Swann Motion Detection Not Working? Let's Fix It.
Your Swann security system is designed to provide peace of mind by recording activity and alerting you to potential threats. If you've discovered that your cameras are not detecting or recording motion, it's a critical issue that needs immediate attention. Fortunately, the problem is rarely a hardware fault and can almost always be traced back to a misconfiguration in the system's settings.
This comprehensive guide will walk you through the essential settings to check, from the recording schedule to motion sensitivity, ensuring your system captures the events that matter.
Understanding the Core Causes of Failure
When a Swann camera fails to record motion, it's typically due to one of these three reasons:
- Incorrect Recording Schedule: You may have motion detection turned on, but the master schedule for that camera might be telling it to record continuously or not at all, overriding the motion settings.
- Improper Motion Settings: The sensitivity could be set too low to pick up the movement you're concerned about, or the detection area might be incorrectly defined, causing the camera to ignore the relevant part of the scene.
- Notification Settings Are Off: In many cases, the system is recording the motion events, but the setting to send a 'push' notification to your smartphone is disabled, making you think it's not working.
Step-by-Step Troubleshooting for Swann Motion Detection
Follow these steps on your Swann DVR or NVR to diagnose and resolve the issue. The menu layout may vary slightly depending on your model, but the principles are the same.
Step 1: Check the Main Recording Schedule
This is the master control and the most common point of failure.
- Log into your system's main menu.
- Navigate to Record > Record Schedule (or similar).
- You will see a grid representing the hours in the day for each camera (channel).
- The colours are important: Green usually means Continuous, Yellow means Motion, and Blue can mean Alarm.
- Ensure the schedule for the problematic camera is set to Yellow (Motion) for the times you want it to be active. If it's Green, it will record everything and won't create specific motion events. If it's blank, it won't record at all.
- Be sure to save your changes.
Step 2: Configure Motion Detection Settings
Once the schedule is correct, you need to fine-tune how the camera detects motion.
- Go to the Alarm > Motion Detection menu (it may also be under 'Event').
- Select the Channel (camera) you want to configure.
- Enable Motion Detection: Make sure the main 'Enable' checkbox is ticked.
- Set the Detection Area: Click the 'Setup' or 'Area' button. This shows you the camera's view with a grid. Ensure the area you want to monitor is selected (usually in red). You can deselect areas that cause false alarms, like a busy street. This is called 'masking'.
- Adjust Sensitivity: This is a crucial setting. If you are missing events, the sensitivity is too low. Increase it gradually. If you are getting too many false alarms (from trees, shadows), decrease it. A mid-range setting is a good place to start.
Step 3: Differentiate Between Motion Types (If Applicable)
Some Swann systems have multiple detection types.
- PIR Detection: If your camera has a PIR (Passive Infrared) sensor, it detects heat. This is far more accurate for detecting people and animals. You should enable this if available.
- Video Motion: This is standard pixel-based detection.
- Often, you can set the system to trigger only when both PIR and Video Motion are detected, which is a powerful way to reduce false alarms.
Step 4: Enable Push Notifications
If the system is recording but you aren't getting alerts on your phone:
- Find the Network > Push or Alarm > Linkage menu.
- For motion events, you must enable the 'Push' or 'Mobile Notified' checkbox for each channel.
- Open the Swann Security app on your phone, go into the device settings, and ensure notifications are enabled there as well.
By methodically checking that the schedule is set to motion, that the motion detection itself is enabled and properly configured, and that the notification linkage is active, you can resolve the vast majority of detection issues.