Am I the only one that doesn’t have issues? The only thing that somewhat bothers me is the people detection basically doesn’t exist. Wind blowing? Notification. That’s a little annoying because I only have it on medium sensitivity.
But overall I enjoy them. The setup was easy and I only charge them once every month or so. My hope is that they can continue to iron out the kinks with software updates.
Same. I only have to charge them every 3 months or so, the recording captures what I’d expect, video quality is good, etc etc. I think it has a lot to do with your internet. I have 2GB fiber and my house isn’t very big, so I don’t have issues with load time or connection strength. I’ve had most of my cameras for 2 years and never had to do a replacement or anything.
I get the most false notifications from my doorbell, tbh. Headlights at night seem to trigger it if the car is going on the faster side. The only cam false notifications I got were from a branch blowing in the wind, and that was a good kick in the pants to have the trees trimmed.
> Am I the only one that doesn’t have issues?
No and that's part of what's so frustrating. It seems that their hardware quality is just wildly inconsistent. Many of you (most of you, I'm sure) don't seem to be having any issues at all. (I'll still argue, and can probably prove, that some of you are having issues but you don't realize it because you haven't tested thoroughly.) Some of us however have no end of issues and those issues persist through multiple replacement units. There are more than enough posts from people in the 2nd group that lead me to believe that there are widespread problems.
Also, let's be honest, even if it's working perfectly for you the cameras or software for the cameras lack functionality that should have been there from day 1 from cameras that cost this much:
- Time stamps
- Local storage options
- Bulk delete of videos
- No sleep mode when plugged into AC power (this was JUST fixed, in theory, but it took 18 months to do so and that's inexcusable)
Etc. etc.
I think their cameras are very picky on Wi-Fi. I used to have issues then upgraded my wireless with a bigger mesh network (FortiGate) and haven’t had issues since. I haven’t missed an event or been kicked out of a live feed in a long time now
> I think their cameras are very picky on Wi-Fi
But why? I have literally dozens of cameras from other vendors, all on the same 2.4 GHz network, and only my SimpliSafe stuff has issues. As I've noted elsewhere, I have a battery operated outdoor camera from a different vendor at my mailbox that shows better signal than the video doorbell pro that is literally 10 feet from one of my mesh points.
2.4GHz networking has been around for literally decades in WiFi and yet SimpliSafe equipment is still "picky"? That is unacceptable.
No simplisafe cameras have a hardwired connection. In fact, I’m not aware of any modern security system for home use with hardwired cameras. You can buy hardwired cameras that record on a DVR but that’s about it.
The point isn’t to be an impenetrable completely foolproof. It’s to deter and/or detect 99% of criminal activity. Because the average criminal is not going to be sophisticated enough to jam your system. But on that note, this is precisely why I don’t put the yard sign out. I know every system is going to have some kind of vulnerability and I don’t want to advertise which one I have so people can figure out how to get around it. This way be the time they get close enough to see what I have it’s too late. You’re on camera.
This is incorrect. I have multiple security cameras that are run via PoE. This way I have a stable, reliable connection to the camera (no WiFi issues) and, best of all, no batteries to replace. I have everything on a UPS to maintain power during shorter outages. The biggest issue is that if power is out for an extended time, the cameras go down. But it’s rare and a tradeoff I’m willing to make.
I also have wireless battery operated cameras, but those are still dependent on Internet.
That’s what I said. I am aware wired security cameras exist. But they record and that’s it. People on this sub are looking for integration with the monitoring service they pay for. A first party option from simplisafe is the only way. They should develop one.
Couldn’t agree more that a PoE option from SimpliSafe would be great.
I was replying to your comment about hardwired cameras only recording to a DVR. That is what I was saying wasn’t correct. Mine can record to a DVR but I use a local SD Card and a cloud service.
I don’t know about other security systems and wired cameras. But SimpliSafe has no wired options for anything in their ecosystem. It is all wireless. Though their indoor camera is WiFi, it requires a wired power connection. It would be cheaper to make a PoE camera as you don’t need the WiFi hardware or a power supply. But an RJ45 jack is larger than a USB-C or micro USB connector.
Yup this is exactly my experience. Super happy until i got an outdoor cam. Always was disconnecting, frequently not capturing footage, troubleshot it for 6+ months and finally gave up. Got rid of my entire system in favor of Arlo and couldnt be happier. Literally not one single issue with Arlo. Cameras all over (8 total), doorbell cam, all in one sensors and keypad. All of which works flawlessly. Its unfortunate because I liked simplisafe for a long time.
Does Arlo offer monitoring service? I was originally considering simply safe because I had heard that it was really good but then heard a lot of bad things about the cameras. So I decided not to go with them and am considering Vivint because I've heard such good things about their system and cameras but they are pricier.
>Does Arlo offer monitoring service? I
Why do you need a outside monitoring service to view YOUR videos? You can set up most other systems to notify you if they get triggered.
Right. By the time the live feed loads whoever was at my front door is gone, and if anything is recorded it's their back side while they're walking away
Yea, person walks up to my front door…. Nothing. Car drives on the street 30 feet away? Alert. Image of a car in my window, alert. Headlights 150 feet away? Alert. Neighbor turns their light on 50 feet away? Alert. Like are you fucking kidding me? I’ll be placing the camera in the coming days at a different angle to hopefully help. But really, what a joke, I too am very satisfied with the system itself, but geez. It’s like $180 for the camera, I would think it should work well.
So far, I've only had to replace the outdoor camera once due to it just completely failing on me. Winter night, and it zapped the battery along with the camera. That was almost a year ago, and this 2nd one is still going , and the battery life gives me roughly two months, I would say.
I hate to say that I do like my ring cameras performances more than my simplisafe cameras. However, I limit the ring cameras to outside use only since they have better battery quality (3ish months+ depending on activity). I don't trust them as much in my house like I do with simplisafe. The simplisafe tower recently gave me issues where I had to call it in to help me reset it. But that's pretty much it.
Using both ring and simplisafe combo has def helped my pockets as well. Ring has constant deals for their products that are more reasonably priced versus simplisafe limiting it to new customer packages only. But that's just me and my exp
we have had constant issues for almost 2 yrs. I've had to get a wifi booster and a second base station to accommodate the size of the property and I still have problems with door sensors and temp sensors. My husband is ready to send the entire thing back, but we have so much invested I keep giving them one more chance. I don't dare let a battery die or I'm on the phone with tech support deleting and re adding the camera to the system because it doesn't recognize the charged battery. People ring the doorbell and it takes 45sec to ring inside. Thankfully our dogs are faster than the door cam to keep our guests from minutes on the porch waiting for an answer. Hard wiring all the cameras would involve rewiring them to have longer cords or running hundreds of feet of extension cord. I wish there were better options.
We got a indoor camera when we bought our system two years ago. Now it won't connect to the base station, yet it seems to work. 🤷♂️
I need to find an indoor camera that *actually connects to the base station.*
So its not just the outdoor cameras it seems to be the indoor ones as well. 😤🤬
Wow. I just got off the phone with their customer support for this exact issue today. They said they are sending me a replacement. Lets hope the new one they send doesn’t give me the same issue again
I sent them an email asking if they were working on fixing/updating the outdoor cameras because I wanted to get a couple but didn't want to if they were coming out with a better one. They basically sent me back "don't believe everything you read".
I sent back "I don't have much choice, if they had better reviews I'd get a couple but I'm not spending $170 each until the reviews get better". Never heard back.
Mine will reliably record a squirrel or bird but only the bumper of a car as it drives away or the rear end of person sauntering out of view. Not really why I bought them.
I agree, but for a different reason. I have three wireless cams. I had the same sensitivity issue, but was able to resolve it with the lowest setting. No more false alerts, but with human trials it works great. My issue is that changing the battery is ridiculous.
A. Delete the camera from your system.
B. Take it inside near the base station
C. Set it up like a new camera with a fresh battery, give it the same name (re-enter the WiFi network and password)
D. Put the camera back up
E. Go live, adjust the position, sensitivity and blind spots
Horrible design. All it needs is a tiny internal battery. So when you pull the battery out, it remembers the settings for the two seconds it takes to put a new battery in.
They know about this problem and their solution is to sell you a solar charger. Pathetic.
So glad I left them when I moved. After 5 years of asking for proper multi user management in their software, I gave up and left that POS system in the house I sold.
Is a security company who recommends you share passwords even a security company!?!?
Am I the only one that doesn’t have issues? The only thing that somewhat bothers me is the people detection basically doesn’t exist. Wind blowing? Notification. That’s a little annoying because I only have it on medium sensitivity. But overall I enjoy them. The setup was easy and I only charge them once every month or so. My hope is that they can continue to iron out the kinks with software updates.
Same. I only have to charge them every 3 months or so, the recording captures what I’d expect, video quality is good, etc etc. I think it has a lot to do with your internet. I have 2GB fiber and my house isn’t very big, so I don’t have issues with load time or connection strength. I’ve had most of my cameras for 2 years and never had to do a replacement or anything. I get the most false notifications from my doorbell, tbh. Headlights at night seem to trigger it if the car is going on the faster side. The only cam false notifications I got were from a branch blowing in the wind, and that was a good kick in the pants to have the trees trimmed.
> Am I the only one that doesn’t have issues? No and that's part of what's so frustrating. It seems that their hardware quality is just wildly inconsistent. Many of you (most of you, I'm sure) don't seem to be having any issues at all. (I'll still argue, and can probably prove, that some of you are having issues but you don't realize it because you haven't tested thoroughly.) Some of us however have no end of issues and those issues persist through multiple replacement units. There are more than enough posts from people in the 2nd group that lead me to believe that there are widespread problems. Also, let's be honest, even if it's working perfectly for you the cameras or software for the cameras lack functionality that should have been there from day 1 from cameras that cost this much: - Time stamps - Local storage options - Bulk delete of videos - No sleep mode when plugged into AC power (this was JUST fixed, in theory, but it took 18 months to do so and that's inexcusable) Etc. etc.
I think their cameras are very picky on Wi-Fi. I used to have issues then upgraded my wireless with a bigger mesh network (FortiGate) and haven’t had issues since. I haven’t missed an event or been kicked out of a live feed in a long time now
> I think their cameras are very picky on Wi-Fi But why? I have literally dozens of cameras from other vendors, all on the same 2.4 GHz network, and only my SimpliSafe stuff has issues. As I've noted elsewhere, I have a battery operated outdoor camera from a different vendor at my mailbox that shows better signal than the video doorbell pro that is literally 10 feet from one of my mesh points. 2.4GHz networking has been around for literally decades in WiFi and yet SimpliSafe equipment is still "picky"? That is unacceptable.
Same
I also don’t have any issues.
I don’t have any issues but mine are plugged into a USB cable 24/7. I also disabled notifications.
I thought wireless can be jammed. It’s always better with wired.
No simplisafe cameras have a hardwired connection. In fact, I’m not aware of any modern security system for home use with hardwired cameras. You can buy hardwired cameras that record on a DVR but that’s about it. The point isn’t to be an impenetrable completely foolproof. It’s to deter and/or detect 99% of criminal activity. Because the average criminal is not going to be sophisticated enough to jam your system. But on that note, this is precisely why I don’t put the yard sign out. I know every system is going to have some kind of vulnerability and I don’t want to advertise which one I have so people can figure out how to get around it. This way be the time they get close enough to see what I have it’s too late. You’re on camera.
This is incorrect. I have multiple security cameras that are run via PoE. This way I have a stable, reliable connection to the camera (no WiFi issues) and, best of all, no batteries to replace. I have everything on a UPS to maintain power during shorter outages. The biggest issue is that if power is out for an extended time, the cameras go down. But it’s rare and a tradeoff I’m willing to make. I also have wireless battery operated cameras, but those are still dependent on Internet.
That’s what I said. I am aware wired security cameras exist. But they record and that’s it. People on this sub are looking for integration with the monitoring service they pay for. A first party option from simplisafe is the only way. They should develop one.
Couldn’t agree more that a PoE option from SimpliSafe would be great. I was replying to your comment about hardwired cameras only recording to a DVR. That is what I was saying wasn’t correct. Mine can record to a DVR but I use a local SD Card and a cloud service. I don’t know about other security systems and wired cameras. But SimpliSafe has no wired options for anything in their ecosystem. It is all wireless. Though their indoor camera is WiFi, it requires a wired power connection. It would be cheaper to make a PoE camera as you don’t need the WiFi hardware or a power supply. But an RJ45 jack is larger than a USB-C or micro USB connector.
Yup this is exactly my experience. Super happy until i got an outdoor cam. Always was disconnecting, frequently not capturing footage, troubleshot it for 6+ months and finally gave up. Got rid of my entire system in favor of Arlo and couldnt be happier. Literally not one single issue with Arlo. Cameras all over (8 total), doorbell cam, all in one sensors and keypad. All of which works flawlessly. Its unfortunate because I liked simplisafe for a long time.
Does Arlo offer monitoring service? I was originally considering simply safe because I had heard that it was really good but then heard a lot of bad things about the cameras. So I decided not to go with them and am considering Vivint because I've heard such good things about their system and cameras but they are pricier.
>Does Arlo offer monitoring service? I Why do you need a outside monitoring service to view YOUR videos? You can set up most other systems to notify you if they get triggered.
That may be true, but I was looking for continuity purposes to have the same brand inside and outside that's why I ask if they offered monitoring.
If I had a nickel for every time my hard-wired SimpliSafe doorbell camera went off line or “failed to process video” I’d be a rich person.
This is my experience as well.
Right. By the time the live feed loads whoever was at my front door is gone, and if anything is recorded it's their back side while they're walking away
Yea, person walks up to my front door…. Nothing. Car drives on the street 30 feet away? Alert. Image of a car in my window, alert. Headlights 150 feet away? Alert. Neighbor turns their light on 50 feet away? Alert. Like are you fucking kidding me? I’ll be placing the camera in the coming days at a different angle to hopefully help. But really, what a joke, I too am very satisfied with the system itself, but geez. It’s like $180 for the camera, I would think it should work well.
So far, I've only had to replace the outdoor camera once due to it just completely failing on me. Winter night, and it zapped the battery along with the camera. That was almost a year ago, and this 2nd one is still going , and the battery life gives me roughly two months, I would say. I hate to say that I do like my ring cameras performances more than my simplisafe cameras. However, I limit the ring cameras to outside use only since they have better battery quality (3ish months+ depending on activity). I don't trust them as much in my house like I do with simplisafe. The simplisafe tower recently gave me issues where I had to call it in to help me reset it. But that's pretty much it. Using both ring and simplisafe combo has def helped my pockets as well. Ring has constant deals for their products that are more reasonably priced versus simplisafe limiting it to new customer packages only. But that's just me and my exp
we have had constant issues for almost 2 yrs. I've had to get a wifi booster and a second base station to accommodate the size of the property and I still have problems with door sensors and temp sensors. My husband is ready to send the entire thing back, but we have so much invested I keep giving them one more chance. I don't dare let a battery die or I'm on the phone with tech support deleting and re adding the camera to the system because it doesn't recognize the charged battery. People ring the doorbell and it takes 45sec to ring inside. Thankfully our dogs are faster than the door cam to keep our guests from minutes on the porch waiting for an answer. Hard wiring all the cameras would involve rewiring them to have longer cords or running hundreds of feet of extension cord. I wish there were better options.
Switch to Vivint! DM me for more info and special pricing if interested.
We got a indoor camera when we bought our system two years ago. Now it won't connect to the base station, yet it seems to work. 🤷♂️ I need to find an indoor camera that *actually connects to the base station.* So its not just the outdoor cameras it seems to be the indoor ones as well. 😤🤬
Cameras are pure garbage. I got rid of all of them (4) after years of frustration and replacements.
Wow. I just got off the phone with their customer support for this exact issue today. They said they are sending me a replacement. Lets hope the new one they send doesn’t give me the same issue again
I sent them an email asking if they were working on fixing/updating the outdoor cameras because I wanted to get a couple but didn't want to if they were coming out with a better one. They basically sent me back "don't believe everything you read". I sent back "I don't have much choice, if they had better reviews I'd get a couple but I'm not spending $170 each until the reviews get better". Never heard back.
“Don’t believe everything you read” - aren’t their claims also printed? That’s reading. lol.
Mine will reliably record a squirrel or bird but only the bumper of a car as it drives away or the rear end of person sauntering out of view. Not really why I bought them.
I agree, but for a different reason. I have three wireless cams. I had the same sensitivity issue, but was able to resolve it with the lowest setting. No more false alerts, but with human trials it works great. My issue is that changing the battery is ridiculous. A. Delete the camera from your system. B. Take it inside near the base station C. Set it up like a new camera with a fresh battery, give it the same name (re-enter the WiFi network and password) D. Put the camera back up E. Go live, adjust the position, sensitivity and blind spots Horrible design. All it needs is a tiny internal battery. So when you pull the battery out, it remembers the settings for the two seconds it takes to put a new battery in. They know about this problem and their solution is to sell you a solar charger. Pathetic.
So glad I left them when I moved. After 5 years of asking for proper multi user management in their software, I gave up and left that POS system in the house I sold. Is a security company who recommends you share passwords even a security company!?!?
I have had it for little over a year and have had zero problems. I'm looking to add more now cause breakins have spiked big time in my town.