How to Fix Annoying Lag on Your Canary Camera
A lagging or buffering video stream from your Canary camera can be incredibly frustrating. Whether you're trying to check in on your home, see a motion alert, or use the two-way talk feature, a choppy and delayed video feed defeats the purpose of having a real-time security camera.
The good news is that video lag is almost always a solvable network issue. This guide will walk you through the common causes of lag and provide clear, step-by-step solutions to get your Canary streaming smoothly again.
Understanding Why Your Canary Camera Lags
Your Canary camera needs to capture video, compress it, and then upload it over your Wi-Fi network to Canary's servers. You then stream it back down to your phone. A bottleneck anywhere in this process will result in lag, buffering, or a frozen image.
Common causes include:
- Weak Wi-Fi Signal: The further your camera is from your router, the weaker the signal, leading to an unstable connection.
- Slow Internet Upload Speed: Your home internet's upload speed is critical. If it's too slow, the camera can't send the video data fast enough.
- Network Congestion: Too many devices using your Wi-Fi at the same time can overwhelm your router and slow everything down.
- Router Issues: An old or poorly configured router can struggle to handle the demands of video streaming.
Step-by-Step Guide to Eliminating Camera Lag
Let's start with the most likely culprits and work our way through the solutions.
Step 1: Reboot Your Equipment
This is the simplest and often most effective first step. A reboot can clear temporary memory issues and glitches in your devices.
- Unplug your Canary camera from the power source.
- Unplug your Wi-Fi router and/or modem from the power source.
- Wait for at least 60 seconds.
- Plug your modem back in first and wait for it to fully power on.
- Plug your router back in and wait for it to fully boot up.
- Finally, plug your Canary camera back in.
Wait a few minutes and then check the live stream to see if the performance has improved.
Step 2: Analyse Your Network Connection
If a reboot didn't solve it, it's time to investigate your network's performance.
- Check Upload Speed: Use your smartphone (connected to the same Wi-Fi) and a speed test website or app. Pay close attention to the upload speed. Canary recommends a minimum of 1 Mbps of sustained upload speed per camera. If your speed is below this, the camera will struggle.
- Check Wi-Fi Signal Strength: Physical distance and obstacles like thick walls, floors, and even large appliances can weaken your Wi-Fi signal. Try temporarily moving your Canary camera closer to your router. If the lag disappears, you know that a weak signal is the problem. You may need to move your router to a more central location or consider a Wi-Fi mesh system or extender.
Step 3: Reduce Network Congestion
Your Wi-Fi network has a limited amount of bandwidth. If other devices are using it all, your camera will suffer.
- Limit Other Activities: As a test, stop any high-bandwidth activities on your network. This includes 4K video streaming on a TV, online gaming, or downloading large files. Check your Canary's stream again. If it's now smooth, you've found the issue.
- Use the 5GHz Band: If you have a dual-band router, try connecting your high-bandwidth devices (like your TV or games console) to the 5GHz Wi-Fi band and leave the 2.4GHz band for smart home devices like your Canary.
Step 4: Check for Service Issues
On rare occasions, the issue might not be in your home at all.
- Check Canary's Status Page: Canary runs an official status page at status.canary.is. Visit this page to see if they are reporting any active incidents or outages that could be affecting performance.
By systematically working through these network troubleshooting steps, you can identify the bottleneck causing your Canary camera to lag and take the right steps to achieve a smooth, reliable video stream.