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#1

Im having an issue with someone in the house ( suspected teen ) disabling the cameras whenever she wants. I especially notice this on days she is home alone. I dont want to take any action with out proof ( its not my daughter its complicated ) she does not have any apps on her phone that can control a camera all of her apps were checked and she wouldnt have money to buy any type of jammer.
Ive had multiple emails back and forth with Blink and they keep sending me instructions how to operate the camera. im an electronics nerd and an engineer i know how to use the freakin camera ! They claim its not possible for someone else to have control of the camera…WELL… SOMEONE ELSE DOES CONTROL BOTH CAMERAS !!! I can only access live view but i cant watch that all day at work to record anything suspicious that might be going on. somehow motion detection is disabled. I tried arming and disarming, i turned scheduling on/off, turn motion on/off, removing it from wifi then connecting back. ive googled how this can be happening but I’m not finding any answers but I AM finding other people having the same issue. For instance yesterday the teen was home alone and from the time her mother left for work until i got home there was no motion picked up in my bedroom. On an average day I have 50+ videos of the cats running around. The cats hang out in the bed room when im not there they are constantly jumping on/off the bed or cleaning themselves or looking out the window its not possible that there was no motion what so ever ALL DAY. this is randomly happening with the front room camera as well.

im not stupid and im not going crazy. there is definitely a pattern when this happens. Its whenever the teenage girl don’t feel like being monitored. Blink was no help what so ever they should at least offer to send me new cameras and return my cameras. i don’t understand how an average teenager can hack the cameras like this but the Blink has no idea how this can be happening???

The cameras work great if you dont have anyone in the house that wants to avoid being on camera.
If you need a secure camera i would do more research and not buy Blink Mini.

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#2

Maybe they unplug the router feed? If not, she could instead, fairly easily, put a piece of card in front of the PIR sensor, without even being seen, on most installations. Might not even trigger a response, but if it did, that one time, if smart, they would be behind the camera, and it would just look like a false trigger. Thereafter, can wander around freely, and no more triggers. No need for complex hacking there, but you can easily find out what is going on by deploying a stealth camera, which records to SD card. There are countless examples online, hidden in toys, clocks, or similar. For only $50, or less, you can have your answer, and peace of mind. Some of them make a nice alarm clock too.

Plus once you know, you can be done with the issue, and return to being able to use your Blink system as you are used to.

Going back to the question though, next time they are home alone, keep checking your system for being armed, and cameras motion enabled. If it remains armed, and motion enabled, all day, then she is not controlling the cameras, or your system, and is achieving the blocking some other way.

If the status of any item changes throughout the day, then immediately change your password. Personally I wouldn’t do it before, because I would like to see if they were doing it.

But yeah, cheap stealth cam, and you will have your answer.

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#3

You are plenty capable
You have only 2 cameras - both inside.

KISS = keep it stupid simple. Remember how easy it was to install and setup the cameras? Ya so easy my mom could do it. Well it’s super easy to start over too.

Pretend you are selling the cameras so you can be the next buyer and do the next install. https://support.blinkforhome.com/f-a-q/selling-your-blink-hardware?from_search=62151608

Now you are the next customer. Do a fresh new install with new account credentials. That means new email and new password. You’ll also eventually get the two factor authorization routine. That means only your password AND only your mobile phone will be able to operate the Blink mobile app.
https://support.blinkforhome.com/managing-your-blink-account/why-we-need-your-phone-number?from_search=62151748

Now nobody but you is running the mobile app. Period.
If there is still camera shenanigans going on, then you have a physical problem and not a mobile app somebody hacked into the software problem.

All of this delete and reinstall takes less than 8 hours. Is one 8 hour work day worth your time to confirm or deny

Control it via the mobile app or control it via brute force physical method. So easy, nerdy tech dad can figure it out. Change the login credentials on your mobile phone will you are at it. Now they can’t even use your phone to get at the mobile app.

KISS keep it stupid simple.

#4

If you follow Joel’s advice, and have had your system a while, be sure not to create a brand new account, since you may lose any free storage you had. Be sure to change only the account credentials, by changing the password, and then the email address. If you simply delete the equipment, and then start out with a brand new account, you will be sure to be in the clear, but you may also lose any historical benefits of your existing system, into which you may well be currently grandfathered.

Change password
Change email address

Thereafter you can choose to delete and readd equipment or not, but do not delete the account, unless you do so in conjunction with Blink support, and with their full knowledge and understanding that you are a long standing customer.

#5

If all a person had was two mini indoor, would they even qualify for longtime customer status? They never had a sync module 1 running.

#6

Good point. Didn’t take in the last line, regarding the camera type.

#7

I don’t recall when mini came out in USA but its gotta be after that magical long time customer date. What many are now trying to figure out is why the free cloud trial date keeps getting pushed back over and over again.

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#8

Plan b for how to beat a teenager is change the wifi source as well as password for router.

Sorry honey internet must be down. Dumb like a fox comes to mind.

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#9

Thank you everyone for the replies and advise. I did change the camera app password and wifi password but did not change the email address associated with the account. She cannot get behind the cameras to block the motion sensor she wouldn’t be able to get in the room without the cam picking her up. I did purchase a small sd cam but that doesn’t seem to be working the best. I’m still doing trial runs to see how long the battery and storage holds up. She’s not getting into the router she wouldn’t have my account password.

Thanks again. I’ll follow up when I find out what’s going on

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#10

Reminds me of this one

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#11

If you want to keep a video then email it to your gmail account and / or save it to your videos on your iphone - you do not need to keep it in storage. You will not lose it if you send the video to yourself and save it somewhere else.

#12

You’ve lost me. What part of this thread, or my reply, has anything to do with saving videos?

#13

Sorry - I was not trying to be off topic or unclear… It seemed like there were some comments about video storage AND creating a second account that might cause someone to risk losing their videos… My point was to email yourself copies as a back-up in case you do lose your Blink storage. Hope this is more clear.

#14

I’m so glad I stumbled on this thread. I too am in same situation as the OP.
Here’s my dilemma, tho your email and blink app registered to you, first question is what is stopping somebody else setting up account? The QR code on back, and in my situation he took my box that it came in with again QR, and even mac addy.
What is preventing someone creating an account on same device?
And if I missed something in tread that answered this…apologies:)
Cheers!

#15

Has to be the same email and password if it’s being set up on another device.

#16

Read this
https://support.blinkforhome.com/f-a-q/selling-your-blink-hardware?from_search=63618334

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