Amcrest Smart Home "Server" down?

[amcrest168]

52.3.69.209 remains a good ip address for aws but it could be serving another domain at a given point in time. amcrest will have to release another firmware so the doorbell will be able maintain connection to a good dms.zencamcloud.com aws server depending on location and clould load balancing. unfortunately users with home routers on factory firmware will be out of luck at the moment. fortunately dnsmasq workaround exists for dd-wrt and openwrt users.

[srags]

Yes, If the firmware picks one IP from geo location DNS and then sets to just that IP, the AD110 will keep working until that IP goes dark (AWS changes public IPs dynamically) and then the AD110 is offline again and end-users will need to perform the factory reset. I hope Amcrest is considering this a Sev 1 issue but maybe not.. (kind of obvious with the lack of anything). My support case after telling them I will not be able to reset for the next 4 months was

"Unfortunately the only method troubleshooting method that can be taken at this point would be to reset the doorbell. Outside of that you can try uninstalling and reinstalling the app then adding the doorbell to your app manually using the serial number. - Jun 24th"

I told them this was unacceptable answer. and then they sent me something even more discerning as they are off on some other rabbit hole.

"There seems to be another issue occurring that might be related to what you are currently experiencing. Could you provide me with the following information?"

Phone Model:
Mobile Service Provider:
Doorbell Firmware:
Time-zone:

I told them this has nothing to do with my Phone. WOW!! (1 star)

I saw someone talking about storage. I did have a bit of a battle with that as well since I DO NOT UPLOAD anything to the cloud.

The microSD cards are now being shipped with exFAT (which is not FAT32) format. Windows 10 will not format FAT32 for larger microSD. There are several utilities available that you can download and force Windows 10 to format with FAT32 which is required by the AD110. I also noticed if there are any files placed on the root directory the AD110 get confused and will not work with the microSD card. So format using utility (I believe I used rufus to format FAT32 with FreeDos and then just delete everything). That should fix any microSD issues..

[eb4three]

This is totally unacceptable. What good is a Video Doorbell if you cant monitor it. It might be time to look elsewhere.

[srags]

At this point Amcrest Smart Home should get out of the Doorbell business. zero stars... I am returning the device I have physical access to and in 4 months replacing the other with some other companies product. They should have had enough time to band-aid this. I heard comments that they are not in on the weekend. They should have been working on this 7 days a week until they fixed it or had a workaround. Too little too late now..

[CaliforniaSol]

This item should be recalled. These people are NOT software engineers but hacks. How can I monitor my home and family safely without a reliable product? Total oversight on their part and I agree, they should be doing overtime to figure out a workaround.

[Revo2Maxx]

@CaliforniaSol Hello and welcome to the Forum

Sadly it is hard to say if the Team is working on it or not I am going to guess that they were/are and a solution will have released before long. This is a Software issue a Recall isn't something that is needed as the device works until the Cloud changes IP and the camera I am guessing has the wrong setting to be able to follow to the new IP... As soon as they can find out what and or why there I am going to guess going to be a new FW to fix the issue...

[CaliforniaSol]

Thanks for the reassurance. Hopefully a good firmware will be out and available soon. I have a few other Amcrest products and am generally happy with them. The doorbell has been great up until this issue.

[tgfarrell]

@GaryOkie Mine was fine until late last week. I was able to see the SD card videos, everything was working fine. Then it went offline. So my thinking is reverting to the old FW might resolve this. Nothing wrong with the SD card itself. I just don't want to do a hard reset cause I'm stubborn I guess.

[GaryOkie]

@tgfarrell - yours went offline the same week as mine, when the AWS Virgina IP was changed. I was just as stubborn in refusing to do a factory reset, hoping to see some official announcement from Amcrest about this service outage.

That announcement still has yet to come, and no telling how long before a firmware fix will be out, which should have been part of that announcement weeks ago.

I doubt that installing the old firmware will resolve this issue, as it will most likely retain the original configuration it had before, including the same AWS IP that is now does not respond. Not saying it won't, just it's unlikely.

I'm fortunate to have the ability to configure my router as a workaround. For others, being stubborn and waiting is one approach, factory reset is another.

[pcabral]

And once again at 2am EST the device turns on night vision by itself and goes into a reboot loop. Now there seems to be a pattern.... every Tuesday at exactly 2am EST for the past 3 weeks this has occurred! Is it being remotely commanded? Is it a software bug? These guys need to get their act together!