Any power failure forgets all Lorex cameras added to home

[altenbach]

So I have an eight camera Lorex NVR system. All cameras are added to the home and I can view any footage nicely on the home app on the phone. (The video footage cannot be displayed  on a nest hub (2nd generation) or any Chromecast device, but that's a problem that has been discussed at length elsewhere in the forum. Still not solved. This discussion here is not about that).

So what's the problem???

Whenever there is a local power outage, All cameras permanently disappear forever and I need to relink the app and add each camera to the home. Tedious!!!!

(I have provided in-app feedback for the last two times this happened, but have not heard back, ever.)

Example from last night:

1. Power failed at ~1:35am and got restored at ~1:55am
2. At 1:48am (i.e. while the power was still out!!!) Google home notified me that "I" removed the cameras. (see picture from the app log below).
3. NO, I did not remove the cameras. I was actually asleep at the time!
4. All cameras were removed permanently from the home!!!

It is extremely tedious to add 8 cameras back to the home, because every camera needs to be added individually, pick the home, pick a location, eight times!!!!

I really don't want to repeat that after every single power outage!

Why can't the app hold on to devices that are temporarily not reachable, then restore them when they come back online? For me that problem happens exclusively with Lorex cameras. All other linked home devices (lights, sprinkler) are all still there when the power gets restored. So why are Lorex cameras almost instantly removed forever???

Is it a problem with the Home app? A problem with the linked "Lorex home" app? (Ping-pong blaming will start!)

Note that all cameras are still available and reachable in the Lorex app. It's just the home app that loses all memory about them whenever the power fails! Not good!

[altenbach]

Upon further testing, it seems sufficient to simply turn off the NVR and after minutes I get a notification that "I" removed the cameras from the home. No, I did NOT!

This is not expected behavior. Seems like an obvious bug, either with Lorex or Google.

[Juni]

Hi oldpearse,

Thanks for posting here in the Google Nest Community.

This is not the experience that we wanted you to have, let me help you out. You can create a new home then set up your devices to that one. Observe if this will make any changes. Check the steps below on how to create a new home. 

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Add .
3. Tap Create new home.
4. Assign a home nickname, and enter the home address.

Keep me posted

Regards,

Juni

[altenbach]

Thanks, I'll try later this week for testing. Of course that's not really a solution, though.

[Juni]

Hi there,

Thanks for the response.  Sure thing, I'll keep this thread open for 3 days and wait for your response. 

Best,

Juni

[Juni]

Hi there,

I just wanted to follow up to see if you still need our help. Please let us know as we would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
 

Thanks,

Juni

[altenbach]

Well, I was watching it for a while and observed the following:

• On 1-25-2023 at around 1:30am, the camera disappeared again forever (I was asleep), again with a log entry that "I" remove it from the home. There was no power failure (but a local earthquake 30 minutes later .... ). (I did check if the NVR rebooted for e.g. a firmware upgrade, but the firmware is still from 2021, so that was not it)
• On 1-26-2023 I relinked the Lorex app and added one camera to the home. Then I created a second home (same address), named it "perimeter" and added another camera to that home.
• So far both cameras remained in their respective "homes" even after turning the NVR off for a while, but  I probably need to watch it for another week to be sure that they stick.

Of course I have no idea what the logic was to ad a second "home" and if that was the reason that it seems to be working now. This is of course not a long-term solution because I really only have one home. Eventually I will try to remove that second home again to see if the problem reoccurs. Can somebody explain how that suggestion was supposed to help?

[altenbach]

OK we are still not done!!!

So last week I moved the camera linked to the perimeter back to the original home, having now two cameras linked to the home and the remaining six camera just left in the section "linked to you".

At exactly 11:59pm all cameras disappeared! The two linked to the home showed up in the log (see picture) while the other six simply disappeared from the app. There was no power failure.

I had to go back and again link the Lorex app back to the home and all eight cameras appeared again in the "linked to you" section. This is really getting tiresome!

Here are two pictures:

Left: the log this morning telling me that "I" remove the cameras. No, I did not!

Right: after re-linking the "Lorex Home" app, all cameras appeared. Now I can add them to the home again.

[Azarco]

Hey folks,

We hear you and we understand how important this feature is for you. Our team is still investigating this and still working on this. Rest assured that we'll update this thread once we hear any news from them.

Thanks for bearing with us.

Regards,

Alex

[Juni]

Hi altenbach,

I hope you are doing fine today. Upon checking, it appears that the resolution that we can do is to move your camera and other devices to a new home structure. I understand that this is a lot to ask, but this is the best route that we can take.

Let us know if you have any questions or need further assistance; we are here to help.

Regards,

Juni

[altenbach]

Thanks. Yes so far it works when the cameras are assigned a different "home" at the same address.

Since this weird workaround seems to be the solution and it was suggested by you (or Google), "somebody" must know why this works.  Once the problem is identified, it can be solved!! It is just software.

While I will use this workaround for now, I still expect this flaw to be fixed eventually. It really makes no sense having to add a second home.

Can you make sure that this bug is tracked. Does it have a number?

Thanks!

[Juni]

Hi there,

I just wanted to follow up to see if you still experience the issue using the new home structure. Let us know by updating this thread, and we're glad to assist you further.

Thanks,

Juni

[altenbach]

I have changed it again so all cameras are added to one home. We'll see how long until they disappear or if the bug is fixed.

[altenbach]

So far so good! I have moved all cameras back to the primary home (from the mentioned workaround of adding them to a second home) and killed the power to the DVR for a while.

So far, the cameras did not disappear. This is an indication that maybe the bug has been fixed. I will keep watching and report back if anything changes.