Every few days "cannot connect to camera," needs restart

[Devin]

Hi jasongordon,

We've responded to your email in regards to this issue.

Regards,

-Devin

[Semper Vaporo]

Yes, Sorry I don't have an answer as to why a camera would stop recording for a time during the day. I was just attempting to ease the burden of how to fix it.

Are your cameras connected via WiFi? Something could be interfering with the WiFi signal causing a disconnect.

It might also be a temperature caused problem... I had a camera on WiFi that would lose the connection when the camera got cold. Cycling power on it would restore the connection (for a while) without having to close and reopen Vitamin D Video (predecessor to SightHound).

I now have that camera (TrendNET TV-IP 400w) connected via Ethernet cable and it has a regular disconnect every 5 minutes and 55 seconds (355 seconds) that lasts just about 1 or 2 seconds... not long enough for SightHound to declare the connection lost but enough to cause gaps in the recorded video. But there are also random losses of data of a similar nature at random times during the day... sometimes going hours with none and then getting dozens in a few minutes. If they last longer than 5 or 6 seconds, SightHound declares the connection lost ("Could not Connect" then "Connecting...") and sometimes it comes back and sometimes it won't unless I turn the camera off and on in SightHound, and sometimes I have to physically remove and restore power to the camera itself before I can get it to connect. I have also had such trouble that I had to cycle power on the Router to get it to reconnect, but I am not really sure which action really cured (temporarily) the problem.

I just purchased a different brand (D-Link DCS 5222LB1) and it does not exhibit the 5 m 55 s loss of data. Instead it has a short loss of data every 65 seconds (I almost be willing to bet it is exactly 65.536 seconds [16 bit binary counter of milliseconds]), but, so far, it has not lost the link long enough to cause SightHound to declare "Could Not Connect".

[saintjohnny]

I'm having the same issue on the latest release. My USB camera works fine, but my axis network camera disconects every few days but I'm still able to connect to my IP camera in web browser. My driveway is no longer protected, please fix this sighthound!

[jacklawry]

Hi Devin,
This is the exact same issue I am still having with my setup (Case 16926).

I know you have said this is not a bug but it does seem like a few people are having this exact issue and to me it does seem to be a bug (although perhaps one that only affects certain users).

I have 2 (identical) cameras. One is set to only record at set times the other 24/7. When the 1st camera (the one that records 24/7) stops working the other camera seems to ignore all the rules and starts recording 24/7. The only way to stop this is to either restart the PC or quit the app then end task on all the running Sighthound processes then restart the app.

Nothing has changed on the PC or camera setup except I upgraded to Windows 10 a few months ago.

Thanks,
Jack

[Devin]

Hi jacklawry,

I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing this issue. This is the first we've heard of a camera ignoring the set rules. Please submit a bug report by going to Help > Report a Problem. In your previous messages you said that the one camera would not connect at all. Do you recall any changes that were made when it started connecting again?

Regards,

-Devin

[TNT]

Im running two systems, one is fine and stable but the other gets also randomly disconnects. Initially it would be every Tuesday at 1am, worked out that it was an automatic reboot of the camera - however SH used to automatically reconnec, since update it doesn't. The only difference with the two systems is one is hard wired and the other uses power line connectors. I suspect the network momentarily drops and SH does not connect again, I find the only way to reconnect is to either restart or right click and edit camera. Each time this happens I can still access the camera on the web browser so suspect it's a SH fault??? Both running on macs. Thanks

[icmusic]

Same problem happening with my setup. Disconnect every few days and need to redo setup. Just sent in a ticket.

[303]

Same here.

[Rodbolt]

Add my name to the list.... (AGAIN)

I had this problem a year ago, and a SH update sorted it (thanks Devin)

Since then, I've upgraded to Windows 10 with no problems, BUT as soon as I changed my ISP to BT with their Homehub 5 router, the disconnect every 7 days problem is back.

Like everyone else, the camera (static ip obviously) is still visible in the network, and it's feed is still visible in a browser - but SH will not connect.

It seems reasonable therefore, that the router is the culprit, but try as I might, I cannot find the cause - NO log entries on the router match the time of SH disconnects, and even so, why won't SH reconnect to camera - this bug is still there.

Does SH produce a log that can be examined? I cant see an option to produce one.

Thanks in advance,

Roy

[Devin]

Hello Roy,

I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing this issue again. You can find all of the Sighthound Video logs in the Sighthound Video data directory. You can find the data directory by following the directions listed in this support article: https://www.sighthound.com/support/wher ... store-data

If you'd like us to take a look at your logs please send a bug report by going to Help > Report a Problem. Be sure to include a link to this forum post so we know it is from you.

Regards,

-Devin