rss logo

How to Enable Continuous Recording on a Tapo Camera Using a microSD Card

TP-Link Tapo surveillance camera with continuous recording on SanDisk Extreme Plus 256GB microSD card

I recently purchased a Tapo C520WS camera. I initially tried the (somewhat expensive 🙂) cloud storage subscription, but it only records video clips when motion is detected. It does not allow full, continuous recording. To achieve this, you need to use a microSD card.

Now that microSD cards offer large storage capacities, this solution makes a lot of sense. For example, in my case, using a 256GB microSD card, I can store more than two weeks of video in QHD 2K quality.

By default, recording on the microSD card is also limited to motion-detected clips only. To enable continuous recording, specific settings must be adjusted in the application. That is exactly the purpose of this article.

🚨 Important: Even with a microSD card, continuous recording is not available on all Tapo camera models. For example, battery-powered cameras such as the Tapo C425 do not support continuous recording. Make sure to check your camera’s capabilities before purchasing if continuous recording is important to you.

Enable Continuous Recording on a Tapo Camera

  • Open the Tapo app on your smartphone, select the camera for which you want to enable continuous recording, then tap the icon in the top-right corner and choose Storage & Recording:
Tapo Android app showing the Storage & Recording settings menu
Accessing the Storage & Recording settings from the Tapo Android app.
  • From Storage & Recording, tap Recording Schedule, then tap Edit:
Tapo Android app showing the Recording Schedule screen with the Edit option
Opening the Recording Schedule and tapping Edit in the Tapo Android app.
  • Select Continuous Recording (1), then tap Select All (2). Choose Continuous Recording and confirm by tapping OK.
Tapo Android app showing Continuous Recording selected and Select All applied to the recording schedule
Selecting Continuous Recording and applying it to the entire schedule using Select All.
  • Finally, tap the checkmark icon to save your changes:
Tapo Android app showing the Edit Schedule screen with the checkmark icon to save continuous recording
Tapping the checkmark icon to save the continuous recording schedule.

Continuous recording is now enabled.