Troubleshooting Kasa Camera 24/7 recordings missing and corrupted
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I have a 128GB SD card in my camera and I needed video from it to document damage that was done to my fence less than 24 hours before. I could not pull it up on the app so I removed the SD card and followed the directions provided by KASA. When I opened the directory for yesterday there were only three folders (I am using WIN 10) labeled 00, 01, 23. So it was missing the rest of the hours of the day. Inside the 01 folder were only 9 folders all timestamped 5/19/2022 12:00 AM. They were all also 2,065 KB in size. When I tried opening any of these files I got a message that it could not be played and the file maybe corrupt. I had directories on this card that went back to May 5 and each of those directories have 24 subfolders and each of those have 60 files corresponding to the 1 minute mp4 videos that make up the 24/7 recordings. However when I get to May 17,2022 there are only 17 folders instead of 24 and in the folders labeled "00" to "14" there are 30 files instead of 60 and they are seperated by 2 minutes instead of be time stamped every minute yet the video file is one minute long, so I am starting to loose every other minute of "24/7" video. In the next to last folder "15" instead of 60 files there are 520 files with the files time stamped up until 5/17/2022 2:15 PM being viewable and of varios sizes in the 7,005 KB range but at 2:16 PM they are "possibly corrupt" and cannot be viewed and no files stored on the SD card after that are viewable and are all the same size at 2,065 KB. Needless to say that I am very disappointed that the one time I needed the video off my Kasa cam it was not there. I put a smaller 32 GB card in the camera and it has been working so far and I am able to call up 24/7 video from the iPhone app. Does anyone have a similar problem?
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@Bill333 @DaveGeorgi @ScottX @creaker @JHonis @want2beunique @Alvin121 @dsh15 @M579 @RP707 @JHP49 @Busterlou @DL607 ,
Another Quick Update for Everyone!
I received word from our QA team that it appears as thought the first batch of cameras to receive the update hopefully this week or next will be the:
KC410S, KC411S, EC70, and KD110 2.0
If you have one of these cameras, keep an eye out and let us know if the issue is fixed after the firmware update is received.
If you have another camera please keep checking for updates, or I will try to let you know if I receive information of further devices receiving the firmware that were impacted. If you believe that you have a camera that is affected and is not one of the below, please let us know:
C210, EC60/70, KC105, KC400, KC410S, KC411S, KC420WS, KD110 == These are the cameras that users have reported as having symptoms similar to the one that we are tracking. Having a camera on this list does not mean that is affected by the SD Card issue. These are simply the devices we have asked our engineers to try and replicate the issue with
9/9/22
Sorry for how long it has taken for the team to get back to everyone, as it is difficult to replicate the issue, as it seems to mostly occur when the SD Card is approaching capacity, and only seems to affect larger SD Cards.
I got word today that they will start releasing new firmware for the cameras next week, so make sure to keep an eye out for a firmware update. I am not sure what cameras will be the first to receive the firmware update, but I will update everyone as I find out.
Until then, I have heard that simply unplugging the camera and plugging the camera back in will fix some of the issues when it comes to viewing the recordings and having the camera continue to record after filling.
We really appreciate all of your feedback and information on the topic as this was a very difficult issue for our engineers to diagnose what the cause of the issue was. If you receive the firmware update for your cameras, stop by and post what camera and firmware you are using to help other users know if their cameras have received a firmware update.
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To Start, what was the SD Card brand / model that you were using. We would like to see if this is a problem we can replicate here. Other than that:
Due to the amount of variables that are at play here, such as SD card types and manufacturers, and that you seem to have many details of what happened; I would recommend that you bring this issue to the live support team where they can diagnose what actually happened. I am sure that they would like to have a better idea of what is happening when you are saying that it was skipping every other minute of videos. I am planning on leaving the post up to see if anybody has any similar experiences with their SD Cards. Let me know if there is something that I can do for you in the meantime. The live support can be contacted at by navigating to this page: Contact Support
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@Riley_S Thank you for the reply. The SD card is 128 GB Samsung EVO Select MicroSDXC UHS-I U3 100MB/s card that has been in the camera since Nov of 2021
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@Riley_S I'm having the same problem, several cameras, all have corrupted recordings that cannot be played back since 5/16, folder 22. SD cards used are: SanDisk 128GB High Endurance Video MicroSDXC Card with Adapter for Dash Cam and Home Monitoring systems - C10, U3, V30, 4K UHD, Micro SD Card - SDSQQNR-128G-GN6IA
Can footage be retreived or can the device be fixed
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@ScottX The dates being so close is troubling, was an updated pushed out to the cameras?
I did install another SD card and so far it is working but only time will tell. I did not reformat my card with the video issues in the hope that I can retrieve the video
ScottX wrote
@Riley_S I'm having the same problem, several cameras, all have corrupted recordings that cannot be played back since 5/16, folder 22. SD cards used are: SanDisk 128GB High Endurance Video MicroSDXC Card with Adapter for Dash Cam and Home Monitoring systems - C10, U3, V30, 4K UHD, Micro SD Card - SDSQQNR-128G-GN6IA
Can footage be retreived or can the device be fixed
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@Bill333 I'm having a similar issue on two Kasa Smart cameras.
Both cameras are:
Model: KC410S
Hardware version: 1.0
Firmware version: 2.3.13
Both are installed with SanDisk 256GB MAX Endurance microSDXC cards (SDSQQVR-256G-GN6IA) and both were installed at the same time (within a few minutes of each other), on April 15.
The SD cards were formatted in camera and show total storage of 226.32 GB.
I was recently attempting to use the 24/7 recording playback, but noticed that the video would not display on one of the cameras, nor was there a time index, it was just showing "--:--:-- --" no matter where I scrolled along the timeline.
The "waiting" cursor spins and spins but nothing comes up, just a black screen and eventually it times out and shows the "No Recordings Your camera hasn't recorded anything at the current moment" screen.
However, I noticed if I scrolled back in time, there was a point where the recording became available again.
In my case it was June 10, exactly 51 seconds after midnight (timestamp on the video) - the recording just stops and never starts again.
I checked the second camera and the same thing had happened - no video for the past few days, and the last recorded section stopped on June 10 exactly 49 seconds after midnight (from the timestamp on the video).
Unplugging the cameras and letting them start back up did nothing to resolve the issue.
Disabling and then enabling the 24/7 recording option also did not resolve the issue.
I ended up formatting one of the SD cards and that allowed the video recording to begin again on that camera.
The cloud-based motion video recordings on both cameras are not affected by this bug - they are all present and working.
Update:The camera that I did not format the SD card did begin 24/7 recording again on June 16 at 10:55 PM.
It did this on its own as I haven't changed anything on it since the initial power cycle and 24/7 disable/enable that was performed on both cameras.
Update: TP-Link support wants me to send both units in for replacement.
I guess we'll see if that resolves the issue, but I have my doubts.
This sounds more like a firmware bug.
I have 3 additional KC410S cameras installed at a separate location and I'm keeping an eye on them for this problem - they each have SanDisk 256GB High Endurance Video microSDXC Cards (SDSQQNR-256G-GN6IA) installed.
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I was experiencing similar things. Stuff being recorded on SD card for 24/7 recording stopped playing back. Scratched my head for a week trying to trouble shoot. I remembered that it all started around the time when I set up activity zones in the app, so i deleted all activity zones (which was only 1 on my KC420WS firmware 2.3.13). And as soon as the activity zone was deleted, playback of content recorded AFTER deleting the activity zones began to play back. Nothing recorded while there was a set activity zone in the app. Recordings prior to setting the activity zone from 8 days ago are still able to be played.
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I've had the same issue. It happened on two KC420WS cameras (one with Walmart SD Card and the other with Sandisk). It has also happened with a KC410S and EC70. My theory is that the camera can't cope with the SD Card filling up. I've formatted all cards and recording started up again just fine. I wish there was a way to set an auto format without fear of formatting needed content! I don't subscribe to the cloud service...
Bill
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@Bill333 To update from my previous post...
I'm not sending the units in because TP-Link are working on a debug version of the firmware to see if they can determine what is going wrong.
In addition to the two KS410S cameras that were originally experiencing the issue, I have three more KS410S in a separate location and all of them have experienced the same exact issue where 24/7 recording has stopped.
I'm using SanDisk 256GB High Endurance Video microSDXC Cards (SDSQQNR-256G-GN6IA) in these three cameras (not Max Endurance like the first 2).
Two of the cameras have activity zones configured, while one does not.
The original two cameras never had activity zones configured.
So that's 5 cameras all with the same problem and it's happening when the SD cards are at or near capacity (anywhere from 0 to 6.8 MB available).
I will note that one of the original cameras "recovered" on its own and began 24/7 recording again, but there was a multiple day gap with nothing recorded.
The other camera I went ahead and formatted the SD card in-camera and it began 24/7 recording again immediately thereafter.
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@Bill333 I had the exact same issue - it's happening when the SD cards are at or near capacity (anywhere from 0 to 6.8 MB available). Hope Kasa will fix this issue. So annoying
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@Bill333 TP-Link pushed the debug firmware to my cameras today. Now we just have to wait for the issue to reproduce.
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