Trail Cameras are a lot of fun to use. It can be a lot of fun to check your trail cameras a few weeks or months after letting them sit and take pictures or videos. The most frustrating thing for anyone using trail cameras is when you open your trail camera and see an empty camera. The most frustrating thing to find out is why the trail camera didn’t get any pictures or videos. There are a few different reasons this could be happening. Here are our 6 reasons why your trail camera is might not be taking pictures.
#1 SD Card Problems
Trail Cameras oftentimes do not get pictures or videos due to the SD card that is in them. There are a few different reasons that your SD card is not working. Click below for our 4 most common reasons why our SD cards have not worked for us and the solutions we have used.
#2 Trail Camera Setting Switch
Some trail cameras have a switch to turn them on. Sometimes this switch has 3 different places it can stop on. The off spot, the settings spot, and the camera spot. Sometimes the switch gets left in the trail camera setting position. This means that the trail camera is waiting to get told what to do. In this setting, it will not take pictures or videos. A good way to tell if this has happened is to check your trail camera’s battery if you are checking it in week or month long intervals. If this switch is left on, there is a good chance the batteries will lose all power by the time you check your trail camera.
#3 Trail Camera Packaging
When you buy a trail camera it usually comes with pieces of plastic on all of the lenses of the camera. Because of this, the plastic can interfere with the camera’s motion or heat sensors. This will either make it so your camera takes a large number of pictures or none at all. The simple solution is to remove the plastic pieces.
#4 Where is your sensor pointed?
Every trail camera comes with one of 2 sensors to tell it to take pictures. These sensors are either motion sensors or heat sensors. One problem I had when I set up my trail camera was I had my sensor pointed higher than the animals walking by. This trail camera took 1 picture of a breeze blowing through some trees. After I adjusted this problem and moved the trail camera down a little bit it quickly fixed my problem. When setting up the trail camera it is good to remember to not just check where the camera is pointed but also where the sensor is pointing.
#5 Animals are not There
Sometimes if the trail camera is not taking pictures, it means simply there are no animals walking by it. You can check to see if your camera is working by turning it on and waiting (if necessary) for your trail cameras count down to end. Then walk in front of it and set off the motion detecter. If it takes a picture or video of you consider moving your camera. Another way to check if animals are in the area is to look for their sign. If you need help with this check out the article below.
#6 Your Trail Camera Might be Broken
Sadly, some trail cameras break. Some come from the store broken. Other trail cameras will wear out over time. We have even had some of our cameras damaged by animals. If you need good trail cameras that we trust click our trail camera review button below!
Trail Camera not Taking Pictures?
These are our 6 main problems that we have run into. If you have any other common problems you have run into feel free to send them into Backyardtrailcamera@gmail.com, Thanks!