Video camera playback issues

Good morning

I have several cameras on my property including three outdoor cameras plus a doorbell camera. I am experiencing an issue where after a camera records an event and I go to watch the footage back, the footage is extremely choppy like it skips a frame or two and is not smooth. It’s almost unwatchable. If I actually download the recorded footage, it functions as it should. This seems to occur when I am away from my property and Wi-Fi and using cellular. It occasionally occurs while I’m on Wi-Fi as well. The issue seem to start after I upgraded my iPhone 11 to the new iPhone 13 Pro Max with iOS 15. I have deleted and reinstalled one or so of the cameras, restarted all of the Internet equipment and cameras, and have deleted several of the recording rules and re-install them. I’ve also restarted my Qolsys 2. Nothing seems to improve the problem. My daughters phone is still on iOS 14 and does not seem to experience the problem. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of this yet but I am bringing it to your attention and looking for any other suggestions you may have.

Thanks!

I’m seeing quite a few search results referencing iOS 15 video flickering and stuttering in apps, Messenger being a common complaint. This sounds like it is probably an OS bug. Troubleshooting the cameras will not resolve this.

I’ll send it over to ADC and see if they have any insight or other reports.

Downloading and playing the video seems like the workaround.

Something else to try based on suggestions from others is disabling background app refresh on the phone. I would try disabling that then restarting the phone. Any change?

Thx for the quick reply. I figured it had to be a iOS bug. Do I just disable app background refresh for ADC only?

I would try it for all apps as a test. It may not make a difference, but I saw it as a common suggestion.

Ok. I’ll try and monitor a few hrs and report back. Please let me know any other suggestions or info you hear. Thx.

@jwcsurety I turned off background refresh for all apps but unfortunately there was no change in the video playback behavior. Any other chatter from ADC?

Last word was that they were able to recreate the issue on an iOS 15 phone specifically on cellular connection only and they would be investigating with Apple.

Thank you. I will keep monitoring and report.

@jwcsurety I have noticed that playback over Wi-Fi is stable and functions correctly. There has been no improvement over cellular and it continues to be laggy and stutters significantly.

Good morning @jwcsurety. Things have become more stable. It more intermittent, rather than persistent. Often times if I am remote and I play a video two or three times, eventually it will play correctly. Any updates on your end.

Also, as a sort of related video question. I have several cameras on my property as I’ve stated. Two of my outdoor cameras, the VC 726, are connected via POE. I also have indoor v622 , v523, and doorbell vdb 770 all connected via Wi-Fi. When I am home on Wi-Fi all cameras live view have smooth playback. However, when I am away from my property away from Wi-Fi and I am looking on live view, the cameras that are actually connected via POE have stuttering issues and are jittery. All of the Wi-Fi connected cameras actually have smooth playback on live view. Weird right? Anything I can do or troubleshoot. Thanks!

There is no update yet, and nothing specific I would try to troubleshoot at this time. ADC was able to recreate on the same phone os and model on cellular and they are working on it.

Thank you.

@jwcsurety Good morning. I am still experiencing this issue intermittently. Is there any update from ADC? Have other users complained about this?

Thanks!

I haven’t heard back yet from ADC but I will ping them again today on it to see where they are at and follow up here.

No, I haven’t heard additional reports of it. It’s presumably only on iOS 15.

Thanks a lot. I appreciate the follow up.

I’m told it is still being worked on, but no update yet. It is something that has to involve coordination with iOS engineers.

Thank you.

FYI, for the issues reported on iOS15, Alarm.com has a recommended troubleshooting step.

They have said that an iOS15 setting called iCloud Private Relay has been found to interfere.

Try going into your phone settings, then tap your phone name under the search, and select iCloud, then toggle Private Relay off.

Thanks for the followup. I checked your suggestion, and mine was already turned off. I will say the issue is not nearly as widespread as when I first reported it.

@jwcsurety

Good morning. I’m just providing an update. The situation seems to have really stabilized over the past several weeks. I’m not sure if it was my change of Internet equipment, reducing the saved video FPS rate to 15, or minor iOS updates but the playback of saved video functions correctly the majority of time. Live video feed has also improved.

Thanks for the suggestions and time spent on this issue.