@Customer0 

Hello,
Currently, we have not received widespread reports of similar issues with this firmware version. To help us investigate more effectively, could you please clarify a few points?
How many C200 V2 cameras do you have that were updated to firmware 1.3.17, and are all of them experiencing this intermittent freezing issue?

As a first step, we kindly ask you to try the troubleshooting steps in this guide, which may help resolve the connectivity or performance glitch: Tapo/Kasa Camera Not Working: Cannot View Camera Troubleshooting Guide

If the problem persists after following the guide, it would be very helpful if you could provide the following details:
1. Are all of your C200 V2 cameras that are on firmware 1.3.17 affected, or only some of them?
2. When the camera is frozen and unresponsive in the app:
What is the light status on the physical camera (e.g., solid on, blinking, off)?
What exact status or error message is shown in the Tapo app? A screenshot of the app screen at that moment would be extremely valuable for us.
3. You mentioned the cameras stop recording motion events. To help determine if the issue is with motion detection or with the recording/saving function itself, could you temporarily re-enable motion detection notifications? Then, during a period when you suspect no recording happened, please check if you still receive motion detection alerts on your phone. This will help clarify whether the camera is failing to detect motion or is detecting it but failing to save the video.

 

Thank you for your patience and cooperation.

Hello @Hilbert-TP 

 

I currently have 2x V2 C200 cameras and 2x V1 cameras deployed. All are running firmware numbered as "1.3.17".

Both have been installed and running in their present locations for about 5 years.

 

(I also have several C200 cameras elsewhere, but these are not currently accesible to me)

 

 

Only the V2 cameras are exhibiting a problem, one much more so than the other - which seems odd - and yet both are affected by the same issue.

 

When the cameras are frozen, there is a solid red light directly above the lens. (The cameras are running in "daylight mode", with the status LED set to OFF, so there should be no light showing at all)

 

When the cameras are NOT frozen, the interaction with the app is sometimes problematic but the live stream view is usually accessible.

(Note the wifi signal for both cameras is very good, and I am seeing this from whilst connected directly to my local network)

 

 

The camera which freezes more often than the other appears to have stopped recording any motion detection events now.

 

I've also noticed that this camera repeatedly patrols from side to side - even rotating 360 degrees - as if it's repeatedly rebooting itself, but whilst staying connected, so obviousy NOT actually rebooting.

 

 

 

I'll attach some screenshots and a diagnostic log file.

 

 

 

Whilst copying the diagnostic log from the SD card, I noticed that the card was almost completely out of space (768MB free out of 128GB).

The cameras are set to "loop recording", which should recycle old files - though I note there were files on the SD card from 2021.

 

It looks like there might be a problem with the V2 C200's storage recycling mechanism, though that might not be the cause of this issue as my other V2 C200 still has 30GB of free space. Maybe there were files created by previous firmware versions which aren't recycled by the latest firmware(?)

 

Anyway, I've just reformatted the SD card in the more problematic camera, and it's started reporting motion detection events again - but the live view keeps going completely dark, even when there is daylight or artificial light outside. (The camera is set to Daylight mode. When I changed it to Night mode, the infra-red leds came on and I could see things - but when I changed the camera back to Daylight mode, it stayed stuck in Night mode until I performed a reboot on it. Weird!)

 

It will be interesting to see if the camera freezes up again - though it's still unusable now the image has gone black.

(It wasn't doing that before)

 

 

 

 

  @Customer0 

Hi,

Thank you for your details. Based on your description, when the camera shows a solid red light, it usually indicates that the device has lost connection to the cloud.

However, since you mentioned that even under a local network connection, the camera is still unstable, we suspect it may be related to network latency rather than signal strength. A strong Wi‑Fi signal does not always mean low latency. We recommend:
1. Running a ping test to check the latency of your network: How to use the Ping command
2. Swapping the positions of the problematic camera with a normal one to see if the issue follows the location or the device

 

Regarding the SD card behavior, what you observed is generally normal:
With loop recording enabled, the storage is usually shown as nearly full in the app. If there are very old files (e.g., from 2021), it’s recommended to format the SD card on a computer, after which the timestamps should reset and behave normally.

 

If the issue persists after these checks, we recommend contacting the support team for further investigation.

 

Best Regards,

Hello @Hilbert-TP 

 

The most affected of the two V2 cameras is located approx 2 metres from the wi-fi router. It hasn't been moved.

The only thing which has changed is the firmware version it is running.

 

The other affected V2 camera is in a different room, but has equally good wi-fi reception.

 

I don't really think a Ping test will help, but here are the results from a laptop attached to the local network (via wi-fi)

127.0.0.1 Average 0ms

74.125.71.103 Average 16ms

www.google.com Average 21ms

C200 camera's IP Average 4ms

 

And here are the results from running a PING app on my mobile phone:

127.0.0.1 Average 0ms

74.125.71.103 Average 24ms

www.google.com Average 19ms

C200 camera's IP Average 12ms

 

That all looks good to me.

 

 

As per my previous reply, I reformatted the SD card yesterday. (using the function in the TAPO app)

The presence of files dated 2021 and 2022 clearly shows that the camera has NOT been been performing in the way that you say it should be: it obviously has not been recycling all the space.

 

And whilst reformatting has certainly changed the situation (the camera has stayed connected for over 12 hours), the camera is still unusable: yesterday (after reformatting the SD Card) the camera Live View image was so unnaturally dark that it was impossible to see anything, whilst today the image is so very unnaturally bright that it is impossible to see much.

 

See attached image.

 

Did the log file I sent you yesterday help at all?

 

  @Customer0 

Hello,

Thank you for your details again.

 

Regarding the issue of the Live View image appearing too dark or too bright, we recommend trying the following troubleshooting steps:

1. Switch between Day and Night modes several times to see if the image returns to normal.
2. Restart the camera.
3. If the issue persists, try resetting the camera and setting it up again: How to Factory Reset Your Tapo Camera: Two Methods

If the problem still cannot be resolved after these steps, it may be related to a hardware issue with the camera. In that case, we recommend proceeding with a warranty inspection.

However, based on the usage time you previously mentioned, the device may already be out of warranty. Therefore, we would suggest considering purchasing a new camera.

 

Best Regards,

Hello @Hilbert-TP,

 

Since freeing up space on the SD Card (by reformatting it) the most badly affected of my V2 cameras has stayed online.

Obviously, there must be an issue with the space recycling in the current firmware which i'm guessing is what causes the camera to go offline when there is no free space available.

(Nothing else has changed, so that must be the cause)

 

 

The "Live View" of the camera continues to be a problem, and I wonder if something could have become damaged in the camera hardware by me repeatedly disconnecting and re-connecting the power over the past few weeks/months. Has dealing with this issue shortened the life of the camera?

 

During daylight hours, the image will become totally dark. During night-time, the image remains dark: the infra-red lighting stays off.

Toggling between Day and Night mode makes no difference, though there are no-longer the lemniscate animations or error messages that were displayed before I reformatted the SD card.

 

Performing a soft-reboot of the camera, via the option in the mobile app, restores the "Live View" - but only for a few hours, after which it will have reverted back to being totally dark.

 

Given that these issues began with the installation of the new firmware, and that my other V2 camera is also exhibiting similar problems, this seems more likely to be a software issue to me.

 

 

What changes did this most recent firmware release introduce and is there some way to revert to the previous version?

And (again) I ask: what did you learn from the diagnostic log that I supplied?

 

  @Customer0 

Hi,

Thank you very much for providing the diagnostic logs. For a detailed analysis of the log contents, we recommend contacting the technical support team, as they have the tools and processes to conduct a more in-depth investigation.

 

Regarding the firmware update, we have not received similar feedback from other users so far, which suggests that your issue may not necessarily be caused by the update itself. However, we fully understand your situation, and we can arrange for a specialist to follow up on your case via email and explore any potential alternative solutions with you. Please check your inbox later to confirm. If the email you used to register for the TP-Link community is not your contact email or you cannot access it, please send me your contact email through private message.

 

Best Regards,