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Camera
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2021
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Is it important to have the cell phone plugged into power?
It is very recommended to have the camera smartphone plugged into a power supply. Without being plugged in, the camera will still work, but due to power saving mode, it can be unreachable time by time.
I've had your system in place for quite some time now and still love it. I can't seem to locate any information on the items displayed in the camera Fields themselves on the monitor. For instance, on the upper left hand side I see you but looks like to be a yellow timer but I don't know what it means to where it came from and it's only on one of my cameras. Is there an area I can look at to see the explanations for all the displays?
I have to apologize that there isn't any guide for this, this is my big debt, I have to add it.
So the icons in the top left corner means:
Timer: the scheduler function is turned on and the scheduler is currently active (meaning that motion detection is suspended due to the scheduler).
House: the "Nearby" function is turned on and it is active (meaning that motion detection is suspended, because someone - probably you - is currently nearby the camera).
Camera - someone is connected to the camera to watch the live feed. If you don't share the camera and you don't have more monitor phones, you logically shouldn't see this icon.
Burst images - motion detection is turned on and running.
No icon - motion detection is turned off.
When I try to access the video, the camera doesn't connect.
If the live feed connection isn't reliable or doesn't work at all, please first try to restart both the camera and monitor phones. Be sure you restart both devices, not only camera, the problem can be in the monitor phone as well. Also restart your WiFi router. If the connection still doesn't work after restarts, please let me know.
How to add one more cell phone to use as a camera?
Adding another camera is very easy - just install the same application on another smartphone, run it and log in using the same account as on your "monitor" phone. That is all.
Is it possible to also have the data logs of the camera device deposited into an accessible file available from a standard file system access? For example, the logs are in the app software is my unqualified opinion. Having them available in the file system for access in automation of retrieval for an inexperienced user such as myself would be great. Please do consider such a redundancy of logs in addition to your current great work started on logging evidence value for security processing.
At this moment, logs can be downloaded to the file system, but only on user's request - when you mark a log(s), you should see a download button, which stores the log to your "Downloaded" folder. But you probably mean some system, that would get logs from a camera automatically, right? Originally I tried to avoid it, because most people don’t need/use logs and I try to avoid sending any unnecessary data. But let me know.
On the main screen of the monitor I see a number 688 in yellow field. When I click on it to view it, the main screen disappears and screen with pictures opens. But I return back on the main screen, the number 688 isn't there anymore.
The number 688 means the count of images that were added since the last time you were in the "alarms" screen. If you weren’t in the "alarms" screen for two days, then the number is the sum of images for that two days. When you click the icon to see the alarms, only the most current day is automatically shown (in your case there were 2 alarms). But if you go to the previous day (just scroll a little bit down), you will find the rest of 686 images/alarms.
I am using Security Camera CZ latest version 2.4.2. It's a problem when I want to unlock the screen after a while, the screen is black. Then I press any button and nothing.
First of all, I would recommend to let the camera application run on the phone display - do not close the app. After a minute, the app will start a screensaver to save power. The screensaver is visible on the screen so you don't have to wake up the phone using the power button.
If you still face an issue regarding waking up the phone from sleep mode, did you try to restart the camera phone? Are not there too many other applications installed that consumes a power of the phone?
Hello, I have a question, why does my camera keep turning off automatically, the battery is full and is being charged permanently, when I want to turn it on again, it doesn't work, it takes forever. It would be great if you could give me a tip.
There are two possibilities:
1/ Your camera doesn't turn off (it still works) but it looks on your monitor device like offline. In this case, there is problem in receiving updates (responses) from your camera on your monitor. In this case I would recommend to try to close the application on your monitor phone and also remove it from applications running on background. Then start the application again. It should start receive updates and show your camera as online.
2/ Your camera really turns itself off. This normally shouldn't happen because in the app, there are several "handbrakes" that should avoid turning the application itself off. So first of all, I would recommend to restart the camera phone. If it doesn't help, consider making a factory reset of the camera phone. Attention - after factory reset, all data will be lost. But after that, the phone should be like a new and the application shouldn't turn itself off.
After installing the app from Huawei App gallery on my Huawei y8p, the app tells me that Google Services are not active. But if I use the Google Services app, it only opens once and then the room no longer opens. There is a line that indicates the app is loading, but the camera does not open.
Regarding this official response from Huawei Google Play services aren't supported on y8p (and many more Huawei models):
https://consumer.huawei.com/en/community/details/Google-Play-Services-for-Y8p/topicId_135280/
Explanation from Google is here:
https://support.google.com/android/thread/29434011?hl=en
Unfortunately, without Google Play services the Security Camera CZ cannot work.
I have a camera at home that works with your system and my spouse erases the images that were recorded. I would like to know how to access the cloud for my account to be able to recover them.
Can I ask you how was the camera erased? Because it is not quite easy to clean the images from the camera phone if you have access only to the camera phone. By the way, all images that are properly stored in the cloud should be visible from your "monitor" phone, so if there is anything in the cloud, you should see it on your monitor phone.
When I logout and then login, I see ads. Then I have to clear the cache to remove the ads.
Yes, that is it - after logout, login, the application needs to check your account over network to see if it has paid version. This network check can take couple of seconds. Closing and opening the app again should also help.
Have you considered adding the ability to reboot the phone from the monitor phone? Or maybe the camera phone itself will reboot when the camera sensor cannot be accessed? I understand the issue will happen but if we can't stop the issue, at least there will be a solution to keep the monitoring going. Because right now, when it loses access to the camera sensor there is no notification of any issue until you try to view live cam or keep the app open so it refreshes the thumbnail image.
Unfortunately, no application can reboot Android phone, because reboot request is denied by the Android system. Only so called "rooted" devices can be rebooted by an application, but "rooting" a phone is some kind of "hacking" process.
Can the application run in the background?
On Android 10 and lower it can run in the background without any problems.
On Android 11 and newer the app can run in the background, but the camera application mustn't be turned off remotely. When the camera is remotely turned off and then back on, the application loses access to the camera image sensor. This is caused by new Android security rules. So I recommend not to put the app on background at all on Android 11.
I would kindly like to know why the phone used as a camera sometimes goes offline and cannot be activated remotely. Too bad because overall the app is really very well done.
Please let me start with short description: the "monitor" phone asks the camera periodically each 15 seconds for a reply. If the camera doesn't respond within one minute, the camera is declared as "offline". Also when the camera responds, but the respond doesn't reach the monitor phone, the monitor declares the camera as "offline".
So there can be more reasons why the camera falls to "offline" state. It can be because there isn't internet connection on the camera side (or the connection isn't stable and drops time by time). Or there isn't stable internet connection on the monitor phone (or the connection isn't stable).
I would recommend to restart both phones and also restart the WiFi router to see if it helps.
How does this application work?
Using this app, you can utilize your old and unused smartphone as a home security camera. Just install this app on your old smartphone and set it as a CAMERA. Then you can watch this camera on your regular phone by installing the same application on your regular (personal) phone, which you set as a MONITOR.
You will receive notifications about disruptions, you can watch live feed from your camera and much more. There are much more optional functions, everything is free.
What does it mean when I am going through the pictures and one comes up with black background and a picture of a camera on it?
This means that the picture is loading from Internet. Just wait a while and you will be provided with the picture (as soon as the image is downloaded).
Pleases for how long will this app last when recording?
If you mean recording of detected movements, the recordings will run "forever". Please note the limit of 3000 motion detection per day, after which the motion detection will stop (for this day).
If you mean recording of the live feed, then it will also run as long as the video is visible on the display. Please note that when watching the live feed, the app asks you to confirm that you are still watching. If you confirm, the live feed continues to run (and the recording as well).
From my cell phone I cannot connect to the camera. Why is that, if we have good Internet? And everything was fine just until now.
Do you have this problem regularly or only sometimes? Sometimes it can happen that the connection fails, but it shouldn't be often. If it is often, I would recommend to restart both your camera and monitor phones and if you can, also the WiFi router, just to be sure.
A camera should allow you to watch the live stream without a time limit.
The time limit is there just as a protection against leaving the running video unattended. So when the time limit is reached, you can always prolong the live feed by clicking on the "prolong" button. That is not ok for you?
May I ask why there is a restriction for nigh-mode pictures that they do not have a high resolution version? Are they low-res by default anyway? I am mostly concerned about thieves and these operates mostly at night/dawn/dusk and would be good to be able to have high-res as well. I have tested it with my old 8MPix phone and the quality is, well, unusable at all. Yes, this is also a matter of better camera but still low-res vs. high-res should do a difference.
In night mode, the quality of image is pretty low, so it doesn't make much sense to have also high resolution version of the image. As you said, when you look at a picture taken in night mode, there is lot of noise and the quality isn't good at all. This is because the app amplifies the rest of the light from the sensor; when there is dark, the signal from the sensor is very poor and after amplification, the quality isn't good. But there is a big difference between phones. Some of them (mostly more expensive) are much better (behaves better in low light conditions) then others (cheaper).
How can I hear the sound of what I have recorded?
As noted in the Google Play store, this application records detected motion as a series of still images in high resolution, not as a video as all other similar applications do. So there isn't the sound in the pictures, I am sorry.
Hi, I have and have had the Security Camera CZ app for about a year now. But suddenly the camera does not record the images taken via motion detection if it was captured on the current day. I have restarted both devices, and uninstalled and reinstalled the app. What could be the cause of this issue, and do you have any suggestions to fix it?
I have checked your profile and it seems that your camera is offline since yesterday. You can recognize the status of the camera by a red or green strip on the left side of the camera's main panel. If the strip is red, then the camera is offline. There can be several reasons why the camera is offline, for instance the camera lost internet connection. I would recommend to restart the camera if possible and also restart the WiFi router, just to be sure.
Hello, I have purchased the yearly subscription, but for some reason I keep getting a message saying can't access camera sensor. Is there a fix for this problem? Or is it a settings issue?
The error "Cannot access image sensor" 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.
How do I switch my device from camera to monitor?
To switch between modes, please go to the main menu (three dashes in the top left corner) and choose Logout. Then log in again and choose another mode.
I have a problem with your app, I can't play the videos I've been recording. Could you help me with that problem in advance?
The videos that you record during live feed are saved in MP4 format. This should be playable using any media player. But if it isn't, please try some another video player.