Excessive Alert Emails

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zkaps
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Re: Excessive Alert Emails

Post by zkaps »

The issue is excessive SMTP emails when motion is detected per the specifics I provided. Apologies for the misunderstanding.
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Revo2Maxx
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Re: Excessive Alert Emails

Post by Revo2Maxx »

Ok so I had someone contact me and say I was full of BS and I thought I would clear this up.

First I have my own Email Server and I can choose how tight I want my email server. So yeah I can get email from old FW Cameras.. As I said before I started my test with old FW x2 one from 2016, one from 2018 and one from 2020, I thought I had already turned them all off from sending email from the cameras about 2 hours ago however my 2018 FW camera still sending emails lol.

So in my Testing I did want to see if one was more Sensitive then the others and in truth the 2020 FW camera gets less alerts. So I wanted to test this out and make sure it wasn't an issue within the camera so I turned on my ASP to send emails as well. Again ASP will not send emails to my server the way I can setup my 2020 FW camera I have to setup the ASP to send emails like I send my older FW cameras and I can get emails.. Sure enough when the 2020 FW camera isn't sending an email ASP didn't send for the camera either..

The cool thing and something to think about for people out there that have the ability...

When you setup ASP to send you emails.. It will send you one for each camera that gets an alerts.. Rather then sending 3 or 2 for the older FW that was sending more often then the 2020 one.

So I don't know that it matters really seeing not many people have 3 cameras pointed in the same area of interest and or setup for in the same grid. I did mess around with the Grid in my ROI so I could also get some different alerts for the cameras later in my testing.. But in all, My cameras didn't send out any odd emails if there was an email there was a motion..

I would Reset your camera and setup again.. Personally I wouldn't Export and inport your settings seeing it could just put back in the bad setting that is making it send to many emails..

In my 20 hours of testing I did with the 3 cameras there was 421 alerts on my view, I know this because my NVR counts the events, out of the 421 the 2020 fw camera sent 398 emails and and the 2 older fW cameras had 419 on both. They are side by side one another at no zoom, where the 2020 is about 3ft away and zoomed in a little to get only the monitor in view.
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zkaps
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Joined: Mon Dec 13, 2021 6:23 pm

Re: Excessive Alert Emails

Post by zkaps »

As you were doing the testing on your end, I did reset my camera. The primary parameter that impacts the SMTP email alert FREQUENCY for an event is the Anti-Dither parameter. The shorter the Anti-Dither duration the higher the probability multiple SMTP emails will be sent for the same situation. Sensitivity and Threshold parameters are key for determining whether or not there is motion but do not impact SMTP email alert frequency. The camera's sensitivity to motion and SMTP email alerts are separate issues (if interested, see my post on False Positives).

One FYI regarding the 2020 FW since you mention it in your last post. Back at the end of November I was out of the country (U.S.) for a week and prior to my departure, I forgot to enable motion detection on my IP2M-841. When I arrived at my destination, I tried enabling motion via Amcrestview. I could not connect to the camera so I blamed networking....outside of the U.S., IP address filters, etc. but without any proof that networking was the issue. When I returned to the U.S. a week later, I connected my smartphone to the my home's WiFi and connected to the camera; no problem. I then turned-off WiFi on my smartphone and enabled 4G. I could not connect to the camera just like when I was abroad so networking outside the U.S. had nothing to do with the problem. I had not changed any settings in my camera for months so I could not understand why all of a sudden I was having this problem...and then I remembered. About a month prior to my trip I had updated the FW to the 2020 version. I backed-out the 2020 FW, reinstalled the 2019 FW and all is well again. The 2020 FW must have some type of networking-related glitch so the 2020 FW is not an option.

Have a Happy New Year !

Thanks,
Zkaps
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Revo2Maxx
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Re: Excessive Alert Emails

Post by Revo2Maxx »

That is interesting. I am using 2020 FW on my camera and I am connected VIA P2P without an issue on the camera. In fact so I was doing the testing without any setting differences I have them all connected in app and ASP using P2P and all of them work fine in motion alerts part of the settings.

There is 1 odd thing really between all of my 3 cameras only 1 of them is sending the right amount of images in email and oddly that is the 2016 FW one. The other no matter how hard I try I get mostly 1 picture and sometimes it will get 2. I turned them on again last night after my post, I did a Factory Reset of the 3 Cameras, I set them back up with smtp. Even changing the 2020 fw to 5 images and I still get 1 or none on that camera most times none. 2018 FW I get 1 constant even though I have 3 picked and looking over the ones that came in the night out of the 219 emails from the cameras the 2018 sent only 3 with 2 images in it. I will admit the 2018 FW camera was a 2019 and 2020 FW that has since rolled back and isn't as stable as it could have been seeing I think I got the camera bad to start with. 2018 FW is only thing that makes it 1/2 stable.

What era is your 841?

my oldest from 2015 with PRE Amcrest Mac address has the 2016 FW and I keep it there even though I get spammed about needing to update it to the 2018 version the next one is also old but not that old it has 2020 FW and the 2018 when built I got from Amcrest in 2019 after the new FW was released with the new FW. It never worked well on new FW and has since been returned with 2018 FW and works 45% better then before.

What upsets me the most. the oldest FW camera has been the only one to send 3 images every time. The other 2 even lowering the quality of image to send and upping the number of pictures requested I get 1 or none in the 2020 fw camera and 1 or 2 in the 2018. Newer FW things should get better not worse. Also there is loads of IP Traffic for the 2020 FW camera. I wonder if all the extra traffic needed for the 2019 and 2020 fw cameras if that is lowering the image send ability?

You getting 3 images or you asking for just 1? Also what quality do you have it set on under snapshot? I have it down to 3 where the 2016 FW one I have it set on 5 and still every email has had 3 images everytime.
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Revo2Maxx
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Re: Excessive Alert Emails

Post by Revo2Maxx »

All of the cameras after Reset now have 3 images in each. As long as I keep the settings the same as they started. Once I try to change something the number of images are lower if at all. So last night when I did the Resets, I put the NEW FW camera back to settings I had *Mistake* since I just reset again and only changed grid and added in email I get 3 images in all cameras now.

Doing some testing I found even a little adjustment of settings makes it so things don't work well. Reboot or unplug and power back on same results so I Reset again and change grid info, IP from DHCP to static, and add in my email info only change made leaving FPS and Bit Rate as it reset value where last night changed to 22 and 18 respectfully this time left that alone as well. Again now all 3 cameras are giving 3 images. However I have not had any issues with emails outside of real motion detections. So I am not sure where the issue is right now with yours I can't get any of them to mail more then expected.
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Revo2Maxx
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Re: Excessive Alert Emails

Post by Revo2Maxx »

So yeah looking over everything. IT all seems to work well with Factory reset settings. I just did Reset all the cameras as stated above only changing the add email, remove the Amcrest logo, Ip Static, and left the rest as it was Every event all have been on point and no extra emails and all of them have same Grid settings besides the area is little different because of camera placement.. 3 pictures in all FW as well. SO Factory Reset I recommend.

ASP sending email as 1
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zkaps
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Re: Excessive Alert Emails

Post by zkaps »

Great but puzzling on how you're not being bombarded with excessive emails with a factory setting of 5 for Anti-Dither (see my comments on an earlier post). No. of snapshots is set to 3 and I get 3 snapshots. Quality is set to 5. I purchased mine in early 2016.

Be well,
Zkaps
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zkaps
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Revo2Maxx
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Re: Excessive Alert Emails

Post by Revo2Maxx »

Well I don't know if you have done a reset or any other thing that I offered as some things to try. I can tell you that after my 3k emails today alone I am pulling my testing.

Only 1 time did I think the NEW FW was going to have an issue but come to find out it was because of the position of the camera it was getting the flashing of the 4ways before the other 2 cameras as the truck was rolling to a stop. The 2020 FW had 2 emails that the other 2 didn't give over about 30 seconds time. Then all 3 from that point on for 10 minutes while that truck was parked there with flashing lights on just at the Grid line (No motion outside of the lights flashing into the grid zone) after the truck left all emails came back as normal. I know your thinking 3k emails that is a lot however that is around 725 emails between 3 cameras and ASP sending for the motion in there as well. Then the rest was some other cameras I have setup for motion email in ASP in a different area it has been very windy today so 2 of my other cameras had some motion of leaves and animals that I got emails for..

Outside off all things in my testing there was a point about 3pm today I wish I would have had 2 emails on the dual event and only got one. Starting into the scene was human, then a truck and I got 1 picture of the truck and 2 of the human, In truth looking at the feed on my Amcrest 7108-AI that I have running in SMD mode for that channel I thought the human should have triggered another 3 pictures however in the time they left the grid just as the time was up and only small part was left in grid and not enough to trigger an event.

All in all 722 emails from 2020 fw, 727 from the 2 other cameras with the rest of the emails as I said from ASP.. Oddly the 2020 fw didn't pick up a couple of motions that I am guessing was caused by the color of car and the position of the camera. Or it was just taking a nap not sure but I did look at all the cameras pictures and most of them are really close to pictures emailed.

For people reading this I am not sure everyone knows how these cameras work. Seeing they are all on Reset settings for Frame Rate and Bit Rates of 30 Frames and 4096 for the 841 on a fresh install. That means in a 3 second period there are 90 images taken. When you setup for pictures of 3 out of 90 images the camera is passing in email or on some recorder only 3 of them images..

In truth I don't like Emails being sent. Either of footage or images. 1 more space that someone could hack and have data that I don't want them to have. So I like Push within the Amcrest View Pro app. Couple of things with that really that I like. One there is a timeline that plays back of the saved images However this means a person has to be using a Micro SD card in the Cameras and in truth if your not recording to ASP, or a Recorder of some sort then Micro SD is a must. I do push images and what is cool about that is when it comes on my phone and is fast even before the car has left the view of the cameras. On top of this. I set the Anti-Dither seeing I am not using them with a NVR to 0 and I can get as little as 3 images to as many as 20 to make what is like a short video. Plays out right after it happens. Also I don't have to wait until I get an alert from my Email program and there is no storage of images as they are on my MSD of the camera. Or in my DVR/NVR's depending on how I setup the thing..

Now tonight I will admit after I shut off all emails and setup Push I have started to see some different patterns that was not on the Emails. Cars that my 2 lower cameras can see off in the distance long before they would get to the Grid of the area on the street just the lights coming down the road are setting off push alerts. Where in the Emails I was getting emails of the cars while in grid not the cars far away.. The 2020 I have back on the wall again out of the line of sight of the far head lights and it isn't giving push until the car is almost in the Grid.

I have turned off my cameras Push for right now seeing I have that truck back with the flashing lights in the Grid that kept the cameras email going while outside the Grid but lights flash in the grid.. They are there every day for 10min while they take out the dog for my neighbor that is away. Wish they would have done it at day time then the light flashing wouldn't make the notices happen lol

Personally if you have not tried a Reset I would reset the camera setup the Grid only size of Grid not the settings for Sens or Thres, and setup your motion to send emails and setup IP static, DNS and email server. If camera is in Light path that could be a problem.

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Happy New Year
Hope you get things sorted.
Here to help the best I can.
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