Setup Axis Camera with Cloud Storage via ftpGrid

Published {$created} by Carsten Blum

This tutorial is written with an older Axis surveillance camera called "P1344 Network Camera". This camera doesn't support SFTP so in this tutorial we'll focus on plain FTP. It is always recommended to start using SFTP whenever possible. The general idea is the same with never cameras though.

First of all you need to create an FTP account with ftpGrid, this will give you all the cloud storage you need, you follow along with our onboarding guide here.

1. Login to you Axis camera

Open your browser, enter the camera IP, or DNS name, and you should see a page like this. We're here seeing my lovely courtyard.

Click the Setup button to start configuring your FTP cloud storage.

2. Go to Events -> Recipients

First we need to add you FTP account, follow this guide to create your first FTP account, as a recipient of motion detection events on your Axis camera.

In the dialog the following fields should be filled:

• Name - something easy to remember

• Type: FTP, on newer cameras select SFTP

• Network address: Enter your edge storage from your ftpgrid.com dashboard

• Upload path: Specify the a path, this is like a folder on your PC. Must be created beforehand for some cameras, like the older Axis

• Port: 21

• Username: From the FTP account your created previously. Remember to include your account hash prefix.

• Password: Your very complex password

• Advanced settings: Select Use passive mode, unless your camera is completely exposed to the internet, which it (hopefully) isn't.

Finally test the connection.

3. Go to Events -> Action rules

The next step is to create an action rule. The Axis surveillance camera supports many types of events, but we're going to use the basic default motion detection action here. Click the button Add.

Add the new action rule like show in the image below. Most important fields are:

• Recipient: The FTP recipient you created.

• Create folder: %Y-%m-%d, this will give you a nice date stamped folder structure.

4. Verify that the motion detection rule is working

Now that everything is setup, you can head over to you ftpGrid dashboard, go to Filebrowser and select the "/" to start browsing. Navigate to the upload path you selected, in my case it was "yard". You should see folders with timestamps, and files being uploaded.

From here you can select the files you want to see and download directly from the browser, or you can obviously use a client like FileZilla.

ftpGrid.com also has a WeTransfer-like feature where you can share files with people using public, but encrypted, links to your files. Our public link feature is super simple to use, and it is very safe.

• Select the files you want to share externally

• Click the "Create public link" button

• Select the desired expiration rule for the link.

You can now send this link to anyone you want to share these files with.

Done! Your Axis camera now backs up to the cloud using FTP

As simple as that, you now have a motion detection enabled Axis surveillance camera with secure and privacy focused cloud storage.

Check out our other tutorials here.