Dahua ConfigTool: find your devices, change their IP address and update firmware

Dahua's wiki describes ConfigTool as a tool to locate Dahua devices on a network. It does the set-up jobs that come before you watch any video.

• Find Dahua cameras and recorders on your network, with their IP addresses.
• Initialise a new device, which means setting its admin password for the first time. Dahua says ConfigTool can do this for several devices at once on the same local network.
• Change a device's IP address, one at a time or in a batch.
• Update a device's firmware, one at a time or in a batch.
• Start the reset-file route when a password is lost. This needs Dahua technical support.

Get it from Dahua only. Dahua's support site, support.dahuasecurity.com, lists ConfigTool under Tools. Dahua USA's support wiki, dahuawiki.com, also hosts a Windows installer and a Mac version. Dahua ToolBox includes it too. Dahua's own set-up guide says you can download ConfigTool through ToolBox.

Do not use download sites that are not Dahua. ConfigTool asks for your device passwords, so a changed copy is a risk to your cameras.

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• A Windows PC on the same local network as the devices. Dahua's Mac version has its own installer.
• The devices powered on and plugged in to that network.
• For devices that are already set up, their admin username and password.
• One thing to know: Dahua's wiki notes that if an IP camera is plugged into the back of an NVR, its steps for finding the camera and changing its IP address do not apply. Dahua points to its guide on connecting an IP camera to an NVR instead.

Open ConfigTool. It lists the Dahua devices on the same local network as your PC. Click Refresh if a device is missing. You can also type a device's IP address into the search box. Next to a device, Web opens the device's own web page, where you log in with its username and password.

To look on another part of your network, click Search Setting at the top. Tick both Current Segment Search and Other Segment Search, enter the Start IP and End IP, enter the login details for those devices, then click OK. The PC has to be able to reach that range.

Dahua says devices on new firmware have no default password. The first time you use one, you set a password for its admin account. Until you do, ConfigTool shows the device as uninitialised. Write the password down and keep it somewhere safe.

The screens vary a little between ConfigTool versions and device series, which Dahua notes in its own guide. These are the steps.

• 1. Open ConfigTool and go to the screen for IP settings.
• 2. Tick the uninitialised devices and click the button that opens device initialisation. You can pick several, and the set-up screen appears once for all of them.
• 3. Select the devices to initialise and click Initialize.
• 4. Enter a password and confirm it. Dahua asks for 8 to 32 characters, using at least two of letters, numbers and special characters. The characters ' " ; : and & are not allowed.
• 5. Enter an email address. Dahua uses it later if you need to reset the password.
• 6. Click Initialize. An icon in front of each device name shows whether it worked. Click Finish. The status should now say Initialized.
• Devices have to be on the same local network as the PC for this. If you use Dahua video intercom, Dahua's wiki says the password rules differ: VTH devices take a 6-digit numeric password, VTO devices take 8 characters, and you can only initialise one type at a time.

Give every device its own address on your network. Two devices with the same address will fight, and one or both will drop off.

• 1. Find the device in ConfigTool.
• 2. Select it and click the edit button.
• 3. Choose DHCP if you want your router to give it an address. Or choose a fixed address and enter the IP address, subnet mask and gateway to suit your network.
• 4. Click OK, then refresh to check the new address.
• If you changed the device's username and password from the factory settings, Dahua's wiki says to open the device's web page from ConfigTool instead, log in, go to the Setup tab, then TCP/IP, choose DHCP or fixed and save.
• To change several devices, use Batch mode, select the devices and choose Modify IP. You enter the first address, and ConfigTool assigns the others from it.

Firmware is the software inside the device. An update can fix faults and security problems, but installing the wrong file can cause problems, so go carefully.

Only use firmware from Dahua. Dahua's wiki has a Firmware by Device search and a firmware download on each product page. Elsewhere, use Dahua's support site or ask your Dahua supplier or installer. Do not take firmware from other sites. Confirm your device's exact model and current version first. In the device's web page, go to Info, then Version. Download the file for that model only. It usually arrives in a ZIP file, and you extract the firmware file from it before you upgrade.

• 1. Open ConfigTool and click Search Setting at the top.
• 2. Tick Current Segment Search and Other Segment Search, enter the Start IP and End IP of the device, enter its username and password, and click OK.
• 3. Click Device Upgrade on the left.
• 4. Find the device and click the folder icon under Upgrade File Path. Pick the firmware file and click Open.
• 5. Check the file path now shows next to the device, then click the Upgrade icon in the Operate column and click OK.
• 6. Watch the progress bar. A green tick next to the device means it worked.
• To update several devices at once, tick them, make sure they all need the same firmware, click Batch Upgrade, click OK, browse to the file and click OK.
• After the update: Dahua's wiki says devices should be factory reset once the firmware update is complete. A reset clears the settings and sends the device back to uninitialised, so you set the password again. If the system is in use, check with your installer first.

Dahua's ConfigTool questions and answers list the usual causes.

• Wrong username or password: change them to the device's real ones in Search Setting.
• Upgrade timeout: change the Upgrade Timeout value in ConfigTool's Setting.
• Network timeout: check your network, then change the Network Timeout value in Setting.
• Failed to send the file: check that the upgrade file is the right one.

Dahua's route is a reset through the email address you gave when you initialised the device. Open the device's web page and click Forgot password on the login page. You scan a QR code and enter the security code Dahua emails you, which is valid for 24 hours. Dahua says this works for the admin account only. On recorders, you can also use the security questions you set, from the recorder's own screen.

If none of that was set up, ConfigTool has a Password Reset screen. Select the device, click Reset, choose XML File as the reset mode and save the export file. You then send that file to Dahua technical support through their official channels, and they send back a result file. Open the result file in ConfigTool, enter a new password twice and finish. Dahua's wiki says you cannot complete this without help from Dahua technical support.

Ignore videos and sites that promise another way in. Use your installer or Dahua support.

• Devices do not appear: the PC and devices must be on the same local network. Click Refresh. Dahua's questions and answers say ConfigTool combines a multicast search and a broadcast search, and that on Windows 10 version 1607 and later the broadcast search is not available. Devices that do not support multicast may then not be found. Dahua suggests searching another segment, using Windows 7, or using the Mac version of ConfigTool.
• Access control, alarm or intercom devices are missing: Dahua says ConfigTool has separate modules for these in its expansion area. They are VDPConfig for talk (intercom) devices, ARCConfig for alarm devices and ACSConfig for access control devices.
• A camera on the back of an NVR is not listed or will not change: it belongs to the NVR. See the note above.
• You cannot initialise a device: it has to be on the same local network as the PC, and you can only initialise devices that show as uninitialised.
• Password refused: use the device's admin password, which is the one set when it was initialised. Dahua says its account lock is on by default, so stop after a few wrong tries and check which password you are using.