3 minute period.  The fix might work for as little as 3 minutes, or it might even work for just a few seconds.  I haven't spent the time to analyze down to this detail.  My camera firmware version is v.1.18.23.5603


For Simplisafe, you should be able to 100% reproduce the problem and workaround, thus leading you closer to a fix.  This will add to your knowledgebase and thus help you identify and fix the obvious firmware bug.  Hopefully this knowledge can help you fix it and keep it fixed, LOL.  

Hey, I have a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and have been doing this stuff for many decades.  Trust me.


Note to others, turning off night vision or motion detection won't stop the repeats and might not stop the original legitimate triggering that leads to the repeating false trigger.  So don't waste your time on it.  Just make it fake daylight for a while, and the repeating stops.  This is also additional reliable info for the Simplisafe programmers.  (BTW, my rate for this job would be $300/hr (twice my regular rate).  I'm sure you can fix it for cheaper, so don't call me, LOL.)

2 Messages

1 year ago

My outdoor camera has been doing this off and on for a few days now (night and day -- every 3 minutes.) Nothing has worked to fix it --- removing battery, resetting camera, reinstalling it entirely, toggling all settings, etc.

Firmware 1.18.23.5603

  

3 Messages

@Higginger​ The only thing that worked for me the last time was removing and reinstalling the battery. I had to do this twice before it would stop. The strange thing is it only does the every 3 minute thing after dark.

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@HiggingerThis exact issue in this post was regarding camera recordings at night. Since you see this happen in the day as well, this may be a different issue.

Is your camera facing a high traffic area like a busy street or a sidewalk? If so, it may help to set up Activity Zones to block out these motion-heavy areas.

2 Messages

@emily_s It is in the back yard -- not a high traffic area. 

Turning off night vision seemed to help somewhat, but this is not a solution as the camera's night time view is only as good as the light conditions around it. A firmware update came out today that I am hoping resolved the issue. 

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@Higginger​ Understood! If you have a chance, please let me know if the most recent firmware update resolved this issue for you or not. If not, we'll want to investigate this deeper.

10 Messages

@Higginger​ I have the same issue, camera firmware is at 1.20.27.6769 which appears newer than others.  Running upgrade on the base station and keypad.  I have taken the camera down, manually charged the battery outside of the camera, reinstalled the battery multiple times, cleaned the camera face as well.  Once it got dark tonight, the issue started again.  Weird part is this always follows a valid detection, then continues to trigger over and over with nothing moving in view of the camera.

2 Messages

1 year ago

Started having this issue after I completed the update. I have 2 outdoor cameras and only one has been experiencing this issue

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@sethw2019​ When do you notice that your Outdoor Camera records every 3 minutes? The issue this original thread is about only occurred at night, and has since been resolved. If you notice this happening during the day, this may be a different issue.

Is the Outdoor Camera that is experiencing this facing a high traffic area? Is there any motion captured in its recordings? If there is, setting up Activity Zones could help.

3 Messages

1 year ago

I had this same issue staring last night, after a firmware update.  I tried changing the sensitivity settings, activity zones, etc. but nothing worked.  My camera notified me of motion every three minutes exactly until the battery drained down from 100% to 0% in one night.  Firmware version 1.18.23.5603.  

13 Messages

1 year ago

Chiming in to add that I'm having this problem, too.  Two different cameras seem to be trading off on triggering every 3 minutes - one at night, one during the day.  Both were just removed and reinstalled (because live streaming wouldn't work even though they would trigger and record for motion).  Both are running the latest firmware 1.18etc.  The one was going off for hours tonight - when I finally got home and triggered various other parts of the system (alarm, doorbell camera), it seemed to stop the death loop.  For now.  Sure hope they can get this fixed ASAP.  

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@kimber​ Thank you for reporting this. Our engineers have begun investigating this issue and I added your case to their ticket. A member of our engineering team may reach out to you to help them find a solution.

13 Messages

I hope that they do as I'd love to help get this solved. 

4 Messages

1 year ago

My camera is doing this at night every 3 minutes! Help!

2 Messages

1 year ago

Just got my cameras installed and after 3 days my battery is dead - one camera records every 3 mins ? I’m confused is this a thing ? 

4 Messages

No it happened to me as well. Remove the camera from the system and then add it back. Check your keypad for an update as well. Problem solved on my end after I did that. 

2 Messages

1 year ago

New here ! Just got my cameras up and running 3 days ago and one already had a dead battery- after adjusting settings and blocking out areas of high traffic, I am pretty confused because my camera keeps recording every three minutes when there is clearly not motion or anybody. Please tell me that there’s a fix ? Otherwise, these cameras are a waste of money.

4 Messages

No it happened to me as well. Remove the camera from the system and then add it back. Check your keypad for an update as well. Problem solved on my end after I did that

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@Jhbrown721​ you're saying that after you installed a Base Station firmware update, your camera no longer exhibited this triggering every 3 minutes issue?

4 Messages

Yes I removed the camera from my system. Then did the process to add the camera again. After that I did the update. Everything working normally now 

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@jgardner1987​ I was hoping that it was all fixed as this was a bug issue about a year or so ago and we call it the 3 minute death loop and the only way to fixing was to either pull the battery out and put back in or delete camera and add back but for me sometimes none of that worked and it killed the camera so had to get another one and ended up in total getting 4 replacement cameras when all said and done. Now it seems it's back again and thankfully I haven't had it again but if it's out again then I'm waiting lol. 

1 Message

1 year ago

Outdoor camera is going off every three minutes and recording for 2:56. Xmas lights were added  yesterday and I had no issue but since they have been on this evening it is happening constantly. Any ideas?

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@mdandrea1to1​ I agree with Dlpsr - if your Christmas lights are in your camera's field of view and they flash, or they have a cord that blows in the wind, that could trigger the camera's motion sensor and cause it to record every so often. Slightly readjusting the camera's angle to remove any lights from its view could help to see if that caused these recordings, or if it's something we need to look into further.

2 Messages

1 year ago

I experienced the same issue upon a system update. I have 2 outdoor cameras with solar panels. I had to turn off notifications on my phone as it woyld go off every 3 minutes. The cameras showed low battery even being hooked up to solar panels. I then removed the batteries and completed a full charge via usb/wall plug in. Ever since then the issue has been resolved, at least for my camera issues

1 Message

1 year ago

I have the same problem with a camera I installed 3 months ago. Last week one night the camera started recording every 3 minutes until the battery died. I turned sensitivity way down and it still kept recording every 3 minutes. Finally I turned off notifications so I wouldn’t be awakened all night. By the next morning the battery was dead and the camera offline. The camera is installed at a vacation home 2 hours away so I can’t easily go and charge the battery. I bought the system so I could remotely keep an eye on the vacation house but I will have to return the camera and solar panel if this issue continues. My system has sw release 1.18. 

1K Messages

1 year ago

Aahhhh here we go again with this every 3 minute death loop deal. I thought with the 8 million updates this was taken care of? Looks like it's back again and so far I have been lucky but I have a feeling it's coming back and I hope not as I am doing sim installs every week and I can't handle my job and people calling me like crazy because the cameras I installed are doing this. Let's get this fixed 

3 Messages

1 year ago

I have had the three minute death loop syndrome occur a few times over the past year or so. Somewhere between removing/replacing the battery and removing/reconnecting the camera it went away for a while each time. Just about as annoying as the issue was hearing the help techs act like they had never heard of it (after I had found SCORES of complaints about it in forums). Currently I have a different issue - An outdoor camera continually showed as offline, though it had been fine for over a year, had a good signal, and would pick up motion SOME of the time. I could wake it up for live view, but would indicate it was offline again moments after ending live view. A hard won replacement sent to me has the same behavior. NOW, whenever I simply open the app (not that particular camera option), that camera begins to trigger itself repeatedly, up to 17 times recently over a few minute period - multiple times within one minute. About to give up on them entirely.

1K Messages

@carvermon​ unfortunately for some reason they can not get it all right with the outdoor cameras. It is always a bug or something and they did fix the while death loop but now it's back apparently. My favorite cameras so far or the video doorbell and the new indoor live agent cameras as they are absolutely wonderful but they must have other engineers doing the outdoor cameras or something because after tons and tons of updates they still have issues. Now luckily I'm doing great on all mine but of course I just opened my mouth lol.

31 Messages

1 year ago

I have 4 outdoor cameras.  Software is v1.18.23.5603. I have solar panels attached to all 4 cameras, which have maintained the batteries over 90% for over a year.  We have twinkling Christmas lights outside for the holiday.  They’re 30’ from the most active camera, but my front cameras are triggering 60-70 times each night.  They literally drained freshly charged (outside of camera, on AC) batteries in 1-2 days. I’ve blocked the twinkling lights in activity zones, and have reduced the motion sensitivity, too.  They’re still triggering every few minutes. I’m too old to climb the ladder to retrieve the batteries and charge them for 5 hours every day.  We need a fix (that actually works), please!

4 Messages

1 year ago

I just installed three new outdoor cameras and I'm having this exact issue. When nightfall starts, the camera starts turning on and recording every 3 minutes, with motion notifications. There is no motion whatsoever, and the camera cycles like this constantly until it runs dead. I set the motion to medium, then to low, and then off. The notifications continued all night. I called your support line yesterday and they had me reboot and reinstall the camera. The rep was supposed to check back in with me in the evening and never called me back. The issue started again last night at dark and never stopped. Based on this thread, it seems as though this has been an ongoing issue for a year now and I see many people like me still having this problem. What will the resolution be? I'm now invested in many other components as part of the overall SimpliSafe package, and past my 60 day guarantee on all of them but the outdoor cameras. I would like to have these cameras as part of my home security system, but clearly this is not going to work. Current software version v1.18.23.5603. 

4 Messages

Everybody should keep a record of all these false motion alerts. This has been ongoing for years with no resolution in sight. Next step might be a class action suit.

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@youngdh​ The initial issue was resolved way back in November 2022 with a firmware update, but we see that it just recently resurfaced again. Our engineers are looking into new cases to find a solution, and I've added yours to their ticket to look into further. A member of our engineering team may reach out to you as they continue to investigate. 

4 Messages

This issue has not been resolved.  My camera is on v1.24.13.  If I put it on any other motion detection setting than low, it will do the exact thing described in this thread…after dark, it will trigger on some legitimate motion, and then continue to record nearly 3-minute clips all night long until sunup.  It’s infuriating that this has come up again after being “fixed” for a while. And I don’t have hours to sit on the phone with customer service trying to explain the problem to them.  It’s a problem that I have to keep my camera’s motion setting on “low” all the time - I miss legit motion events sometimes.  Will this ever be resolved??? 

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