No FTP? Back up by email

Some recorders — Hikvision and HiLook Turbo HD DVRs among them — have no FTP upload at all, but every one of them can send an email with the event pictures attached. Point that at CloudBox and each picture is sealed the moment it arrives, filed by camera and day, exactly like an FTP upload. Same login, ten minutes, nothing to buy.

Heads upEmail carries pictures, not video. If your recorder has an FTP upload option, use FTP instead (see the multi-channel guide); use email when it does not. This route is written and tested for Hikvision and HiLook Turbo DVRs; Dahua, Uniview and Reolink recorders should stay on FTP — their multi-camera alarm emails can file every picture under one channel.

1 · Get your login card

In your CloudBox dashboard → Cameras, add a site and write down the 24-word recovery kit. The card shows the email settings, including the site's own receiver address.

Field on the recorder's Email screen	What to enter
SMTP Server	`ingest.cloudbox.biz`
SMTP Port	`465` with SSL/TLS ticked on most devices. On Hikvision and HiLook Turbo DVRs, use `25` with SSL/TLS unticked — see the note below. Further fallbacks: `587` with SSL/TLS, then `25` with SSL/TLS.
Authentication	on — User Name = the site's `site_…` login, Password = the site password from the card
Sender / Sender's Address	anything, e.g. `DVR` / `dvr@ingest.cloudbox.biz`
Receiver	the site's own address: `site_…@ingest.cloudbox.biz` (shown on the card)
Attached Picture / Image	ticked; Interval 2 s

2 · Enter it on the recorder

Hikvision / HiLook: Configuration → Network → Advanced Settings → Email (on the local monitor menu: Configuration → Network → Email). Other brands: the Email or SMTP page under Network. menu labels move between firmware versions — verify the exact wording on your device.

SMTP Server ingest.cloudbox.biz · Port 465 with SSL/TLS ticked.
Authentication on: User Name = the site's site_… login, Password = the site password.
Sender / Sender's Address: anything (DVR, dvr@ingest.cloudbox.biz).
Receiver: the site's own address from the card, site_…@ingest.cloudbox.biz.
Attached Picture / Image: ticked, Interval 2 s.

Save, then press the recorder's Test. It should report success. If it fails, work down the ladder: port 587 with SSL/TLS ticked, then 25 with it ticked, then 25 unticked. Some home broadband providers block outbound port 25, so 465 and 587 are worth trying first. If every combination fails, check the recorder's DNS server and that the recorder can reach the internet.

Verified on hardwareOn a Hikvision DS-7104HQHI-K1 (firmware V4.30.212) the combination that worked was port 25 with Enable SSL unticked. That is not the same as sending in the clear: the recorder issues STARTTLS itself and CloudBox upgrades the session, so the pictures and the login are encrypted in transit. On that unit, port 465 produced no connection at all.

Two traps on the Hikvision Email screenThe Test button beside a receiver stays greyed out until you press Save — so save first, then test. And fill both the Receiver and Receiver’s Address cells of the same row; a row holding only one of the two is ignored.

NotePictures are always filed under the site whose login the recorder used. Any receiver at ingest.cloudbox.biz is accepted (a typo is noted on the site's activity log, not refused); receivers anywhere else — your own mailbox in Receiver 2, say — are accepted and discarded. Guardian never forwards mail.

3 · Send motion events by email

Heads upTest only proves the login. Pictures are sent by events: per channel, Configuration → Event → Motion Detection → enable, set the arming schedule, and under Linkage Method tick Send Email. Without that, nothing arrives.

To keep the flow sensible, set the recorder's email interval so it sends at most one alarm email every minute or two per channel. Set the sub-stream to its highest resolution (WD1 on Turbo DVRs) — that is what the attached pictures are taken from.

NoteHousekeeping facts: pictures file under the day they arrive (UTC, like FTP); at most 24 pictures per email are kept; a full plan refuses the email before it is uploaded (the recorder's log shows “Storage allowance is full”); a recorder that re-sends an email stores the pictures again.

4 · Confirm

Walk in front of a camera, then press Test connection on the site card in CloudBox. It shows the login, the first picture and the camera detected — Guardian reads the channel from the alarm text (Hikvision's CAMERA NAME(NUM): Camera 01(A1) line, for example; IP channels on a hybrid DVR, (D1), file as camera-d1). Use Decrypt & save on one picture to confirm your recovery kit opens it.

TipPictures land under the camera named in the email. If yours file under an odd label, forward one alarm email to us and we tune the parser for your recorder.

If something does not work

The recorder's Test fails: port and SSL combination (try 465 + SSL, then 587 + SSL, then 25 + SSL, then 25), the recorder's DNS server, the site login (issue a new password from the site card if unsure), or a network that blocks outbound port 25 — use 465 or 587.
Test passes, nothing arrives: Attached Picture is not ticked, Send Email is not a motion linkage action, or the arming schedule does not cover now. A login with no pictures shows on the site's activity log as “mail_empty”.
Pictures arrive without a camera label you expect: forward one email to us.
More in troubleshooting.

Questions

Which recorders should use email instead of FTP?

Any recorder whose settings have Send Email with an attached picture but no FTP upload — Hikvision and HiLook Turbo HD DVRs in particular. If your recorder has FTP, use FTP: it can carry video clips, email carries pictures.

What arrives by email?

Event pictures (JPEG). Hikvision recorders have historically attached three pictures per event about two seconds apart; the exact count on current firmware is not documented, so check with one real motion event. Pictures are taken from the sub-stream — set the sub-stream to its highest resolution (WD1 on Turbo DVRs) for usable stills. Email does not carry video.

Is it secure?

Use port 465 (or 587) with SSL/TLS so the pictures travel encrypted from the recorder to CloudBox. On port 25 without SSL both the pictures AND the recorder's login travel unencrypted across the internet — and that login is the same site password the FTP card uses — so only fall back to it when the recorder cannot do TLS 1.2. Either way each picture is sealed the moment it arrives, with a key only your recovery kit holds, and Guardian never forwards email anywhere. Our mail server also presents an older-style (RSA) certificate and accepts the cipher suites recorders are actually built with, so a DVR whose TLS is too old for a modern server can still encrypt its upload rather than falling back to plain text.

How does Guardian know which camera a picture came from?

From the alarm email itself: Hikvision writes a line like 'CAMERA NAME(NUM): Camera 01(A2)', Dahua 'Alarm Input Channel: 1', Reolink 'Camera: Front Door'. When one email carries pictures from several cameras (Dahua NVRs) the channel in each picture's file name wins. On a Hikvision hybrid DVR, analog channels A1… file as camera-1… and IP channels D1… as camera-d1…, so they never merge. If your recorder's emails file under an odd label, forward one of them to us and we tune the parser.

The recorder floods me with emails.

Set the email interval on the recorder (Hikvision: per channel under Motion Detection / the Email screen's Interval) so it sends at most one alarm email every minute or two per channel. Guardian's storage counts only what arrives; a few pictures per event is a few megabytes a day.

Can several sites share one recorder login?

No. Each site has its own login and its own receiver address; a recorder belongs to one site.