Default date overlays not working

tivonut · Post by **tivonut** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 8:37 pm

I just upgrade to BI5 after running BI4 for several years. All of sudden none of the default date/time overlays are showing on any of my cameras. Stopping BI5 and going to BI4 and same problem. Deleting and adding the camera again does not work. This happened across all 15 of my POE cameras. Overlays are enabled and properly defined but show nothing. Disabling/enable overlays does not fix it. No idea why this suddenly happened. Currently running BI 5.2.6.0. See attached images. Any ideas?

TimG · Post by **TimG** » Sat Apr 25, 2020 5:16 pm

Hi,

With my cameras using their built in overlays, I would be able to see the date/time overlay while logged in to the camera itself. Your screen shots appear to be from the camera itself, but are showing nothing in the text box, which could mean that this has nothing to do with BI4 or 5. That feed is before BI has had anything to do with it.

Have you had a good look around for font colour and size etc in those camera menu's ? Figure one of them out, then you can sort the rest

tivonut · Post by **tivonut** » Sat Apr 25, 2020 8:35 pm

These are the default settings, it's been working for years, I'm not using date from the cameras. Today they started working again after I restarted BI, something I've done several times in trying to resolve this. No rhyme or reason. Makes me wary of what else is going on under the hood.

MikeBwca · Post by **MikeBwca** » Sun Apr 26, 2020 6:43 am

A few suggestions...
- Change the Opacity to see if that resets it to 0. (It might be stuck at 100% and just not telling you.)
- Click the 'Set Color' button and try another color, then set it back to what you had it.

reddawg · Post by **reddawg** » Sun Apr 26, 2020 7:46 am

tivonut wrote: ↑Thu Apr 23, 2020 8:37 pm I just upgrade to BI5 after running BI4 for several years. All of sudden none of the default date/time overlays are showing on any of my cameras. Stopping BI5 and going to BI4 and same problem. Deleting and adding the camera again does not work. This happened across all 15 of my POE cameras. Overlays are enabled and properly defined but show nothing. Disabling/enable overlays does not fix it. No idea why this suddenly happened. Currently running BI 5.2.6.0. See attached images. Any ideas?

If you upgraded from BI4 to BI5, don't switch back and forth between BI4 and BI5. Both BI4 and BI5 share the same settings in the Windows registry. When you upgraded BI4 to BI5 many of the settings were altered to reflect where BI5 is installed. Are you running BI5 as a service or app? If you were running BI4 as a service, hopefully you un-selected the option "Run as a Windows service" in Settings -> Startup before upgrading to BI5. Not doing so will cause problems with BI5.

Hopefully, MikeBwca suggestion will solve your problem with overlays. Once all your upgrade issues have been resolved, make sure you perform a backup of Blue Iris 5 configuration settings in Settings-> About tab by clicking "Export Settings". This creates a backup called "Blue Iris.reg" in C:\Program Files\Blue Iris 5. Also, make sure "Auto export" box is checked. This creates a new backup each day from Blue Iris 5. They are named "Backup.reg, Backup2.reg and Backup3.reg".

There is a bug in the BI4 uninstaller that causes many of the settings in BI5 to be deleted. That's why it is important to have a backup of BI5 before uninstalling BI4. You will need to re-import the backup of BI5 settings called "Blue Iris.reg" or "Backup.reg", "Backup2.reg" or "Backup3.reg".

hotbrass · Post by **hotbrass** » Sun Apr 26, 2020 11:42 am

Where are these backup files stored?

reddawg · Post by **reddawg** » Sun Apr 26, 2020 11:48 am

hotbrass wrote: ↑Sun Apr 26, 2020 11:42 am Where are these backup files stored?

You will find "Blue Iris.reg", Backup.reg, Backup2.reg, Backup3.reg in the C:\Program Files\Blue Iris 5 folder. The "Blue Iris.reg" backup will only be generated if you manually export settings from Blue Iris Settings -> About tab. As long as the "Auto export" box is checked in Blue Iris
Settings -> About tab it will automatically create a backup of Blue Iris settings every day that will be named Backup.reg Backup2.reg and Backup3.reg in a rotation scheme.

tivonut · Post by **tivonut** » Sun Apr 26, 2020 6:48 pm

I've never run BI as a service and I had no plans to go back and forth between them but my upgrade went sideways. Initially everything went perfectly and BI5 was fine. But then I uninstalled BI4 and lost entire config in BI5. I tried to restore the backup config which was corrupt for some reason. So I reinstalled BI4, restored the prior config and BI5 started working again. Then my camera overly problem happend (across all 15 cameras). Then suddenly all the overlays started working again yesterday. The only difference I can see is I shutdown BI5 and logged off as a user, then logged in again and restarted BI5 and it started working again. I had restarted BI5 several times prior trying to get the overlays to work. So I guess the old adage still applies, when in doubt, reboot.

ramaz16 · Post by **ramaz16** » Sun Jan 02, 2022 5:29 am

tivonut wrote: ↑Sun Apr 26, 2020 6:48 pm I had restarted BI5 several times prior trying to get the overlays to work.

Just sharing recent experience. Added 2 cams to BI. One started showing time overlay and another didn't despite same settings. Nothing helped including reboots. Then I typed %x %X in the upper text field of the 2nd cam Settings window Edit Overlay - Add text/time, saved Settings, and the time overlay appeared on the cam footage. If not at the right corner, simply drag it to the right place in Edit Overlay window and save settings. It looks like the default date/time text at times is not auto added by BI to the cam window correctly, so you have to add it manually.

IAmATeaf · Post by **IAmATeaf** » Sun Jan 02, 2022 12:59 pm

Just wondering why you guys have overlays enabled in BI? I have mine set in the cams themselves as I read way back when that it was better for overall system performance to do that rather than get BI to add the overlay text to the stream.

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