How to Stop Eufy False Notifications
Eufy security cameras are excellent for keeping you informed about activity around your home, but a constant stream of false notifications can be more annoying than helpful. Alerts for swaying trees, passing cars, or your own pet can lead to "alert fatigue," causing you to ignore a notification that might actually be important.
This guide will show you how to use the powerful features within the Eufy Security app to fine-tune your camera's settings. By customising motion sensitivity, activity zones, and detection types, you can significantly reduce unwanted alerts and ensure you're only notified about the events that truly matter.
Understanding the Cause of False Alerts
Your Eufy camera uses a combination of a passive infrared (PIR) sensor to detect heat and motion, and artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse the video and identify the source. False alerts happen when the system is triggered by:
- Environmental Movement: Wind blowing through trees, bushes, or flags.
- Changing Light: Moving shadows from clouds or reflections from car headlights.
- Insects and Animals: Spiders crawling on the lens or small animals and pets moving in the detection zone.
- Heat Sources: Vents from dryers or air conditioning units that emit warm air.
- High Sensitivity Settings: The default sensitivity may simply be too high for your specific environment.
Step-by-Step Guide to Reducing False Notifications
Work through these settings in your Eufy Security app to regain control over your alerts. For each step, make one change at a time and monitor the results for a day before making further adjustments.
Step 1: Adjust Motion Detection Sensitivity
This is your first and most important tool. A lower sensitivity requires more significant motion to trigger a recording and notification.
- Open the Eufy Security App: Select the camera you want to adjust.
- Go to Camera Settings: Tap the gear icon (⚙️) and then select Motion Detection.
- Lower the Sensitivity: You will see a sensitivity slider, usually with levels from 1 to 7. If you are getting many false alerts, the level is likely too high. Lower it by one level.
- Test: Observe the camera's behaviour. If you still receive too many false alerts, lower it by another level. Be careful not to set it so low that it misses real events.
Step 2: Set Up Activity Zones
Activity Zones tell your camera to ignore motion outside of a specific area you define. This is perfect for excluding busy roads, neighbours' gardens, or rustling trees.
- Navigate to Motion Detection: In the camera's settings, go back to the Motion Detection section.
- Select Activity Zone: Tap on this option to see the camera's live view.
- Define the Area: You can draw one or more rectangular zones. Adjust the corners so the zone only covers the areas you care about, such as your walkway, driveway, or doorway. Exclude everything else.
- Save the Zone: Once you are happy with the area, save it. The camera will now only trigger alerts for motion detected inside this box.
Step 3: Specify the Detection Type
Eufy's AI is excellent at identifying different types of motion. Make sure you are using it to its full potential.
- Go to Detection Settings: In the camera's settings menu, find Detection Type or a similar option.
- Choose 'Human Only': If your primary concern is human intruders, select the Human Only option. This tells the camera to ignore pets, vehicles, and other general motion, which is the single most effective way to eliminate the majority of false alerts. If you also want to be notified about pets, you can select 'Human & Pet'.
Step 4: Update Your Firmware
Eufy regularly releases firmware updates for their cameras that improve the performance of the motion detection AI and fix bugs.
- In the camera's settings, go to About Device > Check for firmware update.
- Install any available updates to ensure your camera is running on the latest, most intelligent software.
By combining these four strategies—adjusting sensitivity, creating precise activity zones, specifying the detection type, and keeping your firmware updated—you can transform your Eufy camera from a source of annoyance into a highly accurate and reliable security tool.