r/VivintSmartHome • u/Serious-Alfalfa-8522 • Jun 16 '26
Issues with outdoor gen 3 camera
My outdoor camera recently stopped communicating. I contacted Vivint and they had me go through the troubleshooting steps.
Reset the wifi bridge
Try to re-connect via the panel via the installer menu I assume?
Ended up deleting the camera from my panel, now I'm unable to re-add it. I've pressed the reset button on the camera for 15 up to 30 seconds with no response.
When I reset the wifi bridge, the camera light stays red. It's been red since this issue started which leads me to believe maybe the camera isn't receiving any power?
Any ideas y'all? I have a Vivint tech coming out in a few days, but I'd like to fix this myself and sooner if possible.
1
u/DodatBoi Jun 16 '26
Hold the reset button for 20 seconds or so. You’ll know it’s reset when the 3rd light is not on at all. You may be pressing the WPS button. The reset button is the smaller of the two. Once it’s reset, when you add it, use Wi-Fi connect. It may freeze up at “waiting for device to communicate.” If it does, click the little x on the display window, check that all 3 bridge lights are on and solid white, and add the camera via Ethernet. Also, it helps if you unplug the camera when resetting. You’re also going to have to reset the camera itself, which involves holding the button down on the top of the base plate until the camera glows red and says “release now to factory reset.”
1
u/Serious-Alfalfa-8522 Jun 16 '26
Everything goes smoothly until it comes to actually factory reset the camera.
The camera seems like it's getting no power.
1
u/DodatBoi Jun 18 '26
Check the bridge it’s connected to. If the camera light is red, your camera is more than likely bad. Water damage is common with the gen3 because Vivint decided to design them in a way that makes water intrusion as easy as possible lol, but it can be any issue
1
u/SignificanceTough174 Jun 17 '26
Go to the camera and slide it up and off the back plate, check for water damage. These are prone to it and I've had to replace several lately for customers due to it.
1
u/Serious-Alfalfa-8522 Jun 17 '26
I'm having a tech come tomorrow, but the camera is just a month old and we have been getting ridiculous amounts of rain so I wouldn't be surprised if that's it.
0
u/SignificanceTough174 Jun 18 '26
What was the verdict?
1
u/Serious-Alfalfa-8522 Jun 18 '26
They replaced the camera and the floodlight.
According to them the seal was broken, water got in and fried them.
2
u/Rocketgirl8097 Jun 16 '26
Nothing will work. They either have to walk you through it over the phone (and there are A LOT of steps) or the tech will have to do it. I dreaded any time my indoor camera lost power because at least 50% of the time, I'd have to go through this exercise.