On-screen Time Display is Incorrect and Recorded Video Cannot be Found

Background Information

The exacqVision Server receives time-stamped video from most camera models, which indexes stored video.
The exacqVision Server configures the cameras to receive time synchronization from a network time server (normally the exacqVision Server itself) and sets the camera time zone to GMT-0.
If the camera and server times aren’t synchronized, video is stored with the wrong time stamp.

Diagnostic Steps

Monitor the affected camera’s video on the Live video page. If the on-screen time and date display are enabled, but the information is incorrect, skip to Resolution. Otherwise continue to step 2, below.
On the Live video page, monitor the camera’s video until the panel border turns blue (indicating motion recording) or red (indicating alarm recording). Use the Search page to find the video matching this occurrence. If you cannot locate the video that you saw recorded, skip to Resolution. Otherwise, proceed to step 3, below.
Browse to the camera’s web page and observe whether the correct date and GMT time (not local) are displayed. If the camera isn’t configured to receive NTP updates from the IP address of the exacqVision Server, skip to Resolution, item 3. Otherwise, the exacqVision system is correctly recording video from the tested camera.

Resolution

On the Config page for the server, select Configure System and then the Date/Time tab. Ensure that the Time Server field contains a valid NTP server IP address or domain name.
If the date or time displayed on the Date/Time tab is incorrect, the time server connection is not working. Ensure that the IP address or domain name can be reached from the server.
Ping the NTP server using the domain name or IP address entered in the Time Server field. If the server is unreachable, confirm the correct gateway was entered on the Network settings tab.
If the problem persists, contact your network administrator.
If the camera’s NTP server is set to an invalid IP address, such as 0.0.0.0 or 127.0.0.1, antivirus software may be blocking the server software from receiving the IP address of the server from the operating system. You can reconfigure the antivirus software to allow exacqVision access to the server’s IP address. Alternatively, you can designate the exacqVision Server as the IP Camera Time Server.
See also: Time Settings and Time Zone Information
Some cameras do not accept time updates from servers with a stratum of 16. You may need to check the stratum level on your system using the steps found in Explaining NTP.
Linux servers may also display “sync_alarm” to indicate that the server is not synchronized with the NTP server. The server may require up to 30 minutes of synchronization before the alarm disappears.
If the server is installed on a totally isolated network that will never have access to an internet-based time server, changing the address in the Time Server field to 127.127.1.0 should force the exacqVision Server to decrease the system’s stratum level to a lower value.
On the Add IP Cameras page, within the IP Camera List panel, disable then re-enable each device to reset the camera connection. During the reconnection process, exacqVision sends the new time server IP address to the cameras.
Refresh the camera’s web interface that displays the NTP server address; it should now show the time server address entered in the steps above.