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Security systems need to be reliable. And that Blink Camera flashing green light is not what you want to see.
In this article, I’ll show you how to quickly diagnose and fix your Blink Mini to make your home secure again.
Why Is My Blink Camera Blinking Green?
A flashing green light on your Blink Mini camera means that it can’t reach the Blink cloud servers. While the Blink camera flashing red light indicates a generic network issue, the flashing green light only occurs when the local network is reachable, and the internet or Blink servers aren’t.
There are three main reasons this could be occurring:
- Internet outage — The internet could be down on your home network, either due to a problem with your router or the signal coming from your internet provider.
- Weak signal strength — A weak signal between your router and your camera can cause Blink’s connection with the server to fail intermittently.
- Blink servers down — When your internet is working fine, a failure can still occur at Blink’s end of the connection. Your Blink camera just knows it can’t talk to the server; it doesn’t know who is at fault.
For clarity, Blink is only having a problem if the green light is blinking. A solid green light on your Blink camera is perfectly normal and does not indicate any errors
How to Fix a Flashing Green Blink Mini Camera
1. Look for a Blink server outage
Blink usually announces server outages on its support page. There should be a banner at the top of the page if the company is aware of a broad outage.
Often, user complaints happen before any official company announcement. That’s why the Blink page on DownDetector is the first place I go when my camera isn’t working. You can also check the Blink Twitter account, as users will often try to get the company’s attention there.
When the Blink servers are out, there’s nothing you can do to fix your cameras. You’ll just have to wait for the company to fix things on their end. Fortunately, that usually happens quickly.
2. Check your internet connection
Let’s make sure your internet is working. Try going online with any device that is on your Wi-Fi network. You can use your phone for this test, but you’ll need to turn off mobile data first.
If you’re able to load web pages over your network, you can move on to the next step. If not, you should try restarting your router (I’ll show you how to do that in the next section). I also suggest contacting your internet provider in case there’s an outage in your area.
Once your internet is working, try the camera again. You may need to unplug it and plug it back in to get it to recognize the fixed connection.
3. Restart your router
Most Wi-Fi and internet problems are caused by random router glitches. Rather than try to diagnose the issue, it’s easier to power cycle your router.
Make sure no one is currently online on your home network before you try this step. It will shut off their network and internet connection for about 5 minutes, and that’s a lifetime in internet years.
To restart your router, follow these steps:
- Unplug the power cable from your router and modem.
- Wait 30 seconds.
- Plug the power cables back in.
- Wait a few minutes for the modem and router to boot up.
Once the router is fully booted, try the camera again. If it’s still having problems, we’ll move on to testing the signal strength between your camera and router.
4. Move your camera closer to your router
The closer you bring your camera to the router, the stronger the Wi-Fi signal will be. This is the easiest way to check whether the problem is caused by weak signal strength.
See if the green light stops flashing when your camera is close to your router. If it does, you’ll need to find a way to improve your Wi-Fi signal strength.
The next couple of steps are intended to deal with signal strength issues. If your camera isn’t working even when it’s right next to your router, those fixes won’t help. Instead, just skip to contacting Blink support.
5. Move your router to a better location
Your router needs to be as close as possible to the devices it talks to. And any physical obstructions will interfere with your Wi-Fi signal. That includes both furniture and walls, especially exterior walls.
Ideally, your router should be placed on a table in a central part of your home. You can place it on the floor if you need to but make sure the area around it is unobstructed. Lastly, make sure the antennae are facing upward.
If that didn’t fix your Blink camera problems or if repositioning your router isn’t an option, I’ve got one more set of solutions to suggest.
6. Extend your Wi-Fi network
Standard routers are fine for small homes with few obstructions. But they quickly fail for any reasonably sized home or homes with several connected devices. Fortunately, there are a few solutions you can try.
- Buy a better router. This is definitely a good idea if you’re using a mediocre router from your internet provider. I suggest the TP-Link AX6600 if you plan to have a lot of smart home devices. The TP-Link AX1800 is an excellent budget alternative.
- Switch to a mesh Wi-Fi system. These systems are great ways to get strong Wi-Fi throughout even the largest homes. My recommended system is the Google Nest Mesh Wi-Fi System.
- Use a Wi-Fi extender. If your current network works for all but one area of your home, a Wi-Fi extender can boost the signal in that specific area. The TP-Link AX1500 is a solid option.
7. Contact Blink support
When nothing else works, there’s no harm in calling the experts. There are a few ways to contact Blink. Their online support is excellent, but for the quickest response, I would call them at 1-833-392-5465.
What’s Next?
Network issues are unavoidable problems with network-connected security systems. But aside from the rare case when your Blink camera isn’t detecting motion, this is one of the few significant problems I’ve seen with their cameras.
Since 2017, Blink has been owned by Amazon. So to get the most out of your system, I suggest connecting your Blink Cameras to Alexa. That way, you can use them as motion detectors to trigger energy-saving smart plugs or with Amazon’s Alexa Guard monitoring service.
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