CCTV Maintenance Checklist: Keep Your System Evidence-Ready

Monthly five-minute owner checks

• View every camera live: any black, frozen, misted or shifted views?
• Play back yesterday's footage from two or three cameras — recording, not just displaying
• Check the on-screen date and time against your phone
• Confirm remote app access still works
• Glance at the recorder: any beeping, error lights or new log warnings?
• Walk the site: lenses clear of webs and dirt, cameras still aimed where intended, no dangling cables

Annual professional service — what it should include

• Clean lenses and domes; check and re-grease external seals
• Verify and update camera and NVR firmware (security patches matter — exposed recorders get compromised)
• Hard drive SMART health check and recording-coverage audit against your retention target
• Re-aim and refocus drifted cameras; cut back vegetation in views
• Test night vision performance camera by camera
• Confirm time sync (NTP), backup of configuration, and password hygiene
• Issue a service report — useful for insurers and for the ICO accountability principle

The three silent failures that lose footage

Hard drives: recorder drives run 24/7 and commonly fail at 3–5 years — the recorder keeps showing live pictures, so nobody notices playback is gone. Time drift: a recorder that lost NTP sync after a router change can be minutes or hours out, which has ruined real prosecutions. Camera creep: wind, knocks and mount fatigue gradually rotate cameras until the critical view is sky or wall. All three are caught by the monthly five-minute check.