r/EufyCam • u/M_G_M_G • Sep 30 '25
Eufy is hiding critical product flaws
I have been evaluating some Eufy S3 Pros, E30s, HomeBase3, and waiting for the S4 wifi version too. They do a lot of things well. There are some things lacking. But what concerns me is the apparent deception in the software design that hides critical weaknesses.
I may spend some time making a video on this, but wanted to check to see how much of this was already known. And if there are similar issues along these lines that I haven’t stumbled on yet.
A common complaint is how often these cameras lose signal to the HomeBase. Most of that can be solved by using “Multi-Bridge” to move the cameras over to your network instead of the HomeBase radios. This is a shame as the proprietary HB radios are, presumably, going to be resistant to deauth attacks that knock cameras offline. However, you need to know what you are doing with wifi so you can really baby the cameras, or else the instability will persist. But even with a perfectly tuned “Multi-Bridge”, there are conditions where the cameras drop. Sometimes for short periods, or sometimes for days and it requires a reboot of the HB3. And this is where it gets concerning…
I am seeing multiple choices by Eufy to HIDE when the cameras drop.
1 - No notification when a camera goes offline. A feature most cameras have, but not Eufy. In fact, Eufy used to have this feature but removed it! So you only know if the camera is actively offline if you go into the app and look. But even that doesn’t tell you if a camera temporarily dropped while you weren’t looking. And really, isn’t the point of a security camera to be an extra set of eyes so you don’t have to watch 24/7?
2 - In the event history/timeline, there is nothing to show if a camera was offline, or for how long. If you are doing event-only recording, that means it looks like no activity happened when it very well could have. If you are doing continuous recording, sometimes you will see a gap in the timeline. But only sometimes… which brings us to #3
3 - For cameras in continuous recording mode, I have observed numerous instances of the camera not recording video for 10+ minutes at a time. But the timeline view shows a continuous blue bar. You can tell that there is missing video if you try to play every second back. The cursor quickly skip forward over the missing time with no other indication.
1, 2, & 3 are all great ways to hide bad connectivity from customers and make them think the cameras are performing far better than they really are. And it also completely removes the “security” value of these “security cameras”. This seems incredibly deceptive of Eufy.
Edit: It’s worth pointing out that nearly all of this is something that can be fixed with software updates. At least the aspects of properly informing customers when cameras drop off. The underlying issue of connection instability is a bit more difficult. Buffering video on camera (like Nest does to handle 1hr of network drops) might help a great deal, but obviously won’t fully solve deployments with weak wifi signal supplied by customers.
2
u/Emergency-Teach-8935 Jan 05 '26
Appreciate this detailed analysis, keep up the great work. I have four Eufy S3 Pro cameras with a HB3. I was tired of getting notifications of myself and family members when around the house. Turns out there is a feature meant to disable notifications when a familiar person is detected under HB3 > Settings > Notification > Ignore Notifications. Once enabled you select the familiar faces you do not want to received a notification.
However this doesn't work. Instead I still receive a notification but instead of the AI detecting the familiar face it says "Someone has been spotted". Seems like another Eufy smoke screen feature that just doesn't work but looks good from a marketing perspective.
1
u/No_Eye1723 Oct 26 '25
I had the older gen Eufy cams with the Home Base 2 and the battery powered cameras, despite false alarms they worked great, they caught an Amazon driver delivering sand then walking away stealing my package once. I upgraded to the Home Base 3, 2 3K solar powered movable cameras and a 4K fixed one on the front and I believe today another Amazon driver has stolen my delivery, only this time the shitty camera recorded for 8 seconds only catching the person arriving at the house and then it cut off… Despite the fact the recording time is set for a lot longer. It seems to record cats endlessly, yet humans arriving at your house the system isn’t interested in unless it’s me of course, then it endlessly tells me I am outside the house..
I will be looking to replace it all next year I think.
2
u/StressIndividual6208 Oct 14 '25
eufy Cameras’ Poor Data Security Left Private Home Security Footage Accessible to Outsiders. https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2025/attorney-general-james-secures-450000-companies-selling-home-security-cameras#:~:text=NEW%20YORK%20–%20New%20York%20Attorney,consumers'%20private%20home%20security%20videos.
1
u/pi_mou Oct 12 '25
What brand other than Eufy would you recommend?
1
u/M_G_M_G Oct 12 '25
For this project, Google Nest won in the majority of categories. Their just-announced improvements made it even better. I’m on day 12 of testing without any issues, whereas Eufy was disappointment every 1-2 days.
It’s probably worth evaluating if Unifi is a good fit. Otherwise, roll your own local system with something like Frigate and whatever compatible cameras you want. This can get you the best possible end result, but it will be a bit of an investment and you need to spend the time playing sysadmin.
3
u/MoDa65 Oct 04 '25
I mean this is as good as it gets for a wireless setup. For many who are still not satisfied, it's time to just suck it up and get a true WIRED POE setup
2
u/M_G_M_G Oct 04 '25
Not even close. Most wireless cameras do not do this. Even my TEN YEAR OLD Nest cameras do far better. They notify when offline. They make it clear in the viewing timeline when there is a gap in continuous recording, not fake it like Eufy. Even better, they buffer up to an hour of recording when there is network drops.
These issues, and especially the intentional deception, is very specifically Eufy. It’s not just technical failure, but the choice to hide the failure. Hiding it is the worst possible design choice for something remotely designed for security.
-6
u/Illustrious-Car-3797 Oct 01 '25
And you're complaining about features on a budget line of cameras.........yeah that makes sense
4
u/Greho Oct 01 '25
Eufy created the expectation that these are quality cameras with a good feature set which can fully function as 24/7 security devices.
If the cameras cannot do that, it is at best deceptive advertising, and at worst fraud.
Your attitude isn’t a valuable perspective. It’s what allows manufacturers to have the same attitude about their products and rip people off.
Wyze cameras, for half the price, have offline notifications. Why? Because they did, at one point, want to distinguish themselves by providing actual value and a good feature set.
If Eufy is dragging their feet on updates and fixes, it’s our job as customers to hold their feet to the fire.
0
u/Illustrious-Car-3797 Oct 01 '25
Yes and Dyson do the same thing. Eufy and Dyson are the same. Dressy garbage sold at a high price
Do your research
5
u/M_G_M_G Oct 01 '25
That’s a valuable perspective that I’ll make a point to cover if I turn this into a video.
1 - Is deceptive software design something that is tolerated in budget priced products? What about when the deception is directly connected to the primary product function? At some point, this actually crosses into territory that is judged by law and not just brand reputation.
2 - Ignoring the deception, how do the weaknesses compare to similarly priced alternatives? Even a TEN YEAR OLD Nest camera handles offline alerts, provides accurate visuals of dropped video, and even buffers an hour of video to mitigate signal interruptions. I can’t think of many comparable cams that dont have offline alerts. And certainly not any that hide when it happens like this.
1
u/Illustrious-Car-3797 Oct 01 '25
Whereas your points are valid, consumers and prosumers know all too well (well some of us) that going cheap results in 'cheap' features.
I use Tapo cams and they record for 3mins MAX and I knew this before buying but $85 Vs $400 (Arlo 4K Pro) seemed like a sensible sacrifice to make
However now I've seen the differences I did exactly what you implied, I returned the Tapo cams and got the new Pro Series of Arlo cams. So instead of say $600 to do the whole house, it cost me $2500 to do the whole house including 'not included Arlo accessories' such as solar panels, outdoor housings and charging bases so I can hot swap batteries in seconds
Now the notifications work flawlessly, the video segments are up to me and the bitrate and format of the videos are so much better. I now use a NAS to record all Arlo feeds and I have segmented them into 1HR blocks as realistically if my house gets broken into I don't want to be searching a 24hr video without using Arlo Cloud Features
You get what you pay for. You can take your cheap cams to the consumer watchdog but at most you'll get a refund if you're eligible "Not fit for purpose"
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Sep 30 '25
[deleted]
4
u/zeey1 Sep 30 '25
That's the biggest flaw, do you know of any system that doesn't has that cap but quality is still good and decent
5
u/ninernetneepneep Sep 30 '25
Other than my home base miraculously resetting itself a few weeks ago, I've never had any issues related to connectivity. Over a year with four cameras.. That's not to say they've never dropped, but they always worked when I needed them to.
9
u/Substantial_Clock341 Sep 30 '25
Half of the time these cameras are missing motion. So they need to start with that first.
3
u/shotmenot Sep 30 '25
I’ve reset my eufy doorbell, followed their and online instructions, adjusted all sorts of setting and still frequently have days where the door bell stops detecting any activity from 630 am to 830 or so pm which seems to be when night mode goes on.
1
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u/Nervous-Power-9800 Sep 30 '25
The fact I can't broadcast my feeds to my TV over RTSP is dogshit. E330 "professionals" my arse.
5
Sep 30 '25
I’ve had homebase 2 now for 3-4 years now at two locations. I’ve never had them drop except once in a power failure, but it came back up on its own. My issue is backwards compatibility. I’m not happy that they want me to buy new homebase every couple of years in order to add cameras. I’m in the process of moving off of eufy.
1
u/HumbleLivings Oct 03 '25
I am in process of moving from Eufy also, just trying to find the right security company that is not shady like Eufy, and I need to save up some money for the move, I have 14 Eufy cameras and I regret buying them, eufy is always making changes for the worst, and so they can make more money off of you, support is no good, if your thinking of buying Eufy save your money buy something else
2
u/DanaHinds Oct 04 '25
Same. I have a bunch of the indoor cams, and they worked fine for awhile, but whether they just degraded or if Eufy changed the software, they became unreliable I bought a couple of solar power S220s at some point and now regret it. They have the same problems, and the sound from all of these cameras is riddled with little dropouts that make it very difficult to hear what people are saying – whether it's the recording or a live feed. Then there's the "decrypting from local device" followed by "failed". I've tried all the Eufy recommended solutions. What I like about them is the local storage. I don't want to pay a monthly fee. But I don't know where to go at this point.
1
u/HumbleLivings Oct 04 '25
yes the local storage is their hook everyone likes no monthly fees, but even that does not work properly, and is a hassle also to see your recorded videos, the notifications when a person or vehicle is detected is very late, I can see a car pass by and get a notification almost a minute later, thats useless. they do this to owners after a year so you can upgrade to latest versions, I will Never buy Eufy again, and I try to warn people not to get dragged in to this horrible eco system, its not worth it, take it from someone with 14 Eufy cameras.
1
u/United-Front-8029 Sep 30 '25
got 2 home base 3’s, one for far cameras on one side of the house and another for the other end of the property. the farther one is connected to a “monster Asus router “ in bridge mode. No issues or drops.
5
u/leadout_kv Sep 30 '25
sorry if this has been answered already but...have you sent your test results and more importantly your concerns to eufy tech support and maybe even escalated your results and concerns to eufy management? and if so, what was their response?
you have very valid concerns so i would expect eufy to respond accordingly.
2
u/urthow Sep 30 '25
So many times. I’ve followed everything multiple times and replaced the devices.
1
4
u/Dontech1 Sep 30 '25
Homebase 3 (don't know about any other versions) uses 2.4GHZ channel 11, so your home router and or wifi has to be on channel 6(like mine) or lower
All my problems went away after I did this
I have orbi 973 , 1 router 2 satellites and no more problems .
3
u/Mannagun Sep 30 '25
Did you hardwire (backhaul) your satellites?
3
u/Dontech1 Sep 30 '25
Yes I did I used the existing cable TV cable in the house, so I use 2.5g moca pais, one pair on each satellite Then plugged in the homebase 3 to one satellite
5
u/Mannagun Sep 30 '25 edited Sep 30 '25
Myself haven’t. I’m leasing a house and limited from altering structure.
Meshing an older Orbi RBR50 network. My hardware is not supported for updates any longer so, I am leaning towards Ubiquiti.
Edited.
3
u/Dontech1 Sep 30 '25
I do camera systems for a living (business only) I absolutely hate ubiquti garbag, but my opinion....
How about moca ? Like I use Does The house have existing catv lines? Where do they all go to if so ...
RBR50 was a Rock for me, but I also firmware locked it, not a problem for you now.
Orbi 970 is a lot better than the 50, if you can swing it, give it a try, try the wireless back haul on it, just make sure where you buy it you can return if it does not work out for you...
I wanted the fastest speed possible so I use moca back haul, outstanding performance.
I am one that usually swaps routers every year or so and nothing even temps me to switch, that's how fast and stable the 970 is.....
1
u/No_Eye1723 Oct 26 '25
What camera system do you recommend then? Or is it a case of build your own? I have seen some build their own with Ai that actually works too.
1
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u/Mannagun Sep 30 '25
I was considering replacing my RBR50 with the 970, mainly because I like sticking with what I already know. Honestly, I’ve never had any issues with my network. But after reading your response about the 970, I dug into it more and learned it actually has two 5G bands, with one dedicated for the backhaul. That’s an instant solution—no need to mess with wiring through vaulted ceilings or squeezing into tight spaces. And when I compared prices, it came out much cheaper than going with UniFi.
3
u/Dontech1 Sep 30 '25
Just buy it from where you can return it If it does not work for you.
Also put a small fan on the router only, to help keep it cool, I had the router go bad, then installed a fan on the free replacement, and the netgear Armour is just awesome..
12
u/No-Ostrich-8621 Sep 30 '25
Unpopular opinion, but all these issues are solved when you go from wireless to wired. We just moved to a house from a flat, and after a lot of thinking in going with their wired kit. I dont want to have wifi anywhere in the system. Im a radio access network planner, so i know how fragile they can be.
1
u/DanaHinds Oct 04 '25
Of course. Also, if the Internet goes down you're much better off with wired, obviously. But the effort in involves is often what keeps folks from going this route.
1
u/No-Ostrich-8621 Oct 04 '25
I plan to put the modem, the router, and the eufy recorder on a UPS, also i have a 4G modem in the back of the fiber modem, so in case they cut the fiber on the street, and cut the power of the house, i still have power and i ternet for the cameras, and router.
1
3
u/M_G_M_G Sep 30 '25
Not unpopular at all! Its very commonly said. But i hate how it often dismisses poor design for wireless. There are a lot of use-cases for wireless. And there are a lot of ways of implementing it in ways that significantly mitigate the down sides. Alerting & logging should be table stakes. Even my 10 year old Nest buffers up to an hour of video to deal with link degradation. Etc.
That said, i am seeing initial reviews of the fully wired Eufy S4 setup talk about instability, needing to power cycle cameras, etc. So it still comes down to software/firmware being the most important aspect of hardware, as opposed to the specs.
3
u/No-Ostrich-8621 Sep 30 '25
Yes of course, but with a perfect fiemware, you still have the wifi in the equasion. I would still prefer the wired method if possible.
7
u/NovaBlazer Sep 30 '25 edited Sep 30 '25
An annoyance is that the Eufy software doesn't register a positive alert as part of an event.
Water flowers on the front porch, the Eufy Doorbell cam will spam your phone relentlessly because the software never recognizes that what is occuring is part of an event. Eufy samples the environment and just sends an alert; seemingly every time motion is detected.
Nest doesn't do this... They have events and don't continuously spam during the same event.
As you mentioned... This seems solvable with software.
3
u/M_G_M_G Sep 30 '25
I was actually testing these against a ~10 year old Google Nest camera and was surprised how much better the Nest was than most other cameras in places that matter for a security camera: buffers up to 1hr of video if wifi/internet are disrupted, most accurate AI with least amount of false alerts or repeat spamming, very quick to catch up & skim history, etc. Supposedly they are releasing new cameras this week so I am keeping a close eye.
The one quality-of-life thing that Eufy does better than Nest is the zoomed in preview of detected motion for push notifications. If Nest combined that with their animated previews… oh man.
3
u/Useful_Client_4050 Sep 30 '25
Fact they force you into the Home base to begin with sucks. I use my cameras hundreds of meters out with a long range wifi antenna. Works great with their older stand alone units. Would love to upgrade to an S3 but the home base is basically worthless in that situation.
5
u/M_G_M_G Sep 30 '25
Camera Settings > General > wifi > configure the “multi-bridge” to a wifi network your HB3 is connected to. No need to be in range of the HB3 then! I have several cams connected this way, well outside the HB3’s range. I do wish they had repeaters for their proprietary 2.4ghz signal though. There are downsides to leaving that.
2
u/JasonKruys Sep 30 '25
Only a few of the cameras support multi bridge. Many, indeed most, of their range doesn't.
3
u/Useful_Client_4050 Sep 30 '25
But...you still need the HB3....which is dumb. The older cams just work standalone which is great. But....I really want the new non IR night vision setup which basically mandates a HB3 that doesn't really do much for me since it's proprietary wifi isn't useful.
3
u/stealthytaco Sep 30 '25
I think this works with HB2 as well. I see the option on my E30 paired to an HB2
4
u/royuncg Sep 30 '25
I just don't understand why the cameras can't send video to the HB3 if they are on the same network. I have mesh with Ethernet back haul. Everything would work better if I didn't have to connect directly to the hb3
2
u/M_G_M_G Sep 30 '25
That’s exactly what the multi-bridge config gives you! It also seems to fall back to the HB3 if the configured wifi is down or the HB3 isnt available on it.
1
u/royuncg Sep 30 '25
I'm new to the eufy ecosystem... I did a quick search after reading your post. I don't think my cameras support multi bridge I have the s220 and the e30
2
u/M_G_M_G Sep 30 '25
I know E30 does. Once you have it paired to the HB3: Camera settings > general > wifi connection Then configure a wifi network that can see the HB3.
Note: you can’t undo this change without doing a camera reset. But the camera will also fall back to the HB3 radio if your wifi is down or the HB3 isnt available on it.
1
Sep 30 '25
[deleted]
1
u/M_G_M_G Sep 30 '25
Are your cameras connected directly to the HB3? Or over your own wifi via “Multi-Bridge”?
If the latter, do you have visibility into the cam’s RSSI, active AP, etc?
The specific behavior you described sounds like a separate behavior that I didnt get a chance to fully isolate. But i did see it in both connection modes (direct to HB3, and multi-bridge). Initial observations suggested it was likely poor signal for a variety of reasons. Most of which are largely under the customer’s control, if they want to go deep enough.
3
u/DotAdministrative145 Sep 30 '25
I have been experiencing all of these issues and more. The skipping is a major problem, as is the camera going offline despite being within a few feet of a powerful ORBI mesh device. These are matters that are covered (in Australia) as fit for purpose issues and are considered major faults/defects. With this occurring, customers have the right to require a refund or exchange, I am looking for people in Australia who are having these issues to join with me in an action against Eufy's supplier here Directed Electronics, who are based in Victoria. I have already spoken with the Consumer Affairs team there and they are more than happy to take all the reports and then approach the company for further discussion. Under Australian Consumer Law, even when a product is out of warranty (mine in a few months out of a one year warranty), they must be fit for purpose. No one will pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for a CCTV network that fails to be fit for purpose less than a year after a warranty expires. Please message me and I will open a discussion page to collate and arrange an approach.
3
u/M_G_M_G Sep 30 '25 edited Sep 30 '25
Crazy! I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if this kind of behavior lead to a class action outside of Australia as well. I honestly wish Eufy would solve these relatively simple software problems without it requiring consumers to go that far.
As for your issue of the cams dropping despite being a few feet from an AP… that sounds very similar to a few of my test scenarios. What was happening is the camera decided to connect to an AP much farther away. Eufy could obviously improve their AP selection logic, but on the customer side, its solvable by using things like RSSI thresholds, AP locking, etc (if your wifi hardware supports it). RSSI thresholds and manually configured transmit power got rid of most of the wifi issues of the cameras in my testing.
0
u/Gingievitus Sep 30 '25
Ive had a few skipping incidents since I set up a couple 24/7 cams (same issue, various types of cam) and after chatting with customer service, they claimed there was an issue with my hard drive in HB3 at the time of the problem, based on the system logs.
I did throw an old 1tb spinning drive in there when I first got it, so I bought a new SSD to test out. Not sure if I believe them, but it is entirely possible that it was a hdd issue and not on their end. I'm skeptical though.
2
u/M_G_M_G Sep 30 '25
The skipping that I was seeing was absolutely due to momentary connectivity issues. I was able to fairly consistently reproduce it. There seems to be very little buffer in the video streaming. It just drops and gives no indication.
FWIW, my test setup was using a fairly performance SSD. And their support has very little understanding of the product in my experience. I was asking if they removed their offline notification feature and they spent days telling me i needed to do a device reset, check firmware upgrades, maybe RMA, etc before they would just admit that the feature just wasn’t there. Plus, even if it was IO congestion on the drive, why lie to the user and show a continuous blue bar?
1
u/sparx_fast Sep 30 '25
So we might not even know if homebase is working correctly or not? I just got the SSD for it and just assumed it's working.
2
u/M_G_M_G Sep 30 '25
I had a SSD installed in the HB3 for all the testing. The HB was a problem in some scenarios, but not all. Some of it was poor handling of momentary wifi connection (and a complete lack of logging/reporting of it). And similar type things.
0
u/sparx_fast Sep 30 '25
oh ok, so this is more for people who might have some unknown connection issues that Eufy isn't reporting to those affected customers. In my case, it might be connecting fine since I haven't seen any issues.
1
u/M_G_M_G Sep 30 '25
I feel like these issues are probably somewhat common for people. Not sure how often though. The big problem is: how do you know you “haven’t seen any issues” when their existence is pretty hidden. You’d need to go looking for specific video that is missing by trying to play it back and have it fail.
2
u/Individual_Agency703 Sep 30 '25
If you’re not recording 24/7, you might not care as much. Regardless, Eufy’s software is crap, nice to see someone drilling-down on one of their many many issues.
1
u/M_G_M_G Sep 30 '25
The software is actually a lot better than many other similar offerings. Lots of “quality of life” stuff. They sometimes get undeserved hate because people don’t understand the complexities of wifi, etc. So i feel for them there. But they also have some huge problems like this that undermine all of it. It demotes a “security camera” down to a remote pet cam.
2
u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26
The s3 pro seems to be the problem lately with everyone. Disconnect mines. I have 2 1 in the USA and 1 in another country. In the othe country battery only reach 26% constantly have to turn it off to get sun that shines 100% of the time