You’re here because you’ve forgotten your Hikvision appliance password. Clear, let’s get to the instructions. It works for Hikvision NVRs, DVRs, and any security camera out there.
Available Hikvision Password Reset Options
Hikvision have abandoned a scheme of factory-setting a default password for their devices for some years now and requires us to create a unique password every time as we activate a new camera or recorder. Of course that was a right move, considering how easy it is to bypass a default password and get into your system owing to a common user’s inattention. And though we are used with a regular password reset procedures on a various sources, when they can just email you a password reset link, here with a middle and high-end CCTV equipment that process is more complicated for a good reason.
So, how to reset a password on your Hikvision equipment? Here are your options:
- Locating and using the physical reset push-button on the body of your device, if it has one;
- It’s assumed that you’re still logged into a SADP or IVMS-4200 software and can reset a camera from there.
- You start from extracting an. XML-file from a camera via the SADP tool, and then you send it to your local distributor, from whom you bought a device / to a Hikvision Support in your country;
Option #1: Reset Push Button
Locate a reset button on a body of your camera, try looking under a screwed cover. Commonly, your camera has this button if it also has a memory card slot, and they are regularly located near each other. The same is indicated by the “F” letter, standing for “flash”, in a product code. What you do next – unplug the camera from a power supply, and after that is done, press and hold a reset button and restore the power supply while you continue to hold the button for a further 10-15 seconds. Then release the button and just wait until the camera reboots completely. This is what is called a “factory default,” and thus you will see an “inactive” status in the SADP tool or IVMS-4200 after that is done, and you’ll be asked to create a new password and activate a camera as a new device.
Option #2: Reset Via SADP Tool / IVMS-4200
Yet there are cameras having no reset push-button, and we are forced to go for option #2 and #3. As Hikvision produces mostly professional equipment, the activation process happens via the manufacturer’s PC software, which is mainly the SADP and IVMS-4200 tools. Thus, it is assumed that your camera was activated via those tools. Option #2 is even easier, but it’s possible only if you are still logged into IVMS-4200 on your PC, so launch up the program and head to a “device management” tab.
Once you are there, locate your camera in a device management field; you will see it’s online if it says “active” and shows a globe icon. Now click on it to highlight and press a remote configuration, from here you need to go into a “system” tab, select maintenance, press “Default”, and confirm when it displays a warning. Done! Your camera is going to reboot, that’s gonna take about a minute, then you’ll have to create a new password and activate it manually via the SADP / IVMS-4200 tool.
Option #3: Exporting an .XML-file
We address option #3 if there’s nothing else left, and unfortunately, the previous ones are unavailable. Every camera is obligated to be activated via SADP or IVMS-4200 software, so you probably have it installed on your PC, and your camera has an active status in there. What you do: open up a SADP, and you’ll be able to see all the equipment within your subnet. Locate the one you need to reset and mark up the box left to it, the tab on your right will unfold, and there, below a modify button, you’ll find a “forgot password” inscription – press it. In that pop-up window, you press an export button, select a folder, and download a generated XML-file onto the computer. From this point, you need to send this XML file to the company from which you have purchased a camera.
Note that you must not unplug a power supply and disconnect a camera from Ethernet while you are waiting for a response with a modified .XML-file. Contact the technical support department of a company from which you’ve purchased a camera by phone or email, briefly describe your situation, and attach this file. They usually require you to specify an order ID, your name, and your email address to make sure you are a device owner. If that’s not your option, contacting a Hikvision support in your country, or the nearest to it, should do the trick. And of course, we always take this kind of request from our customers.
In the end you will receive an email with the XML-file attached, that you save onto your computer, go back into SADP tool and open that “forgot password” pop-up again, with that difference that this time we’re importing that file that you have received under a Step #2 in here, so we tick left to “import file” and select that received file. Create a new password now and replicate it one more time. If done right, the next thing you’ll see will be a success message, and the pop-up will vanish. Now your camera is restored, activated again afterwards with a new password, that you probably won’t forget this time.
A Full Video on YouTube:
Timestamps for every option:
- Use A Reset Button On A Device’ Body (If it has one): 2:11
- Set Default Settings Via SADP / IVMS Software (If still logged in): 3:33
- .xml-file Extraction & Contacting Local Distributor / Hikvision Support: 4:46
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