Outdoor Camera Siren Bug

Hey all,

Creating this post for visibility, as recommended by a SimpliSafe support engineer.

I purchased a couple of the new-generation outdoor cameras during the Black Friday sale.

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Setup Conditions

• Setup completed without issues.

• Front yard and backyard outdoor cameras were configured identically.

• I noticed the Outdoor Camera Siren on/off setting during setup. I explicitly turned this OFF on both cameras because I don’t want a false alarm waking up the neighborhood, especially if we’re not home.

• Cameras worked perfectly until last night during their first alarm incident.

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Incident Description

Last night, an indoor motion sensor was accidentally triggered when someone went to the bathroom.

I saw the alarm countdown, grabbed my phone, and attempted to disable the system. I missed it by about two seconds, so the alarm briefly triggered. I disabled the alarm almost immediately.

Despite this:

• The front yard outdoor camera siren began blaring at full volume at ~2:00 AM.

• The backyard outdoor camera did NOT trigger its siren.

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Timeline of Events

1. Indoor motion sensor triggered the alarm countdown.

2. Alarm triggered.

3. A few seconds later, the alarm was disabled — base station and indoor sirens stopped.

4. Front yard outdoor camera siren continued to sound.

   • Tried disabling via the SimpliSafe app.

   • Tried disabling via remotes.

   • Siren continued regardless.

5. Checked camera settings:

   • Siren setting was confirmed OFF.

   • Toggled it ON → OFF to force a refresh.

   • Siren continued.

6. At this point, I had to go outside, climb a ladder and physically remove the camera from the wall and pull the battery, as I didn't know if it would continue indefinitely.

7. About 30 seconds later, the siren hit its timeout and stopped.

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Additional Notes

• Wi-Fi and base station connectivity were solid.

• All video recordings from that camera worked perfectly during the incident.

• Signal strength to the base station was strong.

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Identified Issues

1. The outdoor camera did not honor its siren OFF setting.

2. The outdoor camera did not honor the system being disarmed.

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Support Call Summary

I contacted SimpliSafe support and worked with a very solid engineer.

• He reviewed all settings and confirmed everything was configured correctly.

• We intentionally triggered another alarm during testing.

• The same issue occurred: the outdoor camera siren activated when it should not have and would not shut off.

• He confirmed he had never seen this behavior when signal strength was strong, which it was in my case.

• He confirmed logs are automatically sent to SimpliSafe servers for developer review.

Given the severity of the issue (a siren potentially blaring for minutes at 3:00 AM while no one is home), I asked whether logs should be reviewed before resetting. Ultimately, a factory reset was recommended.

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Resolution

• Performed a factory reset.

• Retested the system.

• Issue did not reproduce after reset.

Thanks all