Eufy Security - No recordings when internet is down

#21

I wanted to come here and post that I too can vouch for/replicate the issue.

We had a thunderstorm on Thursday which ended up taking out Internet service to the neighborhood for ~3 hours.

Power was maintained, only internet was lost (cable company lost a line to a tree branch).

Wife and I tested both of our cameras. They cameras don’t even trigger in this scenario. No red light, no “click” sound of them activating.

After Internet was restored, still no recordings on the basestation, and no notifications in the app.

This is a very specific scenario, and especially here in the U.S. not uncommon at all. ISPs go down with much greater regularity than power providers.

Why does this cause the system to fail to capture any events? Why are the cameras not even activating?

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#22

Thanks for your post. It’s a shame that this flaw exists.

2 Likes
#23

I have noticed this as well, when the internet has gone down for construction nearby.

This is a critical flaw - one of the main reasons for getting a camera that uses a base station and SD card storage rather than just cloud storage, is being able to operate without an internet connection.

It is my understanding that these cameras should continue to operate without issue, including capturing and saving events, as long as there is power - regardless of internet connection.

@AnkerSupport please comment on this?

3 Likes
#24

When it comes to the cams, they should still be recording events - even when the internet is down. The reason you don’t see the events right away is because the camera takes some time to sync the videos. You should see the videos fully updated within the next 2-3 hours (after the internet comes back on).

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#25

Should but don’t

2 Likes
#26

If this is the case, you’ll want to send an email to support@eufylife.com so that we can look further into this.

#27

I would like to confirm what previous posters have reported. When the internet feed is down (but power is on), there are no videos being recorded. My internet was out for 8 hours and no videos were recorded during that period. This is not how I expect this system to work as I rely on the eufy camera to warn me when couriers and visitors arrive at the door. In addition it would not record events when I am away from home.

Also, when the internet is down, I am unable to live-stream from the cameras, even though my phone is connected via Wi-Fi to the same network as the home base. Why does the home base require an internet connection to allow viewing of videos stored locally and available via my own local network?

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#28

Yes it is ridiculous. Both issues are ridiculous as they don’t account for real life situations. If someone is trying to invade your place, there is a strong chance that they will cut your internet connection on the way in. Very easy to do in a lot of Australia as the internet comes in via overhead HFC connection. Why should the internet being down stop the local recording of events. Also in general it is common for the internet to drop out for brief periods of time (i.e. maintenance, congestion, faults, etc). Why should the cameras stop during this time?

Also as the previous commenter mentioned, why does the app not work locally when the internet is down but the local wifi still operating? Big flaws that need to be rectified in my opinion!

2 Likes
#29

I also had this issue. My internet was down while I was changing routers and somebody came to the front door, but nothing got recorded. I expected that it would have kept recording as the cameras use their own network to talk to the HomeBase.

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#30

Has anyone tried it with the homebase on WiFi?
Wondered if it behaved any differently

#31

I use my Eufy Cam Homebase with WiFi connectivity to the internet and thought I would test it with no power and no WiFi connection. I disconnected the power to the Homebase and the WiFi router. I use multiple cameras so tested 2 of them with one being in the dark outside and the other in a lounge room with lighting. I left everything disconnected for about 5 minutes while I walked around the place to trigger events, then reconnected the Homebase and the WiFi router. When checking the app after everything had restarted I have multiple events for the period of time that both the Homebase and WiFi router were disconnected from the power. So it appears to work fine with no WiFi connection for the internet connectivity to the Homebase. I hope that helps.
Cheers :sunglasses:

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#32

Have had exactly the same problem. Internet down, cannot livestream cameras, even though wifi network is up. Interestingly when I tried to view cameras, the wifi symbol showed it was down, even though the wifi network is running. Seems like a software/firmware bug. I also bought it because it seemed as if it would still record even if the internet was down, but that is clearly not the case.

1 Like
#33

Thanks for the post but I’m not sure this fully replicated the issue some of us are having. Rather than fully disconnect the wifi can you disconnect the internet cable to your modem and try that. This simulates a line fault but the wifi equipment is still powered.

#34

Hi ,
New EufyCam E user here.
I just bought this system as I like the image quality and the local storage system.
As I just bought it, I saw this thread which is a bit worrisome, and so once my system was fully up and running and adjusted, I decide to do some test regarding the issue.

The full details are below, but I can confirm that that the problem occurs not when the Home base is disconnected from the router but when the router is disconnected from the Internet.

The bad news is that since I tested disconnecting the router from the Internet, my Home Base has become permanently corrupted, and now even though events and alerts get triggered, I am unable to access or view any recordings from the events, either because there are none, or because the system is corrupted and does not show them to me.

I have sent this to Eufy support, but in the mean time, I was wondering if anyone ever got the Home Base corrupted so that recordings don’t show up anymore, and if so how did you fix it?

Thanks

Test details
1) Test of motion detection and recording access when the HomeBase is disconnected from the router.

  • HomeBase connected to router with Ethernet.

  • Unplug the Ethernet cable, HomeBase goes Offline (Red LED)

  • Walking in front of Cameras does not trigger any alert on the phone (normal).

  • Let the system offline for 11 hours during which time many events were created to trigger the motion sensing.

  • Plugged the Home base back into the router after 11 hours, and all the recorded events came back.

Note: loading all the events of the 11 hours was painfully slow, so this is something that could use some improvement.

2) Test of motion detection and recording access when the HomeBase stays connected to the router BUT the router is disconnected from the Internet.

  • HomeBase connected to the router via Wifi (close by very strong), Security set to AWAY.

  • Disconnect the ISP modem from the Internet.

  • I can still access Live view of the camera (as both my phone and the HB are connected to the Wifi network)

  • If I try to go to Events in the App, I get “unable to connect to application server(999)” - normal as the Modem being disconnected from the internet, the HB cannot reach the servers.

  • I then go walk in front of the Cameras to try and create events and recordings while Internet access is down.

  • After 10mn I reconnect the Modem to the Internet and wait for it to be fully booted and internet access being fully restored on all devices.

Now the Home Base is seriously messed up as described below:

  • Home base is showing White LED

  • NO recordings appear in the events page from the events made while the Modem was disconnected from the Internet

  • If I try to go to Live view I get a message “Home base not reachable (-3). If try several times it will finally come up. If I go to other camera live views same thing happens

  • I went to the Security page, and it appeared the Security changed from Away to Schedule by Itself which could explain why no recording were done as I have nothing setup in Schedule.

  • I changed the Security back to Away to test motion detection again.

  • Now if I walk in front of a Camera, a Motion event is triggered and an alert appears on the phone.

  • BUT if I click on the alert, it goes to the viewer and spins forever. I get “Cannot connect to Home Base (-13)” Yet the Home base LED is white.

  • If I go to the Events page and refresh , it shows NOTHING has been recorded. So the Home Base is still Messed up.

So at this stage the home Base appears to be permanently messed up as event are not recorded (or their recording does not show up in events). In order to try and fix the issue, I power cycle the HB

  • After the Home base is back up, I try again, I walk in front of a camera, that triggers and alert. If I click on the alert, it goes to the viewer but spins and gives me “cannot connect to home base (-3).

  • Going to the Events page, there is no recording of the event.

  • I try going to the security page to change from Away to Home, I get unable to connect to HB (-13), but it does eventually switch mode.

In an attempt to reset the home base I do a device restart from the Device Home Base setting, Same problem as above

In case using the Home Base on Wifi makes a difference, I now I close the phone app, power off the HB, plug in the Ethernet cable between HB and Router, power the HB on wait until all is boot up and I can access the live view of all cameras.

I do an event test again, same thing. I get the alert but if I click on the alert I get error (-13) and no recordings of the event appear in the events page

Basically my system is now permanently corrupted…

#35

Not good, let’s hope it’s not a bug with the WiFi mode

I’ve been meaning to test it myself but been working or sleeping lately

Hopefully @AnkerSupport @AnkerTechnical or @AnkerOfficial will be able to find the cause & rectify it quickly

If they had added the log file like I requested last December you’d know exactly what’s going wrong which would of helped with rectifying the issue

#36

OK, so I kept testing all morning so here it goes…

  • Power cycle the cameras, problem persist

  • Reformatted SD card, first time it said failed to format.

  • Second time reformat was successful.

  • Before testing decided to try a restart of the Base got error (-3)

  • Tried a few minutes later got (-6)

  • Tried a few minutes later got (-13)

Then I got an alert, so I decided to test new events, they are now working again.

So it appears that Reformatting the SD card fixed the corruption that was caused by disconnecting the router from the Internet.

This means that when Internet access was lost and events occurred during that period, the SD card became corrupted, causing inability to record or access recording.

#37

Next I tried to see if I could replicate the issue, with the HB connected by Ethernet instead of WIFI (like in the previous test)
• Home base connected Via Ethernet
• Disconnecting the ISP Modem from the Internet
• Walk in front of cameras a few times
• Wait 5 mn, do more walking in front of cameras
• Wait 10mn, then reconnect the Modem to the Internet
• Wait until internet connection is back up on all house devices
• Despite the Internet being restored, the Home base says it is Offline so I cannot do anything in the App.
• After a while of the HB reporting Offline, I tried to do a device restart, it failed with the error (-6)
• Finally I did a power cycle, and once the HB was rebooted, it came back online.
• Security mode was not changed
• Events page showed recordings that took place while the Internet was disconnected

Conclusion of that test:
This test did not cause the problem we had before, events appear to have been recorded during internet outage and recording were accessible afterwards.
BUT following the internet outage the HB failed to come back online in a reasonable time. This is a problem as if you are away, you cannot power cycle the HB!

Before the next test, I reformatted the SD card and did a restart of the HB, just to get rid of any issue from the last test.

Next test was to try and reproduce the problem with the HB connected Via Wifi like in the first test (in case this was the differentiating factor).
• Home base connected via Wifi to Home network
• Disconnecting the ISP Modem from the Internet at 1:01
• Walked in front of cameras at 1:02 then again at 1:08
• Connected the ISP modem back to the internet at 1:10
• Base station came back online after 5/10mn
• Recording of the events from 1:02 were there
• Recording of the events from 1:08 were NOT there
• System continued to be operational for new events (accessible recordings)

Conclusion of these tests:
• The loss of internet connection while the home base is powered and connected to the home network (Wifi or Ethernet) causes random not systematically replicable issues.
o Sometimes the SD card gets corrupted and recordings are not taking place or are inaccessible. System will be permanently corrupted until SD card is reformatted.
o Sometimes some recording take place during the Internet outage but not others
o Sometimes it makes the Home base stay offline even after Internet is restored and require a Power cycle to recover

Here is one suggestion on possible source of the above problems.
• When the HB is disconnected from the router it detects that it is offline (LED turns RED) and so it works in autonomous/local mode with no issue or corruption.
• When you disconnect the Router from the Internet, the HB does NOT seem to detect that it is offline (LED stays White) so it may continue to operate as if it was online, but not being so may be causing various type corruption in the home base.

I hope Anker can figure it out, as it seems to make the whole system unpredictable if an internet outage occurs.

#38

I’ve had this issue happen again. I’m going to raise another ticket with support as it is getting ridiculous.

#39

Hello!@PGLDC Sincerely apologize for all inconvenience caused! There are two models of eufyCam, eufyCam and eufyCam E. If you possess a eufyCam, the original model once sold in Kickerstarter, the HomeBase has a built-in backup battery, and the sensors are powered by a battery, so surveillance of your property will continue even if there is a power outage.

The backup battery can last for 8-10 hours on battery power in a general way but its specific duration will vary depending on many factors like the times and duration of triggering. Motion detection and video recording will work as usual during a power outage. If the Internet is down, your HomeBase will save video clips onto local storage and then sync up to the App once it’s connected to the Internet. But we’re sincerely sorry that during the period of internet failure, it is not available for the current system to support live feed playing. We will try our best to forward your concern to our engineer team and hope they can further consider its availability in the future product improvement plan. Again sincerely apologize for all inconvenience caused and thanks so much for your valuable time!

#40

Hi @AnkerSupport

The issue is not about live streaming the video feed while the internet is down.

The problem is, while the internment is down no recordings are stored at all. Even after the internet is back. There’s just a blank timespan with no events, for as long as the internment was down.

These cameras are supposed to continue recording even without internet - the problem is, they are not doing that.

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