How do I extend the battery life of my Tapo Camera/Doorbell?

The actual battery life may vary depending on the camera’s configuration settings, usage scenario, and environmental factors. Some customers may feel the camera’s battery life does not last as expected, and here we will introduce how to extend the battery life of cameras.

Part 1. How does the battery-powered camera consume power?

For the sake of power saving, the camera is usually in a sleep state (low power consumption), however, if the camera is woken up frequently and maintains the ON state for a long time, the camera consumes power quickly.

Click here if you want to know how the battery-powered camera wakes up.

Part 2. The typical usage scenario consumes the battery power quickly.

The camera is installed in a location where the environment changes significantly. For example, the camera is used to monitor the streets or roads that have heat sources to wake up the camera frequently, and it’s easy for the camera to detect events, and then the ON state of the camera may last for a long time. This usage scenario will cost the battery power quickly.

Part 3. How to extend the battery life of the camera?

1. Open the Tapo app> Tap your battery-powered camera model card to enter the Live View page> Tap the icon at the top right corner to enter the Device Settings page> Detection> Wake-up Sensitivity to adjust the sensitivity according to your needs.

Higher sensitivity results in easier wake-up and more recordings, which will reduce battery life.

2. Adjust the installation position of your camera/doorbell so it will not be woken up too often. The following instructions will help you when installing your camera/doorbell:

a. Avoid pointing the camera directly at swaying trees, busy streets, and street lamps or sunlight.

b. Keep the motion sensor lens level for best results.

c. It's recommended to install it 7-10 ft above the ground and tilt downwards at a suggested angle in the QIG or App. Here take Tapo C4XX Series as example.

■ Tapo C410 Series: 10° ~ 15°

■ Tapo C420 Series: 20° ~ 25°

■ Tapo C425 Series: 20°

3. You can also adjust other settings to save your battery.

a. Go to the camera’s Device Settings>Video & Display> Video Quality to set the video quality to a lower resolution.

b. Go to the Night Mode Settings on the Video & Display page to reduce the viewing distance of night vision.

c. Go to the Frame Rate on the Video & Display page to lower the frame rate.

d. Go to the camera’s Device Settings > Storage & Recording>Clips Settings to increase the retrigger intervals between recorded events, and reduce the record buffer and the maximum clip length.

4. Tapo battery-powered cameras or doorbells can operate properly within the temperature of -20℃~45℃(-4°F ~113 °F ). The battery life may get shorter if the temperature is too low.

Part 4. Frequently Asked Questions.

Q. Why does my camera consume power quickly even when there are not many detection video clips?

A. The number of the detection video clips of the camera does not reflect the number of times the camera is woken up.

You can refer to the link to know how the camera wakes up. There can be many heat sources that wake up the camera, such as sunlight, people, objects, etc., but the camera may not necessarily record clips due to the impact of camera detection settings and other configurations after it wakes up.