Re-check recorded events with new clock. If camera's local time is wrong after brief power failure even though live view has re-established it could lead to an odd delivery, motion detection or front-door visitor to appear to have arrived earlier than actually was the case. For this reason, after electricity has gone out for an evening storm, Lena first checks the time displayed on her camera(s) before reviewing her clips and then verifies the local time zone together with the device's Daylight Saving Time (DST) settings for saved events as well.
Start with the camera clock, not the latest clip
Her first step was to verify the local time as shown on the live view image as well as in the settings for that camera. The time reported by the camera was off by several minutes and thus not something she wanted to rely on for reviewing recordings of the past evening's events.
Power failures are typically a short term event. So a home monitoring camera might capture images before the live view comes back to life on your screen. Also when the connection returns it might take a few moments for the local clock on the camera to catch up to get on-line again to get the time from the internet or return to the time that was set on the camera prior to the power failure.
Cross check the time displayed on your camera(s) with your current time on your phone. If the time displayed is not correct you can try to change the local time on the camera via the device settings (note: if you change the local time of your camera, check the settings that control the local time afterwards, in case these have also changed). If the camera does not have a setting to manually set the local time, do not change it, as it will get restored to its correct value once the camera reconnects to the network.
Confirm the selected time zone
Before checking the saved events Lena also wanted to confirm the selected time zone of her camera. She had configured her camera to run in a nearby region (CH vs. LIX), but by now she was 100% sure that her time zone was CH. If the time was correct then all saved events must also be correct.
Check the time zone for the camera in the same manner as you checked the local time. Find the settings for the location, region or time zone. It is best to select the correct local time zone for your area rather than to select "local time" as this can sometimes be listed as a option and may refer to a nearby region which may be on the same time during part of the year but not during the rest of the year.
It's also important to realize that time can be set for more than one device within a home. All such devices should be checked to ensure they have been set to the correct time zone. This includes any hub, any recorders, any other cameras as well as the app on your mobile. If all these have been set to the correct time then all their recordings should appear in the correct timeline.
Check daylight-saving behavior before changing the clock
Daylight-saving time rules can change from year to year. How a camera or hub local time setting handles these rules varies. A camera's automatic local time update can be set to be tied to its time zone setting. In addition to a local time setting, a hub or some cameras have a separate setting for daylight-saving time (DST) that can be enabled/disabled manually. In other cases, changes for daylight-saving time must be set via the app or even a firmware update.
For the above settings, Lena found an automatic option was enabled but went to verify the local time displayed by the camera after it came back online. If the camera is now an hour ahead or behind the local time even when time zone is correct for your location, then check the seasonal setting too.
Try to avoid enabling the automatic time change setting and a manual offset at the same time. The two corrections could cancel each other out and cause a new error. In case of any doubts, help information belonging to the device or the app should be consulted first. Local time rules can change, so only current official information should be used when determining the appropriate seasonal setting.
Recheck recorded events after the clock is fixed
The clock for the camera has to be changed but this will not change the time of recorded events. So clips recorded before the time has been changed for the camera will still show the old time and new clips will show the new time for the camera after the change.
The 3 events with time stamps all showed the correct local time, i.e. the time before the outage, when the connection was back and after the clock setting had been changed to work properly. I also checked a harmless event (delivery of a package, a phone call etc) after the change. All time stamps seemed to be correct.
Look for differences between:
– The time in the camera image
– The time in the app's event timeline
– The file or download timestamp
– The time shown by a connected hub or recorder
Timestamps for recorded events can come from different clocks (e.g. the camera's stored time for the event list, the phone's handling of dates for downloaded files, etc.). Therefore, preserve the original file(s), and note the correction in a separate note instead of having to re-export or re-name the same event clip(s) over and over.
Use a simple post-outage check for every device
After sorting out the front-door unit, I went to check the other cameras too. The living-room camera seemed to be showing the correct time, but its app events were not up to date. After a restart of the app and a subsequent network connection re-establishment of the current recordings for comparison purposes worked fine.
A practical sequence is:
1. For each device verify it is connected and showing live footage.
2. Compare displayed clock of camera with a trusted current time source.
3. Verify the selected time zone.
4. Review daylight-saving behavior or the relevant seasonal setting.
5. Create a new test event and verify its time stamp.
6. Review a pre-outage clip for correction (without transferring it).
Note: Resetting a camera to its 'out-of-the-box' settings (i.e. performing a 'factory reset') means that local settings on the device will be deleted, it will disconnect from your account, and possibly remove all recorded footage that was stored locally on the device. Therefore, it is recommended to read the manufacturer's instructions for how to reset a particular device back to its default settings before doing so in order to understand the implications first.
Keep timestamps useful without collecting more than you need
Even with accurate time stamping home monitoring does not have to become intrusive. Therefore it is also worth to check while you are correcting the clock settings which of the recordings are stored locally on the camera and which of them are synchronized with your account. Lena restricted the notifications to the areas where she wants to be informed and did not point the camera to any neighboring private areas.
Use the opportunity to test retention, and all other account settings like unique strong password and all available protections for that account. Note that fixing a clock for a camera does not necessarily fix problems for recordings stored locally on that camera.
Eventually the power will return and you need to check if all the clock & time zone settings have returned to their original values. Also test daylight-saving time. Play back a few of the recorded events to verify that the app and the saved event(s) still match the recorded camera(s).
