Why Has My CCTV Stopped Recording? 9 Common Causes and Fixes

You usually find out too late

A CCTV system can show live pictures perfectly while recording nothing. Owners typically discover the problem only after an incident, when they go to play back the footage. Here are the causes we find most often on service calls, roughly in order of how common they are.

The 9 common causes

• 1. Hard disk failure. Surveillance disks write continuously and eventually wear out, often after a few years. The recorder may show an "HDD error" or "No HDD" warning, or beep.
• 2. Disk not formatted or not detected. After a disk change or power surge, the recorder may need the disk initialised before it records.
• 3. Overwrite turned off. If overwrite is off, the recorder stops when the disk is full instead of recording over the oldest footage.
• 4. Recording schedule changed. Someone set recording to "motion only" or switched off certain cameras or times.
• 5. Power cuts and surges. Frequent cuts without backup corrupt disks and reboot the recorder; surges damage power supplies.
• 6. Camera "video loss". A cable fault, failed power supply or water in a junction box means that camera has nothing to record.
• 7. Wrong date and time. After a battery or power issue the clock resets, so recordings are filed under the wrong date and seem "missing".
• 8. Overheating. Recorders in closed cupboards without ventilation overheat and restart or damage the disk.
• 9. Firmware or network issues on IP systems. Changed camera passwords, IP address conflicts or old firmware stop NVRs from pulling the stream.

A 5-minute check you can do

• Open playback and search yesterday for each camera. Is there continuous footage?
• Check the oldest recording available. Does it match how many days you expect?
• Look at the disk status in the recorder menu (usually under Storage or HDD). It should say "Normal".
• Check the date and time on the screen against your phone.
• Look for any camera showing "Video loss" or "No signal".

Fixes that prevent it happening again

• Use surveillance-grade hard disks and replace them proactively when health warnings appear.
• Put the recorder, PoE switch and cameras on inverter or UPS backup.
• Enable "HDD error" and "video loss" alerts to your phone, so the system tells you about problems.
• Keep the recorder ventilated and dust-free.
• Set time sync (NTP) on the recorder so the clock stays correct.
• Have the system checked regularly — this is exactly what a CCTV AMC is for.

Example: the gaps nobody noticed

A garment showroom in Malleshwaram discovered, after a theft, that its NVR had recorded nothing for nine days. Live view had worked throughout, so nobody suspected a problem. The cause was a hard disk that had developed errors after repeated power cuts; the NVR kept showing live video but could not write to the disk. The fix was a new surveillance disk, a UPS for the NVR and switch, and a monthly playback check by the store manager. The NVR’s disk-error alert was also turned on so the owner’s phone would warn of a failure immediately.

When to call a technician

If the disk shows an error, a camera has no signal, or recording stops again after a restart, get it checked. Do not format a disk that holds footage you need — a technician may be able to export it first. We service CCTV systems installed by other companies too, after an inspection visit.

Quick answers