Alright y’all, so I wanted to share a bit about my rollercoaster ride setting up Aqara cameras—mainly the G4—and how I finally got things to click. I’m not some super smart home guru, just a regular guy slowly upgrading my space. If I can do this, you can too.
So I started with just one G4 at the front door. Loved the look, the specs, and how it supposedly worked well with HomeKit. But man, the first few days were messy. The HomeKit integration was spotty, notifications were delayed, and the automations I set up for motion alerts were hit or miss.
The breakthrough? Switching to wired power instead of battery made the performance way snappier. Also, make sure your hub is close enough. Once I tweaked placement & went through the Aqara app setup very carefully (seriously, don’t skip steps), things started humming.
I now have three G4s running across the house—all feeding into my HomeKit scenes. Someone rings the doorbell? My hallway lights come on and the footage pops up on my Apple TV. Pure smart home magic.
Key thing I learned: Don’t rely solely on default settings. Play around, test your automations with different triggers and delays, especially based on the motion detection zones.
Anyone else had struggles (or wins) getting G4s to work smoothly? Would love to hear if you’ve tried stacking them with other Aqara cams or mixing them with other brands.
Let’s share what’s working and save others the headache!