Hive cameras are being discontinued and will not function in THREE years. Anything I can do?

crazy_crow

I’ve really bought into the Hive Smart Home system and have the whole house set up with a Hive hub, hive sensors, hive lighting, hive plugs and FOUR hive cameras. It’s expensive but it works well for me. I’ve just woken up to an email from HIVE saying they are scrapping the cameras by August 2025.  They are literally going to stop working.  They are currently on sale for  about £179 EACH at John Lewis so it’s a lot of money to loose. I bought my cameras one at a time over the last couple of years.  Is there anything I can do?   The cameras are an integral part of my whole hive installation and although the rest of it will work I’ll loose some really useful functions.  This is going to effect a lot of hive customers.

Aylesbury_Duck

In short, no.

What you may find is that nearer the time, someone will come up with a workaround.  Probably a good idea to look out for a Hive user forum or similar.

Jenni_D

Is that literally saying that they will stop working - completely? Or is it that the local functions will still work but remote access and recording will no longer work because the cloud servers will go offline?

Andy_L

Similar thread here in the Techie Stuff Forum.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6371288/hive-dropping-support-for-their-smart-cameras

Spies

Absolute shocking waste.

crazy_crow

Jenni_D said:

Is that literally saying that they will stop working - completely? Or is it that the local functions will still work but remote access and recording will no longer work because the cloud servers will go offline?

Yes!   They have helpfully suggested that customers take them to their local household waste recycling centre when they become obsolete.  I love Hive and have encouraged other people to get it.  It’s really annoying.  It’s still being sold by a few retailers too. 

Aylesbury_Duck

crazy_crow said:

Jenni_D said:

Is that literally saying that they will stop working - completely? Or is it that the local functions will still work but remote access and recording will no longer work because the cloud servers will go offline?

Yes!   They have helpfully suggested that customers take them to their local household waste recycling centre when they become obsolete.  I love Hive and have encouraged other people to get it.  It’s really annoying.  It’s still being sold by a few retailers too. 

Playing devil's advocate, why shouldn't they continue to sell them?  Three years' lifespan is not ridiculously short for a tech product (after all, how many people change their mobile or laptop devices every few years?) and now that the information is in the public domain, it's up to consumers to do their research.

I'd be annoyed if I were in your position, of course, because you bought in good faith before all this was known.

Admiral_Barbarossa

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Geodark

Aylesbury_Duck said:

crazy_crow said:

Jenni_D said:

Is that literally saying that they will stop working - completely? Or is it that the local functions will still work but remote access and recording will no longer work because the cloud servers will go offline?

Yes!   They have helpfully suggested that customers take them to their local household waste recycling centre when they become obsolete.  I love Hive and have encouraged other people to get it.  It’s really annoying.  It’s still being sold by a few retailers too. 

Playing devil's advocate, why shouldn't they continue to sell them?  Three years' lifespan is not ridiculously short for a tech product (after all, how many people change their mobile or laptop devices every few years?) and now that the information is in the public domain, it's up to consumers to do their research.

I'd be annoyed if I were in your position, of course, because you bought in good faith before all this was known.

I dont think their problem is that they arent being sold any more - its the fact that once that date is hit they wont work any more! The service and the devices are going to be turned off. 

Aylesbury_Duck

Geodark said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

crazy_crow said:

Jenni_D said:

Is that literally saying that they will stop working - completely? Or is it that the local functions will still work but remote access and recording will no longer work because the cloud servers will go offline?

Yes!   They have helpfully suggested that customers take them to their local household waste recycling centre when they become obsolete.  I love Hive and have encouraged other people to get it.  It’s really annoying.  It’s still being sold by a few retailers too. 

Playing devil's advocate, why shouldn't they continue to sell them?  Three years' lifespan is not ridiculously short for a tech product (after all, how many people change their mobile or laptop devices every few years?) and now that the information is in the public domain, it's up to consumers to do their research.

I'd be annoyed if I were in your position, of course, because you bought in good faith before all this was known.

I dont think their problem is that they arent being sold any more - its the fact that once that date is hit they wont work any more! The service and the devices are going to be turned off. 

I know, I was contesting OP's implication that it's wrong for retailers to continue to sell the cameras.

crazy_crow

Three years is an unreasonable amount of time for such an expensive camera especially when it form an important part of a whole smart home set up.   I wanted a smart home set up where everything works together.  All my hive devices work together and are controlled through one app.  I WAS a huge fan!   The rest of my hive devises will continue to work but they won’t be as useful when the cameras are bricked.  

I think they can carry on selling the cameras but they have to make it very clear they will be bricked any august 2025.