Dahua 4431C Default / Custom Password Issue in Blue Iris

[MattTX]

Hi everyone,

I bought a 4431C-A from Andy a number of years ago and it's been working great. I recently moved around a number of cameras to new locations and reset each as part of the process (and updated Blue Iris accordingly), all of them are working as expected except this one. During setup I connected directly to the camera through the web interface and changed the password, that new password does work for logging in through the web interface but it won't let me connect to it through Blue Iris. However I can connect to the camera through Blue Iris using the default password (admin), despite having changed that directly on the camera. I have no other users created and I've tried changing the password a few times through the web interface, each time it takes the new password and works to login through the browser but it doesn't work in Blue Iris. And when I try to login through the web interface using the default name / password it doesn't work, I have to use the custom password I've set.

I have 5 other cameras (including other 4431C-As bought from Andy at the same time as this one) and they are all working as expected in regards to login / custom passwords, both through the web interface and Blue Iris. It's just this one camera acting strange and I'm wondering what's going on with it.

Camera: IPC-HDW4431C-A
Software: 2.420.0000.21.R, 2016-07-24
Web Version: 3.2.1.364036
ONVIF: 2.42

Blue Iris: 5.4.7.11 (6/11/2021)

 

[sebastiantombs]

What browser did you use to change the password with? Dahua cameras can be very selective about what browser they works with, especially the older ones (two years old or older). Try resetting the password using Internet Explorer which is "baked" into Win10. Just type "explorer", no quotes, in the search bar of Windows. If you're on Win11 you can try using Pale Moon 32 bit version. That should work for an IE substitute.

 

[MattTX]

I have tested / changed settings for the camera using Chrome, Edge, and Explorer and it works the same in each one. The issue isn't that I can't change the password, it's that to get it to connect in Blue Iris I have to use the default password.

Hmm, ok I just spent the last 20 minutes testing some more things (basically started over with the problem camera) and have found some more variables. It's going to take me a bit to figure out how to explain things (and I'm going to make some screen shots) plus I haven't had lunch yet, so I'll be back later with an update.

 

[MattTX]

Ok, ate too many french fries and did some more testing. To start, I have three 4431C cameras that I bought from Andy all at the same time and have been using for many years with the settings in the first screenshot (well, different IP addresses). This is my driveway camera that is working as expected.



And here are multiple tests with different settings on the camera that has become problematic. I have only one user set up in the cameras web interface (admin) and I have changed it to a custom password which I do have to use to login to the web interface - and in my testing I was able to get it to work in Blue Iris with the custom password, but with a catch as you will see.









You probably noticed the Discovery / ONVIF port changed in some of those screenshots, I was trying a few different ports (8999, 8998, 80) in there to see if it made any difference. It didn't.

So for some reason Blue Iris is able to login to the camera using the default admin / admin when specifying the stream profiles even though I've changed the default password. After all these tests I went back to the Driveway camera which is the first screenshot (and working correctly with a custom password and stream profiles specified), I changed the password in Blue Iris to admin on that camera and it lost connection. So there's something weird going on with the South camera.

BUT THEN!



When changing the camera Make to Dahua the Main stream profile that Blue Iris applied is different than the stream profile I had set before (and still use with other matching cameras) and it didnt' set a substream profile (I copied, pasted, and changed it to 1). But it's working! Well, until it stopped working, and now I can't get Blue Iris to connect to this camera at all. The camera is still working, I can connect to it through the web interface without issue. Ug.

I'm going to take a break and come back to this camera later. The main question I still have and what I started this thread to try to figure out is why Blue Iris was being able to connect to the camera using the default admin / admin login despite my having changed the password in the cameras web interface. Any thoughts on that?

 

[wittaj]

You can always factory reset the camera and start over as well (unless this is one of those few cameras that do not have that ability LOL).

What you are probably experiencing is these cameras have two sets of user/PW and the admin usually doesn't change even if you make changes in the ONVIF user.

So go into the account settings and where you set up and changed the password. Now look for the tab that says ONVIF or ONVIF user and then go in and change or add a user and PW there.

 

[MattTX]

Thanks for the ideas.

A factory reset is what started the problem and I did consider resetting it once more but since my last post it has decided to start working again using the settings in the last screenshot above. But if I change the stream profile to /cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0&unicast=true&proto=Onvif then I can also still use the admin / admin login to see the camera through Blue Iris (just to reiterate: admin / admin does not work to login to the web interface).

Is there just a backdoor in this camera, or perhaps as you mentioned a hidden login? I say hidden because I only have one user set up / visible in the web interface and I looked for ONVIF specific settings but there basically aren't any. I can turn ONVIF on or off and that's it. I did try that during my testing to see if it would re-initialize something, I also turned uPnP on and off (which I usually keep off) but that also didn't seem to make any difference.