Discovered it stopped recording a month ago
A failed hard drive or a full disk with overwrite disabled. Nothing alerts you unless someone set an alert, which is worth asking for while the technician is there.
Security & Low Voltage4,401 businesses licensed for it
Security camera repair
A camera system is worth exactly what it recorded on the day something happened, and the most common discovery is that it stopped recording weeks ago. Work covers cameras that are offline or out of focus, recorder and hard drive failures, night vision and lighting problems, cabling and power over ethernet faults, remote viewing, and retention settings that were never long enough. Check your retention period before you need it, not after.
Enter your ZIP to see the businesses listed for this trade nearest to your site, with their phone numbers.
- Free to searchno account, nothing to submit
- Public registersevery listing names its source
- License numberswhere the state publishes one
- Directyou call the business yourself
- Our estimate
- $200-$6,000
- Time on site
- 1.5-10 hrs
- Fault patterns covered
- 2
- Licensed for this trade itself
- 4,401
What security camera repair costs
Most of these jobs land near $520. The full spread runs $200 to $6,000, and the gap between those two ends is diagnosis against replacement rather than one business being dearer than another.
What moves it: how much of the job is parts, whether the fault is found in the first hour or the third, access to the equipment, and the hour of the day you call. We never speak to the businesses listed here, so there is no rate card behind any of this. It is our own band for the category, and there is no regional index: the figure does not change with your metro.
| How soon you need it | Typical | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled visitBooked in advance, no urgency multiplier applied | $520 | $200 to $6,000 |
| Same dayOur band multiplied by 1.12 | $580 | $225 to $6,720 |
| Emergency calloutOur band multiplied by 1.35 | $700 | $270 to $8,100 |
Our estimate from national cost bands, not a quote from any business. Every row is the same band with the urgency multiplier the site applies everywhere else, so this table can never contradict the headline number. Ask for a written price before the work starts.
Who is licensed to do this work
In California the classification that squarely covers this is C-7 low voltage systems, and the register says who holds it. Every listing on this site shows the classification, the license number and the date we read it, with a link back to the register entry so you can check it against the state rather than against us.
Overlapping classifications exist and are labeled as overlapping rather than as a match: C-10 electrical and C-28 lock and security equipment. A general building contractor may hold the job and subcontract the trade, which is a real answer and a different one, so the card says which of the two you are looking at.
One thing worth being plain about: CSLB classifications do not distinguish commercial work from residential. There is no separate commercial license to hold and no register field that would prove one. That is why this page describes the equipment rather than the contractor, and why nothing here says a business has been checked out. We read a public record on a stated date. That is the whole claim.
Before you pay for a callout
Two minutes of checks that sometimes end the problem
We would rather you did not need a callout at all. These are the checks that end the most calls for this fault.
Try a quick fix first
Some issues resolve without a truck roll. Two minutes now can save the callout.
- 1
Check your retention now, before anything happens. A system that keeps seven days when you assumed thirty is the most common and most costly surprise in this category.
- 2
Power cycle the recorder and the network switch before booking anything. A large share of offline cameras come back on their own after a proper restart.
- 3
If you need footage of an incident, export it immediately and to a file rather than a phone photograph of the screen. Systems overwrite on a loop and the clip you need disappears on schedule.
- 4
Note whether one camera or all of them are down. One is a camera or a cable. All of them is the recorder, the switch or the power supply.
What the visit actually includes
- Camera, cable and power diagnosis on the affected devices
- Recorder health check including the hard drive
- Focus, aim and night mode adjustment
- Retention settings reviewed against what you actually need
- Remote viewing set up and tested on your own device
Diagnosis
How cameras faults usually present
Written from how these faults actually present on a working premises, not from a manual.
Camera washed out at night
Infrared reflecting off a nearby wall, a spider web across the lens, or a dirty dome. All three are trivial to fix and all three make the footage worthless.
Listed for this trade
Businesses listed for cameras
Read from public license registers, so there is no ranking here and no distance: this page has no location to measure from. Enter your ZIP to sort by who is nearest to your site.
By location
Security camera repair near you
Local pages show which businesses are listed for that metro, how far out they sit, and the local conditions that drive demand.
Counted from the businesses we have imported for each metro center inside a 25 mile radius, and counting only those whose own license classification names this trade. General contractors licensed widely enough to take it on and subcontract it are excluded here, and still appear in a search. A metro reads “none yet” until we load a register that covers this trade there.
All coverage areasQuestions owners ask
Cameras FAQs
Short, specific answers. If yours is not here, ask the business you call before you agree to the visit.
How long should footage be kept?
Long enough that you find out about an incident before the recording is overwritten. For most small businesses that means at least thirty days, and it is a storage question rather than a camera question.
Do I have to tell people they are being recorded?
Signage is standard practice and expected in a public commercial space. Recording audio is treated very differently from recording video under California law, so do not enable audio without checking.
What license covers this?
C-7 low voltage systems in California, with C-10 electrical where the work touches mains power. The listings here show which classifications each business holds and the date the register was read.
Related work
Often booked in the same visit
Batching jobs into one mobilization is the cheapest way to buy this kind of work.
AlarmFalse alarms, panels that will not set, dead sensors and monitoring that stopped.from $180Access controlFailed readers, keypads, maglocks, intercoms and staff cards that stopped working.from $220Network cablingDead data points, damaged cabling, patch panels and cabling for new equipment.from $200Walk-in coolerCooler not holding temperature, iced coils, failed compressors and door seals.from $260
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Ready when you are
Need cameras sorted?
Search your ZIP to see the businesses listed for this trade nearest to your site, with the license numbers and phone numbers we hold, then call them yourself.
- Cost to search
- Free
- Account needed
- None
- Who you call
- The business