Tapo C225 missing entire clips on memory card yet notifications appear fine after privacy pressed
Tapo C225 missing entire clips on memory card yet notifications appear fine after privacy pressed
I have the Tapo C225 (EU) Ver: 2.0 indoor camera which I leave turned on in our living room overnight. Each morning someone from the house comes down, opens the living room door, triggers a notification on my mobile phone, hits the privacy button on the camera and then goes about their business. When I enter the living room later in the morning I unplug the camera for the day, before plugging it back in and turning off privacy mode before going to bed. I have noticed however that this seemingly simple process which I am sure many others would do, results in no videos or clips being recorded, or best case maybe 1 in 20.
I suspect I know why this happens but would appreciate some clarification on the matter from tp-link themselves if possible please. I am guessing that the camera only saves to the memory card every minute or two, and doesn't write in real time. Thus, you are able to enter a room, trigger a notification, hit the privacy button all before the camera completes its write cycle. As the privacy button basically turns the device off, I am guessing that it doesn't have the time to write the current buffer to the card before it shuts down.
Yes I have continuous recording enabled for all 24 hours of the day.
Yes I am using the best high quality / fastest CCTV grade branded memory card.
Yes I have the latest version of both the mobile app and firmware on my device.
No I do not have a subscription and neither do I want to pay for a subscription.
My question is whether there is any setting that can help to circumvent my loss of recordings without having to pay for a subscription. As it stands, I feel that the device is not fit for purpose. At the very least, surely it should write the final buffer to the card before closing down. Is it possible I have a faulty device?
Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks.
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Hi,
Generally, enabling the privacy mode via the physical button or Tapo app won't affect the camera recording of videos to the SD card.
Tapo C225 saves videos to the SD card in real time, but the saving speed is related to the writing speed of the camera and the SD card. If you directly power off the camera, there may be very short and latest video clips that are not saved to the SD card.
If you have a relatively long video that is not saved to the SD card before the camera is turned off, could you please provide the specific shutdown time of the camera (accurate to seconds) and the end time of the latest video recordings recorded to the SD card?
Best Regards
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So as described. Entered living room, phone pinged notification, walked over to camera, pressed the privacy button, waited a minute then unplugged camera. Plugged the camera back in, turned off privacy mode via app, looked for recording and nothing. No notification section, no person detected section, just nothing as if the camera wasn't even turned on. Continuous recording is working as you can see from the slight blue at 7am visible on the second screen. It has a blue section from bed time to morning, it just fails to record the moment someone actually walks in and hits the privacy button.
Memory card model is a genuine SanDisk 128gb high endurance microSDXC rated 4K videos 100 MB/s UHS-I class 10 U3 V30.
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Hi,
From the pictures you sent, I think the problem may be related to the recording settings.
1. From 7:00 AM to 10:00 AM on Oct 10, 2024, whether there are no video recordings stored?
2. If so, please go to the camera's Device Settings > Storage & Recording >Recording Schedule page, and can you send me a picture of this page?
Best Regards
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My recording settings are fine thanks. Set for continuous recordings 24/7/365. As I previously stated, I wake up, enter the living, hit the privacy button then after a few minutes unplug the camera. At night I plug the camera back in before going to bed. Since posting the initial message in this thread, the camera hasn't once recorded any members of my family entering the room in the morning. It simply records fine all night long, then just stops seconds before they have entered the living room. I receive the notification on my phone, but you never see them enter the room and press the privacy button. I find it difficult to believe the camera is writing in real time, as this would not be the case if it were. To me it looks like it keeps the current minute or two in a buffer which it then writes to the card in blocks. If you can enter the room and press the privacy button within that write cycle, you magically never appear on the recording. I suspect because when the privacy button is pressed the current buffer is simply discarded and not written.
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Hi,
Please reproduce the problem in the following steps and send us the video recordings for further analysis.
1. When the camera is turned on and working, reproduce the issue as you described (enter the living, hit the privacy button then after three minutes unplug the camera.)
2. Record the date and time when you press the privacy button, and record the date and time when you unplug the camera. Send me the date and time.
3. If you receive Motion Detected or Person Detected notifications, please send me a screenshot of the notifications.
4. Turn on the camera, when it's working, go to the Tapo app > camera's Live View > Playback & Download > Playback > SD card page, select the date, play the video near the time when you reproduce the issue, use another phone to record the video that showing the problem.
5. Send us the date and time info, the screenshot, and the video recordings. You can upload them to your cloud server(such as Google Drive), generate a link to download them, and then send me the link via a private message.
If you do not subscribe to the cloud service, please let me know, and I'll escalate your case to the tech team, they will contact you via email to follow up on your case.
Best Regards
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@Dan_007 is there any reason why you are unplugging the camera itself, the privacy mode button on the App will turn on and off the camera directly.
Unsure if constant 24/7 recording is required in which it may be causing issues , but have you tried the detection> motion detection> person detection so only that clip is saved to the SD card. If someone breaks into your house and steals the camera you have lost all survelience footage, With the cloud services very cheap on a yearly basis all footage is stored to the cloud at the time of disconnection so good security feature
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Happy to send the clips but these pictures and my description pretty much sums up the problem. Below are screens from my SD card and here are the steps which make up the recordings:
Camera plugged in and enabled at 02:17:32 on 10th Oct 2024 until approximately 07:02 when a person entered the room and pressed the privacy button
Pressed privacy button to enable camera at approximately 09:38
Looked at recordings for today 10th Oct and recording ends at 07:01:04 (first picture tp00101.mp4) no events in timeline and no one caught on camera.
Decided to test for myself so entered the room at 09:41:59 which triggered notification (as above in this thread) on my mobile phone.
Pressed privacy button, waited a few minutes, unplugged camera.
Plugged camera back in, disabled privacy mode, checked recordings. No events in timeline, and no recordings for the time of my notification.
Second picture shows that nothing was recorded again until 09:44:18.
So in conclusion files tp00101.mp4 and tp00102.mp4 failed to record the events prior to the privacy button being pressed and the camera subsequently being unplugged.
First picture - showing 07:01:04 as being the last moment recorded in file tp00101.mp4
Second picture showing 09:44:18 being the first moment recorded in file tp00102.mp4
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gregquinn wrote
@Dan_007 is there any reason why you are unplugging the camera itself, the privacy mode button on the App will turn on and off the camera directly.
Unsure if constant 24/7 recording is required in which it may be causing issues , but have you tried the detection> motion detection> person detection so only that clip is saved to the SD card. If someone breaks into your house and steals the camera you have lost all survelience footage, With the cloud services very cheap on a yearly basis all footage is stored to the cloud at the time of disconnection so good security feature
Our children don't like having a camera in the living room and would only accept it being there if they could see it was unplugged during the day.
In regards to loosing all footage if someone breaks in. I acknowledge that and if and when I can be confident in the camera's basic ability to record, then I might consider signing up to their cloud service. At the moment the device doesn't appear to be fit for purpose and I am keen to find out whether this is a faulty unit, something by design, or a bug in the firmware.
Thanks.
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Hi,
Thank you for the explanation. I have escalated your case to the tech team, and they will follow up on your case via email. Please wait patiently.
Best Regards
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