‎"Wireless Interference Detected" - Your Base Station may have trouble communicating with your devices. | SimpliSafe Support Home
 
petravler's profile

Tuesday, February 21st, 2023 6:05 AM

"Wireless Interference Detected" - Your Base Station may have trouble communicating with your devices.

I’ve been getting multiple-notifications: “WiFi Interference- Your Base Station may have trouble communicating with your devices.”.   They just started occurring fairly frequently in the past three weeks.  The issue is resolves itself in about 1 min after notification, and then it occurs again.  Sends 5 - 6 SMS notifications.  Any ideas?  Maybe the batteries are wearing out?  The base station has been in the same location for years. 

Official Solution

Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

2 years ago

Hi @petravler ,

Thanks for checking in.The notification should be "Wireless Interference Detected", which means that another wireless signal could potentially in the way of your security system's signals.

(As a side note, it's important to understand that your system's components - the Sensors, Keypad, etc. - use different type of wireless communication, and not WiFi. We don't need to troubleshoot your home's WiFi router for this issue!)

Wireless Interference is caused by other wireless devices that communicate in a similar frequency to the system. That means we're looking for more basic devices, like wireless weather stations, or baby monitors, etc.

You mention that the error shows up on your system momentarily, and then goes away after a short time. So it might be something that is active only for short periods - and it might help to know when those times occur. For example, if the interference starts whenever someone comes home and enters from your garage - maybe the source is a remote controlled garage door opener!

Once we identify a possible culprit, we can take steps to solve the issue, which could be as simple as just moving your Base Station to a different spot away from those kinds of devices.

2 Messages

I am having the same issue. Started last night. Errors, clears, errors, clears. Getting the issue as I am typing this message. There has to be a system issue.

2 Messages

I continue to get errors. How do you make this stop? Every minute it clears itself and then errors again. Truly annoying. Base station has been in the same place for years. 

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@scott_hibben​ Have you introduced any new wireless devices to your home recently? The "Wireless Interference Detected" message occurs when the Base Station senses another wireless signal that could potentially drown out our sensors' communication to the Base Station.

This would come from simpler devices that broadcast at the same frequency as our sensors, like ham radio stations and remote garage door openers. To prevent this message from popping up again, we would need to identify which wireless device is causing this error and move it away from the Base Station.

I would recommend scanning your home for any of these wireless devices and turn them off one by one until the "Wireless Interference Detected" message goes away. Doing so will help pinpoint the device that is causing this issue.

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Same problem just started with our equipment. "Your Base Station may have trouble communicating with your devices. on 11/28/2023 at 12:07 AM" It started in the middle of the night last night, got multiple error texts, then the "all clear" text within a minute or 2. Several times in a row in the dead of night when nothing else was being used. It was fine all day & just started again around 7:30 pm, & it's done it 12 times in the last 50 minutes. Very annoying. There are no new devices in the house & the base station is in the same location it's been in for years. It's really annoying & I'm unsure of the equipment is performing correctly (e.g. if we had an actual emergency, is it working?) Would love to find the cause.

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14 Messages

1 year ago

I have found simplisafe customer service to be extremely poor. I have intermittent issues with an outdoor camera that refuses to connect. Then connects, then disconnects. The app says it isn't connected yet I can open the camera and watch it live. It records. How can it possibly be disconnected? Simplisafe will tell you there's a problem with your wifi, or you have interference, or you have brick walls, or some other nonsense. There is an inherent problem with this system; there should not be this many people complaining about this issue or that issue. The system should just actually WORK. I for one would never have spent the money on this if I had known how many problems I would have with it.

1 Message

1 year ago

Same problem just started with our equipment. "Your Base Station may have trouble communicating with your devices. on 11/28/2023 at 12:07 AM" It started in the middle of the night last night, got multiple error texts, then the "all clear" text within a minute or 2. Several times in a row in the dead of night when nothing else was being used. It was fine all day & just started again around 7:30 pm, & it's done it 12 times in the last 50 minutes. Very annoying. There are no new devices in the house & the base station is in the same location it's been in for years. It's really annoying & I'm unsure of the equipment is performing correctly (e.g. if we had an actual emergency, is it working?) Would love to find the cause.

This comment was created from this reply

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@lildirl​ If no new devices have been introduced into your home, I would then recommend adjusting the placement of your Base Station by moving it to a different area of the room its in, or into an entirely different room. If moving the Base Station doesn't help to stop these Wireless Interference Detected notifications, I would then reach out to our Support team. They'll be able to take a look into your account and provide additional troubleshooting steps in realtime. 

1 Message

Same thing started happening with mine today. Unfortunately, I’ve got three systems at three different locations so I have no idea which one it’s referring to. Really seems like a system glitch to me the way it get multiple messages one right after another. I received 12 in total just a few minutes ago saying “may have trouble” immediately followed by “is communicating normally” over and over again. 

19 Messages

I just encountered the same problem for the first time. It took less than 20 seconds to resolve itself. Interesting to note that there are 0 new devices in my home, and the base station hasn't moved since it was installed almost a year ago.

2 Messages

11 months ago

I just started having this exact issue yesterday. Nothing has changed with my home network. So I don’t know what changed to trigger these repeated alerts. 

2 Messages

11 months ago

Update:  a day after getting these repeated notifications, I got a notification that a battery had died in a door sensor.  The wireless interference notifications stopped.  The two issues may have been related.  This is the first door sensor battery death since I’ve been a SimpliSafe customer so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@toddmcarlson​ If there is a device in your home that has a very low battery, it could cause some interference of its own. Have you replaced the battery in this sensor? And if you did, have you stopped getting Wireless Interference Detected notifications?

If you did, the low battery may have been the culprit. 

3 Messages

11 months ago

I started getting the base station communication errors last night. The errors resolve themselves within less than a minute, but then occurr again. This persisted throughout the night.  It stopped during the day, but started up again tonight. 

I have not introduced any new devices, and my base station is in the same place it has been for several years. 

The only thing that has changed is that I recently installed a system update.

Given how many people are reporting this odd behavior of the SimlpiSafe system, I hope a solution is forthcoming.

In the meantime, I guess I have to turn off SimpliSafe notifications, because I can't sleep at night with these repetitive communication error notifications. 

(edited)

Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

@cmka​ it is possible that your Base Station has been configured to be overly sensitive. Our Support team can change the threshold slightly, in that case.

But we still always urge you to look for potential causes of interference, just in case. It can be anything that emits electromagnetic radiation - so not even necessarily just wireless devices, but things like Christmas lights could be a problem. Maybe that's what's happening for you, since you mention that the interference tends to start up at night - likely when the lights come on!

14 Messages

"Things like Christmas lights" could interfere with your security system. Wow. Just WOW. THIS SHOULD NOT HAPPEN. NOT WITH THIS SYSTEM OR ANY OTHER SYSTEM FOR THAT MATTER. SIMPLISAFE IS SIMPLY UNRELIABLE. PERIOD.

1 Message

11 months ago

First time had the same issue "Wireless Interference Your Base Station may have trouble communicating with your devices" it started happening around 11:00PM and was resolved by 12:40AM. The fault happens then clears itself continuously until at around 12:40AM fixed itself.

Base station was at the same position since it was activated, and no new wireless system has been introduced in the house.

did the following:

- moved base station to different location 

- check all devices (entry sensor, keypad, smoke detector, glass break and temperature) all good

any suggestion what can be done to avoid this.

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@totspasamba​ Did you stop receiving the Wireless Interference Detected notifications before or after you changed the location of the Base Station? If the notifications stopped after, the Base Station might've been picking up on a signal in its old location.

Other wireless devices can cause this, but so can anything that emits electromagnetic radiation - like LED lights or a device that has a very low battery (like a TV remote.) Keeping the Base Station away from any devices like those can help as well.

In your particular case, I would recommend keeping an eye out for any additional Wireless Interference Detected notifications for the next few days. If you do not get any more, moving the Base Station to its new location might have been the fix!

14 Messages

11 months ago

In order to avoid this error, purchase a more reliable security system. This is definitely not it.

2 Messages

10 months ago

Fell asleep on the couch and was waken by a voice at 2am.  Not sue what interference can be happening at 2am.  Thought I was dreaming.  It turned out to be the base station voice alerting of a Same communicating problem with devices.  It immediately self resolved then happened again and immediately self resolved.   Then this morning about 8am, I got a sensor error warning that slider not responding.  Maybe the issues are linked.

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@eek111​ If you get an error message that a sensor isn't responding, that could mean that its battery needs to be replaced. And sometimes, if a device has a very low battery it can create some interference. I would recommend replacing the battery in this sensor to see if that resolves this wireless interference as well.

3 Messages

I had 43 rounds of messages in less than 30 minutes. The first would say the Bazes station may have trouble communicating with your devices and then the next would say that communication is normal and a minute later again. And again and again. Customer support said, perhaps some EMF signal is interfering and it will usually just resolve but maybe I should move the base station. The base station is where it has been and has worked for several years now.  Nothing else unordinary was happening in my house at the time      Except some mysterious, invisible, EMF interference. Or at least that was customer service best guess. Only real advice if it happened in the future was to turn the system off at the base station for a while I guess hoping that when I turned it back on the EMF interference would’ve gone away  

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@thomasabartlett​ Have you recently introduced any new wireless devices into your home recently? The Wireless Interference Detected warning comes up when the Base Station detects a wireless signal that could potentially drown out the signal between your SimpliSafe sensors and the system.

So, if a new device—like Christmas/LED lights, remote controlled garage door openers, or a ham radio—was recently introduced into your home, that could be the reason why the Base Station was picking up on interference. In that case, adjusting the Base Station's placement to move it away from the device can prevent the it from picking up on interference again.

3 Messages

I have not introduced anything new. I moved away from it an amazon echo device, although that had been next to it for the several years that I’ve had the Simplisafe, and it wasn’t active at the time, so I’m pretty confident that’s not the cause. It started doing it this afternoon, even though I moved the echo away from it. So now I’ve relocated the Simplisafe and hope that that makes the difference. All I can say is nothing in the house has changed and it just started doing this    

3 Messages

I think I found the problem and it’s amazing that my long exchange with tech-support this morning did not suggest this but I did learn it here on this list. I think the battery was low on my front door sensor. I’ll see you in the next few days if the problem occurs or if replacing that battery fixed it. Thanks folks.  

1 Message

10 months ago

I started having the same errors starting yesterday. No change to base station location in home and no introduction of any new devices. All sensors are showing connected in the app. Providing a battery percentage for each sensor in the app or webpage would be a tremendous benefit to end users though. 

(edited)

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@jgosnell56​ Could there be any other devices in your home with a very low battery, like a remote controller? In some instances, a device with a low battery could cause this issue as well.

But if you continue getting notified of wireless interference, slightly adjusting the placement of the Base Station can help stop this from happening again.

14 Messages

10 months ago

I have so many complaints about this system I've run out of room for them all. I regret giving my money to this company for this sub-par product. It can't be trusted to function properly; how am I supposed to trust it protect my home and my family????

16 Messages

8 months ago

The radio hardware in the SS3 base station is appallingly unshielded from interference. It is a leftover device from a time when our WiFi consisted of a single access point with a couple of phones and computers, and the only sources of interference we had to worry about were things like baby monitors, microwave ovens, or garage door openers. 

Now that our houses are filled with various wireless IoT devices and/or LED lights, and even crowded WiFi airspace from close-proximity neighbors - all more-recent potential sources of interference - it’s become impossible to find a place in the house to put the base station, where it isn’t prone to taking several minutes to disarm the system using the app, because of repeatedly failing communication due to this interference. 

it’s super frustrating that web-based interoperability - like through the app - is a complete afterthought, often unable to respond within a reasonable amount of time, and - to add insult to injury - web access has a rather steep additional monthly fee. I really need to find a more reliable security system, because in today’s web-integration world, this ain’t it. 

1 Message

5 months ago

My remote fob wasn't responding and showed a "wireless interference" warning. I removed the remote fob from the system devices on the main board and reconnected it. It's working now.

1.4K Messages

5 months ago

If nothings changed in you're home that you're aware of, first suspect is the system itself.

Batteries do not last as long as advertised, especially if used often and sometimes even if not used at all.

While I have the system all CR2032 batteries get replaced every 12 to 15 months.

Amd motion sensor CR123 etc. batteries just for the heck of it.

As indicated above a low sensor battery or in my case and one other above, the key fob battery can cause interference. They seem to last about a year or so if you actually use them for their intended purpose.

Having said that, so can other smart devices, remotes etc. admins mentioned, especially if on the same frequency.

I have Zigbee, Zwave & wifi signals all over the house, zero interference.

Yes, its supposed to tell you when a battery is low and does sometimes, but to circumvent this problem, I've chosen just to be proactive with sensors battery replacement.

Example, my fob caused interference once, removed and replaced via warranty. Fixed.

Inner garage door gets opened 10,000 times, battery made it one year.

Garage window sensor never gets used, lasted 15 months, did get a signal from system.

2 Messages

A better term for wireless interference would be “radio interference” because the signal that is used to communicate between sensor and base station is not WiFi signal or Bluetooth signal that is used in typical home networking wireless devices even though the base station obviously had WiFi and cellular capabilities, it’s lower frequency and radio wave that is common to garage door openers, gate openers, freestanding motion sensors, wireless doorbells, etc. They all work without a wire connecting the points but they are not typically part of home network or able to access the internet.

1 Message

2 months ago

This has been happening to be for the last couple of months but the last couple of days It’s been happening everyday. The other night I had over 30 notifications saying Your Base Station may have trouble communicating with your devices.

It’s been a little frustrating especially when I am out of town and I am not even close to home so idk what is going on. Not to happy with this and if this keeps happening what’s the point of having it and keep paying for something that is having trouble communicating. 

same thing is happening to me! I've gotten well over a hundred messages SO FAR and I'm away! Will this madness stop?? The messages just keep coming...... ugh!! This will certainly help me stop desiring to keep looking at my phone. Every time I look at it now I get HIGHLY ANNOYED! LOL! Thank you God for working in insanely odd ways. I now despise my phone. 

Community Admin

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739 Messages

@Idontknow1f833e The Wireless Interference Detected error message means that the Base Station is detecting another RF signal that could potentially cause interference between it and your other SimpliSafe devices. 

 

This competing signal could come from a variety of things, like:

  • Ham radios
  • Remote car starters
  • Wireless weather stations
  • If the home is close to major construction, police stations, or airports 

In order to troubleshoot what could be causing this, you do unfortunately need to be at home and with the Base Station. The Error: Wireless Interference Detected article in our Help Center will take you through the steps of troubleshooting this error and what could be causing it.

New to the Community? Get started by reading our Welcome Article and please be sure to review our Community Guidelines before posting.