UHD 4K/8MP camera automatically resets to low resolution (IP8M-2496EB)

[Looking4more]

So I purchased a high resolution 4K camera from Amcrest, model IP8M-2496EB, which is an outdoor POE bullet cam. Got it installed outside and motion detection seems to be working reasonably well. I am capturing "events" on the internal SD card, which is sufficient to catch about 4-5 days of events before cycling through on the card as it stores. I login to my camera every couple of days and go into the playback mode to see all of the events for those days. In the camera setup, I have the camera set to its highest resolution of 3840x2160. I want the higher resolution since that is what this camera can do. Problem is that the camera will change the resolution setting to 1920x1080 by itself mid-ways in those two days that it is capturing motion detection events. I have to manually go back into setup and again change the video setting back to 3840x2160. Why on earth is this happening and how do I stop it from happening? I do not use the cloud service. This seems like a bug because it is unwanted behavior that acts on its own without any interaction from me.

[shaunmurray]

I had the EXACT same issue... Ended up opening a ticket, they had me do a hard reset - still didn't resolve. So instructed me to RMA and I'm waiting for instructions on next steps. Pisses me off that there wasn't a fix, and they just wanted to swap hardware - if it fixes it. Ok. But...

Using an NVR4108-HS and IP4M-1028W

[NealCams]

Mine did the same. There was a setting called bonvoyage under networks. This kept changing my settings. Disable it.

[shaunmurray]

Seen weirder things... I'll give it a shot. TY

[shaunmurray]

Well. A couple of days later and it reset to 1080p. Sadly, disabling 'bonjour' didn't do it. Seemed feasible, but... Nope. =[

I'll finish processing the RMA paperwork today. Seems a hardware issue? Bleh

EDIT: Well, Amcrest wants $15 to cover shipping. To which I've already paid when I purchased this camera. Why do I have to pay to get another POS? How about you fix it Amcrest?

[BigMike]

Any resolution to this? My camera is only a few weeks old and is doing nearly the exact same thing. It resets to 720p during the daily reboot. Disabling the daily reboot doesn't work because the camera will hang every few days requiring a power cycle.

[Revo2Maxx]

Hello BigMike and welcome to the Forum. So while this OP post is older it might be that your problem is different then theirs. Might have wanted to start a new thread...

Changing down to a 720P setting sounds like your Camera is a 1080P camera. First thing I would look into is see if you signed up for the Cloud. If you did, Any change you make in the camera would need to be made in the Cloud as well. If you don't make this change it will go back to a setting it feels it easier for it to manage...

So here is a way you can tell what is going on. First, Log on and clear your logs on the camera. Then change the Encoding on the camera and save. Then after you see your system reset back to 720P in your case look in the logs. Everything that you do or your Camera does it will say admin or System. If you changed your Admin user name then it would say in the log that name rather then admin... When camera makes a change to camera it will show user name of System. When the Encoding changes and the user name is Blank it is the Cloud. The Cloud settings Trump any settings you might make in the camera. So when making setting changes if you want them to keep and you have cloud storage then change it in the Cloud settings as well...

[BigMike]

Thanks for the suggestions, Revo2Maxx. I have the IP8M-2496EB camera and came here to share my solution.

It turns out that I signed up for the free AmcrestCloud service, and when the camera reboot it would check in with the service and reset its settings. I found the cloud service to not be useful because of the low-resolution images I found there and abandoned that after only a few days. It isn't clear to me why the camera still checked in with the cloud service even after resetting it to factory defaults.

The logs have always been empty with this camera despite the 128GB SD card I installed on day 1. Amcrest technical support removed the camera from their service and now it works correctly.

[Revo2Maxx]

Humm Strange that your logs don't work. Glad you were able to find out though it was the Cloud as I had suspected it might be. wow. didn't know a 8mp camera would auto change down to a 720p Res but that is good to know...

While I might be wrong but I think most cameras are setup with RAM and ROM like our computers. ON the Rom is designed to be the Memory where the Camera or computer will take the Load info from like Boot info. Then the Ram is setup to have things move in and out of it and needs power to keep the info Remove power Ram is flushed and setup for new things to be added to it. Some data on some things can have a Battery and keep the data on Ram for extra time... While I don't know, I haven't ever took a IP camera Apart yet to really look over one. I think in the IP camera case there is no battery and the Logs might be stored on RAM Because I think before I put a MSD card in mine I had a log file that I could look at from time to time... It has been a while since I put the MSD card in it so I could be wrong.

Might want to Reach out to the Tech Support team and see if there is a problem with your camera if it is under Warranty they may get you out one that works right...

email ([email protected]) or phone (888-212-7538) One of the many great people there at Amcrest should be able to resolve your issues of the logs. Also I would let them know about Factory Reset and Cloud. Did you update Firmware if there is an update?

[benoitd]

I had the same reset issue with my IP4M-1028B camera after the firmware update, but the issue first accures on some parameters and days after days it was reset parameters from other section (video detection, video overlay, etc.)
It is like there is some memory leak or hardware issue that may random writes in the camera memory.

I did a hardware reset (not the "factory button" in the UI, but the physical button in the camera), then I did not upgrade (I let the default firware) and made the IP static (and check it was outside my router DHCP range).
The change is recent, so I do not know how it will work on long term.

Cheers