Tired of Constant, Unnecessary August Notifications?
Your August Doorbell Cam is supposed to alert you to important activity at your front door, but a constant barrage of notifications for passing cars, swaying branches, or even changing shadows can be more annoying than helpful. These "false positives" can cause you to start ignoring alerts altogether, defeating the purpose of your smart doorbell.
The good news is that you have powerful tools within the August app to dramatically reduce these unwanted alerts. By fine-tuning a few key settings, you can teach your camera what to look for and what to ignore.
1. Adjust Motion Sensitivity
The most straightforward setting to adjust is Motion Sensitivity. This controls how much movement is required to trigger an alert. If it's set too high, even the smallest motion can set it off.
How to change the sensitivity:
- Open the August app and go to your Doorbell Cam settings.
- Find the Motion & Detection (or similar) menu.
- You will see a setting for Motion Sensitivity. It might be a slider or a set of options like "Low," "Medium," and "High."
- If you are getting too many alerts, it's likely set to "High." Try reducing it to Medium or even Low.
- Monitor your alerts for a day or two. You may need to experiment to find the sweet spot that ignores trivial motion but still catches people approaching your door.
2. Create Custom Motion Zones
This is the single most effective way to eliminate false alerts from traffic or pedestrians. Motion Zones allow you to draw specific areas in your camera's field of view that you want to monitor. Any motion outside these zones will be completely ignored.
How to set up Motion Zones:
- In your Doorbell Cam's settings, find the Motion Zones editor.
- You will see the live view from your camera with a grid overlaid.
- Tap or draw to create one or more zones that cover only the areas you care about.
- Be specific: Draw your zones to include your porch, your front steps, and the path leading to your door.
- Crucially, exclude areas that cause false alerts, such as the public pavement, the road, and your neighbour's property.
- Save your zones. Now, only motion that occurs within these designated areas will trigger a recording and a notification.
3. Enable Smart Alerts (Person Detection)
Many modern smart doorbells, including August, use artificial intelligence to identify what is causing the motion. Enabling "Person Detection" tells the system to only send you a notification when it specifically identifies the shape of a person.
How to enable Person Detection:
- Go to the Notification Settings for your Doorbell Cam in the August app.
- Look for options under Smart Alerts.
- Make sure that Person Detection is toggled on.
- You may see separate toggles for other types of motion (e.g., "All Other Motion"). You can turn these off if you only want to be alerted when a person is at your door.
This feature is incredibly effective at filtering out alerts from cars, animals, and other irrelevant sources.
4. Consider Camera Placement and Environment
Sometimes, factors outside of the software can contribute to false alerts.
- Direct Sunlight: If the sun shines directly into the lens at certain times of day, the dramatic change in light and shadow can sometimes trigger an alert.
- Reflective Surfaces: Reflections from windows or puddles of water can also cause false triggers.
- Moving Objects: A flag, wind chime, or large plant that moves in the wind within one of your motion zones will constantly trigger alerts. You may need to adjust your zones or move the object if possible.
By combining these strategies—lowering sensitivity, creating precise zones, and enabling person detection—you can transform your notification experience from noisy and distracting to quiet and genuinely useful.