Well, this is a bit frustrating. I have one outdoor Blink XT2 camera from Amazon which I installed about a year and a half ago...or maybe two years. I installed it on the corner of my garage to monitor my driveway. It's done a phenomenal job capturing everything from an attempted car break-in to my local trash panda visitors.
Last week, I tried to view the driveway in the daytime but got the dreaded "Thumbnail failed" message. Figuring it was just a temporary network connection issue, I didn't think much about it. However, I tried again the next day and kept getting the same message.
I have two cameras connected to the app and the other, an indoor camera Blink camera was operating fine
After doing some Googling (is that a word?) here's what I did to troubleshoot and fix it:
1. Check the settings. The XT2 was connected to my app. It showed "Battery OK," with a strong signal to the Sync module. The status timestamp was current as was the firmware. So that ruled out a connection issue.
2. Reboot the sync module. Since one of my cameras was working over the same module, I thought this was a dumb step. But what do I know. Unplugged it, waited 10 seconds, plugged it back in. After a few minutes, both cameras reconnected. Still no picture on the XT2.
3. Reboot my home internet. Again, a dumb recommendation since one of the cameras was working but wanted to eliminate this as a culprit. Again, everything came back up but no picture.
4. Delete the XT2 from my app and add it again. Still didn't fix it.
5. Reset the XT2 using the reset button on the back by the QR code. Add it again. Still not working.
6. Replace the batteries(!) Even though my app said "Battery OK" I thought, but "what if it's not?" I noticed that when I tried to update the thumbnail or go into live video mode, there was a red LED flashing slowly under the infrared movement sensor "dome," which is below the camera lens on the front of the XT2. Since I didn't have any AA Lithium batteries handy, I just used two AA Duracell copper tops. To my delight, the thumbnail and picture sprang back to life!
The moral of the story is: do the most obvious thing first (change the batteries.) Most of the internet tips I found did not even mention a battery change. They jumped right into rebooting all the devices, routers, and gateways. Secondly, do NOT believe the battery gauge on the Blink app. Remember, is just read "Battery. OK" without any feedback on how good it was. Clearly, it was good enough to power the logic and radio, but not the camera itself.
Another lesson learned. Onward!
#blinkXT2 #Amazon #Duracell #Blink #OutdoorCamera #Syncmodule #AmazonBlink
