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I turn on the movement detection it works for few seconds and then it turns off by itself.
The movement detection turns off automatically if the camera fires more than 3000 alarms per day (which is some kind of handbrake against misuse). You should get a warning at 2000 alarms that the motion detection isn't set up properly. I would recommend to lower the sensitivity of the movement detection or exclude some disturbing areas from detection.
Can we flip camera mode from monitor to camera?
Yes of course. Just go to the main menu (three dashes in the top left corner) and choose Logout. You will be taken to the welcome screen, where you can login again and choose a CAMERA mode.
Everything worked and then stopped working. What is the reason?
Do you have your camera phone plugged in (to electricity)? Also on old and used phones (that act as a camera) it sometimes happens that the Android system decides to kill the Security Camera application, due to lack of resources. In this case it helps when the old phone is taken into the factory defaults and also when you turn off automatic updates. Then the phone will be like a new one and will act well.
My camera generates excessive amounts of alerts because exactly every second picture is out of focus. Is/could there be an option to set a fixed focus instead of auto focus?
I thought that I have already heard all possible problems and situations, but not yet - the yours is really a new one :-) Unfortunately not, the app doesn't have an option to fix focus, it hasn't been needed yet. Did you try some workaround, for instance putting something to the side view of the camera to "offer" something to focus on?
Is there a way to upload captures directly to Dropbox or OneDrive? Or make app to store pictures to a gallery?
You can set camera to store images to Google Drive: go to camera settings, and look for "Full resolution image storage". No other options at this moment.
I am using your app for a long time. It is very good. I wonder why we can’t change battery temperature to be shown in Celsius?
The temperature value is shown based on the language settings of your phone. These countries use Fahrenheit: USA, Bahamas, Belize, Cayman Islands, Palau, Puerto Rico, Guam, US Virgin Islands.
The temperature is shown in Celsius for all other countries.
The configuration part does not appear; it is grayed out.
If you don't see the configuration part, it is because the camera has stopped and is offline (it has a red strip on the left side of the main bar to indicate this). This usually happens (that the camera stops) on old phones full of old applications, so there isn't enough room for the Security Camera application to run. Try to put the camera phone to factory default, which cleans all the old stuff and the phone will be like new. Then the app will work.
I have a problem with the application, before it gave me the HD quality but now the quality is at the minimum it gives me 352 x 198. I already tried it with another Wi-Fi connection and it is the same it does not improve the quality. Could you help me?
The video quality sometimes fluently degrades if there isn't enough light on the camera side. But it should start at HD and then fluently degrades. Or do you get the low quality from the beginning?
I accidentally deleted my camera from my nanny cam. I need it back!
I am afraid that if you've deleted the cam, it is gone. I don't have tools for accessing the cams or revive them, I am very sorry.
In the "settings" menu, only the "HD video" function works. All other functions and settings, when I change them, do not hold and revert to the origin.
In that case it means, that the command (to change settings of the camera) doesn't reach the camera, so it cannot be saved. It can also be because of some mess in the camera profile. Is it possible to reinstall the app on the camera? And start from the scratch? It will definitely help to solve all your problems.
My emails are different; I need to make them equal.
If you need to make your emails equal, I recommend to logout from all your devices (go to main menu - three dashes in the top left corner - and choose logout). You will be taken back to the "splash" screen, where you can login again using new email. Please use the SAME LOGIN email on all your devices!
I can no turn on or activate the camera on my phones.
If the camera cannot be turned on remotely, the application on the camera is probably down. This usually happens on old phones that are full of other applications running on background, so that the phone decides to turn off some of them (the security camera for instance). I would recommend, in this situation, to put the camera phone to "factory default" and install the application again. You can also just restart the camera phone, but I am afraid that the problem can appear again.
No detection option works.
Please first check if the motion detection is turned on: there must be a (square) yellow icon in the top left corner of the camera preview indicating that motion detection is on. If you don't see this icon, the detection is off for some reason (for instance, you have activated the nearby function or scheduler).
If you see the yellow icon and you do not receive new images of detected motion, there must be some network connectivity issue of the camera or monitor.
Can I connect to 5 webcams?
You can have even more than 5 cameras. Please note that this application works only on Android devices, so you need to create your cameras from some old Android phones (or tablets).
How do I add another screen and make two or more phones the camera and watch them all from one screen?
The app cannot show live video for more than one camera at a time... I am sorry. You can watch only one camera at a time.
I really have an old smartphone as a camera, but I thought that it would cope with the camera task. So you just need to change your smartphone to a more modern one?
You can use old device as a camera, but old devices are often full of other old applications. I would recommend to make a "factory reset" on this phone, so the phone becomes clean, as it was new.
I have difficulties to get in to the connection with the camera each time even with my own Wi-Fi and also notifications are not received immediately.
These two problems are related. If you have problems receiving notifications immediately, then there will be also problem with video connection. Do you have a problem receiving notification on other applications (like WhatsApp etc.?) If not, then there will be a problem on the camera side - please would you check the connection on the camera side?
I have been using your app for a few weeks. I recently decided to add a few extra cameras to the mix. They were brand new out of the box with no programs to corrupt them. As soon as I added one camera I started to notice that communication kept being dropped between one or the other camera. Two days ago I added a third camera. It constantly is dropped off. I have plenty of bandwidth on my Wi-Fi and no interruptions. Most of the time I cannot even connect to the third camera so I just turned it off completely. I really like using this app but at this rate I can only successfully use one camera. Any ideas on how to rectify this issue?
The issue is really weird. In theory, there isn't any relation between cameras, so one camera shouldn't impact on the others... The only idea I have: if your cameras produce many motion detection (i.e. each camera each two seconds), the monitor device could be overwhelmed and its behavior could become strange.
But if this is not the case, at this moment I have no idea. There are many users that uses many cameras without any problem... Please let me know if you figure out something. I am sorry I cannot give you a better advice at this moment.
I have a question regarding recorded data. I can see that in motion detector mode there is image data recorded and stored on the cloud (my settings). But when the cam is not set to motion, is there any image data stored? And when I monitor the cam and press the round, red record button, roll it for a minute or so and then stop I am not seeing image data stored anywhere. How does this video feature work?
When the camera is not set to motion, there are no data stored in a cloud or even in the camera phone.
When you record a video in a live view, the recording is stored to you default Video (or Movie) folder on your monitor device. You can watch these recordings using any Video player. Please note that prior to version 1.8.4 (so on versions 1.8.3 and older), there was an issue storing video on newest Android 10 devices, so please, if you are on Android 10, check if you have updated the app to the latest version 1.8.4.
I am using this app for security camera for entrance door. Am I suggested to include some lock pin or security password in the camera part of the app?
I recommend to lock the camera with a PIN or gesture, so a potential intruder cannot turn off the camera. The camera should be locked from the system settings of the phone (look for "Display lock" in the system settings). The camera detects and shows information about a lack of the screen lock on the main screen, so please, follow all recommendations that the display shows.
It will be great if you add date and time to pictures
I will do it as you suggest, I already have it on my "must to do list".
Why does it take several hours to get an actually cam picture of additional cams?
There shouldn't be any delay for additional cams. All cameras you have should send pictures immediately. When a camera takes a picture, it sends it to your account immediately, if it has an internet connection. If it doesn't, it sends the picture as soon as the internet connection is back. So I guess there must be some networking issue. How many "additional" cameras have this problem? Please would you check if these cameras are connected to internet (Wi-Fi or so)?
Hello, I can't figure out why all the pictures are too dark. The camera itself gives me bright pictures with the same lighting.
The app takes pictures in "default" auto exposure mode, so it is strange you got dark pictures, but of course I believe you. There will be some device specific issue, because other users don't have this problem.
Is it possible that the dark picture is due to the strong backlight? Please would you try to change position of the camera so that the light is not in the view of the camera?
How can I add the second camera?
If you need to add a second camera, it is very easy. Just install the application on another phone, login using the same account as on your monitor device and choose CAMERA mode. That is all. You can add as many cameras as you want. If I didn't hit the question, please let me know.
I'm having a hard time getting the live video to work. When I first downloaded the app it worked.
Does the problematic camera have a good Wi-Fi signal? Also, some old phones, which are full of old applications may have not enough power/memory to broadcast a video. In that case it helps to make a factory reset on such a phone. Please try the steps above and let me know if it doesn't help.
On one of my cameras, I cannot view it live. I only get the motion detections. I can preview it on the tablet. But cannot monitor it through my phone.
I suppose that all your cameras are on the same Wi-Fi? Does the problematic camera have a good Wi-Fi signal? Also, some old phones, which are full of old applications may have not enough power/memory to broadcast a video. In that case it helps to make a factory reset on such a phone. Please try the steps above and let me know if it doesn't help.
How to have videos detecting instead of images?
This app, contrary to all other similar apps on the market, records detected motion as a series of still images, not as a video. When I was creating the app, I preferred this approach - at least because ALL other apps record videos. So now, at least, we can choose between images (my app) and videos (all other apps like Alfred, WardenCam etc.).
I want to know how I can get a better picture of the video. I can see some images but I want to see them better.
Do you mean that you want to get a better video quality? The video quality very depends on internet connection of both devices. If both devices have good internet connection (and light conditions are also good), the video runs up to 20FPS at HD quality.
How can I recover the photos deleted by mistake today?
I am afraid that images that were deleted cannot be recovered. I am sorry.
Why is night vision not working?
The night vision is of course only simulation of real night vision. The application makes some image processing to highlight the picture as much as possible. Please note that there must be at least a little bit of light in the scene to create a night picture; when the scene is totally dark, the night vision cannot be computed.
Just trying out your app and I have been getting this error message on two of my old Galaxy S5 phones. I have a good Wi-Fi signal & fast internet connection (60 Mbps). A reboot of the S5 will correct it but it will happen again in a few hours. Any suggestions?
This error occurs on some older devices, which simply give up the hard work. The application takes pictures one by one each 2 seconds and this is sometimes too much for some old and used phones - the camera sensor jams. I am afraid that there isn't much that can be done with this problem. The only really reliable solution is to replace the camera phone for another one.
Hello I'm having some difficulty switching one of my thumbs from camera to monitor. I accidentally put them both as camera. How can I fix this?
To switch between modes please go to the main menu of the app and choose "Sign out…". You will be taken back to the initial screen, from where you can login again and choose whatever mode you need.
Good morning, just recently installed an are using your app. My question is I have motion detection set and the detection area set, yet I receive NO alerts/images. I purposely walked and disturbed the detection area and still nothing. Am I doing something wrong or wrong settings? Really like the app and plan on purchasing ad free, just need to tweak this a bit.
I've checked the profile of your camera and here are some tips: you have most of the image "masked" so the motion detection runs on a very small portion of the view. Please go to camera settings, look for an option "Detection area" and revise the masked areas - "masked" areas are excluded from motion detection.
Also the camera runs on pretty high resolution of 12MPx. Processing of so many pixels is a little bit demanding on the device's memory. This shouldn't be a problem on new and modern devices (like the yours one) but as a second step I would try to lower the resolution to basic 2-4MPx - just to be sure the camera doesn't freeze on image processing.
Can I connect another phone as a camera?
You can have as many cameras as you want. Please remember to use the same login account on all devices that you want to be interconnected - all devices where you use the same login account will see each other.
I don't know if they spy on me
Spying on you using this application is impossible. As I write in FAQ:
Security and privacy of users' data is one of the highest priority in the app's concept. Current world is highly technical and security solutions are complicated. For this reason, we decided not to solve security by ourselves and instead to rely on ready-made security solution of Google, which we believe is the world's leader in commercial security and engages the best brains in the world. So your data are secured similarly to your data in Gmail account or any other product from Google. Furthermore:
All data and information you send over Internet (or are sent by the app) are encrypted by current standard https crypto protocol.
Images from your motion detections are securely stored and encrypted in Google cloud (btw. only low resolution images about 0,3 MPx are stored).
Access to these images is protected by standard Google security system, i.e. the same like for an access to Gmail or Gcloud.
Nevertheless, do not forget to physically protect your camera device itself, because all data are stored in the camera as well. It is important to set up screen lock, pin code or gesture. When someone even physically steal the camera from you, your data/images will be safe.
It would be great to be able to share the camera with audio disabled or to disable audio for a specific camera altogether. Is this possible? I have got a terrarium in my bathroom that I want to share a view of but I am not keen that people can listen to me talking or making other noises there.
Sharing only video (and no audio) is not possible at this moment. I will think about adding such a feature. Meanwhile, you can put something (like a cotton) over the mic of the camera to avoid sound recording. Sorry for such a silly answer, no better idea at this moment.
I don't understand how to use it.
It is very easy. All you need is to install the app on TWO android devices. One device will be your CAMERA and second device your MONITOR. When you install the app, use the same login account on BOTH devices (for instance the same Gmail account). As soon as you use the same account, you will see on your monitor what is going on in front of your camera, you can detect motion, watch live, talk back to your camera and much more.
I have some problems with the orientation of the camera: my cameras in portrait mode and what I see when I press record on the monitor is portrait as well. However, what is being recorded is landscape mode, which is somewhat surprising to me. Is there a chance to fix this?
Unfortunately, not, the app was designed as "landscape" mode only. The reason is that I didn't figured any nice way how to display tall "portrait" images on monitor device.
How can I switch the phone between camera and monitor modes?
You can switch between camera and monitor if you go to main menu and choose "Sign out…". Then you can choose again whatever mode you want.
How can I delete all images of a month?
I am afraid that only one day can be deleted at once. I am sorry.
Everything looks good and works fine but it doesn't let me connect to the camera, in the house or outside
Did you try to wait a little bit longer for the yellow progress bar to finish? Sometimes it can take up to 30 seconds until the devices interconnects.
Also it is important that the camera device is connected to a power supply. And that internet connection is at least "good".