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CCTV Camera has gone off lind

sg00des — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 15:48:26 GMT

I have had a CCTV Camera installed last year and it was working fine until recently. I thought that it was the update to the app for the camera. The tech support of the camera have tried everything until I checked my BT account. All of my devices are connected with good service but my camera has gone off line. Tech support for the camera are trying to download firmware but if it is off line then they cannot do anything. It is a stand alone camera. How can I get it back on line again. Any help would be kindly appreciated.

Regards

Re: CCTV Camera has gone off lind

Les-Gibson — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 16:14:00 GMT

Can you not connect to it even when using the local IP address?

How is the camera connected to the router? if by powerline converter then switch them and the camera off at the mains, wait about 60s and power them back up.

If it's not that, do you know the IP address assigned and is it static or dynamic? If dynamic then it may be that it's changed

Re: CCTV Camera has gone off line

sg00des — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 16:41:39 GMT

The camera was connected to power line. It was working fine but then, I noticed that it stopped working. The tech support for the camera said that they can update the firmware but I kept on getting either "sd card not formatted"or connection problem. When I did manage to get connected, FTP settings were already there. Now they are blank. I have tried the factory reset to no avail. It was not until I thought of checking my speed and then devices that I noticed that my camera is shown as off line. Why? I have no idea. There is nothing on BT hub to make it go online. I have broughtthe camera in and used it with the cable to connect to Internet but still it is off line.

Re: CCTV Camera has gone off lind

Les-Gibson — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 16:28:36 GMT

The chances are that the factory reset deleted the FTP settings and the IP address is now in the 169.xxx.xxx.xxx range and set to dynamic. In short you will need to go through the same detection and set up procedure that you went through when you first installed the camera

Re: CCTV Camera has gone off lind

sg00des — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 16:32:24 GMT

Thanks. It was easy to install when I first installed the camera as it automatically connected via cable. Now try as I might, it won't. I manually added the FTP address and apparently the test failed. So I have no idea what is happening or where to go except having a very expensive camera sitting here doing nothing. It is a groundhog day.

Re: CCTV Camera has gone off lind

Les-Gibson — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 16:34:25 GMT

What's the make & model?

Re: CCTV Camera has gone off lind

sg00des — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 16:37:03 GMT

It is reolink RLC-511W.

Re: CCTV Camera has gone off lind

Les-Gibson — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 16:41:15 GMT

Does this help

https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/categories/360000280013-Setup

Re: CCTV Camera has gone off lind

sg00des — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 16:45:03 GMT

I don't have a computer. I used my phone ortablet and the android app in the past. Hence I can not change anything. The problem is that one minute, there is no IP address and the next, it is all there. It is like my camera has been hacked.

Re: CCTV Camera has gone off lind

Les-Gibson — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 17:39:39 GMT

I think it's unlikely to have been hacked. More likely the powerline converters got all screwed up anda simple power down and restart would have corrected that but you will have lost all the camera settings when you performed the factory reset.

From what I've seen on the manufacturers website I suggest that you power down the camera and the power line converters and wait 30 sec's before powering up the PL converters and wait another 30 sec's before powering up the camera then reset the app on your phone or tablet so that it is back to the same state as it was when you first installed it and start again, the app should then search for the camera and add it to it's list of cameras.

If it still doesn't work then I would test the PL converters using another piece of kit to see if you get an internet connection

Re: CCTV Camera has gone off lind

sg00des — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 18:23:36 GMT

Thank you for your response. I feel naive to ask what is power up and power down. I can only assume that to attach the power cable or switch it off. But PL converters? I have no idea. There are 3 cables attached to the camera. One is a reset, second for power and the last for Internet. Life and things are not supposed to be hard. Apparently the company does not know what the problem is. So I will look at it another waste of money in the name of technology.

Re: CCTV Camera has gone off lind

Les-Gibson — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 18:55:18 GMT

It seems a shame to write it off, it's probably perfectly o.k. You've just lost communication with it for some reason.

Sorry if I confused you, that was not my intention, PL was just my lazy way of writing Power Line Converter, power up and down means to disconnect the power source.

Re: CCTV Camera has gone off lind

sg00des — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 19:05:47 GMT

Thank you for your support. I think I understood you on power up and down. But thanks for clarifying. I am still trying. I think that it might be a good idea to let the camera totally run out of power and then start again. You are right that it is a shame but I continue to get conflicting messages about SD card formatting and no connection when I know that there is a perfectly good connection. I am resetting it to start again without any password but it does not seem to work even after resetting. I have cleaned the cache, deleted the camera, added the camera, deleted the app, re installed the app but nothing seem to work. They are apparently going to talk to an engineer so I will have to wait and see. But I am so grateful for all your time and advice. Regards.

PS: if I manage to sort it out, I will update you on this saga.

Re: CCTV Camera has gone off line

sg00des — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 20:44:33 GMT

Hi Les-Gibson

Just a quick update. I powered down the camera for15 minutes, reset the password, deleted the camera and app, disconnected the cable and then step by step eliminated the causes. Until I managed to change the admin password. Then realised that FTP was on but I am not using FTP server at present so turned it off. I still kept getting the message that sd card needs formatting. So I changed the SD card. It appears to be working. Now I hope that Reolink fulfil their promise to remotely update the firmware.

Thank you for your help. I hope that it helps other in future.

Re: CCTV Camera has gone off line

DavidM — Sat, 18 Sep 2021 07:54:50 GMT

Hi @sg00des ,

Thanks for getting back and letting us know you got this sorted. We really appreciate you taking time ot do that and I'm sure this will help other members with a similar problem.

Cheers

David