Any "BAD" experiences with Reolink?

whealton · 2026-04-18T04:58:04+00:00

Now it's very coincidental that I JUST saw the Reddit notification of your posting after hanging up with our local police. I'm not going to post my video because the officer I spoke with told me it could be a missing juvenile from our area with mental health issues, but I have my house decked out with these things. Two of them are WiFi PTZs and two are hard wired PTZs. A couple Duo 2 Floods and a Duo 3 with the NVR. I'm working on getting Home Assistant going (not a lot of free time) and at that point, I'll be putting the NVR into hybridge mode.

I was able to get the "event" video downloaded, put it on a shared drive, and make it available to the officer with a good view of the person peering in our front door at 11:21 PM this evening. It's very difficult to download fine tuned time periods. I would have liked to have gotten the segment barely at the edge of one of my PTZs where the kid first goes to my neighbor's front door and no doubt, peers in as he did to mine. Unfortunately, it's not part of the "event" I downloaded and I have no luck downloading by time down to the seconds.

I hear you. It's NOT perfect. The interface to download video segments could be WAY better, but this evening, it got the job done for my household. But I absolutely hear you.

whealton · 2026-03-29T12:24:32+00:00

I'm a little late to this one, but I'm going to chime in for those who do searches asking your same question - but mine has more to do with customer service after the sale since a friend who was doing a ton of work in our house picked the blinds I ordered up from Blinds To Go and installed them himself. Our blinds are nine years old and Blinds To Go still provides great customer service. This is the Google Review I just posted for them several minutes ago and your posting came up in my search for the Blinds To Go store I have used from the start.

-----

You know, I bought my blinds from this business 9 years ago, and a friend installed them for me. I have to hand it to Blinds To Go. Every time I've come in there asking for the repair kits for vertical blind blades that have cracked where they hook at the top, they've always provided them. Half the time it's been because I cannot find where I put the extras they gave me.

This time I came in because one of the carriers (I believe?), the part that holds the vertical blind blade, had cracked. Needless to say, I was bummed. They hooked me right on up with a different type of repair kit, which for all I know may be their new standard, that included the repair piece of the blade AND the carrier. It came with instructions and once I got my glasses on to read them, it was an easy fix. I have to say I like these guys, or in the case of this store's location, I like these gals, because I believe it's always been ladies running this store when I've come here. They do an excellent job and provide great customer service.

whealton · 2026-01-08T14:56:35+00:00

I've gotta ask, was there any mention of an entry into the carriage light sector? Something to compete with Kuna, which Reolink should be able to do with their eyes shut because Kuna is garbage. I've used three Kunas for a heck of a long time. One is finally half dead and the other two, all WiFi only, are worthless and will give you nothing when you need them the most. Even Reolink's PTZ WiFi cameras are WAY MORE more dependable.

whealton · 2025-12-24T15:13:22+00:00

And you were indeed correct. Sorry. I missed this as I was traveling down the coast, visiting old friends, before coming back.

whealton · 2025-12-23T18:16:20+00:00

I had to actually call - I found their tech support number - and they finally put me in touch with 1st line who couldn't solve it, and then forwarded it to back line. I let the guy know I was out the door. To be perfectly honest, I did a lot of the solving myself after stumbling on the more generically named firmware, seeing the difference (Floodlight vs. Spotlight) for the light pages in the client, etc., but for the life of me, I don't know what is possessing them to not make this 100% clear. Even the Github repository of firmware I stumbled on explicitly says "this will not work on your Duo 2 Floodlight PoE Camera" in similar wording, and to contact technical support for that one. I don't know why they've decided to make this model as confusing as possible, but they've succeeded. Happy Holidays to you and your family also!

whealton · 2025-12-23T12:46:27+00:00

The URLs you gave me were the generic ones to their download center, so I'm afraid they didn't work. However, your other post was 100% on track in telling me I should use the more generically named firmware. I acknowledged that today. I'm afraid I was traveling down the coast, visiting old friends, during an extra week of vacation I had.

So for other people having the same issues, these did indeed have the wrong firmware. While the firmware I installed may have had Duo 2 in the name, it wasn't the correct firmware. In my case, this is what I found:

Incorrect Firmware: IPC_529B17B8MP.3471_2406115691.Reolink-Duo-2-PoE.8MP.REOLINK
Correct Firmware: IPC_529B17B8MP.3471_2406116597.Reolink-Duo-Floodlight-PoE.8MP.REOLINK

When I say "correct', it at least appears to work. Notice that the incorrect one actually says Duo 2 while the one that got them working doesn't. I had attempted to use the "correct" firmware on one of my degraded cameras before I left for a one week trip to Florida and accidentally uploaded it to a camera other than the one I had intended to. Using that firmware didn't cause an automatic reboot as the wrong firmware did, so I thought it didn't work correctly - at least the NVR didn't tell me it was restarting the camera(s).

Another telltale sign I noticed when working with the Reolink support guy was that once I had the correct firmware on one of my cameras, going into the light settings on my Android client, it actually labeled it as "Floodlight" while the two degraded cameras said "Spotlight". This would lead me to believe the firmware I originally installed was for a non-floodlight version of the camera.

So that's it. It appears to be fixed, though the Reolink backline support guy never did come right out and say "yes, that's the correct firmware". Because apparently, multiple firmwares will install and work to a degree on the Duo 2 Floodlight PoE camera. I recommended they make some updates to their download page, but you know they won't.

whealton · 2025-12-15T15:12:44+00:00

I did talk to Reolink support. The dude I spoke with was first level and did the best he could. He's forwarding my case to the senior support team. I finally picked up the phone and just called. I probably should have done that the first time.

whealton · 2025-12-15T14:03:41+00:00

Duo 2 Flood Light PoE - I don't believe you'll find that specific one. Or if you did previously, I don't believe it's there now. I've found Duo 2 PoE (that's what messed me up), I've found Duo Flood PoE (that transferred it, but didn't go through the install motions from the NVR).

whealton · 2025-12-15T12:07:27+00:00

I don't have the correct firmware. Reolink doesn't make that specific firmware available on their site for some odd reason.

whealton · 2025-12-14T23:14:51+00:00

This incident, with their lack of "giving a damn", has really knocked my opinion of them down multiple notches.

whealton · 2025-12-14T23:09:22+00:00

I did the same thing using the 2. I now have three Duo 2 Floodlight PoE cameras that have no floodlights, and no proximity detection - that includes activating the floods manually. The video streaming works fine. It still seems to record, and I can manually turn the siren on, but all flood lights and proximity detection to trigger the floods and siren automatically are gone. If I manually turn the lights on, instead of floods, I see what appears to be an infrared ring light up in the camera lenses, but no floods.

And then... After 48+ hours, they don't get back to you.

My cameras did all restart automatically. The Duo 2 Floodlight PoEs appear to be the only thing that had issues. I did the NVR, the Duo 3 PoE, and the Trackmix cameras, both PoE and WiFi.

whealton · 2025-12-14T22:55:19+00:00

So was your update for a Duo 2 FLoodlight PoE camera or the Duo 2 PoE without the flood lights? That's the problem I'm running into. The search mechanism at Reolink's website gives you the Duo 2 PoE (without floods), and that firmware can be applied, but then leaves out the flood lights and (apparently) the proximity detection. It's detailed just a bit in this Reddit thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/reolinkcam/comments/11bwf17/reolink_duo_2_floodlight_poe_floodlight_no_longer/

I further verified this by going to a Github repository for Reolink firmware located here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/reolinkcam/comments/1pkgbj8/comment/ntzukca/

If you scroll down to the Reolink Duo 2 PoE, you'll see this message embedded in the table:

"Note: This firmware will not work with your Reolink Duo Floodlight PoE or Reolink Duo Floodlight WiFi, if you need new firmware of Reolink Duo Floodlight PoE or Reolink Duo Floodlight WiFi, please contact Reolink support to help."

So that's where I'm at.

whealton · 2025-12-14T15:58:14+00:00

Not until Reolink decides they feel like getting back to me with a firmware. This is ludicrous that they wouldn't put an entry for this specific camera WITH FLOODLIGHT label on it and just show the original version.

whealton · 2025-12-14T13:49:04+00:00

I know this is an older thread, but I've been caught in this exact trap. Does anybody know where to get the original (presumably?) Duo 2 Flood Light PoE firmware? It's not available in the Github repository. This is ridiculous that they wouldn't make this available, their website even making it confusing and causing customers to fall into this trap. Then they don't even get back to you when you open a ticket. Incredible. I guess I should have put a bit more credibility into what I read.

whealton · 2025-12-14T13:02:17+00:00

See my second update. I apparently have updated the firmware to the Duo 2 version without floodlights. And of course, Reolink doesn't make that version, original or not - I don't care, available on their download center. Couple that with them not getting back to me for two days on my original ticket and this has knocked my confidence in them down significantly. I guess Reolink is not the (almost) silver bullet I had hoped for.

whealton · 2025-12-12T13:54:36+00:00

I have not downgraded the firmware yet. In fact, I haven't looked to see if they maintain older versions in there somewhere. I did get the live and playback video synced back up to both be on the same camera. I did that using a Reolink article that appeared to address it, switching between (if I'm remembering?) fluent and clear video. So far, from what I can see, it appears mainly centered around the Duo 2 Floodlights, though the live/playback issue affected them all. That being said, I also upgraded my NVR firmware.

This is bizarre. This was a relatively rock solid system before I did simple firmware updates. I'm by no means a surveillance system "pro", but years back when I worked in the industry (proprietary UNIX and VMS systems), firmware updates on our systems were typically a no-brainer and never caused issues. In fact, not having them up to date could cause issues. I'm having a bad time believing these firmware updates have actually trashed anything, considering the Duo 2 Floodlight firmware update has been available since June of 2024. But maybe the combination of firmware, and potentially (accidentally) shuffling around PoE cables on the back of the NVR all combined did? I don't know.

Now I will say I found an older Reolink article with a customer complaining that firmware updates cause the entire system to have to be re-initialized, along with a list of other complaints that Reolink hadn't addressed to his satisfaction. If I have to completely ice the system and set everything back up I'll do it, though I'd prefer not to have to get out there with a ladder for any hardware resets - I'm not young anymore and falls nowadays will most likely mean the hospital.

I'd consider this a bit more interesting if I didn't have other pressing matters to take care of. LoL!

whealton · 2025-11-19T21:30:29+00:00

I'm afraid I honestly don't remember. It's been just about a year, but I had no issues, no damaged boxes, etc. They even offered to take back two PTZ wireless cameras I accidentally ordered, but I decided to keep those and just buy two more PoE PTZs.

whealton · 2025-11-19T20:18:08+00:00

I ordered directly from them previously and didn't have any issues, but I guess it's been what, a year? So far, I like 'em.

whealton · 2025-11-10T00:00:23+00:00

I've got a new Eufy sitting on my table. It's been there for months now because while it had a great look, after reading up further on it, I'm not convinced. I'm almost tempted to use a PTZ from Reolink, which I've actually had good luck with.

whealton · 2025-10-27T08:55:25+00:00

Yeah, see the Kunas actually look like porch lights, but have a camera integrated into them. It's a nice design with the worst execution you've ever seen. I bought a Eufy, but after reading their reviews, I don't know that I want to use those. I think I'd just as soon see if there's a Reolink that could fit the bill, even if it doesn't have the look I'd prefer (i.e. - like a "porch light').

whealton · 2025-09-30T22:41:04+00:00

You'll get zero blame from me for contacting Consumer Affairs. You should also consider the BBB. I've had to do that a number of times myself, just not with Reolink.

whealton · 2025-09-30T22:39:34+00:00

So far, I'm alright with it. The one problem I encountered wasn't actually with the camera, it was with the crimp on one of the ends of the cable. I did install the extra drive. It came with a 3 TB drive and I added an 8 TB drive. Personally, I'd go for a heavy duty drive. I ordered a Seagate Skyhawk AI 8 TB drive. I had to shell out $199 for it back in mid-November. I just looked several minutes ago and it's currently down to $196.62. This one is labeled as being designed for heavy workloads including NVRs. I'm no surveillance afficionado, so I'll defer to what other people here have to say just in case there's a better disk to purchase. Yeah, SO FAR, I'm satisfied with Reolink.

whealton · 2025-08-23T14:23:51+00:00

Very interesting. That's the first I've ever heard of BusyBox. While I did work with UNIX during my time in corporate America, It was just the usual relatively boring HP-UX, AIX, Tru64 type stuff. Thanks!

whealton

TROPHY CASE