The new updated android app has been pushed to the play store

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I'm on App v3.0.17 and it seems to work fine with V4 (except the Stunnel thing) and it no longer warns about upgrading to 5 (which IIRC just said some app features may not work, not that it required V5).
 

handinpalm

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any chance you can share where? i cant find it in this thread
Look at post #18 for the link to the old apk. It is through a 3rd party outlet, so it is scary in itself to downgrade and use, but it does work. I wish Ken would make it available for eveyone, just to be safe. He may not want people to downgrade, because he uses us as beta testers. I guess somebody has to do it. I got a new phone in the middle of this upgrade and got this new Android version, and I don't auto update anything. I am still using BI 4.8 because it works solid for me, but the new Android app would not send push notifications from some cameras to me, but some would. I downgraded to old version and back to normal.
 
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Richdem

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I just restored the old version from my Google backup. If you enabled Google to do auto backups, you should have the old copy backed up and I disabled auto-update.
Would you mind sharing how you did this please,

i’d like to revert back to 3.15 and have backup enabled
 
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I'm on App v3.0.17 and it seems to work fine with V4 (except the Stunnel thing) and it no longer warns about upgrading to 5 (which IIRC just said some app features may not work, not that it required V5).
Did your by chance submit a bug for this? Have the same exact issue. Spent too much time messing with STUNNEL and certs to not have it work properly due to an update lol.
 

hmjgriffon

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I have v5 of BI and the newest android app and I can no longer connect with the app, but through a web browser works fine.
 
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Did your by chance submit a bug for this? Have the same exact issue. Spent too much time messing with STUNNEL and certs to not have it work properly due to an update lol.
No. There have been a few posts here and elsewhere indicating the same issue, so I'm assuming it's not a corner case.
 

robpur

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I use BI with OpenVPN or Wireguard.
Blue Iris runs more fluently using http instead of https (at least for me).

So I stopped using stunnel a long time ago
I tried using OpenVPN a couple of years ago when I got started with the mobile App. The problem that I had was that the VPN tunnel was not stable through my mobile network provider so I had trouble with some features such as push alerts with images so I switched to stunnel. I'm now using Pushover instead of the BI alert system so I no longer need a persistent connection, but I find web based SSL more convenient. When using OpenVPN it's a two step process. First I have to connect with OpenVPN and then I open the BI App. I still have the OpenVPN option on my phone as a backup but it's easier to use HTTPS through a reverse proxy. BI talks HTTP and the encryption is handled by the reverse proxy in Sophos UTM. One contributing factor is my wife. Her having to deal with the two step process results in complaints and the occasional need for retraining :)
 

biggen

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I tried using OpenVPN a couple of years ago when I got started with the mobile App. The problem that I had was that the VPN tunnel was not stable through my mobile network provider so I had trouble with some features such as push alerts with images so I switched to stunnel. I'm now using Pushover instead of the BI alert system so I no longer need a persistent connection, but I find web based SSL more convenient. When using OpenVPN it's a two step process. First I have to connect with OpenVPN and then I open the BI App. I still have the OpenVPN option on my phone as a backup but it's easier to use HTTPS through a reverse proxy. BI talks HTTP and the encryption is handled by the reverse proxy in Sophos UTM. One contributing factor is my wife. Her having to deal with the two step process results in complaints and the occasional need for retraining :)
WireGuard is better. OpenVPN sucks at “roaming” because it likes to keep a constant connection back to the server which is difficult on a mobile device when signals go in and out. Wireguard isn’t chatty like OpenVPN so connections drops aren’t a problem. It only needs to talk to the server when needed to send or receive data and doesn’t need a constant keep alive connection all the time like OpenVPN. You just leave it connected 24x7 and never turn it off on your phone. That way all your data is tunneled to your house first.

Another option is to connect to use OpenVPN/WireGuard BI with UI3 on your phone and just not use the app altogether. I do this as I don’t think the app is designed very well.
 

plomaris

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I did contact BI support and had some back and forth with them on the new App version. I did suggest putting the old App version on the Google Play Store, and they thought that was a good idea. However, there was some reasons (which I don't know) why they couldn't. Therefore, I had to side-load the APK on my tablet. Fortunately, I ensured that my other tables had auto update turned off so they continue to work fine.

Now if I can only figure out how to delete old alerts!
 

wittaj

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Maybe suggest he add the older version to their website? Maybe Google will not allow that as a condition of having an app available in the Play Store?
 

Compnor

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I was wondering if anyone has had any issues with the alert sound associated to a push notification no longer correlating to what is set in the BI server? I typically rely on the push notification alert sound helping differentiate which camera has been triggered, but now it just plays a generic tone set by my phone for all of the alerts. Maybe I am missing a setting in the Android ap that allows these alerts to come through with the soundclip chosen in the BI server. Thought I would ask here before opening a ticket. Thanks!
 

handinpalm

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I was wondering if anyone has had any issues with the alert sound associated to a push notification no longer correlating to what is set in the BI server? I typically rely on the push notification alert sound helping differentiate which camera has been triggered, but now it just plays a generic tone set by my phone for all of the alerts. Maybe I am missing a setting in the Android ap that allows these alerts to come through with the soundclip chosen in the BI server. Thought I would ask here before opening a ticket. Thanks!
I had that issue, but I am still running BI ver 4.8, so thought it might be associated with out of date software. The funny thing was some cameras would push the correct tone, and some would push the generic tone. I rolled back to BI Android app ver 2 and everything is good to go.
 

jaydeel

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I was wondering if anyone has had any issues with the alert sound associated to a push notification no longer correlating to what is set in the BI server?
I've not noticed this yet, but it appears the updated app is creating new "Notification categories".

Here's how you can inspect them...

1. Long-press a Blue Iris notification in your device's 'notification tray'. You should see something like this...
1614032393201.png

2. Touch "Details" and you should see something like this...
1614032467817.png

3. Touch the "Motion Alerts' entry and you should something like these. Here you may be able to make necessary changes.
1614032572187.png 1614032718736.png

As you can see in my device's screenshot in step 2, I have two "Motion Alerts' entries active. I'm now testing by disabling 1 at a time.
Also, the same screenshot shows a message that 3 categories were deleted. I'm not sure what these were, but I'd like to know!
 
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hmjgriffon

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For comparison, when the new version of the iOS app was released last year it too had a number of bugs, but the dev has released quite a few (and frequent) updates to the iOS app addressing those issues. I'd expect the same for this Android version in the coming weeks and months. I sent a lot of emails to BI support while I was testing the iOS app and all my issues were addressed in later updates, so don't hesitate to email with your concerns.

As with anything that's mission-critical, it's smart to disable auto-updates and review them manually before installing. I sometimes wish the app stores had a more robust versioning system to choose your upgrade path, but then again simple is often better.
The issue isn't even auto updating, it's the fact that there is no easy way to go back to a previous version, maybe if Ken provided the previous version in the store, or a link to it every time it would just be a matter of installing the previous version. Sure I can make a backup first or scour the internet to see if people had issues, but it's really not that hard to do, the blue iris software itself let's you backup the install before you upgrade.
 

wittaj

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The issue isn't even auto updating, it's the fact that there is no easy way to go back to a previous version, maybe if Ken provided the previous version in the store, or a link to it every time it would just be a matter of installing the previous version. Sure I can make a backup first or scour the internet to see if people had issues, but it's really not that hard to do, the blue iris software itself let's you backup the install before you upgrade.
This has nothing to do with Ken - this is the same with every app and apps with a much bigger audience than Blue Iris. Google Play Store does not allow you as the end user to roll back to a previous version. You have to have either have saved the APK file or use APKMirror to get a previous version and side load it.

If you have NEVER had a problem with another app, then you are one lucky person. I have had to roll back Google Maps, Google Play Store, and a bunch of other apps by companies that "should know better" as people here are spouting off. There are too many android devices and too many manufacturer tweaks that we are lucky there are not more issues. Much easier to control iOS apps and deploy them when Apple controls every device and operating system, and yet there are still bugs with apps there too.
 

doomngloom

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Look at post #18 for the link to the old apk. It is through a 3rd party outlet, so it is scary in itself to downgrade and use, but it does work. I wish Ken would make it available for eveyone, just to be safe. He may not want people to downgrade, because he uses us as beta testers. I guess somebody has to do it. I got a new phone in the middle of this upgrade and got this new Android version, and I don't auto update anything. I am still using BI 4.8 because it works solid for me, but the new Android app would not send push notifications from some cameras to me, but some would. I downgraded to old version and back to normal.
Thanks. Dont know how i missed it. I still haven't heard back from support for the few different issues i found. Not even an automated reply that we got your request. I get being bogged down but an automated reply would seem standard nowadays
 

robpur

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WireGuard is better. OpenVPN sucks at “roaming” because it likes to keep a constant connection back to the server which is difficult on a mobile device when signals go in and out. Wireguard isn’t chatty like OpenVPN so connections drops aren’t a problem. It only needs to talk to the server when needed to send or receive data and doesn’t need a constant keep alive connection all the time like OpenVPN. You just leave it connected 24x7 and never turn it off on your phone. That way all your data is tunneled to your house first.

Another option is to connect to use OpenVPN/WireGuard BI with UI3 on your phone and just not use the app altogether. I do this as I don’t think the app is designed very well.
Thanks for the info about Wireguard being more durable with lower quality connections. Wireguard doesn't fit well into my current infrastructure, but I'll keep it in mind and perhaps be able to use it in the future. For now a reverse proxy is working well for me with Blue Iris. Tunneling all data from my phone though my home would not be desirable since I can't get anything better than 1Mbps upload with DSL in my area. To use Wireguard on my phone I would either have to turn it on only when needed as I did with OpenVPN, or it would have to support a split tunnel on my phone. I'm waiting on Starlink service and that could solve my bandwidth issues.
 

jaydeel

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I still haven't heard back from support for the few different issues i found. Not even an automated reply that we got your request. I get being bogged down but an automated reply would seem standard nowadays
This link may explain the lack of response. It was posted Saturday afternoon.
I’m not quite sure how I was notified of this, but you can try following the “Blue Iris Update Bot“ and subscribing to:
 
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