Configure Amcrest with Remote NAS - Possible??

[sydney]

Jack7:

I looked at your link about configuring the remote ftp. This sample uses cameraftp.com.
What's the difference between this ftp service and my Synology FTP service? My ftp server works
perfectly internally and externally and yet I can't get the Amcrest to talk to it. As I said, each time I
clicked the "Test" button, it failed.

Obviously cameraftp.com is a paid service. Unless my Amcrest (IP2M-841) was specifically designed to
talk to and only to cameraftp.com, I don't see a reason why I can't use my own FTP server.

[jack7]

My first post says "An Amcrest camera ftp client can communicate with a remote ftp server, depending on the ftp client and the camera firmware."
It should say ...depending on the ftp server and the camera firmware. And other things like upload speed.

Amcrest ftp has had lots of problems in past years. Do a google search. Regarding camera firmware, some recent firmware releases have supposedly fixed some ftp problems. An example:
https://amcrest.com/forum/ip-cameras-f1 ... 12744.html
Be cautious downloading any new firmware though. It may cause other problems and you may not be able to go back. Just a warning...

[longedge]

Be cautious downloading any new firmware though. It may cause other problems and you may not be able to go back. Just a warning...

That's very true.

My NAS is on the same network as the cameras so not quite the scenario of the OP, but I had it working perfectly using an NFS connection. Updates to the camera firmware broke that and now I have to use FTP which (almost) works.

I have my cameras set to delete old files after 7 days. The image files get deleted but an empty set of folders is left behind which I have to delete manually

[sydney]

jack7: I will try to update the firmware and see if this helps. Thanks for warning. At this point, I've nothing to lose.

longedge: If you are running on Windows machine, you can probably write a batch script to remove files & empty dirs. As for my setup, I have a bunch of cameras writing to my NAS and I have a Linux command to purge these
files/dirs from a scheduled task. I keept them for 21 days. I have two 4TB RAID drives.

[longedge]

you can probably write a batch script to remove files & empty dirs.

Yes definitely, I have the share mapped to my Z: drive so -

Code: Select all

Z:

for /f "delims=" %%d in ('dir /s /b /ad ^| sort /r') do rd "%%d"

works but it takes as long to run the batch file as it does for me to delete the day's folders in Windows Explorer.

There've been various problems with the ftp implementation for some time now and my hope is that a fully working update will be arriving soon

[sydney]

works but it takes as long to run the batch file as it does for me to delete the day's folders in Windows Explorer.

You can create a windows scheduled task to run say @2AM. Then you won't feel like you're watching it
to complete.

[longedge]

After I last posted I had exactly the same thought and that's what I will do

[sydney]

Just a quick update on my issue.

I have finally gotten my Amcrest IP device to record to my remote Synology NAS via FTP!! The fix to my problem was amazingly simple after various tries using FTP method. I'm posting my resolution/update here so you won't run into the issue I ran into. After I got the FTP to work, I felt like I need to bang my head against the wall a million times. Well I blame bad Amcrest UI design. Here it is ...

When you're on the Storage -> FTP tab, filling out the FTP server information, NEVER, EVER, EVER click the
"Test" button BEFORE clicking the "Save" button!!! If you click "Test" without saving the information first (like
what happened to me), you are guaranteed to get the error "Test connection failed!" and you have no idea why.
You'll be scratching your head thinking something wrong with the FTP site.

I'd never design the UI screen like this. The "Test" button should have never been enabled if the user did
not click the "Save" button. Some checkboxes are disabled until other question or items have been satisfied.
Now why this "Test" button is always enabled? No clue.

[Revo2Maxx]

Why? Were you able to get it to tell you that the Test worked? I have never had my system tell me that my system works on the Test... I have to give my FTP server account limited access to get the systems to even tell me they are talking to one another... However Crazy thing is even with the Fail message if I look in the FTP server Folder there will be a Test Folder with a Text doc that says Test... While I wish it was little more filled with INFO rather then Test lol... Because I had to setup all my things over for testing... When I set them all up before even looking out of all my devices I had only 4 of the 5 I set up and Then I had to wait for the files to go in to tell what one didn't make the cut... Once I found out changed password and saved and that was it... Password was wrong... Something simple... Funny thing is my DVR don't post my SN in the folder it post the IP lol to bad all of the cameras didn't do the same rather then SN...

[sydney]

Yes, it reported back to me as "Test successful!" after I clicked "Save" then "Test". After I got home, I immediately checked my NAS. There it was. The folder got created along with the .jpg & .mp4 files.