Constant streaming - KC120
Hi all,
I’m after some help/advice if possible please?
I’ve been really impressed with my KC120 and I’m using it as a baby monitor through the night.
Unfortunately a message keeps popping up asking if I’d like to keep streaming in which you have to select “Yes” otherwise Kasa comes completely out of the camera view. I think this must be every 10-20 minutes roughly.
Ideally I’d like to keep the streaming constant (on an iPad) through the night so I can have a look what baby is up to whenever I wake up or if I hear him making a noise. Any suggestions?
I don’t have any activity zones setup and have it set to don’t record any video or audio as I’m purely interested in live streaming.
I’ve also received the spinning wheel/network connection error a couple of times (first night using it last night) - is this a common thing? The firmware version is 2.2.14
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance
Graham
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Hello everyone,
If you could not stream Kasa camera continuously, please read this FAQ that helps explain the situation:
Can I watch the live video of Kasa camera continuously?
To stream the camera in Kasa APP continuously, make sure your mobile devices are connected to home Wi-Fi /under local network.
Note that third party device like Google home hubs, Echo or Fire TV, use cloud to cloud service, not local streaming, there will be a time limitation to avoid the data being wasted or drained. This is the current design.
You may also try the workaround shared by forum user and stream kasa camera on computer via Android emulator.
Stream Tapo Camera on PC through Android Emulator : LDPlay4 vs Bluestack
If your mobile devices are connected to home WiFi but still prompts 'Tap to continue' to message, try to troubleshoot as steps here:
STEP1: Make sure you have turned off Mobile data & VPN on phone, and phones are connected to Home Wi-Fi
NOTE that if one of the phone is using mobile data or non-local Wi-Fi at that time, that may trigger the 10 mins warning
STEP2:
- Turn off AP isolation on router
- Check if host router firewall blocked tp-link related domain
STEP3: For IOS 14 devices, allow 'Local Network' permission for Kasa app on IOS devices.
https://www.tp-link.com/support/faq/293
STEP4: Ensure Kasa APP and camera firmware is up-to-date.
Pic : enable Local Network for Kas APP on iPhone
If Kasa app prompts a warning when phone is connected to home WiFi network (local network) despite the above steps, please start a new thread here for the concern and provide some information below to look into that further:
1> Troubleshooting steps you've tried and the results
2> Model of router & network topology, eg: Archer C7 router <wireless>Kasa C200
3> Kasa APP version, model and Mac address of your camera (please share MAC address to us via private message), model of your phone and its Android or IOS version
4> To check if phone and camera is the under the same local network, download a ping tool on the phone, and ping camera IP when the refresh
How to check the network connection stability of a Tapo Camera (ping step also works for kasa camera)
5> Please leave one phone to stream the camera on Kasa app and see if the warning pops up?
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@GrahamA After about 10 minutes the camera will prompt you to confirm if you still want to stream the video, this is by design. There currently is not a way to maintain a 24/7 stream, as the only avenues are currently manual record, motion record, and recording hearing sound.
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Not really fit for purpose as a baby monitor as advertised then is it?
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While the current limitations with constant streaming on the KasaCam do not make it ideal for a "always streaming" baby monitor, its abilty to setup up activity zones and detect motion and sound can help parents have peice of mind that they will be alerted when the baby make a sound or shifts postions.
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Agree with Graham here, it's not really fit for purpose with this questionable feature - the correct answer should be: I'll talk to the developers to add an option to prevent the "continue streaming?" message from appearing for an uninterrupted stream. It's not really a huge feature and would make a huge difference to the capability of this camera - why does it even display at all? It's a camera not Netflix.. Let the users deal with screen burn or battery usage if they opt to have the stream display constantly, that's their problem. Cheers!
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Hi Jason, We have fed the feedback to the developers in the past. The simple fact of the matter here though is that this is not in the deisgn paramerters of the cameras. We have encouraged them to add it but the main purpose of the Kasa cameras is to detect and record motion and sound activity and to notify the user. We also in the year since this post created 24/7 recording cameras that use an micro SD-Card but the limits on the live stream are still set to 10 minutes. We will of course feed your comments back to the design team.
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I personally would love to see an option under settings for the app to live stream 24/7 without a pop-up asking if we want to continue. I use this as a monitor to see my 2 and 4 year old because other baby monitors lose connection in our apartment and they are all low quality. We opted for this because we have an extra phone since upgrading and it's just collecting dust. I do hope the devs add this in the future
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@GrahamA Im having the same issue. After new updates it just keeps askign If I want to continue watching. I am unable to use it. Every 10 min I need to click and it reconnects sometime it does not and hangs up.
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@GrahamA Said Its a great Baby Monitor. I use it for the last 4 months and have to keep clicking continue watching. There is no excuse for this to be there. Change it it ruins the whole baby monitor idea.
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@Carl I also bought this TP-Link camera assuming it could live stream without the 10 minute limitation. I bought it specifically to use as a baby monitor and also as a home security for the front of our house. If I can't find a resolution I will be returning all 3 cameras that I purchased and most likely the switches and smart light bulbs as well.
I read in another support post that the 10 minute limit would not apply if your devices are on the same network but mine disconnect anyhow even if using a tablet connected to the same wifi as the camera. Can you confirm the 10 minute limitation is not present for cameras on the same network as your tablet?
Are there any other ways to remove the limitation? Even a premium paid subscription or something?
Respectfully, with the 10 minute limitation in place these cameras are now worthless to me and my family who were very much looking forward to using them. This has been a huge disappointment for us so I do hope your developers will consider fixing this.
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