Outdoor camera won’t connect to wifi

Same problem here around 6 months-backyard camera is fine, front door camera will not stay connected, always says offline. Charge the battery, reset, add back to system, but won’t connect. Super frustrating. It is a problem and they won’t fix it or acknowledge it.

I got mine fixed by calling them. They asked for the cameras serial numbers and shut them off of the plan. Then we held down the back button for 30 seconds on each to reset and reinstalled them all. Now they work. This was after going through a bunch of steps for over an hour on the chat with nothing working. The chat told me to call the tech support and that worked.

Hello,

So, I just got a SimpliSafe system and had the same issues. I have a Unifi network and also tried the same thing making a network that was just 2.4 and everything, but nothing worked. What I had to do was find an old AP that didn't have 6 ghz and make sure the wireless network only worked on that AP. Then everything connected flawlessly. Anything that even has the ability to transmit on 6ghz broke the connection. I hope that helps!

Exactly the same problem with mine. As someone else mentioned I am sure this is really old tech. The old usb is a clue - I have tried multiple networks think it’s an old wireless protocol and does not work well with newer WiFi systems. I will be returning my camera.

Had an incident.  Went to get footage and wouldn't ya know - as always, the outdoor cameras didn't have connectivity so I've got nothing.  Now I have property damage that I can't prove.  Garbage outdoor cameras.

I had the same issue and after 2 extra cameras, we discovered that the new camera shipments had older firmware. We got the cameras to finally connect to my wifi and immediately started updating. The SimpliSafe tech was able to see on the cack end that the firmware's on my installed outdoor cameras and the new ones were different versions.

Don't know if my experiences help, but they are sensitive to noise or as they call it interference.

My 5 outdoor cams have repeatedly lately had connection issues off and on. Previously did not. Of course I've been troubleshooting with an inside tech, or was🤔 and rebooted about 50 times.

I push my WiFi and their app and cameras.

Lots of other cameras, devices etc on wifi.

However, my Orbi mesh is hardly to its limit for devices. Neighbors and their WiFi etc. is distant.

I'm talking mesh WiFi, 2 access points, all blue bars reported, -50 or better Dbm in the connection checker. Wifi for 50 yards from our house.

What fixes mine, temporarily anyhow, is a wifi complete reboot.

I'm not into rebooting every couple days just for these cameras though, so I have others that work for coverage.

No other cams or iOT devices go down.

So, do a connection check, if you can, you need all blue bars and preferably less than -50 Dbm, though they say -70 I think.

Power down the modem, power down the router and access points if you have them.

Power up the modem wait until it's happy, power up the wifi router etc.

See if everything SS connects and works.

It will take a while for devices to move around to best access wifi connection point probably. If you have mesh and access points.

I have solar, so haven't ever removed a battery in 15+ months. I can't comment on battery removal problems.

If still not connected, try a full camera reset.

Remove the cam from app, reset camera, hold button 30 seconds or whatever it is.

Reinstall camera from scratch. Removing a battery should not wreck anything, the router and cam should remember the IP and MAC address or assign a new one.

Clean the battery connector tabs a little and in the cameras if possible. Qtip and contact cleaner or maybe rubbing alcohol, I'm not a scientist lol.

If that's not fixing anything, then it's probably a hardware issue. Yours or theirs. They are persnickety and they are old technology. Firmware can only fix a certain amount.

One point to consider is speed does not equal strong wifi connections thru walls.

1GB doesn't broadcast any further then 200Mbs from an ISP combo.

If you happen to have mesh already, its a settings hunt perhaps.

ISP provided modem router combos may be ok for a small house, but not a large one with brick walls etc. Like mine. 2,000 sq feet, though that's not really large.

If you don't have mesh WiFi consider it, a compatible mesh....many or some users including some admins have luck with Google mesh, which model, unknown.

Mine (5) have always been set at 720p, all motion now, hard down angle, and medium sensitivity, one is high sensitivity.

Or other options are available that work.

Also using Ubiquiti APs. 2.4Ghz network, group key interval is turned off already for that SSID. 

Still getting frequent disconnects of the outdoor cameras. All other devices work fine. Had an incident on the property and cameras had disconnected and recorded blank footage. Absolute garbage. 

Same issues here, and on systems in two separate locations.  We had an update in April and the outdoor cameras that were on battery started to show "low battery".  But after charging they would not reconnect to the system.  The one camera that was plugged in started glitching and recording for hours at a time with nothing to set it off. 

Spent hours on the phone to deal with both locations and eventually had all cameras replaced.  The new cameras connected fine in both locations.  Then this month, another update, and yup... cameras won't reconnect again.  Spent 45 minutes on the phone today only to be sent to a higher level technical support that I was then disconnected from.  Awesome.  

I'll try once more the get through to the elevated support level, but am about ready to start shopping other systems. 

I can’t believe its been two years and they still have not resolved the issue. This is either a recall or an antitrust law violation. The BBB will also need to learn this

SS is a absolute POS system. Never again. Surprised if it is not just surveillance system to be NSA  listening to USA. 

SO MANY of the same problems with the outdoor camera!  Our system (purchased and installed in June 2023) worked well for a year.  Then both outdoor cameras started stopped the wifi connection.  We have a strong and robust Wifi network.  Anyway, I deleted the cameras from the system (had to do via the keyboard by the way, I could not do it thru' the app nor would the re-set button work on the back of the camera)    

It gets hung up on the last step of the set up where I enter the (NEVER HAS BEEN CHANGED) wifi password... it just says to move the camera closer to the router which of course I have - at one point setting the camera on TOP of the router.  

Sigh.  Now we have a security system with no cameras.  And support?  Yes, the poor lad was reading off a script, asking me whether my camera's BATTERY was charged (duh.  yes). 

Help?  

😂 

I bought my SS system in July 2024 and have been having problems with the outdoor cameras and live monitoring. I was able to set them both up and am able to see recorded videos, however I can't access their live feed. The SS web site says that cameras communicate over RF and WiFi which makes no sense; Wifi is an RF signal (see pic below). I suspect there's a different RF signal from the base station that sends a wake up signal to the camera so I can monitor the live feed. Can you pls explain what the difference is btwn the two?