I'm on BI version 4.8.6.3. I have been having trouble with the iOS and Android apps. My installation has previously been working for 4 years or so. I began having trouble with the app update around 10/16/19.

Everything works as expected from within the LAN. I can log in from outside the network fine using a VPN connection. The problem occurs when I try to use the app outside the network with no VPN running. Again, this worked until recently.

What happens is, I start the app, it logs into the server. So the connection is ok through the router. The camera feed starts to load but never finishes. If I try to select a camera, it never loads. Eventually the app kicks me out to the server selection screen and am unable to log back in.

I switched the port I'm using to test to see if that was the problem. At first, the app acted as expected, so I thought another program was somehow hogging that port. But then the app went back to not responding. I've made no changes to the network, which is why I suspect the app update.

Has anyone else experienced this? It's becoming a major pain to an otherwise great piece of software.

Can you try via the web browser on your phone? That would rule out the App.

It's still a little slow, but it works through the web view. It does lock up every few cameras selected, but I was cycling through quite quickly. I'm not exactly sure if this is a fair comparison though. If I turn on the VPN to my router the app works blazing fast, while the web view is still sluggish.

This is just an odd problem. I did switch ports from 81 to 481 to test if that was the problem. All indications point towards a port issue. At least I thought that, since the VPN is using an external connection using a separate port.

Thanks for the help so far.

If the app and mobile browser are not working with similar performance then I am sorry I can't think of anything to help. The app uses essentially the same protocols as the web browser. I can't imagine a reason there would be performance problems in one but not the other unless there is an actual code bug in the app and you'd think that that would impact more of us users.

Sorry.

It doesn't seem likely that it's a bug issue either, since it's happening on my phone (Android) and my wife's phone (iOS). It's just strange, because the app does connect right away, then stops in the middle of loading the cameras.

I've been wanting to upgrade to V5, and at this point I'm guessing something got corrupted on the server side. So this might be the reason I need for a fresh install.

I was really hoping to identify an issue. I'll update this thread if I do find a repair/reinstall fixes the issue.

Just a follow up.

Things I have tried so far:

1. Reinstalling the BI app
2. Reinstalling version 4 of BI
3. Upgrading to version 5 of BI
4. Switching ports on router

The strange thing is if I simply do not scroll, the camera instantly shows when I select it. However, if I then try to go back to the camera list, the app freezes and kicks me back out to the server login screen. I have sent two help requests now, but have not heard anything back yet (even after I paid the $35 for the maintenance extension). Very disappointed there.

Here's the video showing the scrolling issue. The visible on-screen cameras load fine. The cameras towards the bottom never load:

https://youtu.be/r-KNyrDSJoQ

The second video shows the cameras loading without scrolling. If I select a camera, the camera immediately loads. When going back to the camera list, it freezes:

https://youtu.be/17tR_F0wjyY

Here's the last video. I barely scroll the camera list. Afterwards, it won't load the camera and I'm again booted back to the server sign-in screen:

https://youtu.be/ONY1XNcJLYY

Not really looking for help from the forum at this point, but maybe someone else who has the same issue can follow this thread and possibly get a resolution from the Blue Iris developers.

what is your phone signal like? these look just like the symptoms of a slow/poor connection

Phone connection is fine. It's odd because if I don't scroll the list, the first camera always loads (link #2 above). And if I use my VPN, it works fine over cellular. No other video/streaming apps are lagging. Plus it has worked for several months after we moved to T-Mobile. My wife's phone (iPhone) is having the same issue.

So I think I've got this fixed. The issue was the AT&T gateway device for our fiber connection. It's now operating in DMZ mode and the issue has been resolved. I still find it very strange how the app behaved even when it could access the server. Still doesn't seem right, but it is working again. Thanks for the suggestions.

It sounds like the issue is your router needs to have the port forwarding configured to forward port 81 or port 481 (depending on which you are currently using) to the PC running Blue Iris. DMZ mode opens all ports and sends requests to the device you placed into DMZ mode, which can be assumed is your Blue Iris PC.

Do a search on Port Forwarding for your router device to find out exactly how to configure it. It should be very near the configuration area you set the DMZ at.