I get this one a lot honestly. renting means more strangers moving through the building at any give time, and if your lease won't let you drill or mount anything, it can feel like there's nothing you can actually do about it.

Most of what actually matters doesn't touch a wall anymore though. Door and window sensors are just adhesive, so you get an alert the second something opens and peel them right off before you move out.

Motion sensors and glass break sensors work the same way. They connect over Wi-Fi, no mounting needed, and they're worth having if you've got hallway blind spots or a ground floor window.

Locks are really the only place you need to touch anything, and even that's minor. A smart deadbolt swaps in over y our existing one, runs on batteries, no drilling, and you put the original back before you leave. Worth it if you've ever wondered whether a past tenant still has a key.

We put together a renter's guide if you want the full breakdown.

Anyone else dealt with this? Curious what people actually ended up doing when the lease wouldn't budge.

Thinking about getting Vivnt for my alarm system in a smart house I have. Can I arm and disarm the alarm via the Google Home app? Ink know you an use your voice by I don't use much voice commands.

Anyone has this setup this way? Want to use my phone/Google Nest Hub to arm and disarm my alarm.

This happens a lot. The Vivint app is so bad. There is no excuse for bugs like this when AI can companion code with humans nowadays. I work with coders and the speed at which skilled devs are squashing bugs and deplying new features is incredible, assuming you have devs who understand companion coding.

Anyway - I have reset defaults, rebooted the camera, and restarted setup and nothing is working. It's stupid I have to get on chat every time I have an issue and can't fix these things myself. And I know why they want me on the support line/chat. It's so they can upsell me on some package. But honestly, I have my eyes set on a closed loop NVR system. As soon as we're done paying off this equipment, we're gone.

Until then, I'd like to get what I'm paying for. Anything you all know that I don't about resetting these cameras? Any secret tricks?

Who here is looking the customizable doorbell Chimes?

My camera stopped working. I checked the Wi-Fi Bridge for the camera and it powers on for a few seconds and then shuts off. I've tested a different outlet and disconnected the camera, and the power light still shuts off. So I called Vivint and they basically said they stopped making that model and I would need to upgrade my cameras and I don't want to do that.

Are there any alternatives or replacements to this WiFi bridge?

I finally got them to stop calling me every other week selling me on new stuff. And they lied about me having cameras…I don’t own any Vivint cameras.

I called once, it was impossible and I have never been treated that way by customer service before (see everyone's experiences here: https://www.reddit.com/r/VivintSmartHome/comments/1rpzfhy/megathread_cancellation_questions_please_post_here/).

I called again, after 2 hours, they agreed to accept my "request" but wouldn't give me any confirmation that I put in this request (no number no e-mail no nothing). So now the 30 days have gone by...and surprise surprise...I haven't heard from them and I have to call again.

For anyone who was successful, any tips? Who can I reach out to?

Does anyone know what would cause a loss of the rewind capability? This has been the case for about 3 or 4 days, out of the blue. App and panel are fine otherwise.

Whose loving the themed rings for the doorbell?? I love changing mine, it surprises people when they ring the bell, they never know what they're gonna hear LOL

Just got my hands on the smart hub pro 2 after seeing the ad on YouTube. Mine doesn't have the new screen like it shows on the ad. Is there a release date for this?

I have a smoke/co monitor in my home to monitor my alarm system and it recently started falling off the ceiling while the sticky pad remains on the ceiling. Does anyone here know if Vivint offers replacements or if I can buy it elsewhere?

After replacing our HVAC filter, how is the Filter Replacement process reset? I have not located any place tp update the system that the filter has been replaced, and the reminders are getting rather annoying.

We recently analyzed FBI summer crime data from 25 popular travel spots, and the gap between the safest and riskiest is bigger than you'd expect. Park City, Utah, came out safest with a property crime score of 136 per 100,000 people form June through August. Honolulu sat at the top of the risk list at 442, more than three times higher.

The trend side is where it gets interesting. Miami's summer property crime has jumped 60% since 2022,once of the sharpest climbs anywhere. West Palm Beach went the other direction and dropped 43% over the same stretch, even though the two are barely an hour apart in the same state.

Keep in mind that these are citywide rates, not tourist-only. It still gives you an idea of how much theft is happening during peak season.

Where have you gone this summer? and does safety ever cross your mind when you're picking a place, or is it all about the trip itself?

The FBI puts the average loss from a burglary at $2,661, and empty homes during travel season are exactly what burglars are looking for. A dark house with a stuffed mailbox basically advertises that nobody's been around for a week.

Luckily, there are a few small things you can do right before leaving on vacation to keep your home safe.

• Put your mail on hold so it's not piling up
• Have a neighbor grab any packages off the porch
• Set your lights on a varied schedule since a fixed timer is easy to spot
• Do a quick check of your sensors and camera angles so you know the entry points are covered and you'll actually get an alert if something happens.

An underrated tip is waiting to post on social media. Sharing beach photos while you're still gone tells everyone the house is empty, so it's worth waiting until you're back.

What does your routine look like before you leave for vacation, and have you ever come home to something being off?

Confirmed from their virtual tech support line while trying to figure out why videos are missing, choppy, buffering, partial recording of full detection zone setting regardless of high/medium/low sensitivity setting.

Called to have fixed or diagnose. Tech support confirmed of throttling data. Made some adjustments, but still not what it used to be. Missing videos on 24/7 monitoring or playback.

They blamed WiFi through the walls, but was never an issue in the past. WiFi is fiber speeds, cell TMobile/Verizon/ATT on panel. T-Mobile unlimited, fastest/highest speeds cell plan. Still only getting 30-40% signal speeds on two cameras and only 65% on doorbell for several months.

Removed and reinstalled all cameras, reset and reset panel. Still having the same issues. Slow connectivity, buffering, missing videos, very low signals.

Hello guys, I installed Vivint a few days ago and the technician came over and set my system up. My house is set to “arm stay” at midnight, and “disarm” at 6am. Today my son accidentally opened the door after midnight and we had to dismiss the alert with the pin. I was a little surprised that when we did that the system didn’t go back to arm stay. There’s really no way to set smart action to attempt to “arm stay” a few minutes after a dismissal. But the worst thing is what I realized while poking around in the app. If I set the house to “arm away” and we leave for the weekend, it will disarm at 6am unless we actually disable that smart action? I went in and tried to see if there’s a way to set it to which “disarm at 6am except if armed away is in place”. So this relies on me remembering to disable the smart action to disarm the home, otherwise the system will disarm indiscriminately. While I do have my phone with me and can arm my house, I have an huge issue with the fact that you can’t arm your house if a sensor is open or something. There are so many things about this system I simply do not like.

My smart hub pro 2 which got installed about a month ago had an update so i clicked on update. Now it says "System check failed" I clicked the little i at the top right and it says up to date so I rebooted and still showing the same error. I don't know what to do. I called support and they quoted me $99 service fee for someone to come out here and look. Total BS since I just got this a month ago.

Help! I recently had to update my vivint app (said it would not function unless I did) and when I did, the updates don't seem like updates at allll. This newer version is horrible, and now images are completely distorted, you can't even clearly see any people, when before the update it was "high-def," crystal clear!! Anyone else experiencing this??

After being on the Smart Hub Pro Gen 2 for many months now, it's a cool upgrade for the UI and faster processor. The only things that it lacks are features that the app has and some feature requests that would make it better. :)
u/Vivint u/QuinnFromVivint

These include:
-Deter Settings (Currently only has a toggle switch on Camera preview.)
-Detection Zone settings for Doorbell & Outdoor Camera Pro models
-Holiday Chimes for Doorbell Camera Pro Gen 2
-New Chimes for the Doorbell Camera Pro models
-New Voice for Announcements such as "Front Door" (The voice from 2022 that is still used for the deter today was a good one.)
-Automations/Shortcuts controls
-Notifications from Deter/People (Currently only available on Doorbell Cameras)
-New Settings menu design to match the app (Current settings menu design dates back to the SkyControl)

The sliding glass door out to your patio is probably the weakest lock in your whole house.

The standard latch most sliding glass doors come with barely counts as a lock. And seeing as about 22% of break-ins happen via a back or patio door, it's not a small thing to overlook.

There are really only a handful of ways someone gets through a sliding glass door, and each has a cheap fix. A burglar can:

• Lift the whole panel off its track. The fix? An anti-lift bolt.
• Pry the flimsy latch. The fix? A foot lock or auxiliary lock.
• Break the glass. The fix? Shatterproof film.
• Simply walk in because the door wasn't locked. The fix? A door sensor that auto-arms to save you from yourself.

None of these fixes need a big renovation, and most work fine if you're renting since they don't require drilling.

What's your patio door situation? Have you added anything to yours, or is it relying on the factory latch?

Well, 8 years on an outdoor camera, figured I could get a better life but it is what it is. Know one thing for sure, chatting with tech support (said mildly) was absolutely no help but wanted to upgrade to the new system for a super low price.

Swapped my two outdoor cameras, it is definitely the camera as it won’t connect when swapped to the other good known base and good camera works on either base.

Two questions, how do I remove the current dead camera from the panel and connect a new one that Walmart has for sale? Tried the 2203 installer code and no bueno. Thanks

We ran 2024 FBI burglary data against housing age across 177 US cities, and the pattern is pretty clear: The newer the homes in a city, the fewer break-ins on average.

Cities where most homes were built after 2000 averaged 14.8 burglaries per 100,000 people, while cities full of pre-1960 homes averaged 36.6. that's more than double, just going by build era.

But then there's Seattle. It has a well-above-average share of newer homes (37.5% built after 2000), and it still scored the highest burglary rate in the whole study at 97.8 per 100,00. Denver, Houston, and Austin shoed the same trend on a smaller scare: High break-in numbers despite new constructions.

So a recent build date clearly isn't doing the work people assume it is.

The reason makes sense once you think about it. A newer home might come with a better deadbolt and a tighter frame, but build quality isn't the same as ana alarm system or a camera that alerts you to danger in real time.

Did you assume your newer place made you safer? And has that ever actually been put to the test?

These people opened a credit account in my name without my consent or my presence. I have told them to get their stuff off my house within the three day window and it’s still here and now they are trying to bill me nearly 4000$ for about 1500$ worth of stuff. Infuriated!

am i crazy to expect that the level of detail that is shown on the panel be the same in the app?

yes i want to know that the panel is on battery power, or that a sensor is low on battery.

in some cases the app doesn't even reflect the same data at all. or displays it poorly. looking at the home screen, it says i have a 5bar cell signal. but then deep in the settings it says "cell signal: Poor"

i get the strong suspension that they are just vibe coding this app

We ranked 94 US cities on how safe and renter-friendly they are for apartment living, and Omaha came out on top, with Tampa right behind it. Both scored well on low property crime plus rent that isn't brutal.

Oakland and Memphis landed at the very bottom, mostly because property crime there is high enough to outweigh the fact hat they're actually petty affordable to rent in.

This measurement isn't purely a crime ranking. Property crime counts for most of the score, but rent prices, how many people rent, and how much a city searches for apartment security all factor in too.

So a city can rank well partly for being cheap and renter-heavy, not just safe.

If you just want the lowest burglary rates, Port St. Lucie, Virginia Beach, and Jersey city came out lowest of everyone analyzed. Seattle, Memphis, and Oakland had the highest.

You can see where your city landed across all four factors in the full ranking.

When you picked where to live, did safety actually factor into it, or did rent and location win out?