Is there a way to make certain cameras private?

[erkme73]

My kids are getting to the age where they have figured out how to get their tablets to the LAN IP and are/were logging in w/o credentials since I had disabled LAN authentication. I've changed that, and created them their own user accounts.

It's been a while since I created new groups, but from what I remember, it wasn't an easy thing to do on a bulk basis. Basically I want to create a group containing all cameras except for two or three that are private.

Rather than going into every one of my 64 cameras to add them to a new "kids group" group (which I would have to do to 62 cameras!), I'm wondering if there isn't a way to hide select cameras that only an account with admin rights can view.

If there is another way to accomplish this with out spending a billion keystrokes and mouse clicks, I'm all ears....

 

[VideoDad]

Unfortunately, camera groups are created starting at the camera level. You edit a camera and you can add it to a new group called "kids" (or whatever). Then repeat for the other 61 cameras. Finally, under users, click to limit them to camera groups and pick "kids".

Have you considered whether they really need access to all of the other 62 cameras? Maybe they could manage with a subset?

Alternatively, maybe you already have cameras in logical groups (like front, back, side, pool, fence, etc.). Just make sure the private cameras are in their own group and not any of these, then share the groups that make sense for your kids to have access to.

 

[erkme73]

That's what I was hoping to avoid. For now I'm giving them limited access to existing groups. No real need for all but the private ones, other than curiosity to see what the easiest way is to accomplish the goal. It'd be nice to have a "all cameras except these" option.

 

[VideoDad]

Update: I just went back and read the section on camera groups in the user guide and there IS a way to do this more easily.

First start by assigning at least one camera to the new "kids" group. Select to view the "kids" group and you should see one camera in the view. Click on the "Edit layout" button then when you get the green background, you can right-click and choose "Select cameras". You can then select multiple cameras (i.e. all but the private ones) and add them to the group.

I still think with that many cameras, you probably want to think about your organization of groups, but now we know that you CAN easily select or unselect multiple cameras to display using the "Edit layout" button.

 

[saltwater]

Hang on a minute, can we backtrack a little, did you say you have 64 cameras? I thought I was a little excessive with 13, but then you win this contest, hands down.

 

[erkme73]

Hang on a minute, can we backtrack a little, did you say you have 64 cameras? I thought I was a little excessive with 13, but then you win this contest, hands down.

[sheepishly] yes. And the hard limit of 64 is real.

 

[erkme73]

Update: I just went back and read the section on camera groups in the user guide and there IS a way to do this more easily.

First start by assigning at least one camera to the new "kids" group. Select to view the "kids" group and you should see one camera in the view. Click on the "Edit layout" button then when you get the green background, you can right-click and choose "Select cameras". You can then select multiple cameras (i.e. all but the private ones) and add them to the group.

I still think with that many cameras, you probably want to think about your organization of groups, but now we know that you CAN easily select or unselect multiple cameras to display using the "Edit layout" button.

YES! That's what I was looking for. That functionality has changed a couple of times and It's been a while since I last used it - so I'd forgotten all about. Thank you.

I have about 10 groups now... so the organization is good, but I didn't have a single group with everything but private. I will now!