Tapo TC90 KIT Battery Draining Fast? Here’s How to Fix It

Step-by-step fix guide | Tapo TC90 KIT

Try this first — Open Camera Settings > Battery Status and check Wake-up Times and Time of Use.

If the Tapo TC90 KIT battery runs down much faster than expected, Tapo’s own battery guides suggest these checks.

What This Problem Means

The camera is waking up or streaming more than it should, so the battery drains early.

Common Symptoms

  • The battery level drops quickly
  • Charging every few weeks
  • Lots of alerts with nothing in them

Safe Checks You Can Try

1. Check the battery stats

Tapo’s battery guide says to open Camera Settings > Battery Status and look at Battery Usage, Time of Use and Wake-up Times.

2. Too many wake-ups?

Tapo says more than about 700 wake-ups a week (Event Detection plus Filtered By AI) is too many. Lower the Wake-up Sensitivity (Device Settings > Detection) and move the camera away from swaying trees, busy streets, street lamps and direct sunlight.

3. Too much time in use?

Tapo says more than about 42 minutes of Time of Use a week is high. Reboot the camera, keep live viewing short, temporarily unlink Home Assistant, Alexa or Google Home to see if they are waking it, and set Working Mode to Power Saving Mode.

4. Lower the settings

Tapo’s battery life guide suggests lowering Video Quality, the night mode distance and the frame rate, and using a longer retrigger interval and shorter clips (Device Settings > Storage & Recording > Clips Settings).

5. Check the temperature

Tapo says the operating range is -20°C to 45°C and cold weather shortens battery life.

6. Check the network

If both figures are normal, Tapo suggests rebooting the router, updating the firmware, and trying a dedicated IoT network.

7. Check the solar panel

If the solar panel is not topping it up, see our solar panel guide below.

Helpful accessory: Tapo A201 Solar Panel — Tapo’s IP65 panel for its battery cameras, with a 4 m cable. Tapo says about 45 minutes of sun a day keeps a camera topped up.
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When To Contact Support

If none of these checks fix it, contact Tapo support through TP-Link’s UK support site. Have the model and hardware version ready: Tapo says both are on the label on the camera.

Last resort: factory reset. Tapo’s reset guide says to press and hold Reset with a pin for about 5 seconds until the light blinks red. On pan-tilt cameras, tilt the lens up to reach the Reset button. You will then need to set it up again in the Tapo app. Removing it in the app (long-press its card, or Camera Settings > Remove) also resets it; Tapo says a Tapo Care plan stays on your account.