HomeKit Secure Video bug means thumbnails can show outdated views
William Gallagher
An unknown number of users with HomeKit Secure Video cameras report that while live viewing works correctly, the thumbnail views are failing to refresh normally.
Since late December, a growing number of users have been reporting the problem. It means that glancing at the Home app's cameras no longer necessarily shows the latest thumbnail grab from the video.
Well damn. My HomeKit cameras are having issues again (but only in the HomeKit app). Their manufacturer app still works fine.
— Mario Guzman (@MarioGuzman) January 3, 2022
- Thumbnail keeps reverting to an old thumbnail
- The immediately show the "now" timestamp
- Eventually they will just stop working all-together in Home
There doesn't appear to be a consistent cause, though it does seem to be limited to the Home app rather than each camera's own third-party one.
It's also not certain whether it's limited to particular cameras, as both eufy and Netatmo have been mentioned in some reports, as first spotted by MacRumors.
Users are reporting solutions with varying degrees of success. Restarting all devices has worked for some, while signing out of their Apple ID account, and then back in again, has helped others.
So far, however, it appears that these workaround solutions are proving to be temporary. There are repeated accounts of the issue being fixed, only to recur again later.
Apple has not yet commented on the issue.
This is not the first camera issue that HomeKit Secure Video has had. The release of iOS 15 affected security cameras for a number of users in October 2021.
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
Marko Zivkovic
David Schloss
Wesley Hilliard
Mike Wuerthele and Malcolm Owen
5 Comments
A true first world problem, but it is the case for my five camera system (four d-links and a logitech doorbell camera). It is intermittent and seems to rear it’s head with the network is having an off day.
I just assumed normal technology behavior in a time of too much complexity.
I've got 9 camera feeds via 3 different sources. One is via HomeBridge which connects up to my Ring doorbell. That one is somewhat consistent, but the "Talk" feature is very laggy. It's an unsupported setup so I rarely rely on it. The second is also via HomeBridge which connects up to my UniFi controller with 3 cameras. That one is the most consistent (although also unsupported). The last one is my Eufy setup which is ironically supported, but the most unreliable. Cameras are constantly going offline and the only way to get them to reconnect is a factory reset. This is a HomeKit issue as whenever any camera is offline in HomeKit it's still available in the 3rd party app.
Now every camera shows a "now" thumbnail that's just black. Previously that now label would start counting up to indicate how old the thumbnail is. Now it's just sitting at "now"
Same here. I see my neighbors Christmas lights, that he took down last weekend, in the preview thumbnail.
My Logitech Circle View’s overnight recordings of animals on my front porch are not playing back correctly. I see no animals and the image is just a series flashing over and under-exposed static images. Very weird.
It’s not just a HomeKit Secure Video bug, it’s a HomeKit camera bug. My Nest Hello (connected using Starling Home Hub) has the same thumbnail issue as my native HKSV Eufy cameras.