Cameras not picking up motion

Waste of money. This system cannot reliably work or stay online, hence no reason for me to continue to pay for it.

Perfect example of looking for alternatives from the competitors of SimpliSafe.

Terrible. 

Sorry to hear that, @jdreed2626,

I will ask you the same questions about your setup: how high the cameras are, what's in view, and especially how far they are from the Base Station. And since you've mentioned trying other suggestions already, it would be helpful to know what you've already tried. That can help us narrow down the issue.

Hi - my outdoor stoped picking up motion when I updated the Wi-Fi network. The camera is 6 feet off the ground over the garage and it will not pick up a car pulling into the drive way and then right under the camera. 

it also does not pick anyone up walking around.

The only change I made from when it worked was the Wi-Fi network, and it worked well until then. 

@servtec355​ You are 100% correct, I have one cam for my driveway, and it will pick up cars going down the road 100 ft away but won't pick up my car driving right pass it. doesn't matter what the settings are, I tried all of them and still the same thing. I think I made a mistake by not sending this system back when I had the chance.

I have one camera on my porch, by the front door facing the steps and it will detect my porch privacy blinds moving in the wind and traffic going by but when I have two people walk up onto my porch and knock on the door it doesn't detect their movement.  Just today, it didn't detect the UPS guy setting a package on my porch.  I've had the system for over two years and have been happy with it until recently. 

I just had a similar issue. FedEx dropped off a package and within 10 minutes a porch pirate grabbed it but the camera didn't catch either!! It is so frustrating. And then other times I am getting all kinds of notifications for car going faster and further away. Had to change my setting to not pick up the street at all. I am really disappointed with the cameras. Not impressed with the system in general actually.... have had many issues with the front door lock too.

@Motod6​ I'm sorry to hear this. I have a few questions regarding the setup of your cameras. How high up are they installed, what is in view of the cameras, and how far away are they from the Base Station?

I would also recommend going through the guided flow in this Help Center article to troubleshoot motion detection.

I have the same problem. Picked up everything for a few months - cars driving down the street, people on the sidewalk, people in the driveway, cars in the driveway, and people walking up and down the steps. Then all of a sudden it stopped. And I would only picks up snippets of cars in the driveway and people walking up the steps. None of the solutions I've provided have helped. I'm pretty disappointed.

@Cj962​ What are the Motion Detection settings on your camera? It may help to set the sensitivity to High and to turn on All Motion. You can change these settings in the SimpliSafe mobile app by navigating to the Cameras tab on the bottom of the screen > Tap the gear icon in the upper right corner > Select [your camera] > Motion Detection. 

I will say this worked for me.  I already had High Sensitivity but only People Motion.  I changed to All Motion and it really did the trick.  We don't get enough "noise" motion to make this an issue so it made all the difference.

@emily_s​ I just now got the notification to your reply :-|

Motion Notifications - Off

Sensitivity - High

Motion Type - All Motion

Activity Zone - No blocks selected

There is no privacy shutter on the outside camera. And there isn't even an option for your suggestion in the app for the outside camera. 

 We have both the indoor and outdoor cameras and the only ones that work for motion sensor is the inside cameras. 

  The outside cameras are completely garbage.  I have them set to 1080P and the video quality is no better than my 10 year old wired security cameras that are analog.  

 We also wifi 4K to a TV that is further away from the router than the outside camera with no issues. And the TV has true 4K resolution. Not the outside camera.  The outside camera video quality is like watching an old tube TV that needs to be replaced. 

  There is no stone, metal or other wifi blocking materials between the camera and the router.  

 The camers is about 15 foot straight line from the router and the base station is in the same room as the base station. 

@lstephens​ If you haven't already, I would check the placement of your Outdoor Camera. We recommend that the Outdoor Camera is placed no lower than 6 feet from the ground, but no higher than 8 feet, and that the camera is angled down to a 30° angle. If your camera's setup does not follow this, it can impact its motion detection. 

The Outdoor Camera also relies on its connection to the Base Station to record motion, so bringing the Base Station closer to the camera can strengthen their connection and help with motion detection.

But if these two recommendations do not help, please let me know and I can get you in touch with a member of our specialist team for further assistance.

Yeah. Pretty irritating. Mine is virtually worthless.  Fixing to retire in a few days so I'll be ditching my cameras and building my own system.

@zombieparmesan the Outdoor Camera should be placed anywhere from 6-8 feet high, as placing them any higher could impact their ability to detect motion. But the camera's motion sensor is most sensitive to lateral motion, so it helps to orient the camera so it is looking at the side of the area you want to monitor. That way, subjects move across the camera's field of view instead of coming at it straight on.

We do see that your case details have already been escalated to our devs. A member of the team will be in touch soon to help get to the bottom of this.

My cameras are all set up perfectly 8 feet within wifi range angled correctly. There’s no reason why they work perfect for 6 months or less then stop detecting motion. I’ve been dealing with this for weeks. Missing effects, no people detected even on my balcony, I’m across the street from an elementary school- I have foot traffic and lines of cars everyday. And my kid goes to that school- these cameras don’t detect anything. I’m listening to cars  drive by right now. Working 6 months then going defunct on a large scale like this either needs to be fixed or we need class action. This is a rug pull if not. My camera used to activate from headlights and loud vehicles and I would see them before approach. Now nothing. What is the warranty time and how long do we have to return the items that don’t work how they’re supposed to.

@ajstep75 all SimpliSafe devices have a 1-year hardware warranty. And if you subscribe to our Pro Plus, Pro, or Core monitoring plans, before the 1-year warranty expires, you will receive a lifetime warranty.

The Outdoor Camera relies on its connection to the Base Station in order to wake up once it senses motion, and its WiFi connection in order to begin recording the motion event. We would recommend troubleshooting both of these connections for your Outdoor Cameras. 

To troubleshoot the cameras' connection to the Base Station, try moving the Base Station to an area closer to the cameras. We also recommend placing the Base Station in an open-air space, as putting it in a cabinet, closet, or on a metal shelf can hinder its connection to other SimpliSafe devices. 

And to troubleshoot the cameras' WiFi connection, a good first step is to use our in-app Connection Check tool. This will run a scan on the cameras' connection and provide troubleshooting steps based on your results. It can also help to create a guest WiFi network locked at 2.4GHz and connect only your SimpliSafe devices to it to improve their signal strength. 

But if these above steps do not help, we may need to replace your cameras. In that case, our Support team can help you with a replacement.

@ajstep75​ 

 Mine worked pretty well until the last time I charged it. Fully charged it as I normally do, remounted, and now it rarely picks up motion. It used to get my car going in and out of my garage/driveway every day - no longer. I had a package dropped off in my porch (the camera has a full view of the porch) and it didn’t pick up anything. Curiously, I recently dropped the expensive plan and went to self-monitoring and then all these problems started up 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

@lbollettino​ I'm still having the issue after being sent two replacement cameras. Every time I call to troubleshoot they just make the problem worse. Mine is under 6 months old too. 

@zombieparmesan​ ugh I have been doing the firmware update as well. It's concerning so I hope they figure this out given all the money spent for this system.

@lbollettino and @zombieparmesan the Outdoor Camera relies on both its connection to your WiFi network and Base Station in order to wake up and begin recording. 

If the camera has a strong WiFi connection, and it is mounted 6-8 feet high—looking at the side of the area you want to monitor, we would want to troubleshoot its connection to the Base Station next. 

Try moving the Base Station closer to the camera. This will help strengthen their connection and help the camera detect and record motion.

Try it at night.  Mine is a dead camera at night, I could lick the screen and it doesn't know it.  They blamed it on my white ceiling so I'm planning on painting it back so my camera will work. . .. . . NOT.

@mc1bronwyn What happens if you move the Base Station closer to your Outdoor Camera? The Outdoor Camera relies on its connection to the Base Station to wake up and begin recording, so moving the Base Station closer to the device can help strengthen their connection. 

We also recommend looking at the Camera Behavior settings for this camera to ensure that Motion Detection and Motion Notifications are turned on. You can do this in the SimpliSafe mobile app by navigating to My System > Camera Settings > select [your camera]. Then under Camera Behavior, look at Off, Home, and Away modes and ensue that the motion settings you want are enabled. 

We also recommend looking at the placement of the camera. Its motion sensor is most sensitive to lateral motion, so we recommend mounting the camera to the side of the area you want to monitor. That way, subjects move across its field of view instead of walking straight at it.

@mc1bronwyn​ Assuming & If nothing else changed, and you haven't tried it, when connection issues arise for me, a wifi router restart usually wakes them up.

Of course you could be correct and it's just a bum camera.

The OD cams updated their firmware over the last days or so and sometimes they require a reboot/reconnect.

@fredbatchelder​ Same.  At night it does nothing.  During the day, it's hit or miss. The doorbell camera is great for motion sensing...just not the outdoor camera.  It's getting kind of irritating.

@Cj962 What is the physical setup of your Outdoor Camera like? How high up is it mounted? 

The Outdoor Camera should be mounted about 6-8 feet off the ground. Any higher and the camera can have difficulty detecting motion. The camera's motion sensor is also most sensitive to lateral motion. We recommend mounting the camera to the side of the area you want to monitor. That way, subjects move across its field of view rather than coming at it straight on.

Also, how far is your camera from your WiFi router and Base Station? Are there any dense walls or heavy appliances in its path? If so, we recommend moving the router and/or Base Station a little closer to the camera to strengthen their connection.