topic Re: Prevent recording outside activity zone in Cameras and Doorbells

Prevent recording outside activity zone

Bobreg — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 16:13:12 GMT

Hi, I created an activity zone hoping the the camera would record only events in that activity zone. It does not. The camera records everything that is in front of the camera. This means that the camera is recordong every single car that is passing in front of the house. I have hundreds of small 40 seconds recording everyday. How do I change that. I read somewhere that while creating the activicity zone, there should be options for parameters outside of the newly created activity zone, but I do not see those options. Please help. Thank you.

Bob

Re: Prevent recording outside activity zone

Spaghetti69 — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 16:23:17 GMT

You can change notifications and what to record for each individual zone. HOWEVER I have 9 of the regular battery cameras (plugged into power, 24\7 record) and they are all ignoring zones right now. Every. Single. Thing. It. Sees. Gives. Me. A. Notification. I'm guessing this is a firmware issue google will never bother addressing or will take years to do so.

Re: Prevent recording outside activity zone

MplsCustomer — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 16:44:42 GMT

@Spaghetti69

That's curious. We've had a Google Nest Camera (Battery) for 14 months plugged in with the optional power cable with a Nest Aware Plus subscription for 24/7 recording, and we only get notifications that we have turned on and only in the activity zones where we've turned them on. I turn People and Packages notifications off and on as needed on my phone, and it works just fine getting or not getting notifications on my phone.

Re: Prevent recording outside activity zone

Spaghetti69 — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 17:11:45 GMT

I've had mine from 6-14 months depending on the particular camera. My zones worked fine until around 2 months ago. Since notifications are handled on device I'm guessing it's firmware, however there's a chance if I went out and reset all of them they'd go back to working for a bit.

Re: Prevent recording outside activity zone

MplsCustomer — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 17:21:15 GMT

@Spaghetti69

I don't know if it's a firmware issue, but for what it's worth, our camera's "Software version" is:

"nq-user 1.63 OPENMASTER 319576 release-keys stable-channel stable-channel"

Re: Prevent recording outside activity zone

Bobreg — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 17:30:07 GMT

Thank you all for your answers, but it seems that the battery doorbells do not work the same way as the wired ones. When I look at the doorbell technical data, it is indicated that the sofware version is: 4110055.

Re: Prevent recording outside activity zone

MplsCustomer — Sat, 19 Nov 2022 02:40:16 GMT

@Bobreg

After creating your activity zone or zones, excluding the area where you don't want notifications, and setting notifications for each zone, don't you have these notification options for "Outside the zone"?

Re: Prevent recording outside activity zone

Bobreg — Sat, 19 Nov 2022 17:39:12 GMT

Hi. Thanks. When I create the activity zone I do not have any options. I created and cancelled a few activity zones to ensure that I was not missng anything, and I can confirm that I do not have these options.

Re: Prevent recording outside activity zone

MplsCustomer — Sat, 19 Nov 2022 19:40:59 GMT

@Bobreg

Go to Seen Events and create a zone.

Now click on the "back" arrow in the upper left corner.

This will take you back to a page that now lists your newly created zone. Under that zone is now another zone called "Outside of zone".

You can now click on either of those zones to access your notification options for each.

Re: Prevent recording outside activity zone

Bobreg — Sat, 19 Nov 2022 19:58:36 GMT

Thanks again. In the app Nest, I click on parameters,

then I select the camera,

then Activity Zone

then Create a zone

once the zone is created, at the top of the screen, I have the choice between a checkmark and an X (I do not have a back arrow) which, both, bring me back to the previous screen where I see the various zones and where I can create a new zone.

Nowhere I see the option "Outside of zone".

Do you have a wired doorbell camera?

Re: Prevent recording outside activity zone

MplsCustomer — Sat, 19 Nov 2022 20:27:58 GMT

@Bobreg

We have 2 of the newer Google Nest cameras.

"Outside of zone" appears after you create a new zone and the zone is listed on the screen. Before I created Zone 1 above, it wasn't there.

Re: Prevent recording outside activity zone

Bobreg — Sat, 19 Nov 2022 20:52:35 GMT

You did not tell me whether it was a wired camera or a battery one. The firmware seems to be different.

The only place where i see "Outside of Zone" is where I configure the notifications and they are all (people and package only) turned off for outside of zone.

Re: Prevent recording outside activity zone

MplsCustomer — Sun, 20 Nov 2022 01:33:08 GMT

@Bobreg

We have one Google Nest Camera (Battery) plugged in with the optional power cable and one Google Nest Indoor Camera. For both, once we create a zone, an "Outside of Zone" is created and the default for the notifications is that they are all turned off. If the camera (or doorbell) is working correctly, and you have notifications turned off for any zone, including the area that is "Outside of Zone", you should NOT get any notifications for events that occur in the "Outside of Zone" area, and the events should NOT be recorded if you have event video history.

Cameras and doorbells in the Google Nest app record events in ALL zones, even the "Outside of Zone" area (which, in the Google Nest app is simply unlabelled). You can't stop that in the Google Nest app, but there's a filter that lets you not see them.

For the newer cameras and doorbells in the Google Home app, if you turn off the event, you also turn off notifications (the notification switch only appears when you turn on the event). If you have 24/7 recording, it still gets recorded, but it's not flagged as an event in the timeline.

See the text under "Event history in this zone" for each event: "Choose which events should appear in this home's history, and whether you'll receive notifications on your devices. These settings determine what your camera will record with event video history."

At least, that's how it's SUPPOSED to work. We don't have zones on our indoor camera and for our outdoor camera the "Outside of Zone" area is small, but we have events turned off and I don't see any events for that area in our event history.

Re: Prevent recording outside activity zone

Bobreg — Sun, 20 Nov 2022 14:31:22 GMT

Firstly I would like to really thank you for taking the time to try to help me.

However, it seems again that the battery operated doorbells do not have the same firmware as the wired one.

I do not have any options to turn off events outside of the zone. For example, yesterday I had 841 events recorded in my Nest Aware account which included only 3 in my activity zone. This is silly.

I would like to hear from someone using a wired doorbell.

Thank yo

Re: Prevent recording outside activity zone

MplsCustomer — Sun, 20 Nov 2022 17:17:59 GMT

Customers who have the new 2nd Gen Google Nest Doorbell, do you not have these same options under Settings | Notifications that the Google Nest Camera (Battery) has?

Screen 1 shows our 3 Zones, with "People" turned on for "event history" but turned off for "notifications in the "Our Yard" and "Sidewalk and Street" zones, and "event history" and "your notifications" turned off in the "Outside of Zone" zone.

Screen 2 shows the "Our Yard" zone, with "People" turned on for "event history" but turned off for "your notifications".

Screen 3 shows shows the "Outside of Zone" zone, with everything turned off for "event history" and "your notifications".

Screen 1: all zonesScreen 2: "Our Yard" zoneScreen 3: "Outside of zone"

Re: Prevent recording outside activity zone

Bobreg — Sun, 20 Nov 2022 22:06:08 GMT

Thanks again. I do not have the same options.

Here are my screens. They are in French, but should not make a difference for the available options. Hors zone = outside of zone.

The first picture shows all the zones and the second one, the options for zone 1.

Re: Prevent recording outside activity zone

MplsCustomer — Sun, 20 Nov 2022 23:08:58 GMT

@Bobreg

I'm surprised you don't have more settings. Our older Nest Hello Doorbell has the same settings as our older cameras in the Google Nest app. Do you have a Nest Aware or Nest Aware Plus subscription? (We have a Nest Aware Plus subscription.)

I notice your text at the top of the screen only refers to notifications and NOT to event history, whereas the camera setting's text says "Choose which event should appear in this hoe[s history, and whether you'll receive notifications on your devices."

Is "Reglages des zones d'activite" a link to more Activity Zone Settings, or is it just text?

Do you see any additional settings if you go to Settings | Events | Seen Events?

Re: Prevent recording outside activity zone

Bobreg — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 14:26:03 GMT

"Reglages des zones d'activite" is a link to list the zones and another link to create a new zone.

I have the regular Nest Aware, but that should not change anything because the difference is only the duration that the videos are kept.

In settings, I do not have a sub menu for "events". I have "Notifications" and "Familiar Faces"

Re: Prevent recording outside activity zone

MplsCustomer — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 15:05:10 GMT

@Bobreg

Okay, then. I have no further suggestions to offer. I think it is just remarkable that the new 2nd Gen Google Nest Doorbell has FEWER options for notifications and the recording of events than the new Google Nest cameras released starting in 2021.

What version of the Google Home app do you have? The latest is 2.60.118 and came out 3 days ago.

Re: Prevent recording outside activity zone

Spaghetti69 — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 15:00:54 GMT

I have the gen 2 wired doorbell and have outside of zone settings, seen events tab, and basically all the other settings the indoor\outdoor battery cam has. I do have nest aware plus and run Google home on both pixel and Samsung phones. No ios in our house