ADT Control ® Reviews

Sad to say I’m not impressed with adt. For as much as you pay every month for their services you would think it would be better. When I first got the system activated I was told by the person who came out that I could set the cameras up to only record if the panel was armed took me months after starting the service in my name to realize they won’t record being set up that way, called customer service and no one had a clue what I was talking about or even how to fix the problem so my cameras have to stay active at all times and you only get 6,000 clips a month. Moved into this house with the system already set up and active in previous owners name and I still had to pay money to have it installed (which was already done) and money to activate (which was already active).You can’t just switch it into your name guess they need the money. I can’t watch any of the videos from the cameras on my phone without first restarting my phone, and that’s very annoying. I get notifications 3 hours after something triggered one of the cameras. Also I’ve been able to enter my house a few times without the alarm panel going off, that doesn’t give me and my family a piece of mind. Unfortunately I’m stuck with the service for another 2 years. Wish I would have done my research before taking over the contract of the previous home owners.

My front and backyard camera notifications are about 2 minutes delayed. That is, there are two whole minutes from the time there is a camera detection and the time I get an app notification about it. That is unacceptable. The whole point of having cameras with a detection system is to get notified in a timely manner. Customer stated the 2 minute delay is normal because that’s how long it takes to upload the 30 second video that gets recorded when there’s a camera detection. So the notification is not sent until 2 minutes later when the video is finished uploading to the cloud. If that is the case, then ADTControl engineers need to include a separate notification, independent from the video upload notification, that is sent out as soon as the camera detection is triggered. Then a second notification with the available 30 second recording can be sent out. In two minutes, someone could walk from the front of my house to my backyard and break into the master bedroom without me having any idea about it. This should be a pretty simple but significant fix that can be rolled out in an update. Ring is able to do it so I don’t see why ADT control shouldn’t. I’ll revise my rating if this issue is fixed.

This is a message to the ADT app developers department. I’ve had my security system for about 4 months now. This is from an iPhone XS running on iOS13.7. I have 1 doorbell cam and 2 outside backyard cams. Everything was working fine up until 3-4 weeks ago. I have informed the ADT customer service and they’ve sent a tech to my place to try and diagnose everything. On the this app app my RECORDED videos do not register well anymore. The audio from the doorbell works fine but the video is frozen(video actually moves at 12seconds only 1 frame). The 2 backyard cameras don’t play any saved clips at all. Everything works fine on the live stream.

However ON THE COMPUTER, logging into the control center all recorded clips works fine. I have uninstalled and reinstalled ADTControl two times already. Still a problem. I’m still giving you guys 5 stars still because I think this is just a bug you guys can fix, and I’ve been enjoying the system. Please ADT try and fix this if possible. Thank you.

After almost 3 years of struggle to find someone to competently tackle my 115 year old house, ADT came to my rescue. I actually had already paid for a system that did not work. I wanted a doorbell/intercom combination, a new security system to replace a 40 year old system, and exterior video surveillance. The ADT salesman completely understood everything I wanted and knew how to accomplish it. Since my primary residence is 1500 miles away, finalizing the arrangements required trust on my part that was well placed. The eventual installation went off without a hitch. The installers were competent, pleasant, well spoken, good explainers. All-in-all a satisfactory experience.

ADTControl was working great for a few months. Now I can’t use it unless I’m connected to Wi-Fi. Will not work with cellular data on AT&T. I’m so angry. ADT keeps saying it my phone. Funny all my other apps work fine including my ring doorbell. Nothing but problems.

Ok, so after calling multiple times for help and tons of brainstorming I figured out why ADTControl wasn’t working on cellular data. Simple fix! Hopefully I can help some people out and save them the aggravation. I went to settings on my phone. Then to cellular data. Scrolled down to my apps. Long behold ADT was turned off. Turned on and working perfectly now. No one suggested that. Kept saying it was my WiFi and cell phone company. Not the case:)

Alexa now works with ADTControl since I turned it on in cellular. Goto your Alexa app. Look for add security device. Choose ADT control. Yes, pulse website comes up , but just put in you ADT control password, not my ADT password. Two separate apps. And you got a connection:). I also turned Alexa off on ADT my keypad before I did this.

Dear whoever responds to these. I’ve already called and emailed so don’t leave a blanket response to this. I got this installed last October and it was working fine. Videos were recording, I could access them and watch them. Things have been quiet so I wasn’t worried. Until I went out of town for 6 weeks. My neighbor called and said that some decorations have been stolen off of our patio. No problem I have ADT Control. I go in and nothing has recorded since December and my camera in my backyard isn’t even working. I called and there was some things at home I had to physically do to get my system reset. 2 weeks later I go home and have to physically unplug the camera and do a reset of the system from my control panel. These aren’t app problems except I had no idea any of these things were a problem until I checked. If my camera is down, I need to know. Also why did I stop recording? You apparently have to go in and create rules for recording but in my app the area where I create a new rule is “greyed our” like the button is there but I can’t click it. Why is it so hard for me to control things on my ADT Control APP? Also the lady I talked to in customer service was wonderful. No complaints there.

When I first had my ADT security cameras installed it worked great, for about 2 weeks. Since then, I have had nothing but camera failure on my front camera. I have had an ADT technician come out to fix my front camera, losing connection issue, for at least 3-4 times. Every time they get it running, 2 weeks later it disconnects from my WiFi. Also, this ADT app is just as bad. I was having problems connecting to the internet, using Siri on my IPhone 12 Pro, using Pandora or anything else when I am outside, or in my car. I deleted the ADT app, then everything worked on my iPhone. Before you ask…….Yes, I checked my internet and it works great. I tried rebooting my router, deleting and reinstalling the ADT app, using the WIFI extender the ADT tech put in, and relocating the extender closer to my router. It would work for at least a week or so, then the front camera stops working. Now, just like the last 4 times, I have to get the ADT tech to come back out and fix it again. The tech replaced the front camera, since it is the one camera that keeps losing connection, the last time he came out. And ADTControl causes internet problems with my iPhone. I am not impressed with ADTControl, nor my front camera.

Have had ADTControl for two weeks and it’s good for turning the alarm on and off, but have recently noticed it’s missing a simple, yet important feature: a panic button. Maybe I’m missing it, but I can’t figure out how to activate the alarm, if say, I see someone walking around my back yard on the video when I’m out of town. My alarm won’t activate until they try to enter, but wouldn’t it be better to scare them off early? Am I missing something? How hard would it be to put a big, shiny red button on the Home Screen that will let me activate the alarm from anywhere? I called and was told I would need a $150 panic button fob that would only work if I was home, wouldn’t help in the situation I described though. Thanks in advance for considering this option.
In response to developer:
No, not at all what I’m looking for. I want to be able to trigger my alarm from my bed if I want, or trigger my home alarm from 1000 miles away if I see someone walking around my yard. My car key had had this feature for 20 years, why is it so hard?

It is almost worth the almost $3000 it would cost me to have the whole thing removed. It has had problems since the day it was installed. Four calls to customer service = one tech finally scheduled. The equipment is junk, has a delay between recordings so all activity is not recorded. The equipment is only slightly better than the Pulse cameras I used to have with ADT. I wish I had purchased my own system and installed it myself then I would have control of the system. The software does not accept changes, once it finally takes the change it won’t save it. The software does not have enough choices and I can’t just go to the web site, I’ve got to download an app. I can’t change things on ADTControl , have to go back to the web site for that which directs me to install an app. Customer service has hung up on me with a polite hold then disconnect. If it happens three times it’s not a coincidence. The alarm goes off in the middle of the day, the night, whenever it wants and it wasn’t even armed. Now I’m stuck with this junk for five years or pay $3000 to scrap it. I Hate This System!

I’ve had ADT for almost a year now. The camera goes offline all the time. Since the camera is mounted on the side of the house it’s impossible to reach without a ladder, something I don’t have! And I don’t know what to do to it anyway! The door bell camera takes a picture of the wall most of the time. I wish a camera had been set up instead. It hardly every takes pictures of things that happen on my porch. But I sure can check the siding on the wall! Also, since the week the tech installed a smoke detector, it has been beeping, all the time! I would have thought by now the battery would have gone dead! Now maybe it’s just a faulty sensor. I looked up how to change the battery and according to the documentation, I have to know what kind of battery it needs. To do that, again a ladder is needed. And the battery could be an unusual size but I don’t know until it comes off the ceiling! Not particularly happy with the service and I don’t feel like calling them every time because they want me to do all kinds of stuff. Kinda like cable tv. I don’t want to deal with all the quirks!

I gave ADTControl four stars because it hangs up. It’s great that ADTControl has the fingerprint recognition on iPhone. It’s great that there is a pin. What’s not great is when your standing at the front door with puppies waiting to go potty, you open the door only to hear the alarm go off, you have a toddler and these puppies that will happily pee in the floor if you walk away from them, and you already know it will take you longer now than that five seconds to make it to the keypad. What do you do? I reached for my phone and hit ADTControl . Nothing happened. I wait a couple seconds....nothing. I close ADTControl and open it again. It worked fine! I turn the alarm off, I take the dogs out, I think everything is fine. Meanwhile ADT is calling my husband, who was not at home. Then the police department showed up. When the seconds matter ADTControl really needs to work! Outside of that, we probably use ADTControl more than we do the keypad.

While I haven’t had any trouble with ADTControl , customer service is awful. I just now called about my $100 Visa card and she told me oh they are busy you can call tomorrow. I said I would hold so she hung up on me. When I’ve had to call numerous times about a camera not working she said well it’s your internet’s fault not ours, turns out it was ADT’s fault. The man who installed was great, the technical support over the phone was useless. The next guy who came out wasn’t helpful and said it works, an hour later it stopped again. The next guy who came out changed the camera we’ve had problems with and finally fixed the problem (he gets 5 stars). Customer service is the worst I’ve had to deal with in a long time (zero stars if that would be available), maybe teach them to quit acting like I’m wasting their time and making them do their jobs, stop talking like robots, reading off the screen and not listening to what the customer is saying, and stop hanging up on customers!

Horrible customer service and they do nothing to genuinely help customers. From the beginning I tried to be rid of adt within my 3 day period which they came up with some crap excuse as to when I was actually able to get out without paying any money so I was stuck with their crappy system and even worse customer service. Fast forward to 1 year and 4 months my sensor kept being triggered in the middle of the night so on several occasions I had to unarm my alarm so it stopped waking up the entire house. I called and they told me they would come out to figure out what was wrong and no one informed me they would charge me to take a look at the system and change a a battery I could have changed myself. When I saw the charge I called to find out what it was for and I was called a liar and told there is nothing they could do about it. I can’t wait for this contract to be over so I can be done with this disgusting company and the people who work there. I would not extend my contract with ADT even if someone was paying me 1 million dollars.

1) The delay in notification after the doorbell rings COMPLETELY negates the advertised function of being able to “answer the doorbell from anywhere.” By the time I get a text that the doorbell has rung, whoever rang is long gone. Not to mention that after I receive the text, I still have to log into ADTControl to see who’s at the door. 2) Halfway through last month, I apparently reached my “upload limit” of 3000 clips. My options: pay more or change my settings to only record jumbo jets landing in the driveway. My uploads were supposed to resume on the 1st of this month, but of course they didn’t. Halfway through the month, I finally called and the “specialist” had me spend 20 minutes running up and and down stairs turning things on and off; of course none of that fixed anything, and now I have to spend my Monday waiting on a technician to drop by and figure out what the problem is. BOTTOM LINE: THIS IS THE BIGGEST PIECE OF JUNK I HAVE EVER PAID FOR MONTHLY. I have been an ADT customer for a very long time, but this whole crappy system makes me want to shop around.

I have had ADT for over 10+ years when including the previous Brinks Home Security Service that ADT purchased. When ADT first offered the Updated Touch Screen Control System I thought it was going to be very good but after having it for a while now. I must say that there is room for huge improvement. First off the let me say this about this application it works fairly well but it’s biggest flaws are Video Playback which requires users to download to your phone, tablet many of the recording to view that are supposed to be viewable and played within ADTControl . The second issue is related to the recording camera system which records inconsistently, the ADT camera(s) do not consistently capture people such as delivery people entering my property. Connectivity issues also occur whether using a strong cellular connection or Wi Fi, ADT technical team needs to work on better hardware and software integration with ADTControl .

I really hope someone is able to help me because if you click “App Support” here it’ll take you to the ADT webpage where you can click “Command Control” help, but when you click on that you get “page not found” so there is a total dead-end on ADT Control App help. Also don’t bother calling ADT customer service. It’s a nightmare. I have read everything I could and looked at user videos on YT but without ADT offering app support for its own app it’s pretty hopeless. One thing I would really like to know is how to change the screenshot on the home screen of ADTControl . It’s like ADTControl randomly chose a screenshot from one if it’s first doorbell recordings and it won’t change. It’s annoying because we don’t like the screenshot image and there seems to be no way to change it. Even though the doorbell video it was screenshot from was deleted. Why is there no way to delete or change this? If you click on the screenshot it just takes you to the livestream of the doorbell camera, but there are no options to edit the screenshot that dominates the homepage of ADTControl .

App performance has been stable, responsive and generally easy to use. There is a significant gap however, with understanding app and system functionality. Examples: On the main panel screen there is an option to access help videos. Similarly the same option is available in ADTControl but neither one offers comprehensive help. ADTControl doesn’t link you to videos or isn’t even “smart” enough to know what system you have installed to link you to 40 or so different security systems. (On top of that the home touch panel doesn’t have any videos nor links to videos whatsoever. Instead it has a lame prompt that tells you to go look at their website. Conveniently, neither ADTControl nor the website can point you to instructions on how to create scenes (which purportedly is a main, primary feature of the system). A little higher level planning could have gone into ADTControl design to offer help on each feature listed. Pretty silly that it does not

I really don’t think I have ever written a App review before, but felt the need to now. ADTControl really provides very little functionality for controlling all the things ADTControl can do, and there are very few instructions available on how to control what you can. Often it seems to require you to log in to the website to control it, but that defeats the purpose of ADTControl .

I also don’t understand why I can silently arm the alarm but not silently disarm it? If anything I’d think it would be the opposite, but regardless, both should be an option. Additionally, I really thing there should be some sort of panic button available as an option.

If ADT can consider having ADTControl work with IFTTT it would be great - my separate cameras automatically turn off and on when I leave or come home based on GPS location only - I would think an alarm system could/should have a similar option.

Like with a previous comment from a different user; my saved videos are unplayable. The audio from the videos is fine. The frames however don’t move. For example I can hear the movement but the frame is frozen and not matching the sound. The previous user said they started having this problem after 4 months. I got ADT in mid September and it is late December now. That comment was from a year ago and it seems ADT hasn’t fixed the issue yet. I called customer service and they had me clear the cookies from my phone and signed out of ADTControl and back in again, but that didn’t work. Unlike the user I’m not giving ADTControl five stars because it doesn’t function how it should. On top of the I get just a white screen some times and an error when trying to watch live feed. This apps needs a serious update and ADT needs to make sure their products don’t run into issues after being installed for 3-4 months.

When I access camera settings on Apps I am constantly getting a message on any camera that says “ You do not have permission to access the requested page”. Even with this message I can occasionally set the automation settings. On other times I can’t because I get the same message as stated above plus an underlying message that says “This feature is under construction”. When this occurs I can’t make any new settings. If this coincided with an iOS update perhaps ADT is working on a solution. ADTControl is getting more annoying by the day. I know it’s ADTControl because on my PC there is no problem with changing automation settings. I see others have the same problem I’m experiencing and getting a response to contact ADT doesn’t seem to resolve their problem. Your App needs attention by the developers!

With no software updates fixing any of the myriad issues present, I can only see that this is beta software from one of the shadiest companies I’ve ever interacted with. There should be frequent, constant updates for software like this and yet all that has been added in two months is pointless Alexa compatibility. I never imagined I would pay a premium price, not own the equipment and be frequently misled as part of this package deal.

How about you fix the software running on the Honeywell unit so that when I silently arm the cursed thing it is actually silent, not merely without announcement? How about a replacement for the much-maligned “chime” feature? Why does my thermostat not correctly remember instructions to set the mode to cool and fan to circulate? Why does my skybell fail to connect and require me to manually press a “retry” button 25% of the time? Don’t you have people testing your products? As all software is quite prone to vulnerability, a lack of security fixes for ADTControl doesn’t make me believe that there are no issues, it makes me believe they are not being addressed.

Alarm panel goes offline but all my other devices & services stay on. I can not call after 11pm to get through if my system doesn’t work, & even though I switched services, prepaid, have 2 accounts they keep charging me for a home I don’t live in & paying for 3 services. I got it resolved after 3 months of harassment calls, they cleared the fees, then charged me again & said I was past due on a previous account & that my current account services would be interrupted & would be disconnected. They have called me at 5 & 6 am multiple times to tell me my new account is ready to be serviced & a tech to come out, but I have no new account & that set up was 4 months ago. . I have documented all my calls. Now my service is down yet all my other devices are connected & can’t get through or set my alarm! What’s suppose to be peace of mind & was great for a few months, has turned into a pain in the &$$. Make sure you go with the company at not an authorized dealer, & while I pay more for a brand name I should have read all the reviews. I’m very disappointed.

Just got ADT installed a couple of days ago. Salesperson told me that Google worked on my system and the system had Bluetooth functionality to turn off alarm based on Bluetooth communication. Both of those claims are not true at all. From a review of feedback here, it looks like Pulse was okay and discontinued and this new Control app is a downgrade. This is very disappointing. I may cancel the service.

Would like to see this system integrated with Google.
Would like to see Bluetooth or GEO services to turn Alarm on and off based on user location.
Would like to see auto-schedules for arming alarm.
Would like to see glass-breaks, motion, and zones on app.
Would like to see app integrated with Phillips Hue, Ring, Arlo, Home and end-user-configurable.
Personal photos Screensaver would be nice too, as this was also a Pulse function.

Unfortunately, looking at the feedback, these requests have been made but nothing has been done to implement suggestions even though they,” appreciate your feedback and listen to suggestions “.

Lastly, there are a number of false reviews here which are very easy to identify by the ,”everything about ADT is great” reviews. Come on ADT employees and friends, you can do better than that.

I really wish I had just said adios to ADT when I decided to get rid of my hard line phone. I’ve been a customer for 16 years (well, a customer of Brinks. ADT bought them out). The first sign that things weren’t right us when the tech had to go back and get a new panel because there were faults on the board. When I asked if the garage door opener had been installed and was told it was, I tried to open it using ADTControl . Nothing worked. He spent two hours trying to get it to work to no avail. When I try to run a scene, it doesn’t run. The video feed isn’t live on the home screen, there is nothing really special about ADTControl at all except the ability to just arm and disarm the system. $1000 for them to tie into an existing system and this is all there is to it? Don’t waste your time or money. I’m stuck with this for three years and I’m angry enough to call the BBB.

Helpful to have access to your system from your phone, but...This is what is replacing pulse? Definitely needs updates. Hope this is the beta of ADT Control and nothing like what it will be in the future. Also forgive me if this has already been said but I believe there should definitely be a panic option on ADTControl itself. For those of us monitoring our homes or businesses from security cameras we may be able to see something the alarm system is missing. And I can think of several other reasons why it could be helpful to trip your alarm without using a key fob (which are basically worthless and not to mention mine supposedly “didn’t come with one”). Is this already a feature in ADTControl ? Am I missing it? Please help us ADT!

ADTControl constantly crashes. Any rules have to be made through the official ADT control website and not through the phone. I have people constantly trying to break into my vehicles but I have to sift through hundreds of video clips daily that record cars driving by just for me to find the one video I need. I’ve tried multiple times to change the rules but the website won’t update for me or it crashes. The only thing I can rely on is that I will get a notified when my alarm triggers, and ADT will call me. I recommend continuing to update ADTControl and putting in rule settings on the mobile app so people don’t have to be tied to their desktop computers when trying to establish the limits of their security cameras.

I love the thought of feeling safe but the jumbled mess on ADTControl would leave me tossing the phone to the side and chancing it. My $20 funlux security cameras had an app that was much more basic and fast. Click devices and see the previous notifications or see live. Edit names of the devices, diagnostic procedures for it and so on for each item. Scenes, really? It’s a status. Armed or not home or not. In a few days I can have 400 or more emails because every car going by is triggering my doorbell. Can’t change the setting simply or from what I see. How about motion notifications on or off and doorbell touch notifications on or off. Come on. Simplicity is key. ADTControl is far too in depth and complicated. I hardly ever arm my house because I hate opening ADTControl .

The biggest issue I have with ADTControl is it’s lack of Real time connectivity. For example, when someone rings the door bell you receive a notification message. If u click that notification to see who’s at ur door, you probably won’t see them if it’s a mail drop off. Also, when you go to playback a camera notification SHORTLY after it’s revived, but he video is choppy at best. I have yet to play a video back immediately after if records and actually see who delivered a package to my door. I usually have to wait a few hours to see the full video stream.

After paying $400+ to upgrade my system to wireless, I feel that it was worth it. When it comes to ADTControl , it does lag and has a delay sometimes. I feel that ADTControl needs to have a panic feature especially for people who have only one keypad and it happens to be downstairs or when you’re not home and you see someone trying to break into your home through the cameras. It’s definitely more a safety issue for me than anything else. Please consider this review and update ADTControl to have a panic feature within ADTControl .

When I first got my ADT I was very nervous with it
I have since become very comfortable with it and wondered why I didn’t secure my home sooner
I also love the fact that I can control it from my phone, makes it easy from my bed
I would ,however, like my last name spelt correctly I know it’s a trivial thing but if you could change it,it would be greatly appreciated. It’s KELLEY
THANK YOU

As documented, I needed to be aware/notified/prepared when this person with a gun was on my property. In turn I would find shelter in order to call the police.

I Paid 1k which included hardware and
4 camras. Either the gentleman thought I could figure it out or the recommended equipment would not serve my needs for safety.

I’ve been a long-time customer but I honestly Felt writing a review or calling would be more of a hassle and I would be told to look at my signed contract. That’s been my experience in the past therefore as a social worker I need to use my time more wisely than battling over what services in needed be be safe. I do not expect a response.

Therefore I plan on purchasing a Night Owl camera system that can store video, record any movement on my property and notify me accordingly. I was up late Trying to see what my ADT service truly provides through ADTControl and that is why I decided to share my feedback.
Thank you for listening,

Angel Laudadio

The clock in the top right corner of ADTControl no longer shows up. It’s terrible as you no longer have the ability to see the running logs on what’s happening with the entire system; door opens and close, door bell rings windows open and closed etc. The settings are a bit cumbersome and seem to lack a more ease of functionality outside of some of the more basic commands.

Would really like to know when a hot fix will be released to solve the log problem. Currently using the iPhone 8+

Than you for coming here for a service call and repairing all my sensors or replacing them. Also thanks for the new wall monitor. Not sure about taking the picture of me first thing in the morning when I disable the system. Lol we all feel much safer now. Thank you!!

I like the feel of ADTControl , but wish you had the ability to set a few more things in it. Since I have activated my account, ADTControl push notifications show an incorrect time and my weather is not correct. I’ll have to call again to attempt to fix this. I also would like to set custom armed options, instead of using the home panel or login on a desktop. Since this is a new system, I’m looking forward to some enhancements!

Had ADT Pulse and loved the screen saver feature. It looked like art on the display panel and was a treat to have on the wall. ADT Control has just a blue screen. Nothing elegant or pretty about it.

Also, the alarm doesn’t count off on your phone as well as the wall unit, like Pulse used to. I don’t like that. It works well enough, but the little things that would make it perfect are missing.

Maybe fix it? Thank you.