Problem with MMS

wftomlin

Young grasshopper
Joined
Aug 27, 2015
Messages
45
Reaction score
2
All of a sudden, MMS alerts from my cameras are taking 1 1/2 to 5 hours to show up on my phone. They've always come thru within seconds up until a week or so ago. Messages from my wife's phone take only seconds. Anyone having the same issue? Thanks
 

wittaj

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
24,432
Reaction score
47,556
Location
USA
It's an email or mobile provider issue, not BI.

I have had that happen on occasion, but going to sent email I can see it sent to phone, it is just delayed. And the BI log confirms it sent as well.
 

Old Timer

Known around here
Joined
Jul 20, 2018
Messages
1,352
Reaction score
2,945
Location
I'm ok
Verixon is doing the same thing with me. Along with that, Google is refusing to send pictures to verizon from emails also.
They are blaming it on SPAM, but I call BS.
 

Jessie.slimer

BIT Beta Team
Joined
Aug 23, 2019
Messages
1,627
Reaction score
4,657
Location
Illinois
Same here. I check BI logs and Gmail sent folders. Every alert is sent promptly, but Verizon is throttling my incoming mms alerts. Some are coming the next day.
 

wittaj

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
24,432
Reaction score
47,556
Location
USA
Keep in mind VZ MMS (or any mobile or email provider) could consider it spam too and limit or block it if too many emails are being sent at once.

If you haven't done it, I would suggest you work on motion settings to knock out almost all false triggers. BI sending 12 emails or MMS at once will probably redflag most providers.

When I first started they were sporadic or late due to sending so many that ended up being false OR I really didn't need the alert (live every car driving by), but as I dialed in my system, the results are almost instantaneous and consistent now.

As I have got more comfortable with my system and its capabilities, I have configured it to only send me text messages for violations of my "personal space".

If you are having text messages go to more than one person at once, then in the alerts, add a break time in between each email/text Alert being sent and see if that gets the others through. BI sends them fast, so the email or mobile provider could be thinking it is a spamming event. Or if you have two cameras that basically trigger at the same time, add a break time first. Usually 1000 ms is enough for providers to not consider it spam.

I have found that generally the email provider and mobile provider play better if there are not lots of messages going out in rapid fire as that is probably what is kicking in the "spam".

I don't need a text every time a vehicle drives by or someone walks on the public sidewalk LOL.
 

Jessie.slimer

BIT Beta Team
Joined
Aug 23, 2019
Messages
1,627
Reaction score
4,657
Location
Illinois
Not sure how everyone else has theirs set up, but I have mine pretty dialed in to eliminate most false triggers, and I have it set in BI to only send alerts every 180 seconds in order to not be text spammed by a mailman or someone going in and out of one of my zones.

MMS has been working great since I first set it up...until earlier this week.

I'd switch to push notifications if I could get a picture with it, but that's not an option since I am not constantly remoted into my LAN.
 

wittaj

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
24,432
Reaction score
47,556
Location
USA
Did anyone on this thread update to 5.4.8?

Mine had been working great up until then.

Maybe pure coincidence or maybe there is some unknown bug in that update that is causing providers grief, but when I rolled back, my alerts starting working again.
 

Jessie.slimer

BIT Beta Team
Joined
Aug 23, 2019
Messages
1,627
Reaction score
4,657
Location
Illinois
I'm running 5.4.8.0, but these delays were present before I updated, and according to my logs, I can't blame BI or Google in my case.
 

Jessie.slimer

BIT Beta Team
Joined
Aug 23, 2019
Messages
1,627
Reaction score
4,657
Location
Illinois
@wftomlin have you looked at your logs or email sent folder?

Edit: nevermind, I just saw you said your wife's alerts come through right away, so it has to be a carrier issue.
 
Last edited:

wittaj

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
24,432
Reaction score
47,556
Location
USA
So mine could be purely coincidence when I went to 5.4.8, but what if in one of these updates with DeepStack, that the memo text with DeepStack is triggering a spam alert to some providers? Just kinda brainstorming in what could be the issue. And it may be totally unrelated to BI or email, but with the mobile provider and implementing another filter to cut down on spam?
 

Jessie.slimer

BIT Beta Team
Joined
Aug 23, 2019
Messages
1,627
Reaction score
4,657
Location
Illinois
Yeah, I was thinking it's a spam filter or something along those lines. What carrier to do use?
 

Jessie.slimer

BIT Beta Team
Joined
Aug 23, 2019
Messages
1,627
Reaction score
4,657
Location
Illinois
When I get a few free minutes at home, I've been meaning to set up another Gmail account and switch my BI email server over to it. If it starts working properly, it would lead me to believe that the cellular carrier is blacklisting my other email address and deprioritizing those messages.

If so, this must be new, because I had a ton of false alert messages earlier in the spring from a new camera and tree shadows, before I dialed it in. Every one came through. I had to mute the conversation, as I was not home and got a text every couple minutes.
 

fenderman

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
36,897
Reaction score
21,250
I and my people, have noticed the same thing over the past few weeks. This seems to be a verizon issue.
 

wftomlin

Young grasshopper
Joined
Aug 27, 2015
Messages
45
Reaction score
2
Thanks for the responses. I'm on Verizon too. I'll try a delay between messages and see how that works. Thanks again, I can always count on you folks!
 

grumpywilson

Pulling my weight
Joined
May 1, 2019
Messages
189
Reaction score
187
Location
NJ
I too have Verizon and have narrowed it down to it being an issue with them. I sometimes get alerts up to 23 hours later and out of order. 3:20am, 12:47am and 1:31am alerts just came in in that order between 9:20 and 10:00 this morning. I don't get that many alerts due to the cameras being dialed in correctly but this is getting out of control. Yesterday it was a night time alert every other mms message.
 

Fitz2380

n3wb
Joined
Oct 4, 2020
Messages
5
Reaction score
2
Location
Iowa
I started a post elsewhere and was directed here. I too am using Verizon and am have the same issues as grumpywilson in that I am getting delays and sometimes alerts days later. I did create a brand new gmail address this morning and limited it to sending just to my phone and not my wife's. Thus far I am still seeing delays of 30 minutes to over an hour for an alert. So if Verizon was throttling my previous email due to 'spamming', the brand new one behaves the same.

I notice above that someone had a different carrier then Verizon and was now having the same issue. Did I read this correctly? If so then is there something that Blue Iris is now doing as someone also suggested above that is triggering the carrier's to throttle? I am not sure what that could be as I looked at my emails going out. I see that someone else prevents new alerts being sent for up to 3 minutes so as not to appear as Spam, but that did not work as well.

I don't have another push notification solution yet as I can't push alerts outside my network. Any other observations or suggestions by others?
 

Jessie.slimer

BIT Beta Team
Joined
Aug 23, 2019
Messages
1,627
Reaction score
4,657
Location
Illinois
Check your logs in BI and your email sent folder. As long as the emails are sent at the same time as the alert was triggered in blue iris, then you know you don't have a blue iris or email problem.
 
Top