Hey Guys,
Today we are updating the firmware on my Reolink IP security cameras. Some are LAN or network cameras, some are directly connected to the Reolink NVR and some are network cameras recording on the NVR. We’ll drive into these scenarios and the various user interfaces to get the cameras updated. This is a step-by-step video, with lots of detail and important information on this process.

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REOLINK 4K PoE Security Camera System, Dome Surveillance IP Camera with 2.8 mm, 94° FoV, 3X Optical Zoom & 25FPS Video, Indoor Outdoor Home Security Camera, Human/Vehicle/Pet Detection, RLC-822A #3
REOLINK 4K PoE Security Camera System, Dome Surveillance IP Camera with 2.8 mm, 94° FoV, 3X Optical Zoom & 25FPS Video, Indoor Outdoor Home Security Camera, Human/Vehicle/Pet Detection, RLC-822A #4
REOLINK 4K PoE Security Camera System, Dome Surveillance IP Camera with 2.8 mm, 94° FoV, 3X Optical Zoom & 25FPS Video, Indoor Outdoor Home Security Camera, Human/Vehicle/Pet Detection, RLC-822A #5
REOLINK 4K PoE Security Camera System, Dome Surveillance IP Camera with 2.8 mm, 94° FoV, 3X Optical Zoom & 25FPS Video, Indoor Outdoor Home Security Camera, Human/Vehicle/Pet Detection, RLC-822A
⭐Smart Human/Vehicle Detection: By analyzing human and vehicle shapes on board, the PoE camera can accurately detect humans and vehicles before sending real-time alerts, which greatly reduces false alarms and triggers. No more mind distraction, only ... read more
(as of December 15, 2024 22:19 GMT -06:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)

Topics We'll Cover

  1. Updating an independent Reolink camera firmware over my LAN or network. So here is my camera and in this scenario, the camera is not connected or recording to a Reolink Network Video Record. The camera is connected to a PoE switch and a modem or router. And here at the bottom, we have a PC that could be recording the footage or accessing the live feed. Over the Internet, I can also interact with the camera using my phone.
  2. In the next scenario, I’ll show how to update cameras that are connected to the NVR directly. So here we have 3 cameras connected to the PoE ports on the NVR. To take this scenario a step further, let’s add a couple network cameras that I will upgrade over the NVR. We’ll connect them to a PoE switch, then add the modem or router and Internet. Using the NVR’s LAN port, let’s get it connected to the network so the NVR has full access to all the camera. Lastly, we’ll add a PC and mobile device for completeness.

Let’s get rolling with this first scenario, I have my camera located here and it’s plugged into my PoE switch in my basement. The switch is connected to my modem/router combo which gives the camera an IP address and access to my network and the internet. I also have a PC connected to the network. To perform the firmware update on the camera, I have 3 options. I can use the camera’s own internal web user interface over my PC. I can use the PC Reolink app, again on my PC or I can use the Reolink app on my mobile device. Well maybe. Some of Reolink cameras firmware have that option, like this one. And some do not. (point)

I have also noted that in some cameras there is an option in the firmware to “Auto Upgrade” the devices but that feature didn’t seem to be functioning as expected… hence the need for this video.

So, before we start the upgrade, I would like to know if I need to do the update. I want to know the currently install firmware version on my camera and what the latest version available is.

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(as of December 15, 2024 22:18 GMT -06:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)

Finding the currently installed firmware version

  1. The currently installed version can be found here, by using your camera’s IP address to access the camera’s internal web user interface
  2. Using the PC app, the version can be located here on the camera – Info page
  3. Lastly and the easiest is to use the Reolink mobile device app, and locate the version here

If any of these interfaces, like in this other camera example here, you have the ability to check for updates. Be cautious. This option might just work for major upgrades. I have 3.1.0.764 installed on this camera and when I go to upgrade, it says I have the latest installed. But now when I look at the Reolink site, the latest version is 3.1.0.861.

So, I’m not going to consider using that feature and we’ll continue to perform the firmware updates manually.

So back to the backyard camera, let’s verify the latest firmware version available. Go to the Reolink site and make you way over to the Download Center. Here I will enter the product of “IP Camera” and find the model number then select the Hardware version. This camera is a couple years old and has been discontinued but thankfully, Reolink is still providing the option to download the latest version of its firmware. So, it looks like I am due for an update, so we’ll get this downloaded. By the way, older or previous versions are not available for download. Now that the file is downloaded, let’s move it to a folder on my desktop for quicker access. There are 2 ways to perform the manual update; over the web user interface or the Reolink PC app.

  1. In the web UI here, navigate to Settings – Maintenance. Click browse and find the pak file. Since I don’t want to reset the configuration or return the camera to factory defaults, I will deselect these checkboxes. Now click “Upgrade”. I’m not going to actually do the upgrade here but rather using the PC app.
  2. The process here is almost identical. Go to Settings, System and Maintenance. Select the file and uncheck the box. I’ll press the “Upgrade” button and confirm. Now we’ll fast forward the update which only takes 2 minutes.

It seems the update is done, now it’s time to verify. The old version was v2.0.0.654 and the currently installed version is 3.0.0.142. I call that a success.

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(as of December 15, 2024 22:19 GMT -06:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)

Ok, so now it’s time for the second scenario where we have cameras attached to the NVR directly and a camera connected to the recorder over the network. You may remember these 4 cameras from an install video I did about a year ago right outside my front door. Right off the bat, we cannot update these directly connected cameras’ firmware over the web UI, PC App or mobile app. Here is the PC app, for example, These are the cameras recording on the NVR and when I look at the setting, I can update the NVR’s firmware and see the NVR’s firmware version, but I cannot configure or update any camera that is connected. The only way to achieve this is to use the built-in operating system on the NVR.

Let’s bring up the menu and look at the connected cameras. Channels 1-4 are plugged directly into the NVR. We’ll start with those. Like with the first scenario, I want to know their installed versions and the most recent version, to ensure I need to do the update. That information is not available using this firmware on my NVR. That means we have 2 options.

Finding the currently installed firmware version

  1. Go to the Reolink site, download the latest firmware and try to upgrade the camera anyways. If it works, we’ll get a success message and if it fails, we’ll get a failure message. The only risk is, we’ll also get a failure message if there is another type of failure, so why won’t know for sure why it failed.
  2. The second option is to disconnect the camera from the NVR and connect it to the network and use the Web UI, PC App or mobile app to get the currently install firmware version. Let’s run through that real quick.
    1. I’ll plug the camera into my network’s PoE switch.
    2. Here in the mobile app, I’ll add the camera from the LAN. I’ll need to give it a password, which will need to be added to the NVR later, unless we reset the camera to factory setting first.
    3. Now navigate to the device info and here are the version numbers. 2.0.0.17.
    4. Since this camera is an add-on to the NVR kit, when we go to the download center, we’ll select that option, then the model number and hardware. And here is the most recently released version for use to download. And yes, if you are wondering if we can upgrade this camera over the LAN like we just did in scenario 1, yes, the answer is yes, but we’ll head back to the NVR. So, let’s plug in a thumb drive into my computer and move the file over for the NVR.
    5. Let’s reconnect the camera to the NVR and connect that thumb drive.
    6. Here on the NVR we cannot see Channel 3. If we look at the channel listing, we see an invalid password message for this camera. I will update that to the password I just created and bingo, we see the live feed.
    7. Here in the NVR’s operating system, we can see the name and channels for each camera. The channels are important to note because on the next screen we select channels to update. So, I want channel 3, Camera 3.
    8. Let’s go to the System page and click Maintenance.
    9. Here we’ll click on “Upgrade IPC from USB”
    10. I will leave selected the “Update Config File” checkbox so the camera will reset back to factory settings and reset the password.
    11. Now select the firmware file.
    12. And let’s kick it off and fast forward.
    13. So, we have a message saying the upgrade was successful but there is no image.
    14. I need to delete the password the NVR is trying to use to access this camera. And, that worked. So, let’s update the name back to Camera 3.
    15. I could leave it here and assume it was good, but let’s take it a step further and confirm by placing the camera onto my network again and accessing it through another interface, like the PC app. Same process again, but this time we’ll use the PC app instead of the mobile app. The app shows us here the camera we need to add and give it a password and a name. The old version was 2.0.0.17 and is now 3.0.0.183. If you do this step, you will need to either update the password for this camera on the NVR or do a factory reset on the camera to wipe out that password.

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The last part of this scenario is updating a camera through the NVR’s operating system, but the camera is connected to the network. Here is the camera here outside pointed toward the front door. The process is actually exactly the same, except this time, I can easily access the currently install versions because this camera is on my network and not behind the NVR. The version is 3.0.0.177. And yes, we could use scenario 1 to do the upgrade, but I have committed to using the NVR, so we’ll continue with that route, but we’ll speed things along since we’re familiar with the process. Now with the current version number and I have already grabbed the latest firmware from Reolink and plopped it into the thumb drive. Here the Maintenance page. Go back to the IP camera update and select the file for the LAN camera (channel 5). We’ll also select the files for the other 3 NVR connected cameras since we can update multiple cameras at once. Fast forwarding. And there we have it; success. Let’s jump into the LAN camera with my mobile device and check out the version numbers. Yes, we are now on 3.1.0.861.

Alright folks, that’s all methods to update the firmware on Reolink’s security camera. I would recommend updating the cameras manually as opposed to the auto update. I did like how we could update multiple cameras at once over the NVR. Verifying the firmware version on the cameras directly attached to the NVR is a pain but as discussed, but it’s not necessarily required. I’ll leave some links to Reolink products in the description and sometimes I have coupon codes and deals from Reolink, so I will add those as well. I hope you found this information helpful, if so, leave me a thumbs up. As always, please go ahead and subscribe for more home tech DIY projects you can do yourself.

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(as of December 15, 2024 22:19 GMT -06:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)