# Motion Detector Cam — user reviews > 53 indexed App Store user reviews of Motion Detector Cam by Philip Bailey, rated 2.60/5 from 16 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/motion-detector-cam/id461753935/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/motion-detector-cam/id461753935.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 4 · 4★ 2 · 3★ 0 · 2★ 3 · 1★ 7 ## Newest reviews (13 of 53) ### 3/5 — Kein Bewegungmelder *2026-05-02* Für mich so nicht anwendbar. Ich hätte gerne eine App, die ein Geräusch abgibt, wenn man am Handy vorbeigeht oder es sogar aufheben will. Die App zum Geräusche machen beim Aufheben gibt es schon und die müsste man jetzt mit der zweiten Möglichkeit komponieren. Perfekter Schutz vor Einbrecher. ### 2/5 — Missing black overlay *2026-03-29* Can you add a black screen overlay? Could be activated by swiping left or right for example. Then the app would be perfect for my need, I just bought it but it fails short of being usable, as one person coming in the room will see the screen is recording. As a traveller it’s annoying to come back to my room and see my belongings has been moved, if I have a pic someone entered then I can address the problem with proof in hand. Thanks for your consideration. ### 2/5 — App stürzt ab *2022-07-23* App stürzt ab, manchmal nach ein paar Stunden, manchmal schon nach 10 min. Schade. Sonst eine gute App. ### 2/5 — You leave your device at risk running this *2022-07-06* If there was a way to lock your device and use this it would be great but let’s say you turn on the app leave your room and have the app running. Your device is on and unlocked so someone who finds your device can simply delete the video and they also have unadulterated access to your device because you can not lock it while this is running and working. Maybe it’s a limitation because of iOS but it’s a major one. ### 3/5 — Almost perfect *2020-12-07* Please make it work with screen turned off, thank you ### 2/5 — Mauvaise qualité des photos *2020-05-26* Les photos sont limitées à 640x480, la vidéo à 720p. C’est ridicule ### 2/5 — Paid app isn’t working *2019-11-06* Free app is fine just installed and checked, why paid app has some black square on screen? Basically app isn’t usable!!! ### 2/5 — The screen is always on *2018-08-31* To be a real surveillance cam, the screens needs to turn off during recording in order not to eat all your battery life and not emit any light during recording. ### 1/5 — Supplier can't be trusted *2015-02-13* Interesting concept and free sample. Upgraded product fails to work though! (Forced Closure) I wanted to use it to record birds at the feeding table. Supplier can't be contacted and should be removed for AppStore! ### 1/5 — Worthless *2014-04-21* Instantly crashes every time I open it. Funny thing is it sometimes works briefly on my iPod 4 but not on at all iPhone 4s. ### 1/5 — CRASHES, BUGGY, FALSE ALERTS *2014-02-25* Not happy that I've paid for this app and yet it gives far too many false alerts and it crashes (sticks until force closed). It even starts recording when the app refocuses (wouldn't you think they'd have the option to lock the focus ?). It's just far too buggy and unreliable for the purpose it's meant for. It would be better also if you had the option to start recording so many seconds before the activity starts, and for so many seconds after the activity ceases. Then you know you'd capture the video with the least wastage. ### 1/5 — Unusable *2013-09-29* It crashes often such that it only records a few clips and then nothing...which makes it worthless. When you turn your brightness down to low and then goto into the app's admin screen, it goes back to full brightness when exiting the admin screen. You just need to reset it but that's annoying. The interface for accessing over a browser is okay although it would be better if you could view the feed while it records. If it is recording, it will not show anything. ### 1/5 — Garbage *2013-07-19* Doesn't do what it says.doesn't take vidio. Wish I could rate it 0 stars.:( don't wast your money on this!!!!!!!!! ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — How do you record with a locked screen! *2025-08-05* Can this app record when the screen is off? ### 1/5 — Don’t pay *2025-06-23* The free app works better. ### 1/5 — Terrible *2023-12-21* Literally doesn’t work, don’t buy!!! ### 1/5 — 0 star *2020-04-08* I paid only a dollar but if I click on it and it doesn’t load to the app then it’s a waste of money🤬 ### 1/5 — Black screen *2019-10-31* I paid for the upgrade sometime ago I went to use it recently and 90% of the screen is black. What’s up with that!? ### 1/5 — Rubbish *2019-06-13, version 2.3* Rubbish ### 1/5 — Massive Error: Screen stays on!!! *2018-04-05* Many free apps support this feature and I have just paid for something which doesn't work as advertised. Feel like I have been scammed. Very annoyed, please fix this asap and I will change my review. Currently when turning brightness to minimum (black) about 20% of the screen space is still on fully lit!!! ### 1/5 — Many free apps have better options and support *2017-10-18* Simple app that is missing some of the most basic options such as a sound alert when motion is detected and storing images in its own folder for simple deleting. If you use the app, be prepared to spend hours deleting pics individually from your photo album as they will all be together so you can't use "select all". There is absolutely no support for this app. The seller does not even respond to emails. In short.... Save your money and grab one of the many free apps that are much better! Update! Bug...... after using a few times the app dims the screen so you can't see anything at all. You turn up the screen brightness and it instantly darkens it again. It wouldn't be so bad if there was support but it seems they just take your money and leave you with garbage and no support! ### 1/5 — Absturz *2017-10-03* App stürzt sofort nach Start ab ### 1/5 — Starts recording indefinitely *2016-11-20* Captures motion but then does NOT stop recording when motion is gone. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Enjoying. Not enough support. *2025-05-28* I’ve enjoyed using this app for the past 24 hours capturing a hummingbirds in my front yard. would love more support. ### 5/5 — Great app! *2023-09-27* I’m surprised this app doesn’t have more high ratings because I think it’s an outstanding app. I saw one review complaining that someone who is captured can just take the phone & delete the pictures or video. If you’re using it to spy on someone, get a motion cam if you prefer, or hide your iPhone in a plant? This app live streams to your laptop. I used it capture a mother bunny nursing her kits. It worked great. It also captured a fox near the bunny nest. Also used it to find out what critter was crawling on my counter during the night & nibbling on a peach. Turned out it was my cat!! The app works perfectly & the pictures are crystal clear!!! This was well thought out by the developer! ### 5/5 — It Works Great *2020-02-16* Everything works perfect ### 5/5 — Works well! *2016-04-01* I got the app and it works very well, worth it ### 5/5 — Works perfectly for me *2015-11-11* Using iPhone 4S running iOS 7.1.2 and experiencing no problems at all. Great set of features. ### 5/5 — Great App, a few thing that could be added... *2013-08-18* Really great app worth more than 69p Few things though 1) Seems to be a bug when you use it it changes brightness to 100% 2) Support for iPads 3) Email image notifications when triggered if you could add your smtp details. 4) Set area of screen to monitor, I want to see the whole area but only trigger a certain grid. 5) Profiles - So if you place it in different locations you can select that location profile as you may want to change tolerance etc. 6)Continuous motion recording, at present you can only set a trigger with a set timer. If these were in app purchase I'd be happy to buy them. ### 5/5 — High marks for easy operation now *2012-08-03* REVIEW UPDATE: Here are some more tidbits to accompany my original review below. The movement threshold sensitivity setting ranges from 1 to 50, with one being most sensitive. If it's too sensitive (10 or below), it snaps the picture before your subject is in full view of the camera. It also sometimes triggers on its own. If it's not sensitive enough (over 20), then it may not trigger at all, or trigger quite a while after there's been detected movement. It seems to work best with the setting around 15, and not pointing at high contrast areas like an open window or doorway. It's really hard to set the threshold number with the spinning wheel. If it's not exactly in the right position, it reverts to the previous setting. A note to the developer: please fix this so the numbers click in place and it's easier to set. Since it takes a while to detect movement, activate and launch into recording mode, if your subject is simply walking by the camera, they'll probably be out of view by the time the recording starts. So it's important to set the camera pointed in a direction where the movement will be toward the camera, at least for several seconds. Remember, you can set it up to reflect into a mirror if you want. In landscape mode you can position the phone either to the right or the left orientation, and the videos and the single frame picture upload to Facebook come out correct. There is a bug, however, in saving the picture to the photos library where it appears upside down no matter which way the phone is pointed. Another great opportunity for the developer to fix it! Finally, when you mess around with the settings, be sure to completely leave the app, and disable it from being in background as well. Then relaunch it for everything to work okay. Also, it's worth noting that each time you launch the app from scratch, the save to Facebook option is off by default. So if you want that feature enabled, you have to set it each time you launch the app. And a couple of more requests of the developer: If at all possible, could you move the choice between front and back camera to an icon on the actual recording screen rather than have to go into settings to change it? Also, it would be great if you could put a record button at the bottom of the screen which would override the entire motion sensor process and allow you to use this app as a regular video recorder by pressing record and pressing stop. Sometimes it might be nice to just start recording, swipe the screen to all black, and let it go until you hit the stop button or close the app. Thanks! ORIGINAL REVIEW: It appears the reviews of older editions of this app were low because the settings were hard to find (had to swipe to the right to access them). Many couldn't figure it out, so gave it low marks. Now with access to the settings on the screen, that issue is gone. Overall this app is brilliant. You turn it on, point it where you want it to record, slide your finger down the screen to make the phone look like it is completely off, and walk away. When you come back and grab your phone, just check your Photo Library for any recordings of movement. Done. Now, you'll want to tweak the settings a bit first, like choosing the front or rear camera, threshold sensitivity, recording length, etc., but once that is finished, you are good to go. Here are some hints to help understand how this app works: The app will record as long as there is movement, then stop (or automatically stop when it hits the maximum set time). If movement in front of the camera stops before the max time is reached, the recording stops shortly afterward, thus ignoring the max time setting. Set your max time for an hour, and if there's 10 minutes of movement, you get one video file 10 minutes long. Note: This is only movement sensitive. Sounds in the background won't trigger it, only movement. Now, if movement is still going on when the max time is reached, the recording will stop and save and another recording will start about 5 or 6 seconds later. So if you set the max recording time to one minute, you'll get lots of short clips with a 5 or 6 second break between each one for as long as there is movement. If you pick up the camera, stop the app, or even turn off the phone, the recording will stop and be saved. If a phone call comes in while the app is active, the recording will stop and save at that point. The app immediately resumes monitoring and, if movement is still happening, it starts recording again after the call. Note: The app must be running when the call comes in to continue running when the call stops. It does not monitor and record in the background. Plus, the phone must be totally still to 'arm' itself, so after the call you need to set the phone back down pointed where you want the camera to look. A new feature in this update is the capture and optional Facebook upload of a still image before the recording begins. The picture goes into Facebook as private, for you only, so you can use it for remote notification/monitoring. Nice! For the developer: Could you add optional emailing of the photo to a preset email address? Also, could you add uploading of the photo to Dropbox as well as Facebook? The app "Identity" (search: lucian boboc) has this dropbox photo upload feature, but no motion detection video. It's great to see the developer is back improving this already worthwhile app. I hope those who rated it low before take a second look now with the latest update. ### 5/5 — Great! *2011-09-21* Works perfectly, brilliant layout/design. I would recommend it a friend. P.S. Thanks for helping me find the mices hideout.  ### 4/5 — Couple of adjustments *2020-11-11* Great app. Ideal for daytime use. Could do with a setting that allows the torch to be on whilst in position. Also a better understanding of the tolerance setting. ### 4/5 — Does Exactly What Is States! *2013-02-16* Used it last night to keep a look outside the front of the house. Works very well... Good value. Only request would be a clock to show when the pic or film was taken. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-02.*