Circle View Doorbell motion issue with porch light
Answered
I have a Circle View Doorbell. The HomeKit settings for the doorbell contains the option "When Motion Sensor Detects Motion, Turn on Porch Light". In this case, "Porch Light" is an overhead light on the porch which is controlled by a Lutron switch/hub and is connected to HomeKit.
I've enabled this setting because I like the idea that motion on the porch will turn on the overhead light.
The issue I'm having is that HomeKit turns on the Porch Light in response to motion and then, several minutes later, turns the light off. When HomeKit turns the light off, the Circle View Doorbell detects the event as motion (I see the motion indicator pop up in HomeKit) and that, in turn, causes the light to come on.
So once motion is detected, the light just ends up cycling off and on every few minutes.
Is this a known issue and is there some way to fix it? Thanks.
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Official comment
Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out and sorry to hear about your experience with our product.
We'd love to keep the conversation going directly with the Support Team. So, we will now go ahead and create a new ticket for you.The team will review your case and will be in touch via email as soon as possible. Do not hesitate to let us know if you have any questions as the team follows up or in the meantime as the conversation continues there.
Regards,
PraveenComment actions -
Support did, indeed, open a ticket in response to my post. I received a message directly from them saying "known issue, devs investigating, no fix at this time". I appreciate that they acknowledged the issued.
+1 on the sentiment that conversations in the forum are more helpful than point to point responses.
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I got a response today, which basically blamed Apple and that I should ask them to fix HomeKit. Guess no fix is coming from Logitech since they don’t believe it is their issue. Here is their response to me…
The motion detect for the circle doorbell is based on pixel change and the detector will trigger on things that are not People, Cars or Animals.
The Homekit uses filters to filter out those detections and ignore them.
That filter does not extend beyond the doorbell functionality.
Basically what that means is that the Doorbell sends all of the data that it sees to the Homekit and the Homekit decides what to do with it.
You should reach out to Apple support to ask them to tweak the functionality of the filter to be extended outside of the doorbells usage as well. -
I understand Logitech saying the problem is with Apple and their filtering of data from the camera, but's it's Logitech's camera ... they should be doing this work for us as it's their product being impacted. It's obvious, Logitech never put any deep effort in understanding how their product was going to be used with HomeKit, other than a basic level of support for it. I was so fed-up with de-featuring a product that cost as much as a Ring doorbell, that I just went back to the Ring Pro (no more issues with false motion alarms because I can properly tune them).
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So it took 6 months to say it is someone else’s fault. I’m sure apple will say it’s not their fault. Myself and many others have this motion issue, makes it useless. My doorbell has been offline/frozen on solid red LED now for 2 days, even repowering won’t correct now. Have to remove it and plug it in to do another reset every time. My wife hates it. Some friends have Google Nest Doorbell and like it. I am looking at reviews right now. Gotta keep the wife happy.
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Try going to the apple feedback website. I usually use this to summit issues with my HomeKit devices and Apple product. Apple uses the logs and info you give them to investigate the matter and sometimes contacts you for more information. You can submit videos, screenshots, & files to help them fix issues. I’m using the iOS 15 beta, and I have a motion light over my Logitech Doorbell; and I haven’t run into the problem anymore with iOS 15 beta, but it doesn’t hurt to submit you’re feedback. Hope this helps. :) https://feedbackassistant.apple.com/
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I also noticed if you go to Home App-Logitech Doorbell setting- Notification- select specific motion is detected- turn on all motion People,Animals, vehicles, & packages. That will fix your light motion issue. I just tested it with “Any Motion is Detected” I get the similar light motion issue what you’re getting.
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Thank you Anthony-Yasin for your comments, but neither of those options solve the problem. The problem is that the Motion Detected constantly switches state regardless of the settings. Logitech says it is Apple’s fault… But it is the device that that determines what to send to Apple or not.
I, like so many others, was SO hopeful that Logitech would stand behind their product and finally give us a HomeKit compatible doorbell. I too will have to consider putting my Ring Doorbell back into action and put the Logitech doorbell back in the box. At least the Ring Doorbell worked correctly as a doorbell, didn’t overheat, and didn’t have any false motion detections…. Oh, and my porch lights worked 100% correctly… I guess the only complaint left is the monthly fee… Ring here I come.
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I agree with Steve, "the Motion Detected constantly switches state regardless of the settings" is very true (you can just look at your HomeKit app and see the motion detected icon constantly appears and disappears) and I had another thread on this issue where I was trying to have detected motion directs my HomePod to play a tone alerting me there is someone in my driveway. I created an automation to do this but as Steve pointed out, the motion detector is constantly alerting based on any movement and the People, Vehicles, Animals selection does not apply (nor can apply) to what I was trying to do -- yes, it's an Apple problem to a large extent, but Logitech owns this too as their product and customer satisfaction is negatively impacted by the issue.
I ended up reinstalling my Ring Pro and it works like it should. I was hoping to narrow down the apps I need for security to one when I went on the HomeKit journey (hoping to shed Ring) but I see this isn't possible. That's a shame because I liked the Circle's video (perspective, clarity and color) better than my Ring system, but Ring does what I want -- easy motion detection, no false alarms and their Chime alerting product sends a loud ping when someone approaches.
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