As the title reads, I am struggling to turn the IR lights off but have the camera in IR sensitive mode. For some reason it keeps going to colour mode (and then can't see anything) whenever I attempt to turn the IR lights off. The space these cameras operate in is well lit by other IR lighting so the camera lights are completely unnecessary, this has been verified by taping over the lights. Having these lights on constantly makes these cameras very visible. The lights on the camera also attract bugs and reflect off the bugs causing false motion readings all night which is clogging up the event log - the bugs are not an issue if I tape over the camera lights and only use the external illumination.

Settings are primarily being changed in the NVR menu as its the most detailed however the app doesn't work either.

If I set the illuminator to always off and select the IR illuminator as the illumination source I would expect the camera to be in IR mode with the light off but it goes to colour mode instead, this seems to be a bug. The same thing happens if I select the white light and force the brightness to 0, it stays in colour mode as one would expect. The only way I can activate IR mode is by setting it to auto and selecting the IR illuminator but then this turns the light on and there is not option to disable it.

Desired configuration:

1. Camera is in IR sensitive mode ie black and white
2. IR illumination is off

If anyone has a way of achieving this setting that would be appreciated, if its not possible I'll have to return these devices as they aren't fit for purpose.

Thanks.