This Article Applies to:

Tapo C420 V1
Tapo C400 V1

Phenomenon Description:

After inserting the battery in the camera, you can finish the camera's configuration process, but the camera shows offline and the battery level shows 0 on the Tapo app after configuration.

Suggestion:

1. Ensure the battery is fully charged. 
It may take about 5-6 hours to charge the battery from empty to fully charged with the original charger, and the battery LED will turn solid green when fully charged. 
Note: if the time required for the battery to be fully charged from empty is significantly shorter than the normal charging time, it is possible that there is a hardware issue with the battery.

2. Ensure the battery is inserted into the camera tightly. 
Try removing the battery from the camera, using a dry cloth or paper towel to clean the battery, reinserting the battery, and tightening the camera's back cover.  

3. Check if the camera uses the original battery.
If you have battery-powered cameras mixed, such as C420, C400, D230, or cameras of the same model but different versions, please ensure each camera uses the original battery.
Different cameras' battery capacities may be different  (like 5200mAh and 6700mAh), and early firmware versions may have compatibility issues on different-capacity batteries. However, the latest firmware has optimized the compatibility.

4. If you have another Tapo C400/C420 that works fine, try to swap the batteries on the cameras to confirm if the camera or the battery has an issue.

a. If the specific battery has an issue, please contact the retailer or local support to check if your device is under warranty.

b. If the specific camera has an issue, report the following information in this thread for further analysis.
1) Confirm if the problem occurs after the first configuration or after using it for a period of time.
2) Check the LED status on the camera.
3) Test if the detection and notification features are working when an event/motion happens in front of the problematic camera.

4) Send us a picture of the camera's status on the Tapo app.
 

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