‎Outdoor Camera Firmware 1.18 (September 2023) | SimpliSafe Support Home
 
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Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

Tuesday, September 5th, 2023 3:36 PM

Outdoor Camera Firmware 1.18 (September 2023)

Hi folks,

The next firmware update is rolling out for the Wireless Outdoor Camera. As a reminder, your cameras update automatically, so there’s no need to take action. Learn more about the update process here.

Here’s what’s coming to your Cameras in Version 1.18:

  • Improved connection to SimpliSafe® services
  • Further reduced delay to livestreams
  • WiFi performance improvements
  • Fixes to address battery drain when no motion is occurring
  • Partial fix for Outdoor Camera flashing blue issue
  • Optimizations and stability improvements

Previous Updates:

Official Solution

Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

1 year ago

Hi all,

A small update to keep you in the loop. The rollout of firmware 1.18 is ongoing, and happening very slowly. If you don’t have it yet on all your devices, they will get it soon!

We have been seeing a few of you looking forward to this update to address concerns specifically with the lag in the time to livestream. While this update certainly includes optimizations that aim to address that, there are a few things you can try on your end that will also help.

To help with saving battery, the Outdoor Camera goes into a deep sleep when not in use. To wake up, the camera relies on linking with the Base Station - using the same wireless connection as the sensors. So troubleshooting that connection can help a lot with improving time to livestream.

If you have not already, we strongly recommend that you consider taking the following steps:

  • Move your Base Station physically closer to your Outdoor Camera
  • Avoid having dense physical objects directly in the way, like heavy appliances, or brick/stone walls, and place the unit away from other wireless devices (e.g. garage door openers, baby monitors, etc)
  • Make sure that your Base Station is connected to WiFi

This is all good practice general, so we can give the Outdoor Camera the best chance of linking up.

Apologies for the time it’s taken to get the update out to everyone. I know you’re all eager to get the latest optimizations and bug fixes. But thank you for your patience as the rollout continues.

20 Messages

@davey_d​ Does the Outdoor Camera still go into deep sleep even when wired to provide constant power? If so, can you provide an option to prevent that behavior? I'd prefer to choose faster responsiveness over power saving, if possible.

Official Solution

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

1 year ago

Hello everyone,


We know you all have been looking forward to getting firmware 1.18 on your Outdoor Cameras, and we wanted to provide an update. After 1.18 started to roll out on your systems, our devs noticed there may be a potential issue that impacted performance and decided to roll firmware back to 1.15 while we investigate. They are diligently working on updating this firmware so it can be added back to your systems as soon as possible. We appreciate you all for understanding and thank you for your patience. We will provide an update as soon as we have it.

Captain

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6.1K Messages

@emily_s​ Thank you for the update.

20 Messages

@emily_s​ Thank you for the response and update.....

11 Messages

1 year ago

Hi, you said the new update is rolling out September 5th when will we see this update on are cameras. I'm still 1.15 on two of my cameras never updated 1.16 let along 1.18.

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@jjrbru Camera firmware updates are slowly rolled out to users and the cameras update automatically, so it's hard to give an exact date when your cameras will get this new update. I would keep an eye on your system, as you should see this update soon.

1 year ago

@davey_d New customer having recently installed the entire system including an outdoor camera about 3 weeks ago. 

I was disappointed in the latency for motion detection and live feed but I saw a post of yours touting some improvements with 1.16. and was hopeful. now I see I’m potentially three revisions behind?

The trouble is, my camera is not automatically updating after several weeks. In an effort to “kick start”, the upgrade I’ve removed and added the camera back to my system to try and force a firmware upgrade per support chat, and nothings worked. My base station is on the most recent firmware.

I consider this a 60 day trial and I’d love to see the system functioning at its peak.

Why isn’t the firmware updating automatically as it should? How can I remediate the issue?

Thank you.

(edited)

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@brightpavilions​ Removing the camera from your system and adding it back should help to force your camera to update, but since that did not work for you I've gone ahead and sent your case to our escalated Support team. A specialist will be in touch soon to assist you.

5 Messages

1 year ago

My outdoor camera is also still only at version 1.15.  Why hasn't it updated to at least 1.16 yet? I've had it for 18 months. The lag time is so bad, I'm ready to get rid of it, but I'd like to find out if the new updates will actually help first.

5 Messages

I just spent an hour with tech support.  My base station software is up to date.  We removed and re-added the outdoor camera and it still didn't update.  The firmware is still 1.15.

20 Messages

+1

11 Messages

same here.

99 Messages

same here, and I did the remove+add back

5 Messages

1 year ago

I walked all the way up the sidewalk from the street and it didn't start recording until I picked up the packages and left.  If someone were stealing those packages it would have been useless. 

35 Messages

1 year ago

Yeah- I’m still stuck with old crappy firmware. Tried to force both and reset. Would be nice to move off of 1.15 and 1.17

99 Messages

1 year ago

I had the issue being one outdoor camera was .18 and the other was .15, i just checked and they are now both .15 ????

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@eamail2001​, @jk5598224, @dlpsr, and @jtjordan Thank you all for reporting this. Our engineers are investigating an issue that could've caused this. 

20 Messages

@dlpsr​ I still have issue, I just removed and re-added a camera and it 'updated' to 1.15.

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@dlpsr​ No, at this time I do not have an update on this.

20 Messages

1 year ago

I have been having problems with one camera upgrading to 1.16 so they sent me a replacement recently, and it went through a update yesterday. Previously ALL the other 2 cameras were at 1.16. Now ALL 4 cameras (including the one that never upgraded to 1.16) are at 1.15. I am having poor battery life, and really need them all at 1.18 which seems to have a fix. How can I get on the priority list.

(edited)

20 Messages

1 year ago

@davey_d @emily_s and to add to this a very frustrating call just now, with Support telling me we need to reset the camera's which are very high up, and that maybe they would upgrade back to 1.16 or perhaps 1.18 someday.

(edited)

20 Messages

1 year ago

Both of my cameras are still at Firmware version 1.15 - due to other issues (yet to be resolved) each camera has been 'closer to my WiFi access point' and removed/re-added to my system.........and they are both only at version 1.15!

From the list of fixes for 1.18, I am hopeful this newer firmware will help to resolve my issues.  I work in I.T. and I understand the necessity to roll out a new version slowly BUT I also find it ridicules that you do not offer a way for the user to initiate a firmware update.  Asking the user to 'move the camera closer to WiFi' is also ridicules when most cameras require a ladder to get to and then one needs to spend time repositioning the camera.

PLEASE provide a way for the user to initiate the firmware update!!!!!!

3 Messages

I second this! I also work in IT and one of the outdoor cameras has version 1.15, which drains the battery constantly WITHOUT motion, seeing that version 1.18 would hopefully resolve this issue. 

I've held back buying new equipment due to the inconsistency of SimpliSafe's overall support of the products now and in future growth. Please improve or face losing another customer! 

(edited)

11 Messages

1 year ago

After reviewing the comments, I find that my issue is not isolated. All three of my cameras, installed in late 2022, are on 1.15.6.391. Also, battery life has degraded to the point where I need to get out the ladder and charge the batteries (2 cameras, the third is hard-wired) about once a month. This is not acceptable. 

So what do I do? Or better yet, what does SimpliSafe need to do to get these cameras updated and fix the battery drain issue?

20 Messages

1 year ago

Anyone from SimpleSafe going to comment on this? 

You have customers who are making reasonable requests that would improve your product (not only for them but likely for many others).

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@saab90089Outdoor Camera firmware updates are slowly rolled out to all of our users cameras over time. Currently, there is no way to initiate a firmware update for the Outdoor Camera like you can with the Base Station; but if the camera is ready for the update, removing it and adding it back to your system should help kickstart the process. 

Firmware 1.18 is now making its way on our users' Outdoor Cameras. You should see this update on yours soon.

1K Messages

1 year ago

All mine are stuck on 1.15 as well and deleting and reinstall is not forcing any updates. So 2 updates have came through and we are still stuck on an old update? 

1K Messages

1 year ago

All mine are stuck on 1.15 as well and deleting and reinstall is not working. So there have been 2 updates and we are all still stuck on an old update?

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@lance843​ 1.18 is now slowly rolling back out to users. You should see this update soon.

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