How to Fix Canary Notification Delays and Lag
A security camera's value is tied to the speed of its alerts. If you're receiving notifications from your Canary camera minutes after an event has occurred, it significantly reduces its effectiveness. This guide will walk you through the common causes of notification lag and how to fix them.
Understanding the Notification Journey
To troubleshoot effectively, it helps to understand the path a notification takes:
- Motion Detected: Your Canary camera detects motion.
- Video Upload: The camera uploads a video clip of the event to Canary's cloud servers.
- Server Analysis: The servers process the video and identify the motion event.
- Push Notification: Canary's servers send a push notification to Apple's or Google's notification service.
- Alert on Phone: The notification service delivers the alert to your smartphone.
A delay at any stage in this chain will result in a lagged notification on your screen.
Step 1: Check Your Home Network (The Upload Stage)
The most common bottleneck is the connection between your Canary camera and your Wi-Fi router. The critical factor here is upload speed.
- Test Your Speed: Use a speed testing app or website on your phone while connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your Canary. Canary requires a minimum sustained upload speed of 1-2 Mbps per camera. If your upload speed is low, the video clip will take too long to reach the servers.
- Signal Strength: A weak Wi-Fi signal can cause packet loss and slow uploads. In the Canary app, check the camera's device details to see its Wi-Fi signal strength. If it's weak, try moving your camera closer to your router, or vice versa.
- Network Congestion: If other devices on your network are heavily using the upload bandwidth (e.g., online gaming, video conferencing, file backups), it can slow down your Canary camera.
Solution: Restart your router and modem. If the problem persists, you may need to upgrade your internet plan for better upload speeds or investigate a mesh Wi-Fi system for better coverage.
Step 2: Optimise Your Smartphone's Settings
The issue can also be with how your phone receives and processes the notification.
- Battery Optimisation: This is a major culprit, especially on Android. Aggressive battery-saving modes can 'hibernate' apps like Canary, preventing them from receiving instant notifications.
- Action: Go into your phone's battery settings and find the Canary app. Ensure that it is exempted from any battery optimisation or 'deep sleep' features. Allow it to run in the background.
- App Permissions: Ensure the Canary app has all the necessary permissions. Go to your phone's app settings, select Canary, and verify that 'Notifications' are enabled.
- Do Not Disturb Mode: Check that your phone is not in a 'Do Not Disturb' or 'Focus' mode that could be silencing or delaying app alerts.
Step 3: Review Your Canary App Settings
The way you've configured the Canary app itself can impact alerts.
- Check Your Mode: Canary's modes (Away, Home, Night) are designed to control when you get alerts. If you are experiencing delays, first confirm that you are in the correct mode. If your app is set to 'Home' and you have motion alerts turned off for that mode, you won't get notifications.
- Location Services: Canary uses your phone's location to automatically switch between 'Home' and 'Away' modes. If your location services are turned off or inaccurate, the app may not switch to 'Away' mode when you leave, meaning you won't get the alerts you expect. Ensure the Canary app has 'Always' access to your location for this feature to work reliably.
Step 4: Reboot the Canary Camera
Finally, a simple reboot can clear temporary software glitches.
- Action: Unplug the Canary camera from its power source. Wait a full 60 seconds to ensure all capacitors are discharged. Then, plug it back in. The device will take a few minutes to reboot and reconnect. This can often resolve unexplained delays.
By systematically checking your network, phone settings, and app configuration, you can identify and eliminate the cause of your Canary notification lag.