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NovaVMS Manual

Receive and review an alert

Receive and review an alert

NovaVMS sends you alerts when a camera detects motion or an AI-tagged event that matches one of your admin’s alert rules. Alerts arrive by email and inside the app. This page covers both, plus how to open the event behind an alert.

Email alert

The email contains:

  • The alert rule name (what matched) and the camera name.
  • A snapshot thumbnail from the event.
  • The exact timestamp.
  • A direct link to the event inside NovaVMS.

To review the event:

  1. Click View in NovaVMS (or the direct link in the email).
  2. Sign in if you are not already signed in.
  3. NovaVMS opens the event detail page. The clip plays automatically if one is attached. See Find a recorded clip for the player controls.

In-app alert

When you are already signed in, NovaVMS pushes alerts to you in two places in real time.

Notification bell (top-right)

  1. A red badge on the bell shows the count of unread alerts.
  2. Click the bell to open the dropdown with the most recent alerts.
  3. Click an alert to jump to the event detail page.

Alert toast

A toast appears in the top-right corner when a new alert fires while you are using the app. The toast stays on screen until you act on it — it does not auto-dismiss.

  1. The toast shows the camera name, a snapshot thumbnail, the rule name, and the severity.
  2. Click View to open the event detail page.
  3. The Acknowledge button is disabled for the Viewer role. Ask an operator or admin to acknowledge the alert if the team needs to track who handled it.

Review the event behind an alert

When you open an alert, NovaVMS takes you to the event detail page. From there you can:

  • Watch the event clip with play / pause, scrub, and speed controls.
  • Read the AI-generated description and severity assessment.
  • Open related events by clicking AI tags.

For the full player controls and tag filtering, see Find a recorded clip.

Common variations

  • You did not receive an email but other people did. Email notifications are configured per recipient on each alert rule. Your admin may not have added you as an email recipient on that rule. Ask them to update the rule.
  • You received an in-app alert but no email. Same reason in reverse — your admin configured the rule with the in-app channel only. Both channels are independent.
  • The bell shows alerts from a site you do not recognise. Viewers only receive alerts for sites they have access to. If a site name looks unfamiliar, check with your admin about your site assignments.
  • You want to stop receiving alerts temporarily. Viewers cannot silence or disable alert rules. Ask an admin or operator to disable or adjust the rule.