Webcam Monitoring & Alerts

Stay informed about your webcam’s status with automatic monitoring. Receive alerts when problems occur, so you can fix issues before your visitors notice.

Overview

What Gets Monitored

webcam.io automatically monitors your time-lapse cameras for:

Monitored issues
Issue Detection Alert
Connection errors URL fetch fails ✅ Email
Timeouts URL doesn’t respond in time ✅ Email
Missing uploads No FTP upload for X intervals ✅ Email
Duplicate images Same image uploaded twice ✅ Email
Camera offline No images for extended period ✅ Dashboard

How It Works

Camera uploads image
        ↓
webcam.io checks for errors
        ↓
Error detected? → Count increases
        ↓
Error count ≥ threshold? → Send alert
        ↓
Alert cooldown (3-6 hours)
Enabled by Default

Monitoring is automatically enabled for all time-lapse cameras. No setup required to start receiving alerts.

Alert Configuration

Global Monitoring Settings

Configure monitoring for all your cameras:

  1. Go to Dashboard → Monitoring
  2. Configure:
    • Enable/disable all monitoring emails
    • Add recipients (additional email addresses)
    • Slack integration (optional)
  3. Click Save

Per-Camera Settings

Customize monitoring for individual cameras:

  1. Go to Dashboard → Webcams
  2. Click Edit on the camera
  3. Find the Monitoring section
  4. Set Number of errors before alert (default: 3)
  5. Click Save
Per-camera monitoring options
Setting Description Default
Number of errors Errors before sending alert 3
0 Disable alerts for this camera —

Error Types

Connection Error

What it means: webcam.io couldn’t connect to your camera’s image URL.

Common causes:

Connection error causes
Cause Solution
Camera offline Check power, network connection
IP address changed Update URL in webcam settings
Port forwarding broken Reconfigure router
Firewall blocking Allow webcam.io IPs (see Static IPs)
ISP blocking ports Try different port, contact ISP

Timeout Error

What it means: Camera responded too slowly or not at all.

Common causes:

Timeout error causes
Cause Solution
Slow internet connection Check bandwidth, reduce image size
Camera overloaded Reduce concurrent connections
Network congestion Check other devices, upgrade connection
Camera busy processing Increase interval between captures

Missing Upload (FTP)

What it means: No image received via FTP for the expected number of intervals.

Common causes:

Missing upload causes
Cause Solution
Camera stopped uploading Check camera FTP settings
FTP credentials changed Update in camera settings
Camera offline Check power, network
Camera clock wrong Sync camera time (timer upload ?)
Timer active Check timer excludes current time

Duplicate Image

What it means: The uploaded image is identical to the previous one (same file checksum).

Why it matters:

  • Duplicate images are ignored (not added to time-lapse)
  • May indicate camera freeze or upload problem

Common causes:

Duplicate image causes
Cause Solution
Camera frozen Restart camera
Interval too fast Slow down capture rate
URL update slower than fetch Match interval to camera’s update rate
Interval Mismatch

If you fetch images via URL, make sure your webcam.io interval matches or is slower than how often the camera updates the image. If you request every 30 seconds but the camera only updates every 60 seconds, you’ll get duplicate image errors.

Alert Behavior

Error Threshold

Alerts are sent after the configured number of consecutive errors (default: 3).

Example with default setting (3 errors):

Error threshold example
Event Error Count Alert?
Error #1 1 ❌ No
Error #2 2 ❌ No
Error #3 3 ✅ Yes, alert sent
Success 0 (reset) —

Anti-Flapping Protection

To prevent notification spam during intermittent issues:

  • Cooldown period: 3-6 hours between email alerts
  • During cooldown: Errors still logged to Dashboard and Slack
  • After cooldown: New email alerts can be sent

This means if your camera goes up and down repeatedly, you won’t receive hundreds of emails.

What Triggers a Reset

The error count resets to 0 when:

  • A successful image is received

Notification Channels

Email Notifications

Default: Sent to your account email address.

Add more recipients:

  1. Go to Dashboard → Monitoring
  2. Add additional email addresses
  3. Save

Email contains:

  • Camera name and ID
  • Error type
  • Time of error
  • Link to camera page, Dashboard

Dashboard Alerts

All errors appear in the Dashboard immediately:

  1. Go to Dashboard
  2. Check the Status column

Slack Integration

Get alerts directly in your Slack channel:

  1. Go to Dashboard → Monitoring
  2. Click Connect Slack
  3. Choose a channel
  4. Authorize the connection

Benefits of Slack:

  • Real-time alerts (no cooldown)
  • Team visibility
  • Mobile push notifications
  • All errors logged, not just first
Recommended: Use Slack for Teams

If multiple people need to see alerts, Slack is better than adding many email recipients. Everyone sees the same alerts in real-time.

Camera Offline Status

When “Camera Offline” Shows

Visitors see “Camera Offline” when:

  1. No images exist in the selected time range
  2. The “show as offline after” threshold is reached

Configure Offline Threshold

Control when the offline screen appears:

  1. Go to Dashboard → Webcams → Edit
  2. Open Advanced Settings
  3. Set “Show as offline after”:
    • Last 24 hours (default): Show offline if no images in 24h
    • Custom range: Set specific hours

Monitoring Best Practices

For Critical Cameras

Error threshold: 1 (immediate alerts)
Channels: Email + Slack
Backup: FTP export enabled
Check: Daily Dashboard review

For Non-Critical Cameras

Error threshold: 5 (fewer false alarms)
Channels: Email only
Check: Weekly Dashboard review

For Large Deployments (10+ cameras)

Error threshold: 3 (balanced)
Channels: Slack (team channel)
Check: Dashboard status box
Organize: Group cameras by name or filter using search

Reduce False Alarms

  1. Increase error threshold for flaky connections
  2. Check interval settings match camera capability
  3. Use timer to exclude offline hours
  4. Verify network stability before adjusting settings

Troubleshooting

Not Receiving Alerts

Missing alerts troubleshooting
Problem Solution
Monitoring disabled Enable in Dashboard → Monitoring
Threshold set to 0 Set error count > 0
Cooldown active Wait 3-6 hours or check Dashboard
Email in spam Whitelist webcam.io emails
Wrong email Update email in account settings

Too Many Alerts

Excessive alerts troubleshooting
Problem Solution
Flaky connection Increase error threshold
Interval too fast Slow down capture rate
Camera unreliable Fix underlying issue
Duplicate alerts Normal during cooldown reset

Dashboard Shows Errors but No Email

This is normal behavior:

  • Dashboard: Shows all errors in real-time
  • Email: Subject to threshold and cooldown
  • Slack: Shows all errors (no cooldown)

If you need all errors via email, consider using Slack instead.

FAQ

How quickly will I be notified of problems?

With default settings (3 errors), you’ll typically be notified within 3-15 minutes of a problem starting, depending on your capture interval.

Time to alert by interval
Interval ~Time to Alert (3 errors)
1 minute ~3 minutes
5 minutes ~15 minutes
15 minutes ~45 minutes

Can I monitor live streams?

Currently, monitoring is only available for time-lapse (still image) cameras. Live stream monitoring is on our roadmap.

Can I set different alerts for different cameras?

Yes. Each camera has its own error threshold setting. You can also disable alerts entirely for specific cameras by setting the threshold to 0.

How do I test if monitoring works?

  1. Temporarily change your camera URL to something invalid
  2. Wait for 3 capture intervals
  3. Check for alert email
  4. Restore correct URL
Warning

Remember to restore the correct URL after testing!

Next Steps

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