I have 2x S220 Solocams; one above the front door, and one in back. They are both connected directly to my WiFi network - no HomeBase. Signal strength reported by the eufy app is excellent for both cams.
My issue is that the cameras’ motion detection is unreliable. The video (2K) is great!
When set to the ‘human only’ mode, with sensitivity maxed out and working mode set to optimal security, the cameras will detect motion sometimes. There does not appear to be any reason the cameras would detect some motion but fail to detect others.
If I switch to the all motion mode, I get so many falses the motion detection is useless, even if I turn down the sensitivity.
When I use the test mode, I see the red LED turn on for just about every movement, but while in normal operation, motion alerts never arrive, or arrive very late on the Android or IOS app.
The Android app is horrible, requiring either a forced stop and restart, or reboot of the phone (Pixel 6 running Android 13). Other times, restarting the camera seems to fix the problem.
Today, I was testing the cameras on my workbench (indoors). I was moving about in the room, then shut off motion detection so I wouldn’t keep triggering alerts as I worked around the cameras.
About 1/2 hour later,I was sitting in another room with my phone when I received a motion alert from one of the cameras which were still sitting on my workbench with motion detection turned off. There was nobody in the room with the cameras, although a ceiling fan was running.
The timestamp on the motion alert in the eufy Android app was for about 1/2 hour before - when I was still in the room and had not yet switched off motion detection.
Why should it take 30 minutes to receive an alert from a camera that is on the same network (LAN) as my phone?
I am quite frustrated, but at this point am convinced that any of the consumer grade security cameras will have similar issues.
I have been searching the web for a solution, and it appears that the most recommended solution is to relocate the camera or just reposition it on its mount.
I purchased and installed a 3rd party mount for the back camera because the one supplied with the S220 would not allow the angle I needed. I wanted to detect motion very close to the house - on the steps to the back door.
The new mount allowed me to position the camera as I needed it, and immediately after I re-installed the camera, I was getting good motion detection. But this morning, the camera’s motion detection is back to unreliable.
I went through a couple hours of tedious troubleshooting, including:
- Uninstalling, then reinstalling the eufy app on Android.
- Switching the camera and my phone to another router/access point (on the same WiFi network).
- Removing, then reinstalling the S220 to the network and app.
- Rebooting my phone.
- Swapping the front and back cameras - thinking that the back camera was defective. It seems that I am having more trouble with motion detection on the back camera, but the front one doesn’t work reliably either.
All of the above failed to rectify the problem, so I assumed that the problem is the design/software. Perhaps a future update will solve this issue; or perhaps I’ll just return these cameras to Amazon tomorrow (my last day before the return window closes) and try another brand.
I opened a service ticket with eufy, elevated it past the AI based response, and am now waiting for a response.
Unless I find a solution by tomorrow evening, I am afraid I will have to pack up the cameras and return them to Amazon.
Frank