How far is that Outdoor Camera from your SimpliSafe Base Station, as well as from the WiFi access point or router? The Outdoor Camera does need to communicate with both.
Also, have you already tried the Connection Check tool in the Camera Settings section of the SimpliSafe app? That can give us some valuable info for diagnosing the isssue.
@cataloof I'm not sure what you're asking here, as you posted in a thread where a user was having trouble with their Outdoor Camera. Are you having a camera issue, or an app issue? It would be helpful to have more details about what you're seeing, including any error messages, and also more info on your device.
All three of my cameras stopped working. Two of the three (outdoor) cameras say they can't connect to WiFi, but in settings show them connected (with good signals). The indoor camera seems totally lost. Tech support says we have to remove all three cameras and reload them into the system because they suspect our internet "went down" at some point. What a hassle. The cameras don't seem to be reliable, in spite of the fact that they all have good WiFi signals. We are still getting motion alerts, which confirms WiFi communication . . . but no video. What a joke . . . if we have to periodically reload these suckers, over and over.
Thanks for reaching out. It does sound like this would benefit from real time troubleshooting over the phone with one of our specialists. I've reached out to that team, who will be contacting you shortly!
There is a problem with the wireless outdoor camera that Simply Safe offers. When the battery runs out and loses connection, many of them will not reconnect properly. I have done MBPS speed test, reset my router, bought a new router, spent literal hours on the phone with their tech support, replaced the cameras with new ones, etc. For months I have not had working cameras, and they can't solve it.
To be clear, all of our camera issues were resolved after we installed an inexpensive WiFi boost and reloaded all three cameras. The only issue I am watching now is battery life for the camera that is working solely off battery power. Sometimes the batter seems to hold for weeks. Now it is holding for months, even in cold weather, so we're very pleased. The short battery life earlier could have been related to software issues prior to reloading. Who knows. Now that we no longer need to tap into off-shore "tech support," and all aspects of the system, including the cameras are functioning without any problem, we are happy with SimpliSafe. Any, you're right, now days it is best to have functional outside cameras. Sad, but true.
I’ve had periodic issues with my outdoor camera dropping connection. After more searching on this issue I believe it was caused by the radio connection to the base station not my Wi-Fi signal which indicated Good in the connection tester. The outdoor camera, like the keypad, needs good connectivity to the base station, so if you have it shows offline it may be your base station location relative to the camera. I moved my base station closer to the camera and raised it higher on top of our kitchen cabinets to fix the issue (also reset the camera as well). So far so good.
I am having the same issue with my outdoor camera that’s mounted on the roof line outside so resetting this camera is by no means an easy task. I have done the communication check in the app and my results are excellent yet the camera still shows offline in the app but i do get all the motion notifications. There has to be a better way to reset this camera if that is what its going to take to fix this issue
@dexter30215 Unfortunately there is no way to remotely reset the Outdoor Camera; you do have to press and hold its pairing button for 30 seconds for the camera to successfully reset.
First of all, I have 4 external cameras. 2 of which have always worked fine and are connected to the router's SSID. My base station is also on the router's SSID. I only have had some intermittent issues with the two farthest away from the wifi router (netgear).
Since, I had a degradation of the wifi signal on the further side of my house, I thought to improve the signal with an extender (same company - netgear). I used a mesh system thinking I could just use the same SSID. Then started having frequent and intermittent issues with connectivity. I separated the SSIDs to see if one of them was the issue. The extender has worked fine with other devices. So, I connected my cameras to the extender SSID thinking it would have a better signal. Well low and behold the cameras continued to worked initially then stopped working. I would turn on and off my extender - they would reconnect and then in 24 hours go out again with no connectivity.
Simply Safe has replaced my cameras, sent me an extender (which would not have worked in any case) all of which did not work. I believe we worked out the issue, but I am crossing my fingers - the external cameras and the base station have to work off of the same SSID network, otherwise you will have issues (which is why my two cameras on the router worked fine. Even though I have a signal degradation of my router signal (40-50 dbm vs. 11 dbm), the cameras when switched back to base stations SSID and WIFI router now work. Hopefully, more often then when on the extender. This means that you have to connect all of your cameras to the same SSID as the base station. This needs to be fixed. I am not sure about having to connect to the base stations RF since this was not the issue and my cameras which work well - are much further away.
Another tidbit I found out today is you can use the APP to change the wifi network of the cameras (even without connectivity) when you are away from your house, this sort of confirms that the base station has to work on the same SSID as all of your cameras as it uses that same WIFI to connect to those cameras. Of course, this would be an issue for those who have to use an extender to get any connectivity and why it needs to be fixed.
Just an FYI post. I am getting a couple of ARLO Pro 4 cameras just in case this doesn't work because I use the cameras to alert me prior to some one breaking into my house and they can alert me just as well. They work off of 5ghz or 2.4 ghz and give me double the quality of Simply Safe videos for about the same price.
It would seem it would benefit the public if Simply Safe would publish how their WIFI/RF/base station/external cameras/communicate with protocols and recommended settings OR at least, develop a diagnostic program to pinpoint what the issues are. The connectivity button on the app is worthless. The frontline techs do not know this information either apparently as I have probably talked to 4-5 of them and 1 A-team each has given me a piece of the connectivity pie.
That being said - Simply Safe system is great! No issues and has thwarted a couple of break-ins over the years.
Official Response
davey_d
Community Admin
•
5.7K Messages
2 years ago
Hi @jacky50 ,
How far is that Outdoor Camera from your SimpliSafe Base Station, as well as from the WiFi access point or router? The Outdoor Camera does need to communicate with both.
Also, have you already tried the Connection Check tool in the Camera Settings section of the SimpliSafe app? That can give us some valuable info for diagnosing the isssue.
(edited)
2
0
cataloof
3 Messages
2 years ago
simply safe app on my computer is not working
1
0
Angus
15 Messages
2 years ago
All three of my cameras stopped working. Two of the three (outdoor) cameras say they can't connect to WiFi, but in settings show them connected (with good signals). The indoor camera seems totally lost. Tech support says we have to remove all three cameras and reload them into the system because they suspect our internet "went down" at some point. What a hassle. The cameras don't seem to be reliable, in spite of the fact that they all have good WiFi signals. We are still getting motion alerts, which confirms WiFi communication . . . but no video. What a joke . . . if we have to periodically reload these suckers, over and over.
2
StevenDivers
2 Messages
2 years ago
There is a problem with the wireless outdoor camera that Simply Safe offers. When the battery runs out and loses connection, many of them will not reconnect properly. I have done MBPS speed test, reset my router, bought a new router, spent literal hours on the phone with their tech support, replaced the cameras with new ones, etc. For months I have not had working cameras, and they can't solve it.
0
Angus
15 Messages
2 years ago
To be clear, all of our camera issues were resolved after we installed an inexpensive WiFi boost and reloaded all three cameras. The only issue I am watching now is battery life for the camera that is working solely off battery power. Sometimes the batter seems to hold for weeks. Now it is holding for months, even in cold weather, so we're very pleased. The short battery life earlier could have been related to software issues prior to reloading. Who knows. Now that we no longer need to tap into off-shore "tech support," and all aspects of the system, including the cameras are functioning without any problem, we are happy with SimpliSafe. Any, you're right, now days it is best to have functional outside cameras. Sad, but true.
0
0
WlGef
1 Message
10 months ago
I’ve had periodic issues with my outdoor camera dropping connection. After more searching on this issue I believe it was caused by the radio connection to the base station not my Wi-Fi signal which indicated Good in the connection tester. The outdoor camera, like the keypad, needs good connectivity to the base station, so if you have it shows offline it may be your base station location relative to the camera. I moved my base station closer to the camera and raised it higher on top of our kitchen cabinets to fix the issue (also reset the camera as well). So far so good.
3