If you own a Ricoh Theta X camera with a recent firmware and you’ve tried to connect the old Ricoh Theta app to it in Wi-Fi client mode, you’ve probably noticed that it doesn’t work anymore. Here’s how to re-enable it.

For a bit of background:

The Ricoh Theta X can be remote-controlled through Wi-Fi using either AP mode or client mode:

  • AP mode is the camera acting as a standalone access point, and your cellphone connecting to it directly.
  • Client mode is the camera connecting to an existing access point, your cellphone connecting to the same access point, then connecting to the camera through the router.

The problem in client mode is, while you can connect the camera to the access point and the Ricoh Theta app sees the camera as connectable, when you try to connect to it, after entering the Wi-Fi password, the app shows a popup saying “Communicating” with a spinner but nothing happens.

The reason is, the password is in fact incorrect: the client mode password is not the same as the WiFi password. Unfortunately, there is no menu entry in newer firmware versions or in the Ricoh Theta app to set the client mode password - only the Wi-Fi AP password can be set to connect in AP mode. Some older documentation online mentions using the serial number as the client mode password, but this doesn’t work anymore.

But the REAL reason this is broken is this:

Ricoh doesn’t want you to use their old Ricoh Theta app. They want you to use their new Ricoh360 cloud app, that connects to their Ricoh360 cloud ecosystem and requires you to create an account and register your cameras. Because of course they do…

It has 360 in the name, so you know it’s crap. But you need it because sure enough, only the cloud app can set the client mode password now, and that’s very much on purpose.

Fortunately, if you don’t want this cloud nonsense just to be able to remote-control your camera through your Wi-Fi, you can still set the client mode password using the REST API from your computer. Then you can keep using the old, simple, standalone Ricoh Theta app.

Here’s how (note that you need a Linux machine for this. I don’t have Windows, but I suppose it would be easy enough to do the same in Windows):

  • Set your camera to AP mode
  • Connect your computer’s Wi-Fi to the camera’s AP using the Wi-Fi password. Your computer gets an IP like 192.168.1.5 (not .1, as 192.168.1.1 is the camera itself)
  • Create a file called set wifi_client_password.sh file containing the following lines:
#!/bin/sh  

WIFI_CLIENT_PASSWORD=$1  

if [ ! "${WIFI_CLIENT_PASSWORD}" ];then  
  echo "Usage: $0 <wifi client password to set>"  
  exit  
fi  

curl --json '{ "name": "camera.setOptions", "parameters": { "options": { "_password": "'${WIFI_CLIENT_PASSWORD}'" } } }' http://192.168.1.1/osc/commands/execute  
echo
  • Then run the script with the desired client mode password:
$ ./set wifi_client_password.sh abc123
  • If the operation succeeds, you should see it in the JSON state report:
{"name":"camera.setOptions","state":"done"}
  • Then enable client mode in the camera’s settings, connect the Ricoh Theta app using Wireless LAN client mode, enter the password you just set with the script and it should work again.