I would like to keep the application running without me having to refresh the page. Currently it will drop connection to the cameras and show a slightly dimmed still image after some unknown amount of time (maybe 30 minutes?). Is there a way to prevent this from happening?
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Hi ngonzales80. Unfortunately, at this time the PC desktop app is set to timeout after 30 minutes of inactivity. I will bring this to the attention of the product team and perhaps this will be addressed in a future update.
Thank you. It seems to depend on maybe the camera or network I’m using. I currently have 4 cameras all on the same network that work continuously in the app. I added another camera on a different network and that one times out after 30 minutes or so. Not sure what is difference between the two set-up that allows one to work the way I’d like and the other to time out.
Thank you for the extra information 
I’ll pass that along.
If this is a dedicated PC for monitoring the cameras, you can possibly try an automation program such as Autohotkey that will program your mouse to refresh every 30 minutes or so.
This is a very useful program for keeping things “alive” that would normally time out with inactivity.
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Hey ShocWave thanks for the suggestion! 
I’m definitely going to add that to my list of useful open-source software tools.
Mouse move does not help with the YI home PC app going into pause.
Unless you are actively using the YI home PC app it will still go into pause regardless of what you are doing on the PC.
I have tested numerous scenarios trying to keep the app from going into pause but the only thing that has worked is to actively do something in the app before it times out.
I wish we could get this resolved.
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Hey @wirlybird, I understand your frustration, however, YI cameras are designed with an emphasis on motion detection and using the alerts has a way to monitor what is going on, so constant streaming and having to monitor the cameras manually is not actively encouraged. However, the team do take feedback onboard, and if they receive enough demand for a particular feature change is definitely possible.
Alerts and notifications do not work on the PC app.
So you make an app for the PC to view the cameras. You even add a “group” feature to show multiple camera live streams just like EVERY other real security system and then you say YI discourages users from actively monitoring or using cameras in this manor.
So we have to rely on the Android or iPhone app, which DO NOT time out by the way, to monitor cameras live.
With the poor motion detection, unreliable notifications and general lag in alerts There is no chance of stopping a crime before it happens which active monitoring can do.
I guess if you want to make sure Fido is not chewing on the couch while you’re away then YI is for you but in NO way should it be billed as a security measure until they get serious about it.
It is too bad because between issues like this and the non existent support YI is just shooting themselves in the foot. Blocking people on Facebook and not responding to support email requests is not how you gain or even keep customers.
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Hey Chris, thanks for the feedback. If you are having trouble with the motion detection please give us some more information in a separate thread and we can help get it working better for your environment.
I also like to use the multi-camera function to actively monitor the cameras. I work from home full time and there have been a lot of break-ins in the area and so I like to monitor the cameras I have in front and back for any trespassing. All that aside, this is a great way to check for deliveries and be up there to grab the packages before porch-pirates run off with them.
This 30 minute timeout only recently started. I’ve been actively monitoring my cameras on my laptop since we purchased the cameras and this 30 minute timeout literally only started this week and it’s very frustrating. Please remove the inactivity time-out (or at the very least add a toggle-switch to disable the inactivity timer if a user wants).
I’m sorry, but security camera software is NOT made to be played with all day to prevent time out. It serves multiple purposes and should be available for alerts and/or active monitoring. I’ve had no gripes up until now as these cameras work well for us, but this new annoyance is almost enough to invest in a set of Ring cameras.
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@acerbicgeoff
Hey Geoff! Thank you for joining the forum. The desktop app has always had the 30 minute time-out. (You can see this thread goes back to June 3rd. The only thing I can think of that makes sense here is that you were providing enough input into the app that caused the feed to refresh - perhaps by switching windows or minimizing temporarily.
That would make sense but I wasn’t doing any of that … My laptop sits on a separate table from my workstation and is turned so I can see it. I actually am unable to touch my laptop unless I get out if my chair and walk over to it (which I haven’t had a need to do until now) so not sure what that’s all about. Regardless, if you can get rid of that timeout or add a toggle for those that wish to actively monitor, that would be great.
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Ok, that is interesting 
I know this is 30 minute time-out definitely a point of contention, and there has been quite a bit of noise made about it in this thread and others, so I will try and push for this time-out to be removed.
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I am absolutely livid that I have to click every 30 mins on the Mac app - it’s a shame because everything else works fine…my question is why?
PC app doesn’t do it so why this happens on Mac I don’t know…maybe you can shed light on why this problem hasn’t been fixed yet?
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The PC app DOES do this and it is a pain.
We should have an option at least in case people would like it to stop to save bandwidth.
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The part I don’t understand is why YI cares how we use the app. I would assume, but maybe I am wrong, that the app is streaming video directly from the camera. That is, it’s not putting extra bandwidth on the YI servers. If that’s the case, why does YI care? Are they suddenly the bandwidth conservation police? I’ve heard these stupid explanations from supposed YI employees or ambassadors for years – “the app was not meant for continuous monitoring.” Who cares what you intended it to be for. Many of us are engineers / DIYers and are always looking for ways to creative new uses for existing products. You should embrace that.
I usually assume that companies act in their own financial interest. And in this case, I’m trying to understand how continuous streaming impacts YI financially. They actually went out of their way to code in an activity detector so they can shutoff after 30 minutes! What was the ROI on that snippet of code? Are you saving money somehow by preventing continuous streaming? Maybe I’m missing something.
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It is pretty ridiculous. I just sent another post about it. If it wasn’t meant to be used as a surveillance tool why did they add the “group” view? I use this for area surveillance of 4 cameras. This feature screams live monitoring.
My big issue is that when it pauses on mine I no longer get notices or recorded video.
I can not un-pause. It just sits saying “connecting” and nothing happens so I have to shut down and restart the app, log in and then log in to the cameras.
The other thing is this. The Android app or the iPad app do not go to pause so why the PC app?
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It is 100% a money thing. My bet is any day now we will need to purchase a subscription in order to actively monitor all cameras. At which time I will be replacing the firmware and ditching Yi software all together.
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it should be easy task to remove this limit
one line of code and its gone
please make it done as soon as possible 
i wanna buy more cameras from yi home for my home but this 30 min timeout thing stops me from doing that
because i work all night and i look at my cameras all the time
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