CCTV not recording: check in this order

Discovering that recording has stopped usually happens at the worst moment: when an incident needs reviewing. The good news is that in the overwhelming majority of cases the cause is one of six, and the order below is deliberate — it starts with the most common and easiest to check.

1. 1

   Check the hard disk first

   Open the recorder settings and find disk status (HDD / Storage). "Not present", "abnormal" or zero capacity is your answer. Surveillance disks write continuously and fail after some years. Before replacing it, confirm the data and power cables are seated properly — vibration works them loose.

2. 2

   Review the recording schedule

   Find the recording schedule. It is common for it to be set to motion-only, or to specific hours, or to have been reset after a power cut. Confirm the grid is enabled for the days and hours you expect.

3. 3

   Confirm the camera is actually connected

   A live image on screen does not prove recording works, but no image means a connection problem. Check the switch port LED: dark means a cable or port fault, intermittent flicker means an unstable link.

4. 4

   Check the PoE power budget

   If several cameras drop and return together, the cause is usually the switch power budget rather than the cameras. Add up camera consumption and compare it with the switch total. Exceeding it makes the switch shed ports in rotation — a fault that looks entirely random.

5. 5

   Check free space and overwrite mode

   If the disk is full and the recorder is set to stop rather than overwrite the oldest footage, recording halts silently with no alert. Enable overwrite, or increase capacity if retention is shorter than you need.

6. 6

   Verify the clock

   Last because it is least common and most deceptive: if the recorder date is wrong, recording is working but you are looking on the wrong day. Check time and timezone before concluding footage is missing.

When to stop and call a technician

Stop here if: the disk reports as failed and needs replacing, several cameras drop simultaneously, the recorder reboots by itself, or a filesystem error appears. Those are hardware or power symptoms, and repeated reset attempts can increase data loss.