SADP Hikvision: how to download the tool, find a camera on the network, activate it and change its IP

SADP (Search Active Devices Protocol) is Hikvision's official free tool for discovering devices on a local network. It lists every Hikvision and HiLook camera, NVR/DVR recorder, door station and other device the computer can see, and lets you take the first steps without opening the web interface: activate the device, set its network parameters and enable cloud access.

SADP's main strength is that it finds a device through the manufacturer's discovery protocol rather than by IP address. A camera with the factory address 192.168.1.64 will therefore appear in the list even if your computer is on 192.168.0.x and the camera cannot yet be opened in a browser. That is exactly why installers always keep SADP at hand: it is the quickest way to bring a device into your own network.

Download the tool only from the official Hikvision website: Support → HiTools → SADP. The download page shows the current version (as of October 2026, V3.1.4.6, about 68 MB), with builds for Windows and macOS. The program is free and requires no registration.

On the same page Hikvision states that SADP stopped receiving updates in April 2026 and recommends moving to HiTools Delivery, which, besides device discovery, network setup and password reset, can also upgrade firmware in batch. For now SADP still works with all devices and is perfectly adequate for one or two cameras; for sites with dozens of cameras it makes sense to learn HiTools Delivery right away.

Once launched, SADP scans the network by itself and refreshes the list roughly every 15 seconds; the Refresh button updates it immediately. For each device you see the type (model), Active or Inactive status, IPv4 address, port (8000 by default on Hikvision), HTTP port, gateway, firmware version and serial number. Columns can be sorted, which helps when the network has several dozen cameras.

Double-clicking an IP address opens the device's web interface in a browser, provided the computer and the device are on the same subnet. The list can be exported to a file (Excel or CSV, depending on the version), giving you a ready-made table of models, addresses and serial numbers for the system documentation.

New Hikvision devices, and those reset to factory defaults, come without a password and are marked Inactive in SADP. Until a device is activated you can neither log in nor change its network settings. Select it in the list, enter a new password for the admin user in the activation panel on the right, confirm it and click Activate. The password must be at least 8 characters and contain at least three of four types: upper-case letters, lower-case letters, digits and special characters. Several inactive devices can be selected and activated with the same password.

For a recorder the same panel may offer a channel password field, which the NVR uses to activate inactive cameras connected to it. Supported models also have a checkbox there to enable Hik-Connect (see below), and some devices offer Wi-Fi settings. If after activation SADP offers to set a reserved email, export a GUID file or configure security questions, take that step: it is your insurance against a forgotten password.

Select an active device and the network parameters panel opens on the right. There are two options. If your network has a router with DHCP, tick Enable DHCP and the device will obtain its address, mask and gateway automatically. A static address is more reliable for cameras and recorders: untick the box and enter an IP from your network (for example 192.168.0.101 if the router is 192.168.0.1), the mask 255.255.255.0 and the router's address as the gateway. Enter the admin password at the bottom and save the changes.

The gateway matters: without the correct gateway and DNS the device cannot reach the internet, and the Hik-Connect cloud service will not work. Pick camera addresses outside the range the router hands out via DHCP, or one day the router will give the same address to a laptop and the camera will drop off the network.

If you select several devices at once, SADP offers batch editing: you set a start IP and the addresses are assigned in sequence. Select three cameras with the start address 10.16.1.21 and they become 10.16.1.21, 10.16.1.22 and 10.16.1.23. The mask, gateway and ports are the same for all of them, and the admin password must match.

On supported devices SADP has an Enable Hik-Connect checkbox, both during activation and in the network parameters panel. The first time you enable it, the tool asks you to create a verification code of 6 to 12 letters or digits, case-sensitive. The app will ask for this code when you add the device. Hik-Connect is enabled one device at a time, not in batch. If the device came from a previous owner, SADP offers an Unbind function to remove it from a Hik-Connect account; it requires that account's user name and password plus the verification code. Connecting to a phone is covered step by step in our Hik-Connect article.

The firmware version column shows at a glance which cameras have not been updated for a long time; a single system often mixes devices with firmware from different years. The serial number is needed for warranty claims, for adding a device to Hik-Connect manually and for contacting Hikvision support, so there is no need to read it off the label of a camera mounted under the ceiling.

The Forgot Password button in SADP starts the official recovery procedure: a code sent to the reserved email, a GUID file, security questions, or exporting a request file and then importing the reset file received from support. Here the tool is simply the instrument for the export and import steps; the procedure itself, the timing and the proof-of-ownership requirements are described in detail in our separate article on resetting a Hikvision password.

SADP works within a single segment of the local network. It will not find a device through a router, across VLANs, and certainly not over the internet. Typical causes: the laptop is on guest Wi-Fi or another network, or the camera sits in a dedicated CCTV VLAN while the computer is in the office VLAN, with a managed switch or router between them. The check is simple: plug the laptop by cable into the same switch as the camera.

The second group of causes is the computer itself. Windows Firewall or antivirus software may block SADP, so allow it on private networks when it first starts. VPN clients and virtual network adapters (VirtualBox, Hyper-V) also interfere and are best disabled while searching. Cameras on a recorder's built-in PoE ports live on the NVR's internal network and are usually invisible from an office computer; they are configured from the recorder's menu.

The third is power and cabling. If the PoE switch lacks power budget or the cable is badly crimped, the camera keeps rebooting and appears and disappears from the list. Check the link LED on the port and the switch's PoE budget, and try connecting the camera directly to a laptop through a PoE injector.

Inactive is not an error but the normal state of a new device or one that has been hardware-reset: just activate it. If a camera that used to work suddenly shows as Inactive, it has been reset to factory defaults, either with the Reset button or after a fault, and all its settings will have to be entered again.

An address conflict is a classic during installation: several new cameras with the same factory address 192.168.1.64 end up on one network and none of them opens properly. SADP still lists them as separate rows, by serial number. Activate the cameras and give them different addresses straight away, either in batch from a start IP or one by one. If the conflict is with another device such as a laptop, printer or router, move the camera to a free address outside the DHCP range.

If you would rather not spend time on addressing, VLANs and the cloud, SAT Solutions will configure the system for you: in our price list IP camera setup starts at 34,000 sum and commissioning is 43,000 sum per camera, with a minimum order of 560,000 sum. Hikvision and HiLook cameras and recorders are in our catalogue, in stock in Tashkent.