Fix for Samsung SmartCam not Recording Event History

Samsung SmartCam not Recording Event HistoryThis article is for Samsung SmartCam owners although I suppose the lessons learned can be applied to other manufacturers as well.  We’re going to discuss the steps to take for a Samsung SmartCam not recording event history.  We will look at steps that can be taken when you’re physically in the same place as the camera, and steps to take when you are thousands of miles away.

The photo that accompanies the article is one of the symptoms of a Samsung SmartCam not recording event history.  Note all the motion events.  The motion events are validly caused by someone walking in front of the Samsung SmartCam.  What’s missing is the recording part to the micro SD card.  What good are the events if they cannot be seen?

Check the Micro SD Card

What you see can be attributed to a few conditions.  First, make sure a micro SD card is present.  The absence of a card could be the cause of a Samsung SmartCam not recording event history.  Most Samsung SmartCam models solely use on-board storage for video recording.  They didn’t release cloud recording capability until early 2016 with the Samsung SNH-V6414BN SmartCam HD Plus.

If you need a card, be sure to get the right one.  We suggest a rating of at least Class 10 (or UHS-I) which records a minimum of 10 MB per second.  Id in need of a card, consider the SanDisk Ultra 32GB microSDHC UHS-I Card with Adapter is a good card that should work in practically any home security camera.  I like this particular card because it comes with an SD card adapter which makes it easy to use if necessary to port it to a PC.

If a micro SD card was already present, check to ensure it wasn’t full.  If it wasn’t full, then it might be worth formatting the card.  You can do that through setup, then SD Card, then Format.  It takes a minute once you tell the camera to format the card.  You can also take the micro SD card to a PC.  This provides the capability of downloading the video that’s already there, if you like.  You can also format the card from your PC.  If you are remote, then clearly, the camera needs to do the formatting for you.

Time for a Reboot

Most of the times I have run into the Samsung SmartCam not recording video history, this is what fixes it.  Restart the camera.

If you’re local and can unplug the camera, that’s the easiest way.  Unplug the camera, wait a minute, then plug it back in.  This will likely fix the problem.

If remote, and this always happens to me when I’m remote for some reason, you need to be more creative.  One way to do this is to reset everything to the camera default.  The downside of this is you lose all the custom settings with the exception of the wireless network part.

You can do a remote reset by getting into Setup, then General, then select Camera Default.  It takes a few minutes.  You then need to go in and adjust your custom settings such as night vision on or off, system status light off, etc..

If this occurs frequently, consider introducing a remotely controlled on / off switch such as a WeMo Switch Smart Plug.  We covered how to use these great accessories in our article deciated to the topic of remotely restarting a camera.