AP Isolation prevents Blink camera local recording

Routers
1

Posting to document a problem with a solution.

Problem: Blink Sync Module does not record camera video clips to local storage (SD card).
(Note, no testing performed with subscription internet Cloud Storage.)

All other areas of the Blink environment appear normal.

  • cameras senses motion and Blink app (android) issues notification.
  • Blink app shows "Device Settings / General Settings / Connection to Sync Module" at full strength (4 bars) and green.

Environment:

  • Flint 2, v4.8.2, using Guest Wi-Fi
  • Blink cameras and Sync Module XR
    • Sync: microSD card local storage, firmware 18.0.29, standard wi-fi, not extended range feature.

Solution:
Cause was enabling of "Network / Guest Network / (Security Settings section ) / AP Isolation"
Solution was to disable "AP Isolation" thereby allowing devices to communicate on the wireless network.

Notes:

  • support documentation and FAQ at Blink's website needs substantial improvement and obviously diagnostics in their app can't be trusted.
  • they were very responsive to my support request and follow-up. (I was impressed.)
  • after allowing "Grant Customer Support Access" they were able to provide a minuscule amount of additional detailed information. None of their standard suggestions were applicable to my environment, but because their suggestions were all focused on connectivity that provided the idea of where to begin my trouble shooting.
1 Like
2

The module and the camera cannot be isolated from each other in order to work as intended, so either AP Isolation is disabled or an exception is made for the two devices. It is normal to be this way, it is not a bug

3

I am not reporting it as a bug, only as a situation I found interesting. I could report it at a Blink forum but because the issue is a router configuration I choose to do it here. My intent is that the next person chasing this problem is perhaps helped by this clue.

4

Thank you for the info.

I get the feeling I did set AP isolation on the GL travel router this is on. It also runs an LTE modem to this remote location. Other than an odd amount of daily traffic I haven’t tracked down yet it is working quite well.

I did move all my cameras to the guest without changing any setting other than renaming guest and wifi names. I didn’t notice any space on usb flash drive after a year or so. Then took usb to computer and there were hundreds of clips.