Events

Events are the alarms that devices send while Watchpost is open: motion, a covered lens, a video loss, an alarm input, a person in the picture, a disk problem. Each event opens the recording at its moment.

Which devices send events

Xiongmai and Hikvision devices, added by address, send events. The app keeps one event connection for each device in Live. Hik-Connect devices do not send events through the cloud. ONVIF cameras, Dahua devices and network equipment have no events in the app.

A device kept only in the registry is not monitored. For a device in Live whose channels are all hidden, Receive Events While Hidden keeps its event connection active. The Mac receives events while Watchpost runs; mobile apps receive them while they are in the foreground.

Kinds of events

Each event has a kind. The list shows the kind’s name, and the same colors mark the kinds in the archive timeline.

In the list	What the device reports
Motion	Movement in the picture
Person detected	A person in the picture, found by the camera’s analysis
Camera blocked	The lens is covered
Video loss	The picture is gone
Video analytics	A rule of the camera’s analytics fired
Alarm input	A wired alarm input triggered according to its contact type. The row names the input
No disk, Disk error, Disk almost full	A problem with the recorder’s disks
Network down, IP address conflict	A problem with the device’s network
Other event	Anything the app doesn’t name

The first five belong to a camera channel. The rest belong to the device as a whole.

The list

The list is newest first, with a heading for each day: Today, Yesterday, then the date. Each row shows the kind, the channel and the device, the time, and the length of an event that has an end. Hover over a row to see the play button.

Double-click a row, or choose Show in Archive from its menu, to open that moment in the archive. See Archive.

Chips above the list filter the events by kind. Each chip shows how many events it holds. Several kinds can be on at once. Select a channel in the sidebar to see only its events, and the events that belong to its device as a whole. A chip with the channel’s name appears in the header. Click its cross to show all events again.

Delete in a row’s menu removes that event. The trash menu has Delete Selected and Delete All Events. Deleting an event removes it from the list. The recording stays on the device.

Notifications on the Mac

The Mac can show a notification for each new event. The title holds the kind and the channel, for example Motion · Camera 1, and the second line names the device. Click the notification for a channel event to open it in the archive. Turn the notifications off with Notify about device events in the app’s settings.

Motion on Hikvision

A Hikvision device can have motion triggers that don’t notify the surveillance center. Then their motion never reaches Events. The app shows a notice with the device’s name and the words doesn’t report motion. Turn On… adds the notification to those triggers, and the current triggers are saved to a backup first. After that, the device also sends its motion notices to Hik-Connect.

Status and empty states

A line in the header, with a dot, shows the state of the event feeds. Green means the events are arriving. Amber means the app is subscribing. Red means one device has no feed, and the line names it. Hover over the line to see why.

Without any events, the list says No Events Yet, and explains that devices report motion, alarms and disk problems while Watchpost runs. When a filter hides everything, it says No Events Match the Filter.

On iPhone and iPad

The Events tab has the same list, chips and days. Use the row menu to open the archive or to delete an event. Delete All Events asks you to confirm first. The recordings stay on the devices. A camera’s screen also lists Today’s Events.

On Android

The Events tab shows device alarms grouped by day. Filter by kind, open a channel event in the archive, or delete an entry. Deleting an event does not delete the recording.

Android receives events from supported Xiongmai and Hikvision devices while the app is in the foreground. It keeps the event history locally; this is not a server push service that continues monitoring after the app closes.

To configure the device, see Detection and event hours and Alarms and event actions. Enabling detection, recording an event and receiving it in Watchpost each need their own settings.