Unifi Missed Recordings: A Troubleshooting Guide
Discovering that your Unifi Protect system has missed recording a crucial event can be incredibly frustrating, undermining the core purpose of a security system. These recording gaps can be caused by a variety of factors, from simple configuration errors to hardware problems. This guide will walk you through the most common causes of missed recordings and how to resolve them.
### Step 1: Review Your Camera's Recording and Motion Settings
The most frequent reason for "missed" recordings is misconfigured settings. Unifi Protect offers granular control, and a small oversight can lead to gaps.
- Recording Mode: Navigate to the camera's settings in your Unifi Protect controller. Under "Recording," check if it's set to "Motion Events" or "Always."
- Motion Events: This is the default. The camera will only save a clip when its motion algorithm is triggered. If the event didn't trigger the motion sensor, it wasn't recorded.
- Always: This setting provides continuous, 24/7 recording. You will never miss an event, but it uses significantly more storage space.
- Motion Zones: Within the camera's settings, review your "Motion Zones." These are the specific areas in the camera's view that are monitored for movement. If an event happened outside of a defined zone, it would not trigger a recording. Ensure your zones cover all critical areas.
- Motion Sensitivity: The sensitivity setting determines how much movement is required to trigger a recording. If it's set too low, small or distant movements might be ignored. If it's too high, you'll get false positives. Try increasing the sensitivity slightly if you believe events are being missed.
Step 2: Investigate Storage Health
Your recordings are only as reliable as the hard drive they're stored on. A failing or full hard drive is a primary cause of recording failures.
- Check Storage Capacity: In the Unifi Protect dashboard, check the storage utilisation. If the hard drive is 100% full and data purging is not working correctly, new recordings cannot be saved.
- Inspect Hard Drive (HDD) Health: This is a critical step.
- Go to the settings of your NVR (e.g., UNVR, Cloud Key Gen2+).
- Find the "Storage" or "Disk Management" section.
- Check the health status of the installed hard drive. It should report as "Healthy" or "Good." If it shows any warnings, errors, or a "Failing" status, the drive is unreliable and must be replaced as soon as possible.
Step 3: Analyse Network and Camera Connectivity
A stable connection between your cameras and the Protect controller is essential for reliable recording.
- For Wi-Fi Cameras: Check the camera's signal strength in the device list. A weak or fluctuating signal can cause the camera to disconnect intermittently, resulting in lost footage. Consider moving the camera closer to the access point or installing a mesh Wi-Fi system for better coverage.
- For Wired Cameras: Even with a wired connection, problems can occur. A faulty Ethernet cable or a misconfigured network switch port can disrupt the data stream. Try swapping the cable with a known good one or changing the port on the switch.
- Camera Reboots: Check the device's uptime. If a camera is frequently rebooting due to power issues (e.g., a faulty PoE injector) or firmware bugs, you will have gaps in your footage corresponding to the restart times. Ensure your Protect controller and camera firmware are up to date.
By systematically working through these areas—camera settings, storage health, and network stability—you can identify and rectify the cause of missed recordings, restoring the reliability and integrity of your Unifi Protect security system.