Recording high quality video is all well and good, but not much chop if you can't download the resulting recordings.

I've a RLN8-410 (N2MB02), latest firmware (v3.2.0.214_22120247) and it has never been able to download video properly; the best you can reliably do is 2-minute long snippets from the phone app.

I've previously raised a case on this (#799504) in May 2022, but the best Reolink support could offer was "Please do not worry. We will help you solve the problem as soon as possible", which didn't happen.

I'd previously had some success by cutting the recording length to 30 mins, but that doesn't work now
Re: Trouble downloading video from NVR? Change recording length to minimum (30 mins)

Fairly disappointed with this, when I've reported previous issues to Reolink they've actually fixed them within weeks to months. Obviously you get what you pay for.

I had about 5 hours of footage from four cameras I wanted to download (to make a time-lapse montage). You may already know that the phone app and web UI are limited to downloading no more than a few minutes of video, you're supposed to use the PC app.

I did - latest version 8.7.1 - but had very unreliable results. The direct 'download' function plain didn't work - it would claim success but each video segment was cut short, usually by more than half.

I found partial success by using the 'snip/trim/scissors' function to select the period of interest in the playback window, then select download; this seems to work at least some of the time. It can take a few attempts (3 or more), but the files were downloaded to the PC. Unfortunately these videos are only the low-resolution stream - 640 × 480.

I then changed the recording length to the minimum of 30 minutes (was 60) and that seems to have made a big improvement for new footage since the length change - the entirety of the full-resolution files now download directly (don't have to use the 'snip' tool).

[update]: well, ymmv... some other downloads just failed, so it seems to still be unreliable

Argh; I already had a Reolink camera working for FTP; when adding a second one I got the 452 error. After close comparison, I noticed I had included a trailing / on the failing camera's "Remote Directory" setting - and that's enough to cause it to barf.

/path/camera/ does not work
/path/camera does work

I have a Trackmix camera, it works well. However at night time it has a habit of blinding itself by panning around until the surface it's mounted on comes into the field of view, at that point the IR lights just reflect back to the camera and it's game over.

We need to be able to set limits on the camera's pan (and tilt) such that it stops before this happens.

Recording high quality video is all well and good, but not much chop if you can't download the resulting recordings.

I've a RLN8-410 (N2MB02), latest firmware (v3.2.0.214_22120247) and it has never been able to download video properly; the best you can reliably do is 2-minute long snippets from the phone app.

I've previously raised a case on this (#799504) in May 2022, but the best Reolink support could offer was "Please do not worry. We will help you solve the problem as soon as possible", which didn't happen.

I'd previously had some success by cutting the recording length to 30 mins, but that doesn't work now
Re: Trouble downloading video from NVR? Change recording length to minimum (30 mins)

Fairly disappointed with this, when I've reported previous issues to Reolink they've actually fixed them within weeks to months. Obviously you get what you pay for.

Hi @reolink-fiona - I do have an existing ticket open for this: #799504; I've provided some more details to Reolink on that ticket.

I've also tried the macOS app as well, there are much the same problems - downloading full-resolution video always fails when the recording length time is 60mins, it's a bit better but still hit and miss when it's set to 30mins.

Also, I've had the app lock up frequently too - I thought this might be due to my old, slow Windows 10 laptop but it also happens on a current-gen M1 Macbook Pro. Often when trying to download lots of video it just hangs and I have to quit the app and restart it.

I'm guessing downloading large amounts of video (~10-20 segments of about 0.5-1GB each, depending on recording length!) isn't well tested by Reolink: it would be good if it worked!

I had about 5 hours of footage from four cameras I wanted to download (to make a time-lapse montage). You may already know that the phone app and web UI are limited to downloading no more than a few minutes of video, you're supposed to use the PC app.

I did - latest version 8.7.1 - but had very unreliable results. The direct 'download' function plain didn't work - it would claim success but each video segment was cut short, usually by more than half.

I found partial success by using the 'snip/trim/scissors' function to select the period of interest in the playback window, then select download; this seems to work at least some of the time. It can take a few attempts (3 or more), but the files were downloaded to the PC. Unfortunately these videos are only the low-resolution stream - 640 × 480.

I then changed the recording length to the minimum of 30 minutes (was 60) and that seems to have made a big improvement for new footage since the length change - the entirety of the full-resolution files now download directly (don't have to use the 'snip' tool).

[update]: well, ymmv... some other downloads just failed, so it seems to still be unreliable

The person detection on at least the RLC-510A seems quite good.

It would be great to also be able to detect pets (specifically, large dogs in my use case!). This should be a separate mode to the existing two: i.e. dogs/cats, person, vehicle.

@reolink-fiona - I've found that yes, I can add the freshly-reset camera to the NVR using both the methods you've noted; the camera will be connected to the NVR however will not have a password set. Anyone on the LAN can connect to the camera and take it over; moreover the Android app continues to prompt me to set up the camera (directly), which is a bit annoying.

Reolink support (ticket #789430) have confirmed the problem and advised that "I will feedback to our engineers", and to use the console in the meantime. Hopefully it'll be fixed for the web and Android apps "soon".

I have an NVR RLN8-410 with some cameras connected directly to the NVR and a new RLC-510A camera connected to a switch on the same LAN as the NVR.

When the RLC-510A camera is new, or reset, the NVR detects it and I'm able to add it to the NVR's camera list using both the Windows desktop client and the Android app. However the camera continues to show up in the Android app as "uninitialised device". If I use the app to set up the camera, or connect to the camera's web interface on the LAN, it prompts me to set up the camera with a password/etc, if I do so it then becomes disconnected from the NVR. There appears to be no way to re-add the camera - i.e. with a password - via the Windows client, NVR web UI or Android app.

This is a problem as if you just add the camera via the NVR's desktop client, web UI or Android app, this will leave the camera open without a password. Anyone on the LAN can lock out the camera by setting a password for it. Fortunately it's easy to reset it via the hardware button but that's annoying.

It seems the only way to resolve this is to:
1) log in to the new camera via it's web interface and set a password, and then
2) use the HDMI console to add the camera: the console allows you to enter the camera's password (unlike the Windows desktop client, the NVR web UI or Reolink Android app which do not support adding a camera with a password )


Aside: my NVR has 'Auto-Add' enabled, which allegedly will add cameras with the default username (admin) and password. However that didn't work for me. I don't see anywhere in the console to set this "default password" (unless they mean the factory default password, which is blank...!).

One warning / heads-up I'd give, after basically going through the same head-scratching, is that a Reolink NVR has four distinct user interfaces:

1) the NVR console itself (HDMI port + mouse)
2) desktop client (Windows, and Mac I believe)
3) web UI
4) mobile phone app.

And then the cameras also have a web UI too... but we'll ignore that as it's not needed when you have the NVR.

As far as I can tell, the console is the only one that has "all" features; the desktop client and the web and phone apps are missing a lot of things - especially about adding devices. For example, you can only add a camera that has a password on it via the console.

Reolink appear to be attempting to bring all the apps to parity with the console, but aren't there yet. In the meantime it can be very confusing and frustrating.

It does seem that when you do make a config change using any of the interfaces, it applies to the NVR - the apps appear to not have any state.

When using the web and mobile UIs for the RCL-423 PTZ, you can manually set the focus. However there appears to be no means to tell the camera to go back to autofocus!

(a workaround is changing the zoom level which seems to trigger autofocus again; simply changing the pan/tilt does not work)

There needs to be a "autofocus" button.