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iOS App Bugs/Feature Requests

edited November 2016 in SecuritySpy
I'm very glad to see an iOS app and the $6 in-app purchase was a no brainer. I've installed it on my iPhone 6s. It is a great start!

Suggestions
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1. Under Capture, allow filtering by images only or videos or both
2. For multiplex (or just camera view), I'd love an option that shows all my cameras (7 of them) in one screen (see Remote Patrol) without flipping through them
3. Add ability to hide camera names
4. Add ability to smash all thumbnails together in camera view so that they touch each other.
5. When the app auto discovers a server, there is no way to see how it is connecting, i.e. using the Bonjour name or the IP address. If I connect via my VPN and then use the previously discovered server, it fails. I had to manually add the server to get it to work. What I'd like to see is a way to edit or see details on a server maybe including version of SS running.

Bugs
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1. Under capture and selecting a camera, it is only showing 4 of my 7 cameras
2. When in Camera and phone is rotated, screen went blank the first time and now shows the 7 cameras fine.
3. In Camera view, the thumbnails are clipping the upper and lower part of the image (where my timestamp lies)

Thanks for creating this! I'm excited to try it on my iPad and Apple TV!
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Comments

  • Thanks for your feedback!

    I think some of your suggestions are good and I'll add them to the "to do" list. Some specific comments:

    Suggestion 5: the setup is simple intentionally in order to make it as easy as possible. The app auto-detects as many parameters as possible. When you first connect over a local network, the app will obtain the internet address and ports (as long as you are using SecuritySpy's DDNS service), so that if you subsequently connect over the Internet it will know how to do that. The VPN case is unusual and we didn't fully consider this, so we'll have a look at this.

    Bug 1: it should only show cameras that actually have any footage available, which could explain this. Is it missing out cameras that have footage to play?

    Bug 2: we'll investigate this, it didn't come up in our testing.

    Bug 3: for neatness of presentation, all cameras are shown as 16:9, so for cameras that aren't themselves providing video at this ratio, some cropping will occur. So this is not a bug but rather a design decision that we made.
  • Hi Ben,

    Thanks for the quick response!

    Bug 1: All my cameras have footage. In fact 5 of the 7 have continuous captures as well as motion.

    Another feature suggestion is to be able to select the date for the capture so that I can attempt to narrow down footage (with 7 cameras, there is a lot of data!).

    I also had some oddities on the Apple TV where the live cameras were initially showing a still image. It seemed to resolve itself, but I'll keep an eye on it.

    Thanks!
  • Awesome!!

    2way audio ? Coming ??

    THANKS !!!

    jay
  • Hi ben

    Great news this app :)

    Like sgruby I have some suggestions:
    1. It's not possible to connect to more one server ?
    It's problem for me because I would to connect to my server with 2 addresses (local lan & public address)

    2. It's not possible to have all cams in a unique window. I must scroll to see another cams.

    3. To activate/deactivate motion/continuous/action, it's necessary to click on the cam thumbnail, and click on M/C/A.
    Is it possible to resume all parameters in one window? Then it would be possible to setup C/M/A for cams in a minimum click :)

    Thanks for your job
  • edited November 2016
    Great news and already downloaded :)

    Quick comment - can we adjust the zoom on the main Cameras screen? I only have 2 cameras at the moment so have loads of blank space on my Ipad.

    Oh any chance of push notifications of movement detection?
  • I'm probably just slow but the function of the C, M and A buttons at the bottom was not obvious to me. Even now I feel like I'm guessing... Might be good to have some documentation.
  • Hi Ben,

    I think the new app is great, but the times are off again by 6 hours.
    But other then that the app works great, and its fast.

    Would like to see being able to pick a date range for the captured video in the future and push notifications too would be nice.


    Thanks for your hard work on the app..
  • Message from app "Cannot find server" . No server in list. However Remote Patrol finds the Security Spy server and works fine.
    Using same ...viewcam.me address & port as Remote Patrol. Username and password also as for Remote Patrol. Checked this in Security Spy/Preferences
  • Bug report: SecuritySpy app crashes when trying to "Save Image" from live stream
    - Open SecuritySpy app
    - Tap on one of the cameras to view a live stream
    - In the bottom-left corner, tap the Share icon to bring up the Share Sheet
    - Tap Save Image. The app crashes.

    I tried saving from at least a couple of my 4 cameras.. different models, one with pan/tilt, etc.. I'm guessing it's because the app never requested access to Photos.
    Server is running SS 4.0.9b3
    iPhone 6 is running iOS 10.1.1

    From the crash log:
    Termination reason: TCC, This app has crashed because it attempted to access privacy-sensitive data without a usage description. The app's info.plist must contain an NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription key with a string value explaining to the user how the app uses this data.

    P.S. I like the look of the app.. keep it up!
  • yeah, I'd agree with the first commenter suggestion 2 - in the camera give some options for camera layouts. In another app you could see 6 camera's with partial on 2 more in the grid option - allowed to quickly see what was going on with several cameras to then tap into one camera (and yes, it either crops or mucks with aspect ratios, but being able to see the overview is more useful than detail which just requires selection of one camera to see full detail)

    I'd possibly add a couple more more "nice to have"
    in captures 1) ability to filter by type (images or video)
    2) when looking at an image/video, ability to swipe left or right to go to next or previous file (like the iOS Photos app)

    Other than that, looks great!
    Love the ability to just disable Actions while leaving Continuous or Motion active.
  • Thank you all for your feedback and suggestions, these are very helpful and I've added many to our "to do" list. To pick up on some of the above:

    The "Save Image" crash and the timestamps are bugs that we'll fix in the next update.

    Yes, it's possible to add more than one server. If you are currently viewing a server, you'll see its name at the top (e.g. "SecuritySpy Web Server"). Click this to get back to the list of servers. From there, you can add additional servers.

    If you add an auto-detected server while on your local network, it will also pull in all the information it needs in order to connect over the internet, provided SecuritySpy is set up for remote monitoring as per our instructions. In this case, you don't need to add two instances of the same server for local access and remote viewing.

    As for documentation, here is the SecuritySpy iOS/tvOS App User Guide.
  • It's a very clean and simple UI that I really like and find intuitive. Nice work. I had previously been suckered into paying $20 for Remote Patrol, and that was total junk, barely usable.

    My one request would be similar to a previous one; allow us to tweak the auto-discovered server. And/or give more info if there's an error while adding a server and don't just dump everything. I was trying to troubleshoot adding a server and had to type EVERYTHING every time, then it would fail with no useful errors. The add screen should stay in place and let you just keep making changes.
  • Hi Ben, Is there any chance we could have the presets for the PTZ on the apps.

    Great to see the apps they are great for iPhone, and AppleTV
  • edited November 2016
    BUG: (1) Video stops streaming after about a minute even when entering a value higher than 60 seconds for "Video stream duration limit". (2) When entering a larger number like 3,600 seconds so that the video will stream for an hour, the comma and the numbers after get chopped off.

    FEATURE REQUEST: (1) Add an option on the iOS version to prevent the phone/tablet from going to sleep. (2) Add an option on the tvOS version to prevent the screen saver from activating.

    I'm very happy to see a companion app! Unfortunately, it's not very usable to me unless the bugs/features above are addressed. I'll gladly pay for the app once they are.
  • Very pleased with the app too and have paid for the in-app extras.

    Would be nice to be able to select which cameras/group we can see in Multiplex mode.

    Also experienced one of the cameras being about one hour out of sync.
  • Just following up to note with more positive feedback. This is a very solid v1.0. I bought the extra features and they're working well for me. This is by far the easiest way to access my cameras, especially when away. I've used it with my iPhone, iPad and AppleTV.
  • Videos Stream Duration Limit? Where can I adjust that? I can't find any server side controls, nor app side (iOS and TVos).

    Feature Request: On captured file list - some indication of the run time (or file size).

    (Now to figure out how to unwedge my Dahua IP camera that will no longer talk to SS, and I have managed to lock the admin account on..)
  • The 60-second timeout while viewing live video/audio is a bug in the app, we'll fix it shortly.

    The "Video stream duration limit" setting referred to above is in the account settings under Preferences -> Web section. This is specified in seconds (don't add any other characters such as commas). If you want an unlimited duration, simply leave the box empty.

    There are a number of small bugs and enhancements we're planning for the next update (out soon!).
  • I also have a few feature requests :

    - Push notifications : this has been asked by others, but I'd like to refine the request.
    It would be great if you could also provide URL schemes when adding notifications.
    What I like to have is a notification when a camera detects motion (i.e. frontdoor), and inside the push notification, the option to add a link.
    If this link is a URL scheme, it enables users to click the link and open the camera window for that camera inside the SecuritySpy app.
    But it also would enable to open any other app that works with URL schemes.
    I'm doing exactly that with pushover and indigo at the moment. When my camera detects motion at the frontdoor, pushover sends me a notification and when I act on the notification it takes me to an indigo control page with a live feed from my camera, but also my home automation controls. I can turn on/off lights on this page or open the door remotely etc...

    - Camera view enhancement : it would be nice to have a direct link from each camera to its recordings. i.e. when someone is at my door, I get a notification, but by the time I am actually looking at the live feed of that camera, that person might have already left. It would be nice to be able to quickly look at the last event recorded for that camera without first needing to go the recordings tab, selecting the camera etc...
    A direct link to the recordings of the current camera would be nice, but maybe 4/5 very small thumbnails (jpgs, not video) would be even more elegant and quick. Clicking them would also open the recordings tab for that camera. Also URL schemes per camerarecording page would be nice as well (for integration with other software).

    - last enhancement request, as other have mentioned, I would really appreciate a more hardcoded approach to entering server data. The server data is "smart" at the moment, but I would really like to use two entry points to get to my SecuritySpy server. Mostly I would use the DDNS that you provide with SecuritySpy, but as an alternative (a safetynet) I also use my routers direct IP, just in case.
    Now, if I explicitly enter my IP address, the app defaults to the viewcam data which is not what I want.
  • Hi @petecam thanks for your additional suggestions.

    Regarding the server address: if you manually set up a server and enter an IP address for it, the app will always remember this IP address. In addition, it will obtain the DDNS address, if you have set up the viewcam.me DDNS feature. Then, when connecting in the future it will try to connect on both these addresses, and will use the one that works. So you get the best of both worlds.
  • I didn't realise that it worked that way. That's actually very cool that the app tries different routes.
  • edited November 2016
    Push notification on mouvement would be AWESOME with 2 way audio.....

    Would be great for door cam!
  • I have purchased the upgrade and purchased the in-app purchase.
    Very happy with both apps. Keep up the fantastic work.
    Feature Requests:
    1. Push notifications definitely.
    2. Motion Alerts: When in the app, it could beep or make a short sound upon motion and at the same time it would scroll up/down to the camera in question with a coloured outline (i.e. red, blue or green) around the rectangle video feed of the camera that has the motion at that time. This would be awesome!
    Maybe later you could improve on this and have a set of sounds that the can be chosen from.
    3. Share button: OK, this is an awesome feature and should definitely be considered.
    In Captures, a share button when clicked, opens the Mail app and automatically attaches the file.
    4. Size in MB in Captures: If space is an issue then keep it short with just the whole number part, so 135MB instead of 134.56MB rounding up the the nearest MB. Or keep it full if space isn't an issue.
    5: Hide Camera names: This can save space and bring the images next to each other.

  • Thanks @abid these are good suggestions!
  • Lots of the above suggestions (and fixes to reported problems) have been implemented in the new 1.0.1 version of the SecuritySpy iOS/tvOS app. Simply use the App Store on your device to update. More improvements coming in the future!
  • Is there a way to edit the connections after they are setup? I'm about to close down one of the sites I manage and no longer need to see their server and I can't figure out a way to remove it.
  • Is there a way to edit the connections after they are setup? I'm about to close down one of the sites I manage and no longer need to see their server and I can't figure out a way to remove it.
  • edited December 2016
    Tap and hold on it for a second and whilst pressing, swipe left and a DELETE button magically appears.
  • The recent update seems to have removed the useful ability to pinch-zoom on a full-screen camera view.
    Was this intended?
  • I second this! The pinch zoom function is gone! This is a problem!!
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