Security camera maintenance and troubleshooting

Last updated October 30, 2026

Part 1: Maintenance checklist

Why maintenance matters

Cameras fail quietly. A lens fogs up, a memory card fills, a battery dies, or a storm nudges a camera a few degrees off its target, and nobody notices until the day they need the footage. A few minutes a month prevents most of that. Use the checklist below, and keep a simple written list of each camera, where it is, and what it is supposed to cover.

Every month

• Open the app and look at every camera, live and in playback. Is each one still pointed where it should be?
• Play back a clip from the middle of the night. Is it clear, and is the time stamp correct?
• Check storage: is the memory card or recorder drive recording, and how many days of video does it hold?
• Check battery levels on wireless cameras and recharge anything under about a third.
• Scroll through recent alerts. If there are too many false alerts, adjust motion zones now, before you start ignoring them.

Every season

• Clean lenses and housings with a soft microfiber cloth and plain water or lens cleaner. Avoid paper towels and household glass cleaner, which can scratch or haze coatings.
• Clear spider webs, which trigger motion alerts and glow in infrared at night.
• Trim branches and shrubs that have grown into a camera’s view.
• Walk the property at night and confirm lighting still works where cameras need it.
• Look at outdoor cables and connections for chewing, cracking or water.

Before and during a Michigan winter

Cold, ice and short days are hard on cameras. Before the first freeze, fully charge batteries, check that solar panels are clean and angled for low winter sun, and make sure housings and sun shields are tight. After an ice storm or heavy snow, check that cameras have not been knocked out of position and that snow is not blocking the lens or the solar panel. Battery cameras in exposed spots may need charging more often in winter.

Every year

• Update firmware on cameras and the recorder, and update the app.
• Change passwords, and remove access for anyone who no longer needs it, such as former employees, tenants or contractors.
• Test downloading a clip and sending it to yourself, so you know how before you need to do it for police or an insurer.
• Check recorder hard-drive health in the system settings if your recorder shows it. Drives wear out over time.
• Review coverage: has anything changed at the property, such as a new door, fence or parking area, that needs a camera?

Part 2: Troubleshooting

Before you start

Change one thing at a time and write down what you tried. Note the exact message the app shows. Many problems clear with a restart, but if they come back, the notes will show a pattern, such as a camera that drops offline every cold night or every time the microwave runs.

Camera shows offline

1. Check power first: battery level, the outlet, the power adapter, or the PoE port on the recorder or switch.
2. Check the internet: can other devices get online? Restart the modem and router, waiting a full minute between each.
3. Check Wi-Fi at the camera: stand at the camera with your phone and test the signal there.
4. For wired cameras, try a different port on the recorder or switch, and look for a damaged or loose cable end.
5. Restart the camera, then sign out of the app and back in.

Video is blurry, foggy or washed out

• Daytime blur: clean the lens; check for a protective film left on from the factory.
• White or hazy at night: infrared light is bouncing off something close, such as a spider web, an eave, a wall or the glass of a window. Move the camera or clear the obstruction.
• Silhouettes: the camera is facing a bright light. Re-aim it, or turn on backlight or wide dynamic range settings if available.
• Fog inside the lens: moisture has gotten into the housing. The camera may need to be resealed or replaced.

No motion alerts, or too many

If alerts stopped, check that notifications are on in both the app and your phone settings, that the camera is not in a schedule or privacy mode, and that motion detection is enabled. If there are too many, shrink the motion zone, lower sensitivity a step at a time, and turn on person or vehicle detection if your camera has it. Trees, flags, headlights and the street are the usual culprits.

Not recording, or recordings are missing

• Check that the memory card or recorder drive is detected and not full or set to stop when full.
• Confirm the recording schedule includes the hours you are missing.
• For cloud recording, confirm the plan is active and the internet was up at the time.
• Format a new memory card in the camera itself, after saving any clips you need.

Wrong date or time on the video

A wrong time stamp makes footage much harder to use. Set the correct time zone and turn on automatic time in the recorder or camera settings. If it resets after power cuts, the recorder may have a failing clock battery.

When to call for help

If a camera keeps dropping offline after these checks, video drops out in rain or cold, or the recorder keeps losing footage, the cause is often a cable, a connection or a power supply that is hard to test without tools. Tell us what system you have and what it is doing, and we will quote a visit or suggest an upgrade. Our maintenance checklist helps prevent many of these problems.