@Hilbert-TP 
 

I'm in the same boat as the others here. My C320WS bricked during a firmware update. I held off posting until now, but seeing several of us in this same thread with the identical failure makes it pretty clear this isn't isolated user error. This is a bad update affecting multiple working cameras.

Sending everyone to a warranty inspection doesn't address that. Most of these cameras are out of warranty simply because of their age, but the failure wasn't caused by age or misuse. It was caused by TP-Link's own firmware. A working camera that's bricked by an official update is a defect in the update, and that's on TP-Link regardless of warranty status.

So what we're effectively being told is: your update broke our devices, and we should buy new ones. That's not acceptable.

Can someone from TP-Link please:

1. Acknowledge this firmware issue, and
2. Provide an actual recovery method (recovery firmware, reflash/TFTP procedure, or equivalent), or replace/repair the affected units at no cost, since the failure was caused by your software, not the hardware aging out.

  @Alkolombra 

Just for the record, they told me the same thing: "we are sorry if our update broke your perfectly working device but there's nothing we can do about that".

  @Shocchino 

i have lots of tp link devices, if that will be the answer im done with them!

  @Hilbert-TP 

"connecting you camera directly to your router using an Ethernet cable" doesn't work as the camera LAN/WIFI isn't initialised, so the camera isn't assigned an IP and it's not connecting to the network (or the internet). I tried it multiple times.

I have no idea which firmware version the camera had, I assume it was the latest as I had auto update on (the failed one was a "manual" one initiated by the Tapo app, I was prompted to update when I was trying to connect to the camera).

Thanks @Hilbert-TP — glad to hear this has been escalated to engineering.

To answer your question directly: yes, my camera was running exactly firmware 1.5.3 Build 260304 Rel.25729n immediately before it bricked. The failed update was a manual one initiated from the Tapo app. So all three of us in this thread share the same failure on that same build — a strong signal this is an update defect, not isolated user error.

On the Ethernet-cable suggestion: it can't work for this failure mode, for the same reason WiFi can't. I confirmed over the UART serial console that the camera is stuck in a U-Boot bootloop — it crashes while loading a corrupt internal image and resets every ~3 seconds, before the OS ever starts. Because it never reaches the OS, no network interface comes up — neither WiFi nor the RJ45 Ethernet — so it never gets an IP or reconnects by any path (Shocchino reported the same with a cable). The fault is below the network layer.

Since this is now with engineering, could you please either:

1. Provide the C320WS V2 recovery firmware image + a wired recovery procedure (TFTP / serial / U-Boot reflash). I have UART access and am happy to reflash it myself — I just need the signed image and the method; or

2. Authorize a no-cost replacement/repair — these units were bricked by TP-Link's own OTA, not by age or misuse, so warranty age shouldn't decide a defect introduced by your firmware.

Device: Tapo C320WS V2 (EU, HW 2.0) · MAC 98:BA:5F:7D:F0:30 · firmware at failure 1.5.3 Build 260304 Rel.25729n. Serial + proof of purchase on request. Thank you.

  @Hilbert-TP 

Local support told me there's nothing they can do as the warranty expired a few months ago.

The fact that I had a perfectly working camera bricked exclusively by TP Link firmware update means nothing to them.