No internet connection no homebase or camera operating

#1

Just want to share with you my today’s experience. Maybe it will help somebody other as well. Today morning I have just realized that all my cameras are not working and I cannot connect to the homebase as well. Just red light was lightning on the homebase. Tried to restart the homebase, connected and disconnected the cable - nothing helped. I have removed the homebase from the application and wanted to start the pairing process again. Nothing helped - just red light.

Then I have realized that my internet is not working. I was connected to my home router but not connected to the internet. In the evening when I came back I have connected the homebase again just to check if it would not work and the homebase stared as usual and I could connect all cameras again. My internet is working again as well as all eufy security system.

Now some questions raised in my mind!

Why I cannot connect to the homebase to check the cameras when the internet is not working but I’m in the internal network connected to local router via Ethernet or cable? I understand that if no internet is working I cannot connect with the cameras from the internet, but why I cannot connect to them when internet is not working but I am connected in the internal network. As I know, all recording is stored locally, why connection to your server is necessary for homebase to operate?

One day, they can shut down your servers and the cameras became useless for us.

I own the first generation of homebase, I chose this over the second generation also because it has the backup battery. The homebase can operate on the battery for several days and record videos. Very handy I expected that if the electricity is off, the homebase and cameras will continue to operate without interruption. It is so but you cannot connect to the homebase/see recorded videos if the homebase is not connected to the internet.

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#2

@ Viliam This issue has been known and asked about in the past. The answer is supposedly that the application servers are required to authenticate your app to your homebase for security (since authentication is not saved in the app or in the homebase itself), and then establish the peer-to-peer connection from your phone to your homebase.

I totally agree with you that this is not ideal, since the system is not truly “local”, can be defeated by removing internet connectivity, and requires eufy servers to remain available for system functionality.

In my mind, it still beats ALL my video going to the cloud a la Nest or Arlo…

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#3

I was told by the support that connection to the homebase shall be still possible as well as the watching online camera pictures. Only stored files are not accessible. In my case it it not working. As soon as there is no internet I cannot connect to the homebase from the local intranet network.

Anybody has same experience?

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#5

After retesting I’ve noticed that while the internet is down I can only access the cameras and live feed but I cannot access the recorded footage on the homebase or change modes/settings

#6

i think this is a major part that needs to be fixed. Anker/Eufy should allow being able to access the locally recorded files even when not connected to the internet.

I dont have one yet but planning to and why I’m here, but are we still able to simply pull the SD Card and read it on a computer to access the video?

#7

I’m looking to get this device but this was my major concern. If it’s not connected to the internet, will it still record when motion is detected? Obviously no notifications will work, etc. Or is the only thing you can do when its not connected to the internet is acess the camera and live feed as long as you are on the same network? Can you trigger recording manually while accessing the live feed from within the same network?

#8

Yes it still records when motion is detected.

Note there’s no SD card as it uses built-in flash memory.

Whether you can still manually record via Live view I’m unsure as I didn’t test this and I can’t test it now as I no longer have the system.

#9

thanks for the reply. thats good to hear that it still operates normal without internet connection. so as it stands, the only thing eufy needs to allow is access the base station without the need for internet access, because there is no other way to access the footage. i may have to compromise that for now and hope they do a firmware upgrade to allow it.

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#10

I have this issue with the doorbell. This dependence on authentication with a remote server is not a matter of “not ideal”, it is a matter of being “totally unaccaptable”. I am not going to recommend Eufy to anyone as long as this is not fixed. I bought the Eufy specifically to have a completely local system.

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#11

I complain about this situation too. You also need to know that when you Internet connection is down, no way to switch your system ON or OFF, even from local network! I’ve got this problem about 7-8 times in 3 months, when going to bed, my HomeBase was unaccessible (I need to say my Internet connection was functional) and I’ve not been able to put my home under video surveillance for the night. It also occured one morning that I’ve not been able to switch it OFF, making my 3 cams+HB sirens to wake all my family! They really need to provide us a way to control our cams+HB from the LAN without Internet connection. Also we need to get access to the logs of the HB.