Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

Camera won't connect

"Test connection" fails with an error

• Verify the IP address is correct and the camera is powered on
• Make sure you're using your Tapo / TP-Link account password, not the Camera Account password
• On newer firmware, enable Third-Party Compatibility in the Tapo app (Me → Tapo Lab)
• Check that your computer and the camera are on the same network/VLAN

Stream won't start or stays on "Connecting…"

• The camera needs a Camera Account set up for RTSP streaming, or an external RTSP proxy configured. See Stream Settings
• If you're using direct Camera Account credentials, make sure you created them in the Tapo app under Camera Settings → Advanced Settings → Camera Account
• Check that port 554 (RTSP) is not blocked by a firewall between your computer and the camera
• Try stopping and restarting the stream

Video shows but no audio

• Click the speaker icon in the video player to unmute — browsers require a user interaction before playing audio
• Not all camera models support audio streaming

Black screen or "Browser could not decode the stream"

• This can happen with certain codec/resolution combinations. Try restarting the stream
• Make sure ffmpeg is not being blocked by your antivirus — Vigilatus ships ffmpeg bundled and uses it for transcoding

Recordings show "No recording segments found"

• The camera must have an SD card inserted with recording enabled in the Tapo app
• Make sure the API credentials are correct — recording queries use the Tapo API, not RTSP
• Try navigating to a different day and back

App won't start or shows a white/blank screen

• Try deleting the app's config directory to reset settings:
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\vigilatus
  • Linux: ~/.config/vigilatus
• If running the portable version, make sure you extracted the full archive

Auto-updates not working

• Auto-updates only work with the NSIS installer version on Windows, not the portable .exe
• The app checks GitHub Releases — make sure you have internet access
• You can always download the latest release manually from the releases page

Stream freezes after computer wakes from sleep

Vigilatus automatically detects system resume and restarts all active streams. If the stream doesn't recover, stop and start it manually.

Logs

Vigilatus writes a log file to help diagnose issues:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\vigilatus\vigilatus.log
• Linux: ~/.config/vigilatus/vigilatus.log

You can also access runtime info from the DevTools console: window.vigilatus.diagnostics.getRuntimeInfo()