Eufy Security - No recordings when internet is down

[scr]

I have been in contact with support about the test I reported under the nt11 name above, and they said they did find a bug that, under certain conditions, when the base station is not connected to the network for a period of time, the base station’s startup process may not be completed, so there are no recordings during the internet outage.

They said they are working on a fix for an upcoming release, so we shall see if that was the issue…

I have asked them to notify us of the update with the fix here if possible.

[Haloweenhamster]

Good to know that they now admit to the fault & working to rectify it

How come the name change?

[Schoey]

I received a similar response direct from Eufy:

“We had read your post under the article “Eufy Security - No recordings when the internet is down” and I had forwarded your test results(along with some other test results from other forum posters) to our engineers. We tried to replicate the issue on our end, in most part, the eufyCam system works as expected and its records will be uploaded to the app when the system is connected to the internet. But to be honest with you, we did find a bug that under certain conditions when the base station is not connected to the network for a period of time, the base station’s startup process may not be completed, so there are no recordings during the internet outage. The bug is supposed to be corrected in the following software updates. Sorry about this and thanks for your understanding.”

Given they say they have read the forum, I’m not sure why they have someone else responding to the posts with different information. Twice now they have responded to this forum completely missing the point (i.e. no internet connection). Regardless it looks like they have finally acknowledged the existence of this “bug” and are working on it. As SCR said, it would be good if support could keep us informed here.

[AnkerSupport]

Hello!@PGLDC Again sincerely apologize for all inconvenience caused! We’ve forwarded your issue to our engineer team and they are making a further analysis on it. We will try to optimize and improve the system by the following firmware. Please be patient to wait and observe for some time. Sincerely thank you for your valuable time!

[Haloweenhamster]

@AnkerSupport why do you keep tagging @PGLDC ? I can’t see where they have posted in this thread and people who have posted aren’t getting official answers

[Haloweenhamster]

The backup battery can last for 8-10 hours on battery power

Thought it was supposed to be 2 days

[Schoey]

Thought it was supposed to be 2 days

Box says 10 hours

[Haloweenhamster]

Kickstarter says 2 days

[Haloweenhamster]

Just looked at the box and it does say 10 hours

@AnkerOfficial

Care to explain???

Another item falsely advertised

[Schoey]

It appears that Eufy has made some changes for the better. Last night our internet provider had scheduled maintenance for 6 hours. During this time I was able to access the Eufy app and watch live vision from the cameras (previously this was not possible). I wasn’t able to view past local recordings however. I forgot to test if it still made recordings during this time. Baby steps, keep it up Eufy, nearly there on this issue.

[RAM1]

Eufy servers are currently down, and users have NO ACCESS to their security systems. What BS!!!

Eufy Security USELESS if their servers go down!

I was having intermittent problems earlier today with notifications being delayed and repeating. Then I was unable to connect the Eufy App to the Homebase. I called Eufy support and they informed me that their servers were down currently and that they were working on a resolution. Now wait a minute !?!? I bought Eufy security (and I’m HEAVILY invested now) specifically because I wanted a non-tethered system that didn’t go out to the cloud. Turns out Eufy security is USELESS if the homeba…

[Home43]

I just happened to test this myself. When the home Wi-Fi or internet is down, the system does continue to work without home power. When the system states its on back up power, the home base and cameras continue to operate like they should. The only side effect is you will not get any notifications due to the internet being down.
But the system seems to be self contained and continues working like it should. Now if the system had cellular capability then it would work seamlessly in the event of a power failure as you would still get notifications even if your home internet is down.
Now why V2 got rid of the backup power supply is unknown to me, they should have added cellular capability if anything that way there’s still live feeds active in the event of a power failure.
Instead, V2 got rid of the battery backup and now if there’s a power failure the whole system is down…wtf…

[LBX]

Even though Eufy uses a SD card to record locally, it probably uses an Eufy internet server as an intermediate. This explains why you cannot access local recordings locally when you are on the same local (wifi) network when the Internet goes down. They could fix it with a different software approach, but apparently they heavily rely on external Efy servers.

Which makes me kinda sceptic about privacy. Eufy is owned by Anker, which is a Chinese company. The border between Chinese companies and Chinese state is small, so in terms is privacy, this may be an issue. I want zero reliance on external servers. Camera data is private data. Any architecture design that suggest that this data may leak outside, should be avoided.

[AnkerSupport]

Hello!@LBX Sincerely apologize for all inconvenience and confusion caused by the privacy security!

The system is designed to maintain a high level of security to keep your uploaded videos private and secure in the cloud: Military-grade AES-256 encryption protects your account information, and bank-grade AES-128 encryption protects your local storage. Account authentication over a secure HTTPS connection prevents eavesdropping.

Only users who have both the login name and password can access eufyCam and previous recordings. Videos on local storage cannot be read directly by a desktop computer. Access to videos on local storage is possible only via the EufySecurity app, through a web portal, or a eufy desktop application with the correct login information. The web portal and eufy desktop application will be available in a future software update. Communication between the HomeBase and the eufyCam is based on a proprietary wireless protocol; laptops and smartphones cannot detect the network or connect to it.

As a to-be perfect product, we do know there still exist many aspects of eufyCam that need further polishing. We will keep working! Thanks so much for your valuable time and feedback!

[JasonCzersk]

Can you elaborate more detail the connection’s made between the homebase and the mobile app.

Is the video data transmitted through your cloud services or is only the connection brokering done via the cloud services and the data to the mobile app is direct, from my homebase to my mobile device?

Who owns the encryption keys/certificates throughout the entire stack; from my homebase to my mobile phone. Can you prove this chain?

[Daz_PC_Access]

I’m in Perth and I just bought these cameras about 2 weeks ago. I’m going to highlight some key points, for anyone who would like to quickly skim through my rant lol.

Today we had an internet outage (NBN FTTP)… so no internet, but internal network both LAN and Wi-Fi was still functional, I was able to play media from my NAS Drive, view local files from my NAS on PC, etc etc… However I had the same issue with the cameras… Nothing was recorded, AT ALL, over the 4 hours or so of the internet being down.

I also had no access to anything locally within the app while connected to Wi-Fi, i was getting “error code (99)” within the app and also “Could not connect to application server” So I was unable to disarm my sensors alarm to leave for work!

This is unacceptable for a system that claims to run completely “offline” and within its own “proprietary Wi-Fi network”. Finally the internet came back on and i’ve waited all day, still no events recorded or triggered showing in the app, even though I know there were multiple, because I was moving around within the cameras detection areas where i’d usually get notifications.

Something else slightly disturbing I figured out… While the internet was down, I had to take down one of the cameras so my partner could enter the garage and leave for work, without setting off the alarm, so I prepared a towel and to quickly twist off the camera and wrap it up in the towel to keep the siren noise down from both the alarm and the anti theft protection while I try to push the button 5 times to turn the camera off… Neither of them worked, no siren… there should have been a camera and homebase siren for the motion detected but also siren should have triggered because i was tampering with it!… So I tried the others, same thing! So it seems that this whole system just completely becomes redundant if there’s an internet outage, at least that what I experienced today.

It has been reported to eufy, anker and Direct Electronics Australia (the exclusive Aussie distributor).

I’m now seriously rethinking my purchase, unless these things are fixed fairly quickly with an update.

@AnkerSupport @AnkerOfficial

[Bjorn_Saur]

This is now a longstanding issue. For me, it is a deal-breaker: this will go back. I will also leave reviews warning users at Amazon.

Like everyone here, my system of Eufycams failed in all respects when my internet connection lapsed. Most concerning to me was that the system did not 1) record events, 2) make any alert when the camera was taken down. Were I an intruder, I could disable this flawed system in half a dozen ways, from cutting the cable on the side of the house to wifi interference. I paid for this system to have security when offline, as advertised.

Moreover, I agree with @LBX, and echo @JasonCzersk, and am in no way convinced by AnkerSupport. You sidestepped these important questions. Encryption is not an answer to the concern of 'this is being passed through Chinese servers". I paid for local storage, where I control my own content. I see evidence that that is not what I have been sold.

AnkerSupport, before returning this, sending a PDF of this set of posts to the review sites that convinced me to buy this odd product, and writing my disappointed review, perhaps you can help me understand the following:

a) This unacceptable, longstanding (Since June!!!) security issue, in which a dropped internet connection turns your cameras into paperweights, will be fixed soon. Say, by the end of March.

b) That my data remains on my device only, and is not stored in any way in your servers. I am ok with your servers mediating the link, as your (seemingly misleading) advertising copy suggests.

Please advise. Soon. I’ll set up a return with Amazon now, and mark my calendar for the 31st.

[Schoey]

Did you get a response on this?

[Big_Papoo]

Glad (I’m really glad? Not sure) someone else have this problem! I got it a couple of times when trying to switch my system ON. But this morning I got it when switching it OFF! No way to access it so I woke the whole family up before I got a chance to reach the Homebase. The good thing is that, at least, the detection works, but this is not acceptable not being able to control our systems from the LAN.

[Burke1]

Just installed the Eufy Cam 2 yesterday and very impressed with the quality of the hardware. However, and this may be a dealbreaker is that you will not receive notification of an immediate event unless it has internet access. I can live stream each camera with just wifi access, but no notifications at all which follows from the comments made in this thread. Pretty disappointing for a product being marketed as otherwise. I should have read the Amazon reviews more closely…