HomeKit Is video motion detection useless in HomeKit ?

[goro123]

Hi,

I'd appreciate if any of you could provide feedback on video motion detection and HomeKit 🙏… because for me it does the opposite of "useful" :
- It triggers motion when the camera changes to/from night mode 🤦‍♂️
- The motion fails to triggers unless someone arrives a few meters from the camera.🙄

I am using an Aqara G3 Camera Hub because it has HomeKit Secure Video. I didn't want to use another provider's app, just HomeKit. But it seems like HomeKit is completely broken, or misses basic features.

Any idea/help?
Is HomeKit still too basic for getting any video alarm setup working correctly (or is it my camera)?

 

[StumpyBloke]

None of those issues ever with my set up. I am not using any of the same cameras that you are. I use a mix of Logitech and Eufy.

 

[Itinj24]

I have the night mode issue. It’s annoying and comical as well. Have an automation to turn on lights for five minutes when motion is detected. When the lights go out per my “Good Night” scene and the camera goes to night mode, it thinks there’s a motion and turns the lights back on, causing the camera to go back to regular mode. Then when the lights go out at the termination of the automation, the camera goes to night mode and again turns the lights on thinking there’s a motion. This is a never ending loop during the night time hours 🤣.

I’ve experienced this with many of my Logitech Circle 2’s. Haven’t tried with my G3 yet but the struggle is real lol. My solution was to switch from motion detected to occupancy detected, since occupancy stays active for longer. The Circle 2’s have a built in Occupancy sensor unlike the G3. Best solution I can think in your case of would be to try using a separate motion or occupancy sensor for these types of automations. Also, have you tried seeing what happens if you leave the camera on night mode all the time? I don’t know if that screws with the color of the image. Haven’t tried it.

 

[goro123]

I have the night mode issue. It’s annoying and comical as well. Have an automation to turn on lights for five minutes when motion is detected. When the lights go out per my “Good Night” scene and the camera goes to night mode, it thinks there’s a motion and turns the lights back on, causing the camera to go back to regular mode. Then when the lights go out at the termination of the automation, the camera goes to night mode and again turns the lights on thinking there’s a motion. This is a never ending loop during the night time hours 🤣.

I’ve experienced this with many of my Logitech Circle 2’s. Haven’t tried with my G3 yet but the struggle is real lol. My solution was to switch from motion detected to occupancy detected, since occupancy stays active for longer. The Circle 2’s have a built in Occupancy sensor unlike the G3. Best solution I can think in your case of would be to try using a separate motion or occupancy sensor for these types of automations. Also, have you tried seeing what happens if you leave the camera on night mode all the time? I don’t know if that screws with the color of the image. Haven’t tried it.

haha I had a similar issue tonight where motion detection turns the lights on, and then off after 10 min. But lights off creates a motion detected event which turns the lights back on for 10.

Endless loop ♾️ This morning I had a hundreds of motion detected event notifications 🤦‍♂️

It really feels like I can’t use motion detection for anything. 😤 has anyone at Apple tested this app ??

I’ll try with activity zones if I can solve this… ☹️

 

[goro123]

Activity zone didn’t work. I isolated the light, and even in daylight with zone to ignore it still detected motion.

I changed to detect motion when specific motion is detected.

But then I doubt nothing ever will be detected 😣.

 

[Itinj24]

Activity zone didn’t work. I isolated the light, and even in daylight with zone to ignore it still detected motion.

I changed to detect motion when specific motion is detected.

View attachment 2245989

But then I doubt nothing ever will be detected 😣.

Actually that’s not a bad idea, but what are you wanting it to detect if not any of those four? This feature works pretty well in HomeKit from my experience.

 

[goro123]

Actually that’s not a bad idea, but what are you wanting it to detect if not any of those four? This feature works pretty well in HomeKit from my experience.

I would like to use it as an alarm in the living room when I am not home. I don’t know (not very confident) if it would detect an intruder unless he steps very near the camera.

 

[Itinj24]

I would like to use it as an alarm in the living room when I am not home. I don’t know (not very confident) if it would detect an intruder unless he steps very near the camera.

Ok, I gotchya. My G3 is facing a staircase from about 20’ away in my den. The steps are the floating type so the camera can see through them. It actually picks and detects people that it sees through the steps. I think it performs very well in that aspect. The only issue I have with the G3 is the camera angle isn’t very wide while stationary. I have mine set to human tracking, another feature that I think works very well. It’s funny that no matter where I am in the room, I look at the camera and it’s staring back at me.

I would suggest aiming it at any point of entry that a burglar might use and set it to human tracking. Unless this particular room you have it in has multiple point of entries, then you may need more than one for full coverage. Mounting in a corner would probably work best because of its narrow FOV.

This is the floating staircase I’m talking about:

 

[AL2TEACH]

I really wanted to be able to use the Home app with cameras. After months of researching the web and YouTube, it wasn't going to happen at that moment in time. The products and their integration with the Home app was to eh young/new.
So, I had to settle with Ring and Alexa which was more eh mature integration.
I really wanted to use Home but...

This is not an advert for ring!!!!!!!!

 

[goro123]

Hi, I though I would share what I finally understood regarding cameras on HomeKit:

1. The Notifications, Recording and Automations feature don't use the same motion detection settings.
2. I can't get any useful motion detection settings.

Here you can see separate configurations for Status and Notification and Recording Options.

For example, if you want to trigger motion detection for People and Animals, then you must do the settings twice for both Notifications and for Recording.

The worst part, is regarding Automations: you can't set Specific Motion parameters at all.

So first all these multiple configurations are quite confusing. I would expect a single motion detection settings.

And the detection itself is completely flawed. "People detection" works only when the subject is very close to the camera. So it's useless as a security camera inside the house. And the default "any motion is detected" settings triggers when the camera starts and when it switches to night mode.

In the end, I could not get anything useful. Either too many motion events triggered or none at all. Sigh 😒

 

[goro123]

Haha so I tried setting the camera to record when any motion is detected… it recorded a fly passing in front of the camera.

But if I set it to detect a person, then it won't trigger unless I stand right straight in front of it.

 

[jedimasterkyle]

I've had hit and miss results with the motion detection. For my EufyCam Indoor that is always plugged into power, I get every single motion notification you can imagine. Doesn't matter if I have it set to Any or Specific motions. I get them all. Sometimes, it's useful. Sometimes, it's annoying. Ironically, setting up the specific alerts actually lowers the amount of notifications I get, especially with my dog walking around the living room. HomeKit wont see him when it's set to "Animal" but it will see it when it's set to "Any" motion.

My EufyCam 2C cameras though...theyre very streaky and I'm still fighting with them. As I found out on the Eufy forums, each 2C camera will have a different firmware for some dumb reason and Eufy refuses to provide an explanation OR get every camera onto the same software. My front door cam works great. My kitchen camera wont detect jack ****. They're the same model but different firmware but they are configured identically in HomeKit, yet one works and one doesn't.

 

[goro123]

I've had hit and miss results with the motion detection. For my EufyCam Indoor that is always plugged into power, I get every single motion notification you can imagine. Doesn't matter if I have it set to Any or Specific motions. I get them all. Sometimes, it's useful. Sometimes, it's annoying. Ironically, setting up the specific alerts actually lowers the amount of notifications I get, especially with my dog walking around the living room. HomeKit wont see him when it's set to "Animal" but it will see it when it's set to "Any" motion.

My EufyCam 2C cameras though...theyre very streaky and I'm still fighting with them. As I found out on the Eufy forums, each 2C camera will have a different firmware for some dumb reason and Eufy refuses to provide an explanation OR get every camera onto the same software. My front door cam works great. My kitchen camera wont detect jack ****. They're the same model but different firmware but they are configured identically in HomeKit, yet one works and one doesn't.

Ha ! Thank you … I don't feel alone anymore

This seem so much like "beta" products. I laugh every time someone mentions "AI". There may be some good AI software somewhere, but what we currently have as consumer products are so far being worth the mention of "intelligent".

It's worrying because what I appreciated about Apple was the quality of their service/product. I don't mind being the first to own whatever piece of hard/software. But I mind having something that work and doesn't require hours of setup.

 

[jedimasterkyle]

Ha ! Thank you … I don't feel alone anymore

This seem so much like "beta" products. I laugh every time someone mentions "AI". There may be some good AI software somewhere, but what we currently have as consumer products are so far being worth the mention of "intelligent".

It's worrying because what I appreciated about Apple was the quality of their service/product. I don't mind being the first to own whatever piece of hard/software. But I mind having something that work and doesn't require hours of setup.

Yeah, Eufy's "AI" constantly labels cats and squirrels as "Humans". There's no way to tell it that those are incorrect results and if you tell Eufy directly, they just say "Oh well". As much as I despise any kind of AI that is being worked on these days, Smart-home AI is FAR from accurate.

 

[goro123]

There might have been an huge upgrade/improvement on People Detection in Apple Home. It is now detecting people far away from the camera (~ 8-10 meters) which it didn't do before !!

It still stubbornly triggers a motion detection when the camera switches to night mode though.

 

[snowatom]

I have two eufy cam 2 (non pro versions) outdoor cameras. And I am having some weird event issues. I also have other branded cameras on power (not battery), and these have no issues detecting events in HomeKit.

But for some reason my eufy battery powered cameras won't detect all motion events in HomeKit, but in the eufy app the motions are detected and recorded.

How come the eufy app is able to detect events and record them, but HomeKit only does some of them? I have set to record ALL motions on both apps (eufy and HomeKit), and not only persons or other specific motions.

I would like to have all the same recordings eufy gets in the app, also in the HomeKit app. And I have no idea why this isn't possible.

 

[goro123]

I have two eufy cam 2 (non pro versions) outdoor cameras. And I am having some weird event issues. I also have other branded cameras on power (not battery), and these have no issues detecting events in HomeKit.

But for some reason my eufy battery powered cameras won't detect all motion events in HomeKit, but in the eufy app the motions are detected and recorded.

How come the eufy app is able to detect events and record them, but HomeKit only does some of them? I have set to record ALL motions on both apps (eufy and HomeKit), and not only persons or other specific motions.

I would like to have all the same recordings eufy gets in the app, also in the HomeKit app. And I have no idea why this isn't possible.

I believe the detection algorithm is specific to each platform. The way HomeKit detects events is unrelated to the Eufy app. In your case it seems the eufy app is more "sensible" to motion.

Now as to why the powered cameras work better in HomeKit than the battery ones… might be many reasons, but it hard to "debug". Maybe the video quality is not the same ? Maybe those use a special infrared detection prior to actual camera to optimise battery, which would not work in HomeKit ?

 

[Kaptajn Haddock]

Homekit is pretty much useless. The automations that should be triggered when nobody is home never works. It doesn’t detect when nobody is home or when someone is home. Embarrasing Apple! And motion detection, as mentioned, only works when set to Any Activity. Using a Logitech Circle View.

Is it possible to completely reset home and start from scratch?

 

[Itinj24]

Homekit is pretty much useless. The automations that should be triggered when nobody is home never works. It doesn’t detect when nobody is home or when someone is home. Embarrasing Apple! And motion detection, as mentioned, only works when set to Any Activity. Using a Logitech Circle View.

Is it possible to completely reset home and start from scratch?

Yeah it’s possible. I’ve done it twice but the more accessories, automations and scenes you have, the bigger the pain in the a$$ it is.

There’s a downloadable HomeKit reset profile from Apple that is supposed to completely wipe your HomeKit data. I tried it a few months ago and haven’t seen any discernible performance improvement. HomeKit is a lost cause.

From the HomeKit community on Reddit

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[Kaptajn Haddock]

Yeah it’s possible. I’ve done it twice but the more accessories, automations and scenes you have, the bigger the pain in the a$$ it is.

There’s a downloadable HomeKit reset profile from Apple that is supposed to completely wipe your HomeKit data. I tried it a few months ago and haven’t seen any discernible performance improvement. HomeKit is a lost cause.

From the HomeKit community on Reddit

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It is as if Apple has given up on it. Guess the eco-system they wanted to build didn't pan out in $$$.

 

[goro123]

Apple is like a single guy managing multiple projects, one at a time… or like operating systems that were multi-tasking : switching its focus from a task to another but unable to complete multiple tasks in parallel.

 

[andyw715]

Homekit is pretty much useless. The automations that should be triggered when nobody is home never works. It doesn’t detect when nobody is home or when someone is home. Embarrasing Apple! And motion detection, as mentioned, only works when set to Any Activity. Using a Logitech Circle View.

Is it possible to completely reset home and start from scratch?

I haven't experienced those issues with my Logi Circle View doorbell.
I have an activity zone setup and notification come in when a person or package is detected, but not if it is a known person (family members). Apple TV is setup only to show notifications when the doorbell itself is pressed.

Now I will tell you that if you use the motion detector itself (of the doorbell) as a trigger for some automation it won't work well, as it uses the video as the trigger (pixel movement) vs infrared like most other motion sensors.
So you get a lot of false detections (actually if you monitor it, the motion state goes on/off almost constantly)

 

[StumpyBloke]

I haven't experienced those issues with my Logi Circle View doorbell.
I have an activity zone setup and notification come in when a person or package is detected, but not if it is a known person (family members). Apple TV is setup only to show notifications when the doorbell itself is pressed.

Now I will tell you that if you use the motion detector itself (of the doorbell) as a trigger for some automation it won't work well, as it uses the video as the trigger (pixel movement) vs infrared like most other motion sensors.
So you get a lot of false detections (actually if you monitor it, the motion state goes on/off almost constantly)

How have you set it up to only alert you if it is a non-known person? I wasn’t aware that was an option…? Cheers.

 

[andyw715]

How have you set it up to only alert you if it is a non-known person? I wasn’t aware that was an option…? Cheers.

well its more of an opt out....once the camera detects a person and does the facial rec...you can go through the photos and unselect them for notifications

Home -> Camera/Doorbell settings -> Facial Recognition -> Known to Household -> Select one and there should be Hide Notification toggle.

 

[StumpyBloke]

well its more of an opt out....once the camera detects a person and does the facial rec...you can go through the photos and unselect them for notifications

Home -> Camera/Doorbell settings -> Facial Recognition -> Known to Household -> Select one and there should be Hide Notification toggle.

Nice! Thanks for that