Recent ftp files deleted by IP2M-841 using new SW version 2.420.AC00.18.R (2017-05-21)

[joseph_armcrest]

I can confirm @rogwk's observation that this is still an issue with 6/29/2017 firmware. Old files are still being deleted!

Another strange behavior that I was having is that sometimes when a motion event triggers a recording, the camera keeps on recording for hours (5+ hours) until I manually reboot the camera. To minimize the chance of this occurring, I set the camera to auto reboot every day at 1:00AM. Now, I observe that the old files are being deleted.

There was a folder for "2017-09-06" and it was completely removed after the camera rebooted on 2017-09-07 1:00AM. The "2017-09-07" folder had hourly media when I examined it in the evening (of Sept. 7). After the reboot on 2017-09-08 1:00AM, there are only 3 folders left under the 2017-09-07 folder.

Cam_Old_Files_Deleted.JPG (23.05 KiB) Viewed 3918 times

[kvic]

I thought I was going nuts...glad I am not the only one seeing this behavior. Have my cameras setup to store snapshots on my NAS via FTP. Have never configured or used any of Amcrest cloud services and do not have any Auto Maintenance features turned on.

This started after updating and hard resetting all three of my cameras:

IPM-723B with 2.400.AC02.15.R, Build Date: 2017-07-31

IP3M-954E with 2.400.0002.15.R, Build Date: 2017-04-26

IP4M-1024E with 2.400.0002.15.R, Build Date: 2017-04-26

[joseph_armcrest]

OK. I discovered last night that both of my IP3M-956W cameras, which are on their latest firmware V2.400.AC02.15.R (2017-07-31), are also deleting old files on the FTP server!

[kvic]

In my case, the cameras are not just deleting "old" files, they are deleting files from the current day as well. Also, what gets deleted seems very random. Not all folders of files from a particular day are being deleted. Some hourly folders are deleted and some are left behind. Very frustrating .... Definitely can no longer recommend Amcrest cameras to my clients. Just way to unreliable.

[rogwk]

@Melvin: re. your request of 31/8: now that your R&D dept. have confirmed this bug (ref. emails from Hugo in your customer services dept.) I will not be spending any more time doing further experiments.

I note that it is now over 3 months since this serious bug was reported. Amcrest's response time is extremely disappointing.

[kronultimate]

I just installed an IP3M-956 and while disappointed that it won't record to a samba share, figured ftp would be fine. I just found that today, day 2 of ownership, that yesterday's file folder is mysteriously gone. I thought I made a mistake in my bash script to delete old file, but it's correct, it only finds files older than 20 days (tested and working on files from another IP camera).

I'm going to try disabling the camera's automatic delete old files feature and hope that helps. If it doesn't, I guess I'll see about spinning up an nfs share, but would rather not since I'm running my NAS on an RPi and it's already running samba for some other needs.

Damn, what a major oversight. Also, I found that playing back from the SD card it shaky, ie scrolling to videos and getting them to play using the sliding bar where there are colors marking where videos exist, is very problematic. E.g., I can see I have videos recorded throughout the day, but trying to slide the cue position and it just keeps snapping back to a video mid-way through the day. And replaying videos from the SD card on the mobile app is even worst, pretty much can't be done due to the crappy interface.

Hmm, might just return it. Too bad, the other features are nice.

[kvic]

I have the same issue with my 3 cameras. I save motion detection files to an ftp folder on my QNAP NAS. Was finding files mysteriously missing. Changing settings on the cameras did not help. I finally "solved" the problem by setting the "Enable write-only access on FTP connection" on the folder that I save these files to. So the cameras can write to this folder, but not delete from them. This of course is a feature on a QNAP NAS (possibly others brands as well??), not sure if it will apply to anyone else's setup.

[rogwk]

@Melvin: 4 months now since the original report and still no fix.

May we have a statement by Amcrest please of when this will be fixed?
Thank you.

[kronultimate]

@kvic, yes good idea. I'm writing to pure-ftpd server on an RPi and just enabled the KeepAllFIles option to prevent deletion from the client. It's a decent workaround I guess for now. Stupid to have to do this though, what a ridiculous software bug.

[ryanmc]

I am also having this issue. According to the FTP logs, the files are deleted at different times (cant figure out the pattern). I'm trying to figure out how to remove delete access from the ftp user to the directory, however new to linux. Any word on when this will be resolved?