Blink Mini- Indoor Smart Security Camera

UPDATE 9/13/20 What I feared - and predicted - would happen came to pass. Last Friday, 9/11/20, my landlord called me and asked me to review the footage on my cameras because another tenant had seen someone on the premises behaving suspiciously. I checked my Blink Mini app on my cell phone and sure enough. NOTHING. As usual, the cameras had STOPPED WORKING the night before sometime around midnight. As a result, there was nothing recorded during the day on Friday. Nothing. A few days earlier, I spoke to Amazon who said that, since the 30 day window had passed, there was nothing they could do. They suggested I deal directly with Blink, even though Bling is OWNED BY AMAZON, supposedly. I called Blink "tech support" (laughable) at the number the Amazon rep gave me. I wound up wasting 35 minutes with a woman who knew nothing about the Blink system, could barely speak English, and whose background sounded like she was rattling pots and pans in her kitchen. She asked me to hold a few times and, so help me, it sounded like all she was doing was rattling things around to give the appearance that she was actually doing something. As I've mentioned before, the Blink Mini cameras UTTERLY FAIL at their primary, stated, function: to provide you peace of mind relative to home security. Neither Amazon nor Blink will be of any help to you in getting your issue resolved and the only thing you will have accomplished it to waste your money. It's too late for me but if you are considering purchasing this system, I advise you in the strongest possible terms to look elsewhere. You may want to shop at Costco since they have a very liberal return policy. I hope people get to read this review since it appears Amazon has obscured many one-star reviews from site and only a few show up on the Blink Mini page. Do not waste your money on this camera. UPDATE 9/2/20 I received an email on 7/28/20 from a Blink employee named Haitham. In part, he wrote: "I would like to clarify that we are fully aware of this issue where the camera will stay on the night mode and not fully recognize that it has to switch to the day mode, and that will mostly happen in the early morning once the sun rises. We are working one the fix and it should come automatically to your camera. In the meantime as a work around, you may need to schedule disarming the system in the early morning and arm it back right after." As of today, ZERO has happened. I want to be clear that the Blink mini camera can be a genuine hazard to your well being because of this issue. It simply goes off a ledge around midnight and NEVER wakes up unless you remember to wake it. This means you could be away from home and be burglarized. You think you're covered because you have the Blink camera system only to discover that it has recorded absolutely nothing. The worst case scenario is you and your family go out to dinner. While you're out, intruders get into your home. Since the camera stopped working at midnight yesterday, you are completely unaware you have unwelcome guests until you return home and walk in on them. In short, this system poses a danger to your well being because it fails in its stated purpose. Since Blink has done nothing to correct this problem, which is purely software based, you will be taking your chances by purchasing this system. ORIGINAL REVIEW: I purchased a two-pack of the Blink Mini. What attracted me was the low cost of the item. They were $35 each or the two-pack for $65. Turns out I might just as well have taken $65 and thrown it out the window. Of a moving car. I only set up one camera by a window, looking out through the glass. I was very happy to see that the motion sensing worked and it should have since all it's doing is noting changing pixels. I was also happy to see that the microphone was sensitive enough to pick up what was being said on the other side of a dual-paned window. However, for some reason the camera decided to stop working or, more specifically, to stop sensing and recording motion. I first noticed this when I fired up the Blink app and noticed that all the clips were tagged "Yesterday" and none from "Today". It turns out that, for some reason, the camera seems to decide that its work is done sometime around midnight. Beyond that, it will NOT record ANY video UNLESS I proactively disarm and re-arm the motion sensing on the camera via the app. Alternatively, I can do a "Live" view to see what the camera is seeing, also through the app. Both of these actions have the effect of seeming to "wake" the camera up to a new day. From that point on, it will continue working as normal. Until midnight. At that point the whole process begins again. Another odd thing is that it records video - when it decides to actually work - only for a specified period of time, between 5 and 30 seconds. It OUGHT to work like motion sensing lights that turn on and remain on for a specified period of time BUT will stay lit if it continues to sense motion. These cameras should continue recording if the motion they detected continues or resumes within the designated video clip length. In other words, if you set a clip length of 15 seconds and 12 seconds into it the motion resumes, it should keep recording until there is no motion. The point of these cameras is to be able to set them up and forget about them until you are notified it senses motion. In this regard, the system is a complete failure. I tried power cycling the camera by physically disconnecting it from the power supply then reconnecting. Nothing. I tried deleting the camera from the app and re-installing it. Nothing. It's got nothing to do with the app because it has no physical connection to the camera. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app and all the camera settings I had previously set were still intact, so it ain't the app. As a last resort I did the unthinkable: I called "tech support". What I got was a call center somewhere in the Philippines and one of those maddeningly persistently cordial persons who is anything BUT "tech support". I finally just let him believe he actually helped me and ended the call. So here I am without a functional camera system and, of course, well past the return date. The bottom line here is that this system, ostensibly meant to alert you if there is an intrusion into your home, simply CANNOT be relied upon for that purpose. Your home could be broken into and you would be none the wiser. You would be much better off to do your research and purchase a system that, while potentially more expensive, will at least serve its stated purpose. This one does not.