Upgrade Hikvision Firmware

[Jackie Bullinger]

Hikvisionregularly updates the firmware in our products to resolve potential issues and keep your system running smoothly. Below, you can find guidance on how to update your system accordingly.

Updating Hikvision IP Camera Firmware

To upgrade the firmware of a Hikvision IP camera, please follow the steps below:

IMPORTANT! This model requires non-standard firmware. Do Not Install standard firmware (e.g. v.4.1.xx) on this model. Doing so will permanently damage your system. You must use custom firmware v.4.1.25 from the iDS-9632NXI-I8/16S product page.

The I-series NVR (such as the DS-7716NI-I4) is one of Hikvision's most popular and feature-rich recorders. As such, many firmware revisions have been introduced over the years to continually ensure the product is compatible with the newest technology available. Due to the many revisions, we recommend that the user closely follows the instructions below in order to reduce the amount of time spent as well as the chance of failure.

As more affordable IP cameras are introduced over time with greater video resolution and data sizes, more efficient database management also becomes necessary. The introduction of firmware v4.0 brought about a new database architecture in order to be futureproof.

After upgrading to v4.X, the recorder database will need to be converted and optimized. If you are experiencing issues where playback is expected but not found, make sure "Database Repair" is performed as indicated in the procedures and scenarios below.

View the most updated version of this document here:

K-Series DVR upgrade instruction

The Turbo 4 Hybrid DVR K series has multiple models and across different platform and chipset. It also has similar firmware development of other recording product line; DVR K series has also introduced the GUI4.0 to ensure the series to be compatible to the newest technology available. The new database architecture is also brought into the DVR firmware v4.0 to be future proof and for better recording search experience.

As more affordable cameras introduced over time with greater video resolution and data sizes, more efficient database management also becomes necessary. The introduction of firmware v4.0 brought about a new database architecture in order to be futureproof.

After upgrading to v4.X, the recorder database will need to be converted and optimize. If you are experiencing issues, where playback is expected but not found, please make sure to perform "Database Rebuild" as indicated in the procedures and scenarios below.

If the data has not been recorded or has been overwritten, Database rebuild process is not able retrieve those lost data. Have the system upgraded to the latest available firmware version above to prevent any future data lost is strongly recommended for all application.

It seems the USB thumb drive is the best way to update this manufacturer's firmware. I go to Hik's North American Tech Support Portal, then to Download, and find the firmware for the particular device I'm updating. I see four or five revisions of the firmware for the device I'm updating. Since you have to update in order, and cannot skip a revision, I download each revision onto the thumb drive. The problem is the file name, they're all the same so you can't have four or five update files with the same filename on your thumb drive. Your OS will add an identifier for you in parenthesis. I tried to add my own identifier instead, in parenthesis, next to "digicap" but the device will return an error message that the file name is incorrect. Your device wants to see "digicap" only, nothing else.

So, if you want to update to the latest, and are 3 or 4 revisions behind, once you update the firmware you need to remove the thumb drive, rename the next revision to "digicap" and reinsert the thumb drive to update to the next revision. Does this sound right, or am I doing something wrong? Is there a more efficient, streamlined, way to do this?

Your method solves the problem. Before my original post, I made a separate directory for camera updates and one for NVR updates, but wanted all revisions for a selected camera under that camera's directory and the same with the NVR. To differentiate the revisions, I added the revision number to each file and, when trying to update, it failed due to the incorrect filename.

I spoke too soon, and assumed your method would solve my problem. I thought you were referring to the USB thumb drive, but what your post most likely refers to is a directory on your PC. The problem I'm having is transferring all the revisions to a thumb drive. I don't think it's possible to do because the filename "digicap.dav" and "digicap.mav" seem to be the only filenames/types allowed.

It seems quite cumbersome to unzip a .dav or .mav revision to a thumb drive, then insert the thumb drive into the NVR, update, remove the thumb drive, reboot, install a new revision onto the thumb drive, reinsert, update, reboot, remove, repeat, repeat, repeat, etc.,etc. That's a lot of handling of the thumb drive.

The problem here is that you'll see the folders listed in the NVR maintenance screen, but you can only select the folder. It does not work like a file management system on a PC where you select the folder then the file(s) become visible. If you have a Hik NVR you can see for yourself what I'm trying to describe.

Yes, this works!! I'm not sure what I did wrong yesterday, but I tried again today it works. I made individual folders with each revision, I loaded these onto a thumb drive and tried it out on one of my NVR's. I was able to update the NVR just fine.

That's not the problem, I can upgrade fine from revision to revision. The problem is doing it from a thumb drive and avoiding a cumbersome procedure. Try loading all the revisions for a specific NVR or camera onto a thumb drive. Usually, there are 4 or 5 revisions for a NVR or camera series posted on their site. Load all of those onto a thumb drive. Then put that thumb drive into the NVR as if you're upgrading the firmware and try to select a file to upgrade. The problem should become apparent.

I'm confused, why do you need to load all the revisions for a specific device if you can upgrade directly from oldest to newest (according to our tests)? Why don't you just load the newest and be done with it?

I was following the manufacturer's instructions, that you should not skip a revision. In your previous post you mentioned you upgraded from 5.3.0 to 5.4.5 without issue, and that you'd conduct further test and report back. And Jonathan reports something similar. So, I'm not sweating it now.

I installed this system last year and I tried to do that, but for whatever reason this NVR or the customer's network would not cooperate. Got on the phone with Hik Tech Support and they seemed to understand that the web interface may not let you update occasionally, and they were quick to suggest using a USB thumb drive. They tried a remote connect and were also unable to get it to update. So, I used the USB thumb drive and it updated just fine.

I made individual folders and unzipped the appropriate firmware revision download to it's respective folder. Loading the USB thumb drive into the NVR, selecting Maintenance, Upgrade and then double clicking the desired folder, the filename digicap.dav appears and can be selected for updating the firmware.

Hikvision is a huge manufacturer. They make cameras under a lot of brand names. You may be buying Hikvision, and not even know it. Sadly, a lot of other IP cameras have inferior build quality, but better software.

That said, Hikvision is taking the tiger by the tail, a bit. If you prefer a little less international intrigue and/or having the Rawling Virus in-a-jar on your network, I might recommend Reolink or Ubiquiti in a pinch.

Hikvision (Pronounced High-Kay-Vision. Yes, really) is short for Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co, LTD. partially state-owned Chinese manufacturer and supplier of video surveillance equipment for civilian and military purposes, headquartered in Hangzhou, China.

The vision for robust camera equipment, and the implementation, is massively impressive. The hardware truly is incredible as it is able to, in real time, do face detection, people counting, detect and flag unattended baggage or packages, identify animals and much more.

The software, on the other hand, is not to idealistic American standards. It is apparent the software was not built with hardening or security in mind. The main problem is that the software is a bit opaque and the known security issues in the past have been jaw-droppingly bad.

In an ideal world there would be open firmware for these cameras, ideally from some third party. Some noted security researchers have really put a lot of work into trying to tear these down, and some have lamented that the boot sequence on these cameras seems incredibly obfuscated and needlessly complex. Why go to all the trouble given the past security weaknesses?

The guide is a genuinely helpful guide for securing and configuring your Hikvision gear; they do want you to have secure gear to the extent that the criminals-du-jour are not exploiting the camera hardware to mine cryptocurrency or participate in DDoS attacks.

Almost all of these cameras feature an on-board microSD slot. If you intend to use local storage with the cameras, I highly recommend getting extremely high endurance microSD cards, designed for surveillance apps, which are only just starting to become marketed as such in the west.

If you are not familiar with what TFTP is, it is a trivial file transfer protocol. It is not built for speed, or redundancy, or reliability. Neither is the Hikvision update process. TFTP, and these IP addresses, are the cornerstone of being able to recover these cameras quickly and properly. You will waste a lot of time if you do not perform the firmware recoveries/updates from a hard-wired computer with a manually configured IP address.

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