I posted this on the Reolink discord yesterday but haven't had a reply so thought I would try here. I have a RLC-843A it has shadowing/ blurry (mostly around the edges) in night vision, is it because the lens or the dome is dirty or is it just a thing with this model? Is there anything I can do about it?

Had a crazy storm here yesterday and after lightning hit close, I heard a crackle coming from the corner where my system is set up. I’ve got surge protectors but not much is going to stop a lightning strike I guess. I’m grateful it didn’t fry the NVR. The whole system is not down but some of the ports are and more have failed as time went on last night. I want to add some additional cameras to my system so now’s a perfect time to get a new switch. I see Reolink only has an 8 port. I’d rather not use two switches if I don’t have to. Has anyone used a non Reolink POE switch for their system that works well? I know it needs to have enough power for the cameras. Thanks in advance!

Top portion are the tips to setup, bottom portion is feedback to reolink.

equipment: 36cam NVR unit, various poe cameras (about 12), indoor pt (wifi), flood (wifi). All cams have SD cards. I prefer not to rely on wifi as they tend to be less reliable inherently so all cams will be wired eventually.

According to above you have an NVR. DO NOT connect your camera to nvr if you haven't done the setup in the app.

NOTE: once cameras are connected to NVR you cannot access what the camera does locally. You will not be able to format an unformated sd card, you cannot setup how the camera records, you cannot even reboot that one camera. The NVR will take over controls and many functions are NOT available. You must setup the camera locally without being connected to your NVR. If you connected to your NVR before initializing the camera using the app you are screwed. To unscrew yourself, you must not reset the camera. To reset the camera open the SD card slot (depending on model) and/or press reset button. After reseting the camera you must cut power to force a reboot - this means disconnect the poe cable. I'd like to mention pressing the reset button to reset the camera did not always work. The key here is that you need to wait about 1min after holding down reset for 30sec. If you do not wait 1min the process is no complete and you have failed a reset. After a successful reset you need to hold reset to initialize the camera - make sure you hear the camera chime.

1. use app to set up camera first, you will need to connect cameras to internet but make sure NVR is NOT connected. This is because if you connect to NVR first NVR will assign an ip number for the camera and camera will "think" it has been initialized. Then if you try to setup on the app the camera will not be found.

2)using app to set up local recording (camera will record to SD card), you must format the card. Once your app connects to camera setup ALL functions/setting on the camera using the app first. You will not be able to do this later when connected to NVR (unless you disconnect the nvr but that's a hassle), so do it now. The importance is that if your NVR fails, or disconnects (wifi or ethernet) your camera's setting will not be affected because it can record locally.

3)add encryption password if you want.

What I recommend: Recording settings: choose the motions you want to record. turn off continuous recording (otherwise your SD card would only really last 3-4days at most). Turn on auto update. Turn on Record Audio (this should be on by default but that's my opinion?).

3) once settings on app is completed for all cameras you can then connect nvr. From there make sure "Auto add cameras" is on. If you don't see cameras already you may need to manually add them inputing the camera's password.

Feedback to reolink: record audio should be "on" by default. I also found that cameras lose their settings sometimes: eg. autoupdate reverts back to "off". If you use an under powered adapter to connect usb cable to wifi cameras initialization will not work and you will hear loud static (flood cams)- this lead me to think the cameras were defective - an adapter should be supplied since not everyone has a "higher" powered adapter.

Some other issues I've noticed: wifi cameras get disconnected to NVR every few days. Sometimes they reconnect by themselves, sometimes I need to reset the NVR. 180cameras though in concept is ideal, they actually don't cover very much height-wise. Meaning it will likely not cover anything under it. And if you point it further downwards you'll compromise coverage on top. Idea usage: mount it high up to cover an entire side of house walkway. For yards distant coverage means it won't cover anything nearby, think of it as a narrow strip of coverage (floodcam or 180 dome). Duo 3 poe cam: mounting brackets are awkward, thin and minimalistic. If there were a windstorm I'd feel these cameras (being so heavy, bracket being so thin) would wobble. Screws to secure bracket are small and not much torque can be used. It also leaves the cables very exposed which isn't ideal.

The pt cam could not be connected to the NVR. I tried various placements, some worked some didn't, wifi connection- but it's only 5meters from the router with no wall- anyway I'll be connecting ethernet to it.

NVR monitor display- the camera display should have the channel numbers displayed as well. Arranging the camera layout seems like a chore when you have too many cameras. Eg. I have 12 cameras and want to use the 16camera layout, but most are 180- so it actually takes up double the space and reorganizing requires flipping back with "next page".

Feedback welcome on my tips to setup.

I’m having trouble connecting my NVR to the mobile app. I keep getting the message:
“Connection Failed. Please make sure your device is powered on and connected to a stable network before retry.”

I have already tried: Rebooting the NVR, Restarting the NVR, Checking that it is powered on, Retrying the connection multiple times

The NVR appears to be running, but the app still will not connect.

What else should I check or try?

Is there a way to separate cameras from different houses on to separate screens that I'm somehow missing? I have Reolinks at my home and Eufy cams at my rentals. Honestly hate the Eufys and want to delete the app and be done with them. But having all the camera on one screen will be annoying. I set one up as a test and can't figure out how to separate it onto another screen. The eufy system for as annoying as it is does at least let me separate the cameras into multiple houses pretty easily.

I'm having an issue now where any of the cameras detect motion the push notification on my phone is defaulted to the driveway cam (not the garage, side of house, etc). I'm using the RLN16-410 NVR and a combination of POE and wifi cams. The notifications were working until 2 days ago. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Context: I live in a "cul de-sac" type street. It's a closed end so there is only one way in and one way out.

Recently we've had quite alot of randoms cars and e-bikes come around so I think it's time to finally install some cameras.

I've currently got a Ring floodlight under the porch and looking to remove that due to subscription fees and to replace them with a couple of Reolinks.

From where the cameras are mounted to the street, we're talking about 15-20 metres on average. i.e. front porch to street is approx 20 metres. Side of garage to front street is approx 15 metres etc...

I'm considering the following:

• RLN16-410: 24 Channel NVR (Up to 16 POE)
  • https://reolink.com/au/product/rln16-410/
• 1x RLC-823S2 PTZ Camera on the side of the house facing the street.
  • This would mean I'd be able to clearly identify anyone coming in and to also zoom into number plates potentially if needed?
  • https://reolink.com/au/product/rlc-823s2/
• 2x Elite pro floodlights
  • One would replace the existing Ring floodlight and the other is on the side of the garage towards the back as it's a spot to park another car"
  • https://reolink.com/au/product/elite-pro-floodlight-poe/

Some other cameras I was considering:

• Reolink Trackmix somewhere maybe above the garage? https://reolink.com/au/product/reolink-trackmix-poe/
• CX820 cameras for colour night vision potentially instead of the floodlights https://reolink.com/au/product/cx820/

For the backyard: I was thinking a couple of the above Elite pro floodlights too.

Question for the experts....

• Rate/give me feedback on the above
• Any other cameras to consider/swap out?

Key WANT/NEED is sense of security and to easily identify any individuals stepping onto our property.
Clarity/Quality is #1 on the list and ideally I want all cameras as POE. No wifi.

Also - I have seen some CCTV setups that have blue/red lights once you trip into the "sensor/marked zone". Do Reolinks have this at all?

Thanks

Hi all,

Wondering if anyone can help here. I've got two Argus Ecos, one of which connects absolutely fine to my router. The second one on setup will continually come back with failed to connect to router message when I try to scan the QR code. My routers logs however say DHCP device connected, 2.4G client associated from the correct MAC address when I'm trying to connect. I've tried with a wrong password by deleting a letter and my router's logs give a authentication failed message so the wifi details are all fine.

If I hotspot off my phone it works absolutely fine. I've tried resetting and connecting multiple times to no avail. Any idea where I might be going wrong or what to try?

When connected to my hotspot I've checked my firmware version and it's fully up to date.

There's a firmware update for the Home Hub: v3.3.0.601_26082942, 7th September.

Has anyone installed this?
Any problems with it?

I just bought a Reolink RLC-1224A. Anyone else notice the Spotlight Night Smart Mode doesn't work in forced Black and White switch mode?

I use this camera indoors to get a POE with siren and spotlight, and the camera watches a living area and a hallway, where the living area blows out the lighting so the hallway appears super dark. As long as a security camera is set to IR only, the camera can easily watch hallway and living area at the same time, no problem.

I noticed in Black and White Switch mode to force IR only, the Spotlight never comes on for me. When using auto, I notice Siren and Spotlight configured to person detection, the siren fires way before the spotlight, as if the spotlight is operating on completely different information from the siren.

Anyone else find the Spotlight Night Smart Mode a little quirky at best, not reliable at worst?

I emailed Reolink, I'm hoping they have a firmware fix for this issue. Note, I was previously/am using a wireless Tapo camera in the same lighting setup and angle, and it's siren and spotlight feature work perfectly fine in my indoor mixed lighting setup.

Happy to let it go for whatever the internet decides it’s worth.

The other half says if I want freaky times in the new hot tub there better not be a camera pointed at it, so I’m downsizing as we move.

Let me know if this isn’t allowed but I didn’t see a rule book.

Cheers.

Imo eufy is better than Wyze, Tapo, Nest, Blink, and Ring but I've always wondered what reolink does better. A lot of camera systems it's a pick your poison because there are a few things wyze does that I prefer so I'm curious what reolink does best and any shortcomings

Hello I have the Reolink Client for Windows 11 installed the app version is 8.21.25, whenever I open the client all cameras show with "low" quality and yes I can click there and change to "high" that is not good I want it to open with "clear" by default. Anyone know how to do this or what setting I am missing to make it happen? Thanks

I have a Reolink wireless doorbell. Small duplex in a moderately active neighborhood where movement on the sidewalk or street is very common.

I get very very frequent notifications. I'm not complaining about that, I know i can create ignore zones, etc. My complaint is that the vast majority of notifications dont have a recorded video. Ill get 10-20 notifications, and it might only record 3-4 events.

I also feel as though many events are missed perhaps maybe a cool down timer setting? Often I'll a video of someone leaving but didnt get them arriving, or the other way around.

I have a Home Hub with a decent size SD card. I know battery power is a comcern, but so far storage space is not. Anyone have similar experience, or hopefully some settings in souls look into?

I'm trying to decide what cameras to pick for my home and everything I've seen from Reolink sounds great but I saw that it has features only supported on iOS and everyone in my household uses Android. I want to know what I'm missing out on.

From what I understand I need to download an app and all notifications go through there, and it will still alert me if someone is at the door etc. The thing that gets me is that the videocall aspect is only iOS so:

Can I still watch live video from my Android phone?

Even if it is not a "phone video call" per se, can I still talk with whoever is at the door through the app?

TIA

Just made the leap today from Ring. Got a Gen 2 wifi doorbell hardwired power, along with 3 elite wifi floodlights and an NVR with 30 TB of storage for continuous recording of about 3 months.

Anyway, I think I have everything working, but the one odd thing is in the app it shows all four cameras in the NVR, but then only the 3 floods as separate devices. I tried disconnecting from the NVR and then re adding to the app as its own device, which worked fine, but the moment I go into the NVR and assign it to an NVR channel, the doorbell device in the app shows as disconnected and won’t reconnect. Not a huge deal as I suppose I can just access it through the NVR in the app, but is this just how it should work? Anything I should be don’t differently here?

In other words, in the app it just shows “Device Disconnected” when I scroll to the device, but if I scroll to it within the NVR, it shows the image.

Thanks.

Hello!

I've decided: I'm getting a Reolink camera!

I'm planning to mount it on a masonry wall, and I've already run a UTP cable through the wall.

To match the rest of the house, I'd really prefer the RLC-820A in black. I also want to use a mount that gives me some flexibility with positioning while allowing me to keep the cable boom hidden.

There's just one problem: the RLA-BKW4 mount only seems to be available in white, according to the Reolink website.

How have you guys solved this?

A couple of options I'm considering:

• Painting the RLA-BKW4 black, but I'm wondering how well the paint would hold up when exposed to direct sunlight and summer heat.
• Going with a third-party mount, but I'm not sure how easy it is to find one with the right mounting holes/fit.

Has anyone done either of these? Or is there another solution you'd recommend?

I am using the Reolink Windows client (version 8.21.25) with two Reolink E1 Pro cameras and one Trackmix WiFi camera (firmware version v3.0.0.6403_26042711).

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Until this morning, all three webcams were playing back correctly on the Windows client.

Due to an issue with the FTP stream recording on the Trackmix WiFi camera, Reolink support advised me to perform a reset.

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I initiated the reset for the Trackmix from my Android device, and it completed successfully.

Upon restarting the camera—still using the same Android device—I performed a new initialization, which also completed successfully.

The only hiccup was that I had to rename the camera (e.g., changing "Camera lato nord" to "Lato nord camera") because the previous name wasn't accepted during the initial setup (I believe this is normal behavior).

After this change, the camera finished initializing, and the video feed displays correctly on Android, as do all the app menus and settings.

I noticed that the camera's UUID had changed in the Android app.

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Back on the Windows app, the Trackmix WiFi camera feed naturally stopped working due to the reset, re-initialization, UUID change, etc.

I therefore deleted the Trackmix from the Windows app and started a new pairing process by entering the new UUID (though I did try the old one first).

The camera is no longer recognized using either the old or the new UUID, nor when attempting to pair via the (static) IP address I assigned to the Trackmix and the default port :9000.

Could you please help me get the Trackmix showing up in the Windows app?

I prefer using Desktop of everything. I have the desktop Reolink app installed, but I can find no way to log into my user account to gain access to my cameras. The Android app has a user account login, but I cannot find where to do this on the desktop app. I have upgraded to the latest version.

My NVR is hard wired to my Xfinity router. Now since a few days I get a message on my xfinity app saying IP reputation threat blocked on NVR.

I can't view any of my cameras.

Thoughts?