Is Your Yale Smart Camera Missing Important Recordings?
The primary purpose of a security camera is to record what happens. If you discover that your Yale camera has failed to record a specific event—or isn't recording anything at all—it can seriously undermine your sense of security. Gaps in your video history are a problem that needs to be addressed immediately.
This issue is typically caused by one of a few key factors, usually related to your subscription, network connection, or motion detection settings. This guide will help you systematically troubleshoot the problem and ensure your camera captures every important moment.
1. Check Your Yale Subscription Status
This is the most common culprit for missed recordings. Yale smart cameras require an active subscription plan to record and store video clips in the cloud. If your trial period has ended or your subscription has expired, the recording feature will cease to function.
How to verify your subscription:
- Open the Yale app on your smartphone.
- Navigate to the Account or Settings section.
- Find the Subscription Management page.
- Check the status of your plan for the specific camera that is not recording. Ensure it is active.
- If it has expired, you will need to renew it to restore the recording functionality.
2. Review Motion Detection Settings
If your subscription is active, the next area to investigate is the motion detection configuration. The camera will only record when it thinks it has detected relevant motion.
Key settings to adjust in the Yale app:
- Motion Detection Zones: Go to your camera's settings and find the Activity Zones or Motion Zones editor. Make sure you have drawn active zones that cover the entire area where you expect to capture events (e.g., your entire pathway, not just a small part of it). If an event happens outside of an active zone, it will not be recorded.
- Motion Sensitivity: Find the Motion Sensitivity slider. If the sensitivity is set too low, the camera may not be triggered by subtle movements or events happening further away. Try increasing the sensitivity level slightly.
- Smart Alerts: Ensure that you have alerts enabled for the types of motion you want to record, such as people, vehicles, or animals.
3. Check Camera Mode and Scheduling
Some security systems allow you to set different modes (e.g., "Home," "Away," "Disarmed") which can change the camera's behaviour. You might have inadvertently set the system to a mode where recording is disabled.
- Check Current Mode: In the main dashboard of the Yale app, check which mode is currently active.
- Edit Mode Settings: Go into the mode settings and ensure that the camera in question is set to "Record Motion" in the modes you use most often.
- Schedules: Check if you have a schedule activated that might be turning off motion detection or recording during certain times of the day.
4. Assess Wi-Fi Connectivity
A poor or intermittent Wi-Fi connection can prevent the camera from successfully uploading video clips to the cloud, even if it detects motion.
- Signal Strength: In the camera's device settings within the app, find the Network or Wi-Fi status page. Check the signal strength. If it is weak or poor, the camera may be struggling to stay connected.
- Troubleshooting: To improve the signal, you may need to move your Wi-Fi router closer to the camera or install a Wi-Fi extender or mesh network system to provide a more robust connection.
5. Power Cycle the Camera
Sometimes, a simple restart can resolve temporary software glitches. Unplug your Yale camera from its power source, wait for a full minute, and then plug it back in. Allow it a few minutes to reboot and reconnect to your network, then test to see if it's recording motion correctly.