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

@lance843​ Glad you are not having the issue, but I'm not sure what the point of your response is. Clearly others are having issues based on the numerous complaints and the fact that the SS techs admittedly note an issue; myself included. Below is an image of my timeline. This goes on every three minutes for hours on end, until the battery dies. I've also attached the image of what the camera is seeing during one of those motion detections; absolutely nothing and zero movement. I've adjusted to medium, low, and no motion, yet the motion detection continues for hours. 

@youngdh​ not saying there is not an issue as this issue has had happened last year or so and I went through it quite a few times but they fixed it with an update and all has been fine, now apparently it's back again but people are saying it's there christmas lights which can happen and all I was saying is I have laser lights and a bunch of regular lights all flickering and in the camera and it's not setting them off so I'm thinking it's not the lights thats doing it I think it's the same old bug back in the cameras again

@kimber​ Unfortunately I have the same software version and I'm having this endless loop of 3 minute notifications. Good luck to you! :)

@youngdh​ when this problem was happening a year or so ago I found if I pulled battery out and replace it came back around, I did have one that did not and nothing worked and the camera was dead because of the loop it got stuck in. Wouldn't hurt to try though if you haven't 

Good luck... That was what I had to do as well (reset); no resolution. 

I've had the issue twice and what fixed it for me is taking the battery out for a minute and reinstalling it. First time I tried this it didn't work, but the second time it did. The first time the issue happened was actually after having to reinstall the battery after I charged it the first time.

@adberger75​  Great documentation! The odd thing is that this 'motion looping' does not happen during the daytime and seems to disappear in the wee hours of the morning. It does seem to be triggered by repeated actual motion sensing, which would account for it not happening  during the early morning hours since the looping trigger is not there. This must be correctable by a software update in the programming, although the challenge is to define how much is too much before the loop is triggered. Maybe programming a 'soft reset' of some kind after a certain number of looped motion alerts would be a short-term fix.  C'mon SimpliSafe! There are just too many security alternatives out there not to develop a fix for this really annoying glitch.

@adberger75​ This is really great information, and it's certainly something that I will share with our engineering team. They are looking into this issue again and I've added your case to their ticket. Someone should reach out to you soon to further their investigation.

Pulling the battery is sort of forced upon you, because with so many triggers, the battery is drained in 1-2 days.  I had the battery out, charging overnight, two nights ago, so started yesterday with a fully charged battery. I have a solar panel on the camera, and it’s been sunny for the last two days, but once we got the camera reset, it was down to 36%, after 3-4 hours of sunlight on the solar panel, so I pulled it and charged it fully again today.  Even after the full reset, it’s triggering every 1-3 minutes.  Battery was 100% at 6 PM.  It’s down to 93% at 9 PM.  I’m sure it will be 20% or dead by morning.

@rodg524​ The advertised battery life of 3-6 months must rely on very conservative settings, as I’ve never achieved it.  I got tired of climbing the ladder every couple of weeks, and the 5 hour charge time, with 4 outdoor cameras, so bought after market solar panels on Amazon, for about $30 each. You need to mount them in a place that gets 2-4 hours of sun a day, and within 13’ of the camera (cable length), but my solar panels have kept my batteries over 90% for over a year. Except the one that is triggering every 3 minutes right now, of course.

@rbarrett7806​ there is a bug in the last update and they are working on a fix, for now the only thing you can do is pull battery out and replace it back, if that doesn't work then you will have to delete the camera from the system and reinstall and that should work. Post outcome here so we will know if it works. 

@dlpsr​ Our security system was purely for my wife's piece of mind.  I retired (early-ish) this year, but traveled a lot when I was working; 80% of the time for a number of years.  Having the alarm made her more comfortable while I was away.  The big dogs helped, too, of course. It's gotten dark, the Christmas lights are blinking, and the camera is behaving more or less properly (at least so far).  I have Motion Type set to All Motion, and sensitivity set to Medium.  I don't mind seeing my neighbors' cars go by.  At least it's legitimate motion, and even that extra triggering is far less than the crazy triggering it's been doing.  I only shared the one view, because this tool will only accept a 5 MB attachment, and it would only take one pic from my phone.  I got all of them on one screen on my computer (interestingly, it was live streaming from all of my cameras at one time).  Anyway, here are the rest of them:

@dlpsr​ It was a relatively quiet night.  Only 45 triggers from dusk until dawn, still running with All Motion and Medium Sensitivity, which aren’t my normal settings. I normally run 1080P, High Sensitivity, People Only, since I installed the solar panels.  Before that, High Sensitivity killed the batteries pretty quickly.  The solar panels keep the batteries over 90%, year round.  I use Night Vision Standard, Spotlight Off.  I haven’t tried Night Vision Off, but that’s an interesting idea.  The wayward camera starts many of the false triggers in color before it switches to black and white, even with night vision in standard, and some of the false trigger recordings are over 2 minutes long, which is a long time to watch nothing happening, and according to the tech support guy, shouldn't happen… We have had the same Christmas lights in the same places before without issue.

My wayward camera does look out on my driveway.  My truck has been parked there for about 8 months, never a problem.  The walk lights and other fixed lighting have been there for a decade.  Also never a problem.  There are twinkling lights on a small bush in the camera’s view.  They weren’t a problem last year, and this year are blocked out in the activity zone.  My Front - East camera sees far more twinkling lights, and doesn’t trigger on them.  The Christmas lights go off at midnight on a timer, but the wayward camera keeps triggering. The incessant triggering drops the battery charge by about 10% per hour, and any legitimate camera activity is obscured in the timeline, so in essence, the one bad camera renders all of my cameras useless.  Like @dlpsr, I’m baffled that only one camera (out of 4) seems afflicted.  All are running the same software version, which suggests a sensor (hardware) malfunction.  With a replacement on its way, I sure hope it’s a hardware issue.

My outdoor cameras seem to be working okay for now. No more alert loops since I removed and rebooted the camera. Now, I have another issue though. One of my indoor cameras, which hasn’t given me any problems for years. Is suddenly losing the WiFi signal each night (flashing red) and then going to steady white . It dies this for about 10 min three times a night. I bought a WiFi extender but this did not solve the problem.  And yes, I did remove, reboot, and reinstall tge camera.  Unfortunately, the real value if a security system is reliability and peace of mind and these features are failing fast.

I complained to SS and demanded they take my camera back.  They eventually agreed.  I returned the useless camera and they refunded me the money.  SS are still selling a camera of which for the past 2 years they have known has a problem yet they continue selling it and customers continue to have the problem.  

Ok so last night I took the battery out and put it back in to reset the camera.  And when I put the camera back I tilted it down a little bit more. So more towards the 30 degree angle they say in the instructions. It rained a lot last night and didnt trigger once. So I now believe that everyone with weird camera behavior should try to tilt it down a bit more to see how it does. So far so good after that adjustment.  

@dlpsr​ i had estimated that “Wayward One” was at about a 20° down angle.  The discussion here intrigued me, so I went out, climbed the ladder, and checked.  It’s actually at a +/- 40° down angle.  Our driveway is fairly steep down to the street, so passing cars traverse the top of the frame.  They do trigger the camera sometimes, but it’s a cul-de-sac, so passing cars are few and far between once folks are home from work.  I’ve tried to upload video a couple of times, but even though the  file is well below the size limit, the file won’t upload.  The replacement camera arrived this evening, too late to install.  I’ll charge the battery overnight and install it tomorrow, and hopefully send “Wayward One,” and its issues, on their way…

@willowre43​ Our engineers are actively investigating this issue and are working on a solution. I do not have any updates at this time, but once we hear more we'll provide an update in this thread.

It’s now 2 days since I last charged the battery on my camera and now I’m having to charge it AGAIN!!!!!!!! This is getting ridiculous this needs to be sorted or I will have no other choice than to cancel my subscription with you and return my camera.

@emily_s​ A question that comes up offen: Customers in this thread have their outdoor cameras sending motion notificatoins constantly and have batteries dying. My two outdoor camera issues? Zip, de nada. Yes they are connected to AC but why do some customers have the issue and others don't? What is the difference? Internet speed, signal strength, quality, what is in the field of vision, lighting, gremlins?? While I am very happy they work as expected (yeah, want them to go from wakeup to live stream quicker all of the time) it is irritating to see these many issues ongoing.

@captain11​ In general, a wide variety of factors in the camera’s environment impacts how it behaves. Specifically for this issue where the Outdoor Camera records about every 3 minutes, there is something in the environment that the camera is picking up in error. Our engineering team is actively investigating cases to roll out a solution as soon as possible.

I agree. I moved my problem install to a different location and angle. Two days with no issues. It is now pointing directly away from the wall where as the problem installation was pointing partially along the house wall. Perhaps the reflection off the wall was the issue. It affected not only false recordings but poor night vision.  

@mnirish​ thanks for checking in! We've added you to the list. You may get a call from our engineering team soon.