How to Manage and Reduce Excessive Xiaomi Camera Alerts
A Xiaomi security camera is a fantastic tool for keeping an eye on your home, but a constant stream of notifications can quickly become overwhelming. If your phone is buzzing every few minutes because of moving shadows, pets, or leaves blowing in the wind, it's time to fine-tune your camera's settings.
This guide will walk you through the options available in the Mi Home app to help you take control of your motion alerts. By making a few simple adjustments, you can ensure that you are only notified of events that truly matter.
Common Triggers for False Motion Alerts
Before changing settings, it's helpful to understand what might be causing the unwanted notifications:
- High Sensitivity: The default setting might be too high for your environment, causing the camera to react to very small movements.
- Environmental Factors: Moving trees, shadows from the sun, and even insects can be flagged as motion.
- Light Changes: Sudden changes in lighting, such as a cloud passing or a light being switched on, can trigger an alert.
- Pets and Animals: Your own pets or wildlife can be a frequent source of notifications.
Optimising Your Settings in the Mi Home App
All the tools you need to reduce these alerts are found within your camera's settings in the Mi Home app.
1. Adjust Motion Detection Sensitivity
This is your first and most important adjustment.
- Open the Mi Home app and select the camera you wish to configure.
- Tap the three-dot menu (•••) in the top-right corner.
- Go to Camera settings and then select Motion detection.
- You will see a Motion sensitivity setting. It is often set to 'High' by default.
- Change this setting to Low. This will tell the camera to ignore minor movements and only trigger when a more significant motion is detected.
2. Enable Human Detection
Many modern Xiaomi cameras have an AI-powered human detection feature. This is a game-changer for reducing false alerts.
- In the same Motion detection settings menu, look for a toggle labelled Human detection or AI motion detection.
- Enable this feature. When active, the camera will analyse any motion it detects. If the motion is caused by a person, it will send you an alert. If it's caused by anything else, it will be ignored.
3. Set an Alert Interval
If you are getting multiple alerts for the same event (e.g., someone walking up your path), you can set a 'cool-down' period between notifications.
- In the Motion detection settings, find the Alert interval option.
- You can choose an interval, such as 3 minutes, 5 minutes, or 10 minutes.
- If you select 5 minutes, once the camera sends a motion alert, it will not send another one for at least five minutes, regardless of how much motion it detects during that time. This is excellent for preventing notification spam.
4. Configure a Monitoring Schedule
There's no need to receive motion alerts when you're at home and active during the day. A schedule lets you activate detection only when you need it.
- From the camera's main settings menu, go to Home surveillance settings.
- Here you can set a schedule. You can choose the start and end times for motion detection to be active.
- For example, you could set it to only be active from 11 PM to 7 AM, or during the hours you are typically away at work.
By using these four settings—Sensitivity, Human Detection, Alert Interval, and Scheduling—you can dramatically reduce the number of unwanted notifications from your Xiaomi camera, making it a much more effective and pleasant-to-use security tool.