How to Manage and Reduce Too Many Guardzilla Alerts
A security camera should enhance your sense of security, not create a constant stream of digital noise. If your phone is perpetually buzzing with notifications from your Guardzilla camera, it's easy to become desensitised and potentially miss an important alert. This guide will provide you with practical steps to take control and reduce the overwhelming number of notifications.
1. Use the Arm and Disarm Modes Correctly
The Guardzilla system is designed around different modes of operation, and using them correctly is the simplest way to manage alert flow.
- Arm Mode: You should 'Arm' your system when you leave the house or go to sleep. In this mode, the camera is actively monitoring for motion and will send you a notification for every event it detects.
- Disarm Mode: You should 'Disarm' your system when you are home and moving about. When disarmed, the camera will typically continue to record video (depending on your settings) but will not send you push notifications for motion events. Getting into the habit of disarming the system when you arrive home will immediately stop the flow of unnecessary alerts.
2. Tune the Motion Detection Sensitivity
If you're getting too many alerts even when the system is armed, the motion sensitivity is likely set too high for its environment.
- Open the Guardzilla app and navigate to the settings for the camera you want to adjust.
- Find the 'Motion Sensitivity' setting.
- If the setting is on 'High', try reducing it to 'Medium' or 'Low'.
- This adjustment will make the camera less reactive to smaller movements, such as pets, swaying plants, or distant traffic, thereby reducing the number of triggered alerts.
3. Optimise Camera Placement
The camera's position and field of view are critical. A poorly placed camera will inevitably generate a high volume of alerts.
- Focus on Key Areas: Position your camera so it is focused on a specific entry point, like a front door or a back gate, rather than a wide, busy area.
- Avoid Constant Motion: Check the camera's view for anything that moves continuously. This could be a flag, a wind chime, a bush that sways in the wind, or even a busy road in the background. If possible, angle the camera to exclude these constant motion sources from its view.
- Consider Indoor Placement: For indoor cameras, avoid pointing them at areas where pets frequently roam or out of windows that show public traffic, as these will lead to a high number of non-threatening alerts.
4. Reboot the Camera
On occasion, a camera's software can encounter a glitch, causing it to behave unexpectedly, which could include sending excessive notifications. A simple power cycle can often resolve this.
- Unplug your Guardzilla camera from its power source.
- Wait for 30-60 seconds.
- Plug it back in and allow it to fully restart and connect to the network.
By mastering the Arm/Disarm feature and carefully tuning your camera's sensitivity and placement, you can significantly reduce the number of unwanted notifications and turn your Guardzilla system into a much smarter and more effective security tool.