‎No Power Outage Notification | SimpliSafe Support Home
 
prberg2's profile

Tuesday, January 14th, 2025 11:32 PM

No Power Outage Notification

Hello.  Having a little trouble with my Gen 3 security system.  It is not telling me when there is a power outage.  Power went out about 5 days ago at my property.  I went there about 2 days ago and found the power out at the house.  I got no notifications about that (via the app, text, call, etc).  I went into the app and it didn't say anything about a power outage.  In the notification area (envelope in the top right) there was nothing in there about a power outage.  I checked the timeline and there was nothing in there either.  It even shows automatic test signals being received, but I know the base station has no power (and at this point the backup batteries are dead).  The keypad has a message says that it has no link to the base station.

Can I ask why there is no notification or nothing in the timeline about a power outage.  It seems pretty important to get that information.  I actually see an entry in the timeline about 6 days ago that says 'power restored', but since that entry, nothing about a 'power outage'.

What could be happening?  Why isn't there an entry for power outage, or even something about 'Lost communication to the base station'.  And why does it says there was an Automatic Test Signal Received as recently as yesterday?  Seems weird and not super helpful.

Thanks much.

Community Admin

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981 Messages

5 days ago

@prberg2 When there is a power outage and the Base Station's backup rechargeable batteries take over, you should receive a push notification from the app. But that signal does need to be sent through WiFi, or the Base Station's built-in cellular connection. If both of these connections were down, and there is a No Link to Dispatcher Error on the Keypad, that would indicate why no notification was received. 

11 Messages

Thanks for the reply.  I do have the monthly plan with cellular backup.  My cell phone had good signal strength, so I think the cellular connection was up.  Seems like it should have sent that notification through the cellular connection when the power went out?  Right?

Community Admin

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981 Messages

@prberg2 if the Base Station's cellular connection was down at the time that the power went out, that would explain why no notification was sent via the SimpliSafe mobile app.

11 Messages

So the cell phone service was still up in our area after the power outage.  We went up there after the power went out and were able to make calls and use our phones.  Seems like some sort of bug or something as to why it didn't send a notification, or even record this in the app timeline?

11 Messages

3 days ago

So update.  Our power finally came back on yesterday (I got a call from our utility letting us know that).  I went into the Simplisafe app and it does seem that the alarm is on and functioning ok.  But I went into the timeline and there is no entry there about 'Power Outage',  'Power Restored', or 'Running on backup batteries'.   Also the system was reporting a test signal being received (in the app timeline) every single day, but I know the base station was without power and likely the backup batteries were dead.  Seems like the communication and notifications really didn't work at all correctly.  What could be the problem?  I'd love to know in the future if our system is down.

A related question.  If for example my base station is down (backup batteries have died), why would the app not tell me that the system was 'down'?  If the cellular connection is down.. why would the app not tell me that?  If there is no connection to the base station (for whatever reason), the app should tell me that.  Right?  I have no indication of any problems at my house, but the system might not be working at all and there is no security at the moment.

Can someone help me figure out this problem?  Let me know if I can provide any more details on this.  Thanks.

Captain

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6.3K Messages

@prberg2​ The most reliable way to get notifications is push alerts with the app. I get mine like clock work, with SMS and email set too (redundancy).  If you are not getting any of them, pick up the phone and call support to troubleshoot. Easy to see if fixed, just unplug the base with them on the phone.

Please post your outcome here if you get a chance.

11 Messages

Thanks for the feedback.  I do have the app on my phone.  I just double checked the notification settings (in the system app notification settings and also the actual Simplisafe notification app settings).  All the settings are turned on for notifications.   I have received notifications in the past for other various events.  I did call into support twice a few days ago.  They said from what they can see, everything looks fine.  I did ask why I didn't get any notification about the power outage and they were not sure.  I also asked about why there was no entry on the timeline about a power outage.  I thought that was strange and obviously not very helpful when monitoring the system.

I guess I'll try to do some more troubleshooting and see if I can think of anything on my end.  Just really confusing.

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