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Camera
Monitor
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2021
2020
2019
Why does it say can't access image sensor and how do I fix that?
This error message sometime appears on older phones whose electronics is already a little bit "tired". When the electronics of the phone fails and the application loses access to the camera sensor, this error message appears. Unfortunately, only hard restart of the phone helps and I am afraid that the error message will reappear after some time.
You can try to make a factory reset of the camera phone, it sometimes helps (but be careful, all data on the phone will be lost!). If it doesn't help, you will have to find another phone as the camera.
The live video stops after few seconds. Please tell me what to do.
If the video stops after few seconds, there will be some problem in network connectivity. Please check internet connection on both the camera and monitor phone - I would recommend to restart both phones (camera and monitor) and also the WiFi router, just to be sure. I am almost sure this will help.
I would very much like to know where the pictures are saved because I can't find anything?
Normally you can find the images in the monitor phone - just run the application on your "monitor" phone and you can easily find images there.
If you are looking for the images in your "camera" phone, you can find them in location "Android/data/cz.scamera.securitycamera/files/Pictures".
I have got locked out of my old email. I would like to transfer account to new email please.
It is not quite easy to transfer one account to another one. Can you delete the old account and create a new one?
The price of the paid version is attractive but what does it add that's useful?
The paid version
* removes ads,
* prolongs the history of images from 15 to 30 days and
* prolongs the live video timeout from 10 to 30 minutes
Suddenly I only have panorama and no portrait format anymore. A manual switch would be useful.
If your camera phone is in portrait position and you get "panorama" image, then problem will be most probably in the rotation sensor of the camera. I have already seen several similar issues. You can try another application on the camera phone and try to rotate the phone. I would guess that other applications will not rotate properly neither.
Can this app work without WiFi?
This app works also without WiFi connection. When the camera doesn't have internet connection, it "remembers" all detections of motions and sends it to you as soon as it is connected to internet.
I changed my old device used as a camera from Lenovo to Huawei P Smart, and then the app does not work continuously except when I open and close it again in the mobile phone used as a camera, how could I make it work as before .
Please try to let the camera application to stay on the display - on your camera phone don't close the application by the Home or phone's power button. Let the application to stay on the display. The app will automatically dim the display to save power. It will help to keep the camera application running.
Why I do not have live view in cellular data mode?
I am afraid that in Poland, when you are on T-Mobile, the cellular connection is solely based on network protocol IPv6, which is currently not supported. I am very sorry. I will try to fix it in the very next update. (Normally, all networks run on network protocol IPv4, but in Poland and in one country in US, the cellular operator switched to IPv6 only). I will fix it soon.
I inadvertently installed 2 cameras. How can I change one camera to a monitor?
To change the mode, simply go to the main menu (three dashes in the top left corner) and choose "Logout". Then log in again and then you can choose any mode you want.
Can you please explain me what is a monitor and how to use it?
Using this app, you can use your old cell phone as a home security camera (this is the "Camera"). You can then watch what is going on in front of your camera using your regular phone. This phone is called the "Monitor".
To make this app working, just install the application Security Camera CZ on two phones. One phone (probably some older phone that you don't use) will be your camera. The second phone (probably your personal phone) will be your "monitor". After installing the application, use the same login account on both phones. And that is it, the application work just out of the box. You will be immediately informed when something moves in front of the camera, you can watch live feed etc. The app has many features and functions that you can use for free.
Can I watch my cameras from my PC?
You can try the web page https://securitycamera.cz. It is still beta version, but you can watch a live feed from a PC using this address. Please use Google Chrome browser.
How do I delete the images taken?
To delete one or more images, make a long press on the images you want to delete and them press the trash icon in the top right corner. You can mark more images. You can long press on a day title to mark all images of that day. When you make a double long press on an image, the whole bundle of images is marked.
I truly love this app it has been wonderful. However, after the Android 11 update it cannot access the image sensor at all. I have checked all permissions and have restarted also signed out and signed back in and it is still the same cannot access image sensor. Please let me know if it is something that I can do on my end or if this is something that you have to fix.
Android 11 comes with "elevated security rules", which unfortunately denies access to the camera sensor to apps that wasn't explicitly started by a user (human). For this reason, it is important on your camera to not close the running camera application. Simply let the app on the display of the camera phone. Do not close the app with the Home or phone's power button. The phone will shortly dim its display to save power. Using this method you can use the app on Android 11.
I have 2 cameras monitoring motion around my campsite. Everything worked perfectly but all of a sudden I can only control 1 of the cameras remotely. And it is not always the same camera. Cannot set it up remotely at all. I get motion notifications from both. Although one is not controllable from "viewer" phone. So nothing wrong with WiFi (would I think) BUT only one remains controllable from "viewer" phone. BUT if I switch the app on manually at the "camera" phone (the one not controllable) I get a brief moment (+- 1 min) that I can enter the settings, for that phone, before it disconnects and is no more controllable.
If I disconnect one of them completely (delete it from "viewer" phone), the other (does not matter which one) is controllable from the "viewer" phone. This tells me nothing wrong with "camera" phones or WiFi (would I think). So if I only have 1 camera phone all works well. If I add another (=2) only 1 is controllable from "viewer" phone.
The app must work well regardless if you have one or two (or more) cameras. In fact, most users have more than one camera and everything works for them well. And because the application is the same on all devices, logically there must be some issue. The most common issue (about 90% of all issues) is in internet connectivity.
The reason why the camera isn't controllable is that it doesn't response to network requests. If the camera doesn't respond to network requests within one minute, the system declares such a camera as "offline" (unreachable). There can be several reasons why the camera doesn't respond to network requests, but the most common is that there is network issue. Normally, restarting the WiFi router and the camera device helps.
It would be nice if you could remotely reboot a camera phone.
I agree, that would be nice and I would like it too. Unfortunately, no application can restart the phone or request a phone restart. This can be done only when the application has elevated rights - when the phone is so-called "rooted". But rooting a phone is a process which is not for normal users.
I like everything very much, if only the night mode was like that of camy. It works much more efficiently there.
Please note that Android phones doesn't have "night vision" like dedicated infrared cameras. Thus the night vision in the application is just a software simulation, which cannot be as good as real night vision cameras.
Another thing - some phones have pretty good optics and camera sensor, on the other hand other phones have poor sensor and optics. For this reason, some cameras play better in night condition while other cameras play worse.
If the quality of night vision is poor in your case, try to use another phone with better sensor as the camera, the quality will be probably a little better.
Can I turn off and on your system to use it only when I need?
Yes, you can turn the camera on/off from its settings (almost at the bottom there is an item "Turn on, off, delete...". Or you can simply swipe left/right the preview image of the camera and the camera will turn on/off.
The motion detection always switches off automatically after a while. I then turn it back on, but after a while it goes off again. Where can that be?
The reason for this behavior is probably the day limit of 3000 images per day. Please note that there is a day limit of 3000 images per day. When this limit is reached, the motion detection turns off (for this day). You should receive warning when the camera reached 2000 images that the camera is taking too many images.
You can read more about this limit here:
https://securitycamera.cz/faq.html
(see section Limits and quotas)
I have 3 cameras setup. I can see a still from the 3 of them but I would like to see the live video from all 3 at the same time. Can I do that? If so then how?
Unfortunately, viewing a live feed from more cameras at the same time isn't supported at this moment, I am sorry.
How can I turn off the camera? So that nothing can be seen or heard.
To turn off the camera (so it will not do anything), go to the camera settings (the "gear" icon) and almost at the bottom, there is an item "Turn on | off | delete...". Use this item to turn the camera off.
Or you can simply swipe the camera preview image left or right using your finger. Using this simple gesture, you can easily and quickly turn your camera on and off.
I accidentally deleted some of files today and there is no option on the menu to recover them, how can I recover them?
I am sorry for bad news, but what was deleted cannot be undeleted.
It used to be better when the night mode was in green. You could see it, but now it's black and white. Why?
Originally the night vision was green, but then I radically improved the night vision technology and during this process, I followed many requirements from users to put the night vision to gray tint. I also liked the green tint, but after switching to black and white I must agree that it is a much better than the green tint.
Ok, I will let you know. I have a suggestion for you. Please add a Video disable button in viewer mode so when users need only audio to listen it will help and also for low data consumption.
I will consider the button. Meanwhile you can turn off HD video quality (from the camera settings). When using a SD quality, the bandwidth is much lower.
EDIT 2022/04/07: This setting was added in version 2.7.0.
I downloaded this app and it worked fine for two days but now I am trying to connect to the camera it is not connecting.
Is your camera online? I.e. connected to internet? You can recognize this status by a red or green strip on the left side of the camera's panel. If the strip is red, the camera is currently unavailable for some reason - may be it has lost internet connection.
If the strip is green and you still cannot connect to your camera, then there is some problem in internet connection. I would recommend to restart both the camera phone and the WiFi router, just to be sure.
How can I get the pictures the camera took?
You can watch the pictures (that the camera took) on your monitor phone. Did you install the monitor phone?
You can also setup your camera to store images to your Google Drive if you want. Please let me know and I will try to help more.
How to access configuration?
You can access and change configuration of the camera only when the camera is online (i.e. when there is a small green strip on the left side of the main panel). Otherwise, when the camera is offline, most of the settings are grayed out.
To access the camera settings, press the "Gear" button on the main panel. And settings of the camera is accessible from the monitor phone, the settings cannot be changed on the camera itself.
How much per year? Can I use my own storage card to keep all videos? Is there a zoom, and playback feature?
Yes, you can use your own SD card to store motion detection and videos. Please note that this app records detected motion as a series of still images, not as short videos like all other similar apps.
Zoom and playback features are there.
You can find the actual price for your country when you go to the main menu (three dashes in the top left corner) and choose "Buy..." button.
I would like to know if there is any way to record video without a time limit or at least 8 hours.
I am afraid that this isn't easily possible with this my app. The problem isn't the 8 hours of recordings, but the fact that the app (even in the paid version) asks you each 30 minutes to confirm that you are still watching the video. This confirmation is due to security reasons and to spare bandwidth and data when no one is watching the video. So basically yes, you can record 8 hours of video, but you would have to press a confirmation button each 30 minutes, which probably isn't what you want.
How do you use the two way talk back function?
To use the talk back function, connect to your camera to watch live feed. During live feed press and HOLD the "mic" icon (situated at the bottom of the live feed screen).
How to use with two phones?
To use the application, you need to install it on two phones and (this is important) use the same login account on both of them. For instance, when you use login aaa@bbb.com at your monitor phone, use the same account aaa@bbb.com on your camera phone. If you do this, the devices become "paired" and you can immediately start to watch your camera.
Is it possible to use motion detection while in live mode? Otherwise I would have to manually stop live mode every time I leave the monitor.
When live feed is in progress, the camera cannot make photos at the same time, so motion detection is suspended during live feed.
Do I need to pay for the night vision or does it come with the app?
Night vision comes with the app for free. All functions in the app are for free. The payment is only useful if you want to dismiss ads.
Unfortunately, the application as a monitor does not display the image from the live camera when connected via LTE. What can you do about it? It's Orange in Poland. In similar app, everything works fine, so I think it's an app problem.
You are probably right. The application has problem with networks that are solely on network protocol IPv6 (I am sorry for technical speech). There are only several providers worldwide that went across from IPv4 to IPv6 and doesn't provide backward compatibility. One provider is in USA (T-Mobile); second provider is in Poland (Orange). I will solve this issue asap.
I want to know what to set to make motion detector work.
First ensure that your camera is plugged into a charger and the charger is working well (also the USB cable). It is very important. Then ensure that both your camera and monitor device is connected to internet. To do so, I would recommend to restart both your devices, camera and monitor, and also the WiFi router. After this procedure, the system should work well. If not, please let me know and we can continue to solve the problem.
I have checked and even reset the devices and it still does not accept the setting changes. To be more illustrative I explain; before it put detect movement and when clicking on back the settings logo rotated and the settings were activated, for 2 weeks that has not happened.
If the settings icon (the gear) rotates for a longer time, it means that the command didn't reach the camera for some reason. If it is possible, please would you restart the camera phone? If it doesn't help, try to uninstall the app from the camera phone and install it again. There must be some reason why the command (to change settings) doesn't reach the camera...
How to detect two cameras at once?
If you have more than one camera, that is quite ok. Using this application, you can have as many cameras as you want. There is currently only one restriction, that you can watch the live feed from only one camera at a time. All other functions, like motion detection, runs on all cameras and you should receive all notifications from all your cameras.
Ads are horrible. Can you exclude some type of ads?
I use ads that are provided by the Google company. They are guaranteed to be fair and without any bad content. If you see any bad ad, please would you send me a screenshot of such an ad? I will try to complain about this ad at Google ads provider.
The night vision is not working.
I am almost sure that the night vision works well. If it doesn't for you, please check if you don't have any light object in the camera view. There must not be any light object that is larger than 10% of the view (some street lamp etc.).
The application as a monitor does not display the image from the live camera when connected via LTE. What can you do about it?
Please can I ask you in which country do you live and what is your cell (mobile) phone operator? Normally the live feed should work on any network, including LTE, but I've already noticed a similar issue that sometimes appears on T-Mobile operator in US.
Is there any way to get volume for the app?
This app, contrary to all other similar apps on the Google Play store, records detected movements as a series of still images in high resolution, not as a short video as all other apps. So the sound isn't there, I am sorry. But if you need to record disruptions as videos, you can use any other app, there are plenty of them on Google Play.
Does this app support CCTV IP cameras?
This application doesn't work as common CCTV IP cameras. This app can make a remote home security camera from old Android phone. So if you have CCTV cameras, they are unfortunately not compatible with this app.
Can the camera be connected to a Samsung smart TV?
Thank you for your email. This is not possible at the moment, but I am currently working on making it possible.