Recording a bunch of nothing

[Hemar]

Have a bunch of video clips of nothing, by the time whatever triggered the camera to the time starts recording, the event already happened so I get the 30 seconds of absolutely nothing. Any ideas on how to fix this.

Thanks. 

[ksss11]

We've been complaining about this for almost a year now. They don't do anything but say clean your lens, check your settings, try to test this and that, move it up or down, all to no avail. That's why we have to put 3 cams on ONE location just to hopefully see the car that went by or the person walking, etc.

Looks like we are out of luck. Though I did see somewhere that subscribers have no problems with this, so might be a punishment for those of us who have free 7-day rolling storage to get us to subscribe.

[jguerdat]

It's not a subscription issue - free plan users should have exactly the same utility. 

The problem is that we can't do much remotely to try to help troubleshoot. The exact positioning of the cameras and sensitivity settings, as well as your environment (trees, bushes, birds, bugs, animals, etc.) all make it difficult to do anything other than to suggest generic solutions. Since the PIR sensors react to the sun's IR, whether directly or reflected, eliminating the possible sources from the camera's view can help. Fast-moving objects like birds and insects can trigger a recording but, due to the lag inherent in the cloud connection, can move out of sight and/or get so small as to not be easily visible. I get some false triggers, too, even at night but they're likely caused by an animal's tail flicking past the camera. I can tell some by watching the first second or two repeatedly but others are unknown.

It's a matter of trial and error in settings and positioning to minimize these issues. You probably can't eliminate all of them outdoors but you should be able to cut them back. A user forum can't help with that.

[Eltipo]

What I have noticed is that the cameras suck at recording movement going towards them and away from them. I have one the foyer of my house looking to the door to record people coming in and going out and another on the outside on top of the door looking out as to catch anybody coming to the door to either ring the bell or to break in and neither camera record me as I walk out or in on those cameras but my two pugs walking in front of the door side to side are always caught. So, movement side to side is recorded but to and away don't, weird.

[jguerdat]

That's the nature of PIR sensors which are also used in other motion-detection devices such as outdoor lights. Google for info about them and why they work best with side-to-side detection.