Not Getting Live View?

Live View isn't working? Here's a few things to look at in order to make things right.

Where do I even start?

If you are using one of our Plug & Play Cameras make sure you followed the steps shown in the camera's KB when adding the cameras.

The next thing to try is test connection to make sure the camera is able to communicate with our platform:

You can find the Test Connection button under the edit menu setting for the camera. If the camera is failing this test, you will need to troubleshoot the network further. It may be that upload bandwidth is very limited, however it could also be a stringent firewall at the location that is blocking outgoing traffic, or other networking related issues preventing the camera receiving a stable internet connection.

If your camera isn't a Plug & Play, then you probably have the camera port forwarded. Read our port forwrading article for some tips.

In the case of a port forwarded camera, if the live view stops working it's probably one of these things:

1. Your external IP changed. Edit your camera and update to the new IP.

2. The port forwarding rule no longer works. That should never happen unless you changed the router or reset the router.

3. Your internal IP changed for the camera. Typically the camera will use a dynamic IP. So it will randomly assign a private IP (not to be confused with your external IP). We recommend that you manually assign your camera a static IP address. The IP will likely start with 192.xxx.xx.xx or 10.xxx.xx.xx. Change this to a static IP so that it can never change on your network. On a lot of cameras you'll see a "Test" button to ensure that the address is not in use.

Do you have enough upload bandwidth?

Upload Bandwidth is often the culprit of camera's going black screen on and off, or the playback being choppy. Make sure you have enough upload bandwidth to support all the cameras on your network (consider that you may have other devices on your network using upload bandwidth).

Did you set your camera encoding to H.265? Change it to H.264.

In some cases we can support H.265 depending on the camera type. However, H.264 is widely available to all browsers. If your camera is set to H.265 it will show a black screen on live view and playback but the timeline will show footage is being recorded.

Change your camera to H.264 to verify this.

Is your camera also being used by another platform/recording device?

It is possible to use a camera on both an NVR and our platform for example, however often IP cameras only have one main stream that is capable of using all of the available resolutions on the camera. If you want to use the same stream on two platform (ie cloud and NVR) make sure both platforms have the same resolution, frame rate, orientation etc. If this was the case and has been corrected you may want to try a reconfigure on the camera to establish all the settings that the cloud platform is expecting to see:

Reboot solves all

Start with the basics - reboot your camera. Maybe even reboot your router.

Power? Internet?

Are you even sure the camera is powered on? I'm sure you checked this first but it's not so simple. Some cameras have an obvious light that it's working but most don't. If it's a PoE camera maybe it's being powered but the internet is not working or vice versa. I recently had a PoE switch where a single port stopped working. The lights were still on for both power and internet but it didn't function. Check other ports.

Okay "Live" sort of works but it's always timing out on me!?

We'd like everyone to be able to view their respective cameras "Live" until the end of time, however, it is resource intensive and uses your bandwidth. To save those resources we provide a 30 minute timeout. You'll have to click "refresh" to start it back up again. Need to have a video wall that never times out? Use our Secure Tunnel Manager.

Firewall

Do you have specific firewall entries that are blocking certain ports or RTSP specifically? Does your firewall block any kind of outbound communication? Firewall rules are rare but it does happen.

Check RTSP

To stream we mostly use RTSP from the camera. Take the cloud out of the equation. Does the camera even broadcast the RTSP stream or is something wrong with it?

A good way to test this is to try a video player that takes in a network address. A common tool is VLC media player. Here are some instructions that can help:

1️⃣ Gather Your Camera’s RTSP Details

Before opening VLC, you’ll need:

• Camera IP address (local or public)

• RTSP port (default is usually 554)

• Username & password

• RTSP stream path (varies by camera brand)

Typical RTSP URL format

<span><span>rtsp://username:password@CAMERA_IP:554/stream_path
</span></span>

Examples

<span><span>rtsp:</span><span><span class="hljs-regexp">//admin</span></span><span>:password</span><span><span class="hljs-variable">@192</span></span><span><span class="hljs-number">.168</span></span><span>.</span><span><span class="hljs-number">1.125</span></span><span>:</span><span><span class="hljs-number">554</span></span><span>/Streaming/Channels/</span><span><span class="hljs-number">101</span></span><span>
rtsp:</span><span><span class="hljs-regexp">//admin</span></span><span>:password</span><span><span class="hljs-variable">@192</span></span><span><span class="hljs-number">.168</span></span><span>.</span><span><span class="hljs-number">1.125</span></span><span>:</span><span><span class="hljs-number">554</span></span><span>/h264Preview_01_main
</span></span>

⚠️ If the password contains special characters (@ : # ? %), URL-encode it or temporarily change it.

2️⃣ Open RTSP Stream in VLC (Desktop)

Steps

Open VLC Media Player

1. Click Media → Open Network Stream

   • Shortcut: Ctrl + N

2. Paste your RTSP URL into the field

3. Click Play

If successful, live video should start within a few seconds.

3️⃣ Common RTSP Paths by Camera Brand

💡 101 usually = main stream, 102 = substream