why is the 522gw such trouble?

[jrbryant]

I started out seeing a nextbase 222X series set at a local big box store. Thought I would give it a try. It came with the rear camera module that plugs in on the side. Of the time I had it installed in my vehicle, it performed great. Although it was lacking GPS to be able to show my vehicle speed. So I thought it time to upgrade. I saw the 522GW and thought since I liked the 222X so well, I would give that a try. I didn't realize that the rear camera module interface was different until after I made the purchase. The 522GW requires a different rear camera than the 222X, I didn't think that a huge deal as I did like the idea of a rear mounted rear camera instead of an in cabin camera. But that is just where my trouble starts. The camera was hard to get setup initially for the connection to the app on my iphone 12 pro max. It would see the dash cam, pop up in the accessory list for bluetooth conenction and then fail. I had to try this several times before it actually connected successfully. I still have yet to get the Alexa skill to link to my Amazon account. I hit enable skill in the my nextbase app and the little circle just circles continuously. I'm not too worried about the Alexa app though as I use siri through car play. My 522GW has rebooted itself on the two trips I have taken over the past weekend several times while driving. when I make a stop at say a gas station or something and turn the vehicle off and then come back to the vehicle, the bluetooth connection will not re-connect on its own, I have to forget the connection on my phone and set it back up before the connection can be made. I can work around all these issues (except the rebooting) simply by using it similarly to the 222X I had installed but why pack these features in if the aren't going to work properly? I didn't even know about this forum until after my purchase and now I am reading the issues that others are having that are similar to my own. Makes my wonder how much testing was done on this product before it was released. For as much as one of these units cost, the features should just work. The rebooting is what concerns me most as it creates a trust issue to where you don't know if the cam is going to be doing its job when you need it.

 

[Nextbase Support]

Hello,

On your iPhone, go into Settings- MyNextbase- Background Refresh Data- Ensure this is turned on. If you see 'Location' this must also be set to 'Always'.
Then go to your MyNextbase Connect app and click on the menu in the top left of the app home screen. Select App Settings and turn on ‘Enable Low Resolution Downloads'.

Kind regards,
Millie
Nextbase Technical Support

 

[jrbryant]

Hi Millie, and thank you for your reply. I do have those settings set the way as you described except for settings->MyNextbase->Location as I do not have that option. Oddly enough, the app doesn't show up under location services under settings->Privacy either.

 

[jrbryant]

Something else I just noticed, even though I don't have the camera with me at the moment, I can still open the app and it tries to connect to the camera, but of course it's unable to since it isn't here. But I can see the serial number and the firmware version. The FW listed is 19.1, and when I set the camera up and subsequently each time it would check for an update but tell me that it was the most current. Checking the NextBase website however, shows that 19.9 is available, could that be part of my issues?

 

[Nextbase Support]

Hello,

R19.9 is currently on staggered rollout, so may not have reached your app yet. If you'd like to manually do the update, this can be done by:

1. Insert the USB cable from the top of the camera (NOT the mount) into your computer.
2. Select 'UPDATE' or 'FIRMWARE UPDATE' on the camera's screen
3. On your computer you should see a drive pop up. Open this.
4. You should see DCIM and some links. Stay in this location.
5. Download this firmware file:
https://cdn.nextbase.co.uk/firmware/A4753993-6807-47B3-83DA-5881A9F7EBEF/NBDVR522GWA-R19.9.zip
6. Unzip the folder and move the .BIN file/s onto the SD card location that you have open. You don't need to open the .BIN file, but just move it onto the SD card. You won't be able to open it on your computer as it's a firmware file.
7. Safely remove the camera from the computer.
8. Power the camera through the mount, or through a mains adaptor. Turn the camera on.
9. The camera should automatically update the firmware.
10. Once complete, your camera will restart twice. Then return to a normal recording screen. Your update has finished.

Kind regards,
Millie
Nextbase Technical Support

 

[jrbryant]

Is there a changelog available for this new firmware?
Also, I have updated to this firmware, thank you Millie for the instructions BTW.
I will see if the camera behaves more like it should when I drive again. I am still having issues with getting the Alexa skill to work though. I can get it to where Alexa will respond to things like play music or basic commands, but I am unable to get the skill to link to my Amazon account. I get to the screen to tap the enable skill button, and it just stays on that screen with a spinning circle. It never goes to the next screen to login to amazon with my account to complete the skill link.

 

[Nextbase Support]

Hello,

Which app version is the MyNextbase Connect app on please?
Go to the MyNextbase Connect home page- click on the top left menu- scroll to the bottom of this menu. You'll see the Version displayed as XXXX.XX.X (XXXXXXX).

Kind regards,
Millie
Nextbase Technical Support

 

[jrbryant]

App version is listed as 2021.7.0 (341784362)

 

[Nextbase Support]

That's the latest version. It may be an issue with the new app release, or it may be an issue with the flow of the app during first time set up. Either way, please can you contact us on Live Chat via the website or at support@nextbase.com and we'll be able to go through all the troubshooting at once, and then pass on the information to our Development Team too.

Kind regards,
Millie

 

[jrbryant]

I've made contact at support@nextbase.com, but it takes a while to garner a response that way. I may try Live Chat when I get home from work to try and resolve this issue. Although my work is dealing with networks and such, seems if there was an issue with the app, it would have been discovered via testing prior to release.

 

[Nextbase Support]

I've made contact at support@nextbase.com, but it takes a while to garner a response that way. I may try Live Chat when I get home from work to try and resolve this issue. Although my work is dealing with networks and such, seems if there was an issue with the app, it would have been discovered via testing prior to release.

I'd recommend trying a full reset:

Please follow this procedure closely and in the exact order as displayed. This is crucial for correct connection:

1) Turn on the Camera
2) Stop it recording (press the red button on the screen)
3) Go into 'Settings' (press the button in the top left of the screen)
4) Go into 'Setup'
5) Scroll across to 'Keep User Settings'
6) Turn OFF 'Keep User Settings'
7) Go back to 'Setup' settings
8) Scroll across to 'Default Settings'
9) Select 'YES'. The camera will now reboot.

10) On your phone, please uninstall the MyNextbase Connect app. Please be aware that this will delete any saved data currently stored on the app. If you have footage saved that you require, please upload it to the Nextbase Cloud and make a note of the codes then provided. You can then download the footage to your phone at a later date, or to a computer.
11) Go into your Bluetooth settings on the phone, then delete any connections you can see to NEXTBASE
12) Go into your Wi-Fi settings on the phone, then delete any connections you can see to NEXTBASE

13) Turn off the phone and the dash camera
14) Re-start the phone and the dash camera
15) Re-install the MyNextbase Connect app on the phone

16) Then on your iPhone, go into Settings- MyNextbase- Background Refresh Data- Ensure this is turned on. If you see 'Location' this must also be set to 'Always'.
Then go to your MyNextbase Connect app and click on the menu in the top left of the app home screen. Select App Settings and turn on ‘Enable Low Resolution Downloads'.

Once steps 1-16 have been followed precisely, please re-pair the phone and the Dash Cam as per these instructions:

Kind regards,
Millie
Nextbase Technical Support

 

[jrbryant]

Hi Millie, and thank you for the troubleshooting steps. It seems that the majority of my issues has been resolved with the new firmware. Bluetooth has been connecting straight away upon entering my vehicle, it hasn't dropped connections either with WiFi or bluetooth and has performed well over the last two days. Although I did notice that the time stamp of the files that has been recorded to the SD card is different than the time that the cam displays on the camera. Not sure what thats about, I would expect them to match. And the Alexa issue remains, although I have not went through the complete reset process but I will over the weekend. I will report back with my findings after the complete reset.

Thank you again Millie for the support that you provide here.

 

[jrbryant]

Hi Millie, I just had the chance to go through the complete reset and reconfigure. I made sure that the original bluetooth and wifi connections were fogotten. The wifi connection has to be forgotten prior to defaulting the camera as iPhone will not display a history of previous connections. I also went into my Alexa app and forgot the camera under all devices as well. I made sure that Background App Refresh is on and this time location services is showing up and is set to Always. I also enabled low resolution downloads. I ended up stuck at the same place trying to get my Amazon account linked to get the skill enabled. I tap enable skill and it just sits there like it either isn't sending a request or receiving a response from the authorization server.

 

[Nextbase Support]

Hi Millie, I just had the chance to go through the complete reset and reconfigure. I made sure that the original bluetooth and wifi connections were fogotten. The wifi connection has to be forgotten prior to defaulting the camera as iPhone will not display a history of previous connections. I also went into my Alexa app and forgot the camera under all devices as well. I made sure that Background App Refresh is on and this time location services is showing up and is set to Always. I also enabled low resolution downloads. I ended up stuck at the same place trying to get my Amazon account linked to get the skill enabled. I tap enable skill and it just sits there like it either isn't sending a request or receiving a response from the authorization server.

I'm very sorry to hear that.

Please can you email the following above details to support@nextbase.com and our senior engineer can help troubleshoot the Alexa issue further:

1. Dash Cam model & firmware version
2. Phone model
3. iPhone version
4. App version
5. A screenshot of the home screen of the app and a screenshot of the Alexa skill button page.

Kind regards,
Millie
Nextbase Technical Support

 

[jrbryant]

Hi Millie, I've been communicating with support@nextbase.com. It seems they say the issue is that I am running iOS 15 which is currently in development testing. I've offered to be a tester for any versions of software they'd like to test but it seems they aren't open to external testers. I don't see how that really should make a difference as I am familiar with how amazon account linking works, I developed and maintain a skill for the company that I work for. See the included link for Amazon skill developers troubleshooting guide:
https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/...mmon-account-linking-issues-with-alexa-skills

There is also a couple of ways to have the app do the authorization to enable the skill as well. It would be interesting to know if your backend amazon server is receiving a request from my device. But I feel that no one would actually provide that answer to me. But since this is the only issue that I currently have after the last firmware update, I suppose I will wait until NextBase figures out compatibility with iOS 15, which is due for public release in just a couple of short months.

 

[Nextbase Support]

Hello,

As a member of the Support Team, I'm afraid that I won't be able to confirm whether the request is reaching the Amazon server as that's handled on the Development side. The Development Team are currently working on the latest iOS update, so I'm sure the issue will be resolved soon.

Kind regards,
Millie
Nextbase Technical Support

 

[jrbryant]

It seems as iOS 15 compatibility is the issue. An email from NextBase support seemed to indicate it was a known issue currently and I must of missed it somewhere in the communication as they said they told me that early on in the trouble shooting process. Over the weekend, I had to send my phone off for repair and the loaner phone they gave me is running the latest public release and as a test, I tried it on that phone and everything works as it should. I look forward to a release of the updated software that will work with iOS 15 though, like I said, it will only be a couple of short months before the public release.

 

[kamkar]

A new IOS seem to very often trip up things for dashcams, probably also other things i assume.
It dont seem as bad for the Google phones, though i would certainly not call those problem free either.

I do dread the day when i get the first "smart" dashcam to test. even if i am proficient in tech / it, then phones is something that have extremely little interest of mine and see very little use in my pocket.
So a smart test camera to me, and i will probably have to do some "manning" up on the phone front.

 

[Hey Hoser]

To me, it is not worth it to spend the time needed to view dashcam video on my iphone 12 mini, to sift through the many video files on the phone, over bluetooth or cellular

If there is a video I want to keep, just make note of time of occurrence to find the file quicker, and then bring camera in and connect to laptop, sift videos until found and then transfer the files over

and, I do not use alexa, not needed

 

[SMG]

As the proud owner of a new 522GW, with rear window cam & hardwire kit, I`m sorry I bought it. After reading these comments I can see why my camera battery is always flat, even after a 2 hr off the car charge, as a bog standard on / off camera its fine, but the parking mode is useless. Why they dont use a 3 wire connection is beyond me, the battery in this is absolute crap. I think i`ll be sending it back.