Suffering from Canary Delayed Notifications? Here's How to Fix It Fast
Your Canary camera is a smart, vigilant guardian for your home, but its effectiveness is severely hampered if its notifications don't arrive on time. An alert that shows up minutes after someone has approached your door or entered a room is a missed opportunity to take action. If you're experiencing a frustrating lag between events and alerts, it's time to troubleshoot.
Delayed notifications are almost always a symptom of a bottleneck in communication. This can be your home Wi-Fi, your phone's internet connection, or even the settings on your device. This guide will walk you through the most common causes and provide clear, easy-to-follow steps to diagnose and fix the issue, ensuring your Canary alerts are as close to instant as possible.
## Why Are My Canary Notifications Slow?
Understanding the potential weak spots is the first step. When your Canary detects motion, it has to:
- Capture and process the video clip.
- Upload the clip to Canary's cloud servers over your home Wi-Fi.
- The cloud servers then analyse the clip and send a push notification to your phone.
- Your phone receives the notification over its own Wi-Fi or mobile data connection.
A delay can happen at any stage. A weak Wi-Fi signal at the camera (step 2) is the most common culprit, followed by a poor connection on your phone (step 4).
## Your Step-by-Step Guide to Real-Time Canary Alerts
Let's systematically address each potential problem area.
### 1. Strengthen Your Canary's Wi-Fi Connection
The stability of your Canary camera depends entirely on its connection to your router.
- Check the Signal: Don't just assume the signal is strong. Wi-Fi can be affected by walls, furniture, and interference from other devices. Try temporarily moving your Canary device closer to your Wi-Fi router. If the notifications become faster, you've found your problem: a weak signal.
- Improve the Signal: If the signal is the issue, you have a few options. You can either move your router to a more central location, or you can purchase a Wi-Fi extender or mesh system to boost the signal in the area where your Canary is located.
- Run a Network Test: In the Canary app, go to Settings > My Devices > [Your Canary's Name] > Device connection. Here you can run a health check which includes testing the Wi-Fi signal strength.
### 2. Optimise Your Smartphone Settings
Your phone's settings can have a huge impact on how quickly you receive notifications.
- Check Your Phone's Internet: Is your phone on a slow Wi-Fi network or in an area with poor mobile data coverage? Try switching between Wi-Fi and mobile data to see if it makes a difference.
- Turn Off Battery Savers: Aggressive battery or data saving modes are a primary cause of notification delays.
- On iPhone: Make sure Low Power Mode is turned off in your Battery settings.
- On Android: Find the Canary app in your phone's settings, go to its Battery usage section, and set it to Unrestricted or "Allow background activity".
- Verify Notification Permissions: Double-check that the Canary app has full permission to send you notifications in your phone's main settings menu.
### 3. Refresh and Restart
Sometimes all that's needed is a quick refresh to clear out any software glitches.
- Restart Your Canary: You can do this remotely from the app. Go to Settings > My Devices > [Your Canary's Name] and scroll down to Restart. If the device is offline, you can do it manually by unplugging it from power for 30 seconds and then plugging it back in.
- Restart Your Router: Your home router can also benefit from a periodic reboot. Unplug it for a minute and plug it back in. This can clear its memory and improve performance.
- Log Out of the App: Sign out of the Canary app on your phone and then sign back in. This forces a new connection to the Canary servers.
By working through these steps, you can identify and resolve the cause of your delayed Canary notifications and restore the instant, reliable alerts you need to keep your home secure.