Amcrest Forum

I have used a couple of Foscam F19831 cameras in the past. I found them to work, but the software/web interface was very clunky and didn't work well. Also the cameras are loud when they move and are a bit clunky. So I was happy to try out this camera which was a similar price and had higher resolution.

I was much more impressed with the web interface (I am not using any cloud functionality, just opening up ports and connecting directly to the camera). Viewing recorded files on the SD card is light years beyond the Foscam. However I do have a few issues/questions with this camera.

1)Setup -> Event -> Video Dection If I have "Send Email" selected, but do not have "Snapshot" detected I get no email. Shouldn't I get an email saying motion is detected without any picture attached?

2) Is there any way to control the number of emails you get with snapshot selected? Getting 5-7 emails for someone just walking by is way too many. If I were working in the area where the camera was I would get thousands of emails. I know there is no direct way to do this (and definitely no way to get multiple pics in one email) but I wondered if anyone had any workaround or trick to get fewer pictures (like only 1 picture when the motion is detected). This is kind of a deal breaker to me and I am considering returning it and getting another Foscam FI19831.

3) How do you delete video and jpg files from the SD card without erasing the entire card using "format"?

4) What does event Anti-Dither do? It seems to affect how long the video is recorded. If I set it to 1 second, then the event pre-records for 5 seconds, the event is 1 second long, then the "Record Delay" is set to 10 seconds. So the total video is 5 + 1 + 10. = 16 seconds. This seems to reduce the number of snapshots I receive via email too. But the manual seems to suggest that increasing this will result in reduced snapshot/emails.

Thanks for any suggestions or answers.

Hello lemmy999 ,

1) I believe if the snapshot is not checked it does not send email. If you want email without snapshot, try enabling snapshot under event but uncheck the option 'attachment' under email settings.

2) Here what I would suggest is adjust the sensitivity and threshold settings. Also increasing the anti dither time should help because it means how long camera stays triggered for one motion and then you can set the interval at email settings to 30 seconds that means you will get just two email when it detects motion and it goes on for one minute.

3) Currently there is no option to do this.

4) As explained before anti dither time is how long the camera stays in triggered state when it detects motion. To reduce the number of emails increase the anti dither as well as the interval under mail settings.

With respect to deleting older files, there is another forum thread that describes an alternative method that doesn't require formatting the SD drive: https://amcrest.com/forum/post230.html#p230

Within the PC Desktop application:
1. Click the Setup button in the top menu bar

2. Select the "System" option, and within that select "Auto Maintain"

3. Check the option to "Auto Delete Old Files". This will cause a new option to appear called "Customized" in which you can set the "number of days ago to delete"
- Setting this to the default of 1 means that all files from the previous day and all files that are olderwill be deleted.

4. Then hit Save and Manual Reboot to execute the setting.

5. Once the device has rebooted, you can reset the the option back to not autodelete older files by un-checking the Auto Delete box and re-Saving.