Unable to use phone to record clip

Post Reply
Homer81
Posts: 41
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2020 4:15 pm

Unable to use phone to record clip

Post by Homer81 »

Working a month or so ago but now on 3 different Android phones when I click the record button in the app, it changes to a read square but i'm then unabel to stop the recording. Nothing ever gets saved. The picture button does work and the image is saved to the camera role.

This was working not long ago.

ANy ideas? Android 10 and android 9 devices
Homer81
Posts: 41
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2020 4:15 pm

Re: Unable to use phone to record clip

Post by Homer81 »

Anyone? I just upgraded to teh latest BI 5.2.8.1 and restarted both phones. Still unable to record on the phone. This worked not too long ago
User avatar
TimG
Posts: 2098
Joined: Tue Jun 18, 2019 10:45 am
Location: Nottinghamshire, UK.

Re: Unable to use phone to record clip

Post by TimG »

Hi Homer81,

This is another function that I had never tried. OK, so using the BI5 android app on a Galaxy S10, I press the video record button in the BI app and it turns red. On the main pc i can see the red square appear on the chosen camera to show it is recording. When I again click the red button on my phone, it returns to normal, and BI5 on the main pc loses the red square. If I don't press the red button, it automatically turns off after 30 seconds.

That all sounds fine, but there is no new Alert for it. I can't find any mention of the camera having triggered. I have tried it on a cam recording 24/7, and on a cam recording only on motion detection.

If this works as it used to do (I can't find any up to date info), then this should cause BI5 to record on the server. If you are watching a recording on your phone, then the record button should cause the app to save a local copy of that video to your mobile device.

Anybody got this working ?
Forum Moderator.
Problem ? Ask and we will try to assist, but please check the Help file.
Homer81
Posts: 41
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2020 4:15 pm

Re: Unable to use phone to record clip

Post by Homer81 »

TimG,

The recording is stored on the phone. I have used this function on my phones for years. I press the record, it records, I press it again to stop, it stops and stores. Your assumption of how it worked is not correct as was the test.

In my case, the button goes red to show recording but I cannot stop it (or create the video) That said, without an updates or changes to my phones, it is now working again. My BI version is the same as well.

I have no idea but the only things I can think of is

Blue Iris Update (still same version)
Samsung Knox update
Software update on phone (I didn't upgrade, nor reboot and they are Android 9.x and 10.x)
User avatar
TimG
Posts: 2098
Joined: Tue Jun 18, 2019 10:45 am
Location: Nottinghamshire, UK.

Re: Unable to use phone to record clip

Post by TimG »

The recording is stored on the phone. I have used this function on my phones for years. I press the record, it records, I press it again to stop, it stops and stores. Your assumption of how it worked is not correct as was the test.
Hi Homer81,

I understand what you are saying, but the test is valid as it is a record of what actually happened when I pressed the button.

There is a post on another forum that may help to explain it, although it is from 2016:
Ken wrote back and explained how it works. Turns out, the app will directly record (locally) recorded clips - but not live stream. So, if you're watching a recorded clip, and press the filmstrip icon, it will create a 'movies' directory and save the .mp4 file immediately on the phone. But, pressing the filmstrip icon when you're watching live video, only causes the BI server to record the live video on the server. You then have to go back and watch it as a recorded clip, and then press the filmstrip icon to save it locally.
That gives me something to work with:

Test one - When viewing a recorded video on the mobile phone BI app, I pressed the record button. BI asked for permission to access storage - given. It recorded a video to Internal storage/Movies/BlueIris

Test two - Viewing live video on my mobile phone in the BI app, I pressed record. Interestingly the red window only happens on the PC UI3 client, but not on the actual BI5 PC GUI. Nothing recorded to mobile phone or BI5 pc.

I have no doubt that you have been able to record directly to your devices, but it's time for an email to Ken to understand the present BI app record functionality in 2020 :idea:
Forum Moderator.
Problem ? Ask and we will try to assist, but please check the Help file.
Homer81
Posts: 41
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2020 4:15 pm

Re: Unable to use phone to record clip

Post by Homer81 »

Things have been working fine for the last week. Actually even just today I used this record directly to the phone option. Works great. I would however like to understand why it broke and how it miraculously came back.
Homer81
Posts: 41
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2020 4:15 pm

Re: Unable to use phone to record clip

Post by Homer81 »

And today both phones stopped working. No update to my devices at all (have screenshots to show system updates, etc). - Server still online, no updates or reboots..

I am able to trigger the record in the app, the video camera turns into a red square but I cannot click the button to stop it.. Same issue as before.

When I try to use a web browser to the server and select one camera and try to do a record, it asks for a username/password. When I enter the same username and password it says "logged in" in the bottom right but nothing happens.. What I find interesting is it requesting me to log in when I'm already logged in. I do so but it still sits at the log in page. Clearly looks to be a server issue

ATtached is the browser authentication request that won't go away.

Can someone from teh team help to look at this issue.
Attachments
login.png
login.png (225.61 KiB) Viewed 7936 times
Matts1984
Posts: 496
Joined: Fri Apr 10, 2020 1:12 pm
Location: Maryland, USA

Re: Unable to use phone to record clip

Post by Matts1984 »

Officially this is the official forum but officially no officials from BI actually monitor it (this is a user only forum in actuality). You may be better off contacting support at this point. (Blue Iris Settings -> Email Support)
Blue Iris 5.8.8.x | Server 2022 VM | Xeon X5650 @ 2.67GHz - 12 Cores | 12GB RAM | 7TB RAID | Sophos UTM WAF | 4x SV3C 5MP Bullet A | 1x SV3C 5MP PTZ HX | 1x SV3C 5MP Bullet HX | 1x SV3C 5MP Dome HX | 2x Amcrest 5MP Bullet
Homer81
Posts: 41
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2020 4:15 pm

Re: Unable to use phone to record clip

Post by Homer81 »

Thanks Matts.

Officially frustrated... I can't be the only person using Android devices to trigger a record, am I?
Matts1984
Posts: 496
Joined: Fri Apr 10, 2020 1:12 pm
Location: Maryland, USA

Re: Unable to use phone to record clip

Post by Matts1984 »

So I, as with what Tim said earlier, had never tried this. I do have the Android app version 2.0.71 (Pixel 3a XL - Android 10 w/ June 2020 patch) and as of today, BI server 5.2.9.18.

So I decided to try and do what you said in my app. Note my cameras record 24x7, direct to disk, but I could see value in manually saving a local copy to your phone. I attempted this first with the 'Live Stream'.

The first time I tried, the icon turned to a red square, I let it go a couple seconds, pushed again and the red square changed back to the camera. That said, I found no evidence on my phone of a new video file and I also see no evidence on the server that it saved there either. I stopped for a few minutes to re-read this forum topic and then tried again - now my red square won't change back to a camera and I'm also now seeing an error on my server "live.sem stuck".

Even with the error, I went back into the app to try and now do the record process on a previously recorded alert and low and behold I got the prompt to allow BI access to storage and it saved the clip as an mp4 locally to my phone. I did note that when I stopped recording, the process force closed the BI app. It may be intentional but wasn't expected. This all happened with that error still showing in the console.

Restarting the BI service seems to have cleared the stuck error. So end result, it looks like there is an issue with locally recording a live stream but, at least for me, locally recording a recording (potentially of less value but it's still there) works.

And on that note, looks like I'm about to renew my support. I got todays update successfully but my license expires in just under 3 hours. :!:
Blue Iris 5.8.8.x | Server 2022 VM | Xeon X5650 @ 2.67GHz - 12 Cores | 12GB RAM | 7TB RAID | Sophos UTM WAF | 4x SV3C 5MP Bullet A | 1x SV3C 5MP PTZ HX | 1x SV3C 5MP Bullet HX | 1x SV3C 5MP Dome HX | 2x Amcrest 5MP Bullet
Post Reply