I have had several moultrie cameras. In the past year I bought a M80xt that I had to return because it would continuously take pictures, After exchanging it for another one I had no problems. The next one I bought was a gm80 this one took about 30 pictures and then the camera froze up keeping the LED's turned on. The LED's were on long enough that the camera smelt like melting plastic and became extremely hot. I exchanged it for a new one and the new one also stopped taking pictures but no LED issues with this one. I again returned it back to gander mountain and exchanged it for another m80xt that has been working fine. I spoke to the manager at gander mountain and he told me that he has seen several moulries returned with issues. It's possible that you just have a defective camera. I always set my cameras up in my house for a couple of days to test them out. Good luck, I hope you get it figured out. Just a note some moultries have a plot watch mode , you may want to look into those settings as well. Let us know what you find.