Fault Finding — Recording & Playback Issues

Purpose

This document covers how to diagnose and resolve recording and playback faults — missing footage, full drives, corrupted recordings, and incorrect schedules. Recording faults are often only noticed when something happens and the customer needs to review footage.

No Recordings at All

The customer cannot find any recorded footage.

Step 1 — Check the HDD

Main Menu → Storage → HDD Management

Is a hard drive listed? Is its status Normal? If:

• No drive listed: The drive is not detected — power off the DVR and check the SATA data and power connections inside the unit
• Drive listed but status is Error or Abnormal: The drive has failed — replace it
• Drive listed, status Normal, but 0% used: The drive was never initialised, or was just formatted — if 0% used on a working system, the recording schedule is not set correctly

Step 2 — Check the Recording Schedule

Main Menu → Storage → Schedule

Is the schedule configured? On a fresh system, the default is sometimes "no recording". Confirm:

• The relevant time periods are coloured (green = continuous, yellow = motion)
• The schedule is applied to the correct channels

If the schedule was blank, configure it and confirm recording starts.

Step 3 — Check that Motion Detection is Triggering

If the schedule is set to Motion only, but no motion events are occurring:

• Check the motion detection zone is configured (Camera → Motion)
• Check sensitivity is not set to zero
• Wave in front of the camera — does a recording appear in playback?

Step 4 — Confirm Overwrite is Enabled

Main Menu → Storage → Advanced

If Overwrite is disabled and the drive was previously full, the DVR stopped recording. Enable Overwrite and confirm recording resumes.

Drive Full — Short Retention Period

The customer complains they can only see a few days back before footage disappears.

This is a storage capacity and recording settings issue, not a fault.

Main Menu → Storage → HDD Management — check drive capacity and percentage used.

Actions:

1. Confirm H.265+ is enabled on all channels — Storage → Recording → Encoding Parameters. H.265+ uses significantly less storage than H.264 or H.265.
2. Confirm the recording schedule is Motion only, not Continuous — continuous recording fills drives much faster
3. If the customer needs longer retention: the drive must be upgraded to a larger capacity

Rough guide for retention with H.265+ motion-only recording:

• 1TB: approximately 2–4 weeks on a typical residential install (4–8 cameras, moderate activity)
• 2TB: approximately 4–8 weeks
• 4TB: approximately 8–16 weeks

These are estimates — actual retention depends heavily on scene activity.

Footage Missing for a Specific Period

The customer can see footage before and after a specific time, but nothing for a period in the middle.

Common causes:

Note: Power outages cause a gap in recording — the DVR cannot record what happened while it was off. If the customer is concerned about power vulnerability, recommend a UPS (uninterruptible power supply).

Playback — Can't Find Footage in Timeline

The customer or engineer is searching for a specific event and cannot find it in the playback timeline.

Check the date and time

Confirm the DVR time is correct — Main Menu → System → Time. If the clock was wrong, recordings will be timestamped incorrectly and found at a different point in the timeline.

Check the correct channel is selected

In Playback, confirm the correct camera channel is selected.

Use Smart Search

If AcuSense is enabled: Main Menu → Playback → Smart Search — filter by Human or Vehicle to find events quickly rather than scrubbing the whole timeline.

Check the recording type

If the schedule was set to Motion only, the timeline will only show motion events (yellow blocks). Confirm a motion event exists for the period in question — if the scene was genuinely empty, there may be no recording.

Playback Image Quality Poor

Footage plays back but the image is poor quality — blocky, pixelated, or low resolution.

Check:

• Is the live view quality also poor? If yes, the camera image settings need adjustment (see Camera Image Problems guide)
• If live view is fine but playback is poor: the sub-stream may have been recorded instead of the main stream. Check Storage → Recording — confirm main stream is selected for recording, not sub-stream.
• High compression: If H.265+ is set to very high compression, quality can be reduced. For 5MP cameras, the main stream should be at least 3–4Mbps.

DVR Not Recording After Hard Drive Replacement

After replacing a failed HDD, the DVR is not recording.

The new drive must be initialised (formatted) before it will record.

Main Menu → Storage → HDD Management

Select the new drive and click Format. After formatting, the DVR will begin recording automatically according to the schedule.

DVR Shows "HDD Error" or "HDD Undetected"

Main Menu → Storage → HDD Management

If the drive shows an error:

1. Power off the DVR
2. Re-seat the SATA data cable at both the drive and motherboard
3. Re-seat the power connector on the drive
4. Power on and check again

If error persists after reseating:

• Try a different SATA port (if the DVR has more than one)
• Test with a known-good hard drive — if a new drive works, the original drive has failed
• If no drive works on any port, the DVR motherboard SATA controller has failed — replace the DVR

Surveillance-grade HDDs: Always replace with WD Purple or Seagate SkyHawk — standard desktop drives are not rated for 24/7 operation and fail sooner.

Export / Backup Not Working

The customer is trying to export footage to a USB drive but the export is failing or the drive is not recognised.

Check:

• USB drive must be FAT32 formatted — some drives come as NTFS which older Hikvision DVRs don't support. Reformat the drive to FAT32 on a Windows PC.
• USB drive should be plugged into the front USB port (typically the active one for export on most models)
• The exported clip must not exceed the drive's available space
• Use a USB 2.0 drive for compatibility — some older DVRs have issues with USB 3.0 drives

Export process: Main Menu → Playback → select event → Backup → select USB → Export

Related Documents

• Initial DVR/NVR Setup
• Recording Schedules & Motion Zones
• Fault Finding — Camera Image Problems
• Fault Finding — Remote Access & Network Faults