# Dashcam issue



## KBiello

Hello fellow Tesla friends. So my car has the new software update that is supposed to have the dashcam and sentry mode viewer. I cannot for the life of me find how to view anything. I got a new usb thinking the old one had friend during the update, but no luck. Any help on how to find the viewer would be great!


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## Pdjelaj

Hit the actual dashcam icon like you would to save while driving(when parked) they put a drop down menu there.. took me a while


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## BluestarE3

Also, be sure there's saved video clips that can be played via the dashcam viewer. See this thread starting from this post:
https://teslaownersonline.com/threads/sentry-mode-system-error.16030/#post-281507


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## KBiello

Pdjelaj said:


> Hit the actual dashcam icon like you would to save while driving(when parked) they put a drop down menu there.. took me a while


Thanks! My little camera icon is gone though 😳


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## GDN

KBiello said:


> Thanks! My little camera icon is gone though 😳


That means you don't have a properly configured drive with the correct folder structure installed. Make sure you are plugged in and make sure you still have the folders in place. Has the drive fried? Take it in the house and see if you can read it on a PC/MAC.


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## KBiello

GDN said:


> That means you don't have a properly configured drive with the correct folder structure installed. Make sure you are plugged in and make sure you still have the folders in place. Has the drive fried? Take it in the house and see if you can read it on a PC/MAC.


My first one was, but it fried with the software update. So I got a new 3.0 one. It doesn't seem to be working either though. Is there a recommended one?


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## BluestarE3

KBiello said:


> My first one was, but it fried with the software update. So I got a new 3.0 one. It doesn't seem to be working either though. Is there a recommended one?


Just to be clear, you did format the new drive as FAT32 (not exFAT, ext4 or NTFS) and you created a folder named "TeslaCam" (without quotes, but with capital "T" and "C") on it?


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## KBiello

BluestarE3 said:


> Just to be clear, you did format the new drive as FAT32 (not exFAT, ext4 or NTFS) and you created a folder named "TeslaCam" (without quotes, but with capital "T" and "C") on it?


It doesn't format to fat32. I do have a folder though. I guess I need a new one. Do you recommend one?


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## BluestarE3

KBiello said:


> It doesn't format to fat32. I do have a folder though. I guess I need a new one. Do you recommend one?


Well, if it's not FAT32, then it simply won't work for dashcam purposes (that holds true regardless of the size, brand or type of drive). When you say it doesn't format to FAT32, is it because you are trying to do so with the native Windows tool and it doesn't support devices larger than 32GB? If so, use a third-party utility instead. I'm not a Windows user myself, but maybe this article will help: https://www.howtogeek.com/316977/how-to-format-usb-drives-larger-than-32gb-with-fat32-on-windows/


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## Edward Reading

I think the OP had a USB drive that was formatted and working properly prior to this update and now is not being found by the OS. I am having the same problem. I I have a 500 GB SSD that has music in one folder and another set up for dash cam. OS can see the music, but since this update it can't find the TeslaCam directory. Tried a Roadie that was working prior to the update and that won't ork either.


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## NR4P

Do we still have name a folder TeslaCam or do the latest s/w revs take care of that? 
My two drives had that done manually way back.


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## BluestarE3

NR4P said:


> Do we still have name a folder TeslaCam or do the latest s/w revs take care of that?
> My two drives had that done manually way back.


Yes, you need to create a folder called TeslaCam on the storage device. This has to be done on your computer. Once you plug the storage device into your car's front USB port, it will create the necessary subfolders for the video clips (RecentClips, SavedClips, SentryClips).


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## NR4P

BluestarE3 said:


> Yes, you need to create a folder called TeslaCam on the storage device. This has to be done on your computer. Once you plug the storage device into your car's front USB port, it will create the necessary subfolders for the video clips (RecentClips, SavedClips, SentryClips).


Figured that but it was so long ago for me had no idea if Tesla was doing that now. Thanks


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## BluestarE3

Edward Reading said:


> I think the OP had a USB drive that was formatted and working properly prior to this update and now is not being found by the OS.


He said his old (once working) device "fried", so he bought a new USB 3.0 device. He said he wasn't able to format it as FAT32, which implies he either used it straight out of the box or else he formatted it as some other filesystem type.


> I am having the same problem. I I have a 500 GB SSD that has music in one folder and another set up for dash cam. OS can see the music, but since this update it can't find the TeslaCam directory.


Are you using the 500GB SSD for both music and dashcam or just for music (with dashcam on a second USB device)? If it's the former, did you partition the drive or just use separate folders for music and dashcam on the same 500GB SSD? Music and TeslaCam need to be either on separate drives or on separate partitions if using a single drive for both media types. Also, when you say "OS", are you referring to your computer's operating system or your car's?


> Tried a Roadie that was working prior to the update and that won't ork either.


I believe there's a patch from Roadie to correct this problem on their device for firmware 2020.12.5.


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## BluestarE3

Edward Reading said:


> I I have a 500 GB SSD that has music in one folder and another set up for dash cam. OS can see the music, but since this update it can't find the TeslaCam directory.


One other thought: Assuming you did have separate partitions for music and dashcam on that 500GB SSD, did you format those partitions as FAT32 or ext4? In my case, I was using ext4 successfully for both dashcam and music prior to 2020.12.5. With the 2020.12.5 update, they removed ext4 support for the dashcam function, but retained it for music. I had to reformat my dashcam partition to FAT32, but was able to continue listening to music on its ext4 partition.


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## Edward Reading

BluestarE3 said:


> He said his old (once working) device "fried", so he bought a new USB 3.0 device. He said he wasn't able to format it as FAT32, which implies he either used it straight out of the box or else he formatted it as some other filesystem type.
> 
> Are you using the 500GB SSD for both music and dashcam or just for music (with dashcam on a second USB device)? If it's the former, did you partition the drive or just use separate folders for music and dashcam on the same 500GB SSD? Music and TeslaCam need to be either on separate drives or on separate partitions if using a single drive for both media types. Also, when you say "OS", are you referring to your computer's operating system or your car's?
> 
> I believe there's a patch from Roadie to correct this problem on their device for firmware 2020.12.5.


I believe that he said that he thought that it was fried. I am using a the 500GB SSD for both dashcam and music and it is partitioned. I'm referring to the car's OS not seeing the TeslaCam partition. Like I said, this was all working fine prior to the update.


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## Edward Reading

BluestarE3 said:


> One other thought: Assuming you did have separate partitions for music and dashcam on that 500GB SSD, did you format those partitions as FAT32 or ext4? In my case, I was using ext4 successfully for both dashcam and music prior to 2020.12.5. With the 2020.12.5 update, they removed ext4 support for the dashcam function, but retained it for music. I had to reformat my dashcam partition to FAT32, but was able to continue listening to music on its ext4 partition.


It was formatted as FAT32. I also re-formatted it after the update, but that didn't help either.


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## BluestarE3

Edward Reading said:


> I believe that he said that he thought that it was fried.


His exact words were:


KBiello said:


> My first one was, but it fried with the software update. So I got a new 3.0 one. It doesn't seem to be working either though. Is there a recommended one?


It doesn't matter if his first drive was actually "fried" or not. Based on this conclusion he drew, he got a new one, but this one wasn't working for him either. So, I asked him:


BluestarE3 said:


> Just to be clear, you did format the new drive as FAT32 (not exFAT, ext4 or NTFS) and you created a folder named "TeslaCam" (without quotes, but with capital "T" and "C") on it?


To which he replied:


KBiello said:


> It doesn't format to fat32. I do have a folder though. I guess I need a new one. Do you recommend one?


To which I replied:


BluestarE3 said:


> Well, if it's not FAT32, then it simply won't work for dashcam purposes (that holds true regardless of the size, brand or type of drive). When you say it doesn't format to FAT32, is it because you are trying to do so with the native Windows tool and it doesn't support devices larger than 32GB? If so, use a third-party utility instead. I'm not a Windows user myself, but maybe this article will help: https://www.howtogeek.com/316977/how-to-format-usb-drives-larger-than-32gb-with-fat32-on-windows/


Since your drive is FAT32, you two apparently have different issues at this point.


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## KBiello

BluestarE3 said:


> His exact words were:
> 
> It doesn't matter if his first drive was actually "fried" or not. Based on this conclusion he drew, he got a new one, but this one wasn't working for him either. So, I asked him:
> 
> To which he replied:
> 
> To which I replied:
> 
> Since your drive is FAT32, you two apparently have different issues at this point.


First, "she". I realize this is a Male dominated forum, but I'm a female Tesla owner. My old flash drive worked fine until the software update. I bought a new one, and added the TeslaCam folder, but when I try to format it, the option for Fat32 isn't there. I use mostly a Mac, but have a windows computer for work, which is what I tried to format on. So, not sure if I can just buy one already prepped, or if there's a way to format it to Fat32. I saw the post about a third party app... will try that first. Thanks gents.


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## Edward Reading

KBiello said:


> First, "she". I realize this is a Male dominated forum, but I'm a female Tesla owner. My old flash drive worked fine until the software update. I bought a new one, and added the TeslaCam folder, but when I try to format it, the option for Fat32 isn't there. I use mostly a Mac, but have a windows computer for work, which is what I tried to format on. So, not sure if I can just buy one already prepped, or if there's a way to format it to Fat32. I saw the post about a third party app... will try that first. Thanks gents.


Try your Mac, I couldn't do it on our Windows machine, but our Mac had the option.


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## BluestarE3

KBiello said:


> First, "she". I realize this is a Male dominated forum, but I'm a female Tesla owner. My old flash drive worked fine until the software update. I bought a new one, and added the TeslaCam folder, but when I try to format it, the option for Fat32 isn't there. I use mostly a Mac, but have a windows computer for work, which is what I tried to format on. So, not sure if I can just buy one already prepped, or if there's a way to format it to Fat32. I saw the post about a third party app... will try that first. Thanks gents.


My apologies for making an incorrect assumption about your gender. Since you have access to a Mac, you should be able to use its native utility to format your USB drive as FAT32. Not a Mac user myself, but it seems to be pretty straightforward based on this article: https://www.easeus.com/mac-file-recovery/format-usb-flash-drive-to-fat32-on-mac.html#1

Also, you need to create the TeslaCam folder *after* formatting the drive since the act of formatting erases any existing content on that drive.

One more thing (channeling Steve Jobs?): Just for fun, you may want to try reformatting your original "fried" USB drive to FAT32 as outlined in the article above, adding the TeslaCam folder to it, and then see if it'll work again in your car. Even if it doesn't work for dashcam, don't throw it away yet. Unless the drive failed to format successfully, you may still be able to use it on your computers for file backup/transfer purposes.


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## SR22pilot

Because Tesla now records 4 feeds, it requires a moderately high write speed which many usb sticks can’t provide. I recommend the small Samsung SSDs. What you think is a fried usb stick could just be one too slow for the latest version of Dashcam.


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## garsh

SR22pilot said:


> Because Tesla now records 4 feeds, it requires a moderately high write speed which many usb sticks can't provide. I recommend the small Samsung SSDs. What you think is a fried usb stick could just be one too slow for the latest version of Dashcam.


Sometimes a USB drive does fry itself though due to heat generated by the constant writing. I've killed a couple devices this way. To test, plug it into some other device and see if you can read it.


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## susmiri

KBiello said:


> It doesn't format to fat32. I do have a folder though. I guess I need a new one. Do you recommend one?


I thought the new versions of the software now supported exFAT. Is that not correct?


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## BluestarE3

susmiri said:


> I thought the new versions of the software now supported exFAT. Is that not correct?


I don't know if anybody actually got this to work, despite widespread news stories.

Tesla never officially announced support for anything other than FAT32; however, ext4 did work for dashcam for a while, but support for it was inexplicably dropped in 2020.12.5. Hopefully, it'll be restored in a future update.


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## Klaus-rf

KBiello said:


> First, "she". I realize this is a Male dominated forum, but I'm a female Tesla owner. My old flash drive worked fine until the software update. I bought a new one, and added the TeslaCam folder, but when I try to format it, the option for Fat32 isn't there. I use mostly a Mac, but have a windows computer for work, which is what I tried to format on. So, not sure if I can just buy one already prepped, or if there's a way to format it to Fat32. I saw the post about a third party app... will try that first. Thanks gents.


 Windows is intentionally limited to FAT32 partitions of 32GB or less. The reasons for this are outside the scope of this discussion, but Windows will only create/format a partition up to 32GB - no matter the actual storage size of the USB - in FAT32.

There are several 3rd party tools for Windows (https://www.easeus.com/partition-master/format-usb-flash-drive-in-windows-10.html) that will format larger USB partitions (>32GB). Or you can use 'diskpart', a built-in command-line tool on all vers of Windows since at least Win7. The bottom of the link above has the needed diskpart commands.


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## Yanquetino

I wonder if anyone else has noticed this…? Ever since downloading the upgrade to display TeslaCam videos on the touchscreen, the Dashcam records only erratically —if at all. In the past, I thought that they always recorded up to an hour's worth of video, and then would start rewriting over the older clips. Well… not so with mine. When I opened the viewer yesterday, the latest Dashcam clip was from May 5… nothing recorded since then. The Sentry clips, however, consistently record everytime the car is in Park when away from home. Has the software changed, and the DashCam only stores clips if you either push the button or honk the horn to save them?


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## garsh

Yanquetino said:


> I wonder if anyone else has noticed this…? Ever since downloading the upgrade to display TeslaCam videos on the touchscreen, the Dashcam records only erratically -if at all. In the past, I thought that they always recorded up to an hour's worth of video, and then would start rewriting over the older clips. Well… not so with mine. When I opened the viewer yesterday, the latest Dashcam clip was from May 5… nothing recorded since then. The Sentry clips, however, consistently record everytime the car is in Park when away from home. Has the software changed, and the DashCam only stores clips if you either push the button or honk the horn to save them?


The in-car viewer only displays SavedClips and SentryClips. It does NOT let you see RecentClips.

You'll have to pull the drive and plug it into a computer or phone to view the most recent hour of clips.


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## Yanquetino

garsh said:


> The in-car viewer only displays SavedClips and SentryClips. It does NOT let you see RecentClips.
> 
> You'll have to pull the drive and plug it into a computer or phone to the most recent hour of clips.


Ah…! That explains it. Thank you, Garsh! Kind of odd that the viewer doesn't also include a tab for the last hour of RecentClips. Why store them if you can't view them without removing the drive and plugging it in to a computer? Maybe in a future update…?

I'd also welcome the ability to push the message to view a "Sentry Alert" and have that video start playing at about 10 seconds before the alert occurred. Scrolling through the entire clip, just to find the actual "Alert" can be tedious.


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## Yanquetino

garsh said:


> The in-car viewer only displays SavedClips and SentryClips. It does NOT let you see RecentClips.
> 
> You'll have to pull the drive and plug it into a computer or phone to view the most recent hour of clips.


NOPE! I just pulled the drive and plugged it into my computer. Although it has a folder "RecentClips," that folder is… EMPTY. Nothing in it. Zip, zero, zilch, nada. I am really disappointed, for I wanted to download a copy of a clip while driving earlier today. I guess from now on I'll have to remember to honk the horn rather than assume that the DashCam records up to one hour of driving like in previous versions of the video software. Has anyone else noticed this, or is mine a unique problem?


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## garsh

Yanquetino said:


> I am really disappointed, for I wanted to download copy of a clip while driving earlier today. I guess from now on I'll have to remember to honk the horn rather than assume that the DashCam records up to one hour of driving like in previous versions of the video software. Has anyone else noticed this, or is mine a unique problem?


When you say "earlier today", were you driving more than an hour ago?
When I say that it stores the "last hour", what it actually does is delete all files more than an hour old.


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## Yanquetino

garsh said:


> When you say "earlier today", were you driving more than an hour ago?
> When I say that it stores the "last hour", what it actually does is delete all files more than an hour old.


Are you saying that, if my car is turned off and parked in my garage, the DashCam starts to delete ALL files in the RecentClips folder? I don't recall that being the case previously. I thought that it always kept the last hour of clips recorded, and when the folder fills up with a full hour's worth of clips, it starts to rewrite over the oldest ones -but NOT delete ALL the hour's worth of files recorded while driving the car, whether it was earlier in the day, yesterday, last week, or whenever. If that's the case… I deem it a major programming flaw. Why delete the clips, since they'd just be overwritten anyway?


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## garsh

Yanquetino said:


> Are you saying that, if my car is turned off and parked in my garage, the DashCam starts to delete ALL files in the RecentClips folder? I don't recall that being the case previously.


It won't do that while it's in sleep mode.
But as soon as you wake the car back up, it will start deleting all those files.


> I thought that it always kept the last hour of clips recorded, and when the folder fills up with a full hour's worth of clips, it starts to rewrite over the oldest ones -but NOT delete ALL the hour's worth of files recorded while driving the car, whether it was earlier in the day, yesterday, last week, or whenever.


I think you're confusing the "Recent Clips" behavior with the "Sentry Clips" behavior. For Sentry Clips, it will keep the last hour's worth of clips, and then delete the oldest ones as newer ones are saved, exactly like you're describing.


> If that's the case… I deem it a major programming flaw. Why delete the clips, since they'd just be overwritten anyway?


I agree that it's not a good design decision. I think it was done for expediency when they first introduced the feature, and they haven't bothered to update the behavior since then.

I commented on this decision when the dashcam feature was first introduced.


garsh said:


> Oh, I do. Deleting all files older than a particular date is a pretty easy operation to program. But something as conceptually simple as "keep the latest 60 files" requires a few more lines of code, as you first have to count how many files there are, decide how many you want to delete, then find the X oldest files so you can delete them individually by name. It's a good bit more code.
> 
> Tesla is doing the former because it's quick & easy. Hopefully they'll have some intern update it this summer to do something better.
> 
> Ideally, they should just keep writing files as long as there is room. Don't bother deleting any files until the drive is getting close to full (leave some amount of overhead for saved files to continue to accumulate). You could also organize the files into hour-long subdirectories. I should just become a Tesla intern so I can fix this for them.





garsh said:


> Yep, Tesla took the easy way out and simply deletes all files that are more than an hour old (unless saved). I agree, no other dashcam works this way. As I said earlier, hopefully they can hire an intern to write the 20 lines of code to fix this.





garsh said:


> You need to recognize that it's not a single individual working on all aspects of the software.
> 
> You have the large team working with the most advanced machine learning concepts to produce ever-improving Autopilot software.
> 
> Then you have poor "Joe" who wrote the camera drivers. Someone tells Joe that Elon has promised DashCam to the masses, and Joe pulled the short straw and must implement it. "Just get something basic working for now". Joe has too much to do for his main projects, so he quickly writes some code that saves 1-minute videos, and deletes files more than an hour old.


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## Yanquetino

garsh said:


> It won't do that while it's in sleep mode.
> But as soon as you wake the car back up, it will start deleting all those files.


Precisely! So why was my RecentClips folder *empty*? The car was *off* in my garage. I only started it up again to remove the drive and plug it into my computer to retrieve those clips. Surely you're not saying that in the few seconds it took me to unplug the drive Dashcam started to *erase* the full hour's worth of clips…!?!

This is what the Model 3 manual says about Dashcam:








The manual also states:








So it's *not* *recording* when powered off. But I see nothing in the manual that indicates it *deletes* clips without overwriting them. Seems to me that the RecentClips folder should therefore always contain up to an hour of clips, yet mine was *empty* when I plugged it into my computer.

Other Model 3 owners: please check your RecentClips folder. If they do contain the most recent hour of clips when your car was powered on, yet mine doesn't, there's something wrong with my DashCam software.


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## garsh

Yanquetino said:


> Surely you're not saying that in the few seconds it took me to unplug the drive Dashcam started to *erase* the full hour's worth of clips…!?!


Indeed, I am.
It's very fast and easy to execute a single "find /RecentClips/* -mmin +60 -exec rm {} \;" command.
If you are unfamiliar with how filesystems work: files are never actually "deleted" - the entries in the drive's allocation table are marked unused, so that it "forgets" that the files exist - that's why it can be so quick. And it's also why "undelete" programs are able to actually undelete files.


> But I see nothing in the manual that indicates it *deletes* clips without overwriting them.


I know. But I'm telling you how the software currently functions. I agree that it's a poor design, and I hope they change it, but it has *always* worked that way.


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## TrevP

I did a whole video on how to setup your SSD for both dashcam/sentry mode and music for both Mac and Windows. Follow the instructions and it will work as intended.






I recommend the Samsung T series SSD drives for this this, especially if you have the @Jeda Products USB hub in your car


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## Yanquetino

garsh said:


> I know. But I'm telling you how the software currently functions. I agree that it's a poor design, and I hope they change it, but it has *always* worked that way.


Sorry, but that is *not* how the DashCam worked previously, before we could view clips on the screen. In the past there were always clips in my RecentClips folder, up to an hour's worth, from the last time I drove the car. Indeed, if the software *deleted* all the clips, in the few seconds it took me to unplug the drive, then *nobody* would have any clips in their RecentClips folders if they haven't driven the car for more than an hour.

I need other owners to confirm that they do or do not have clips in their RecentClips folder. C'mon, folks: you didn't drive your car all night. Go unplug your drives this morning and check. Is your RecentClips folder *empty*?


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## Yanquetino

TrevP said:


> I did a whole video on how to setup your SSD for both dashcam/sentry mode and music for both Mac and Windows. Follow the instructions and it will work as intended.


I have that same SSD in my Model 3, Trev. If "it will work as intended," does this mean DashCam will delete all the clips in my RecentClips folder if I unplug it after not having driven it for more than an hour? Does your SSD have clips in your RecentClips folder, after sitting idle all night? If so… something is wrong with the DashCam in my Model 3.


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## garsh

Yanquetino said:


> Sorry, but that is *not* how the DashCam worked previously, before we could view clips on the screen. In the past there were always clips in my RecentClips folder, up to an hour's worth, from the last time I drove the car. Indeed, if the software *deleted* all the clips, in the few seconds it took me to unplug the drive, then *nobody* would have any clips in their RecentClips folders if they haven't driven the car for more than an hour.


Yep, pretty much. Whether or not you have clips older than an hour in RecentClips will all depend on whether or not you were lucky enough to unplug the drive before the car got around to removing them. It's a crapshoot.


Yanquetino said:


> I need other owners to confirm that they do or do not have clips in their RecentClips folder. C'mon, folks: you didn't drive your car all night. Go unplug your drives this morning and check. Is your RecentClips folder *empty*?


Search within this thread, from when the feature was first introduced: V9 / V10 Features: Dashcam
You'll find lots of members complaining about this behavior.


Rich M said:


> New text indicates any video clip older than 1 hour will be deleted regardless of how much space you have on your drive. So it sounds like it can never use any more than 1.8 GB plus ~300 MB for each 10 min clip you choose to save. This makes it super important to remember to hit the save button within 10 minutes of anything interesting happening.





NR4P said:


> The system deletes unsaved recordings after the last hour.





LUXMAN said:


> I still don't get why it just doesn't save the last 60 one-minute clips.
> Why does it delete anything in that is not in the current hour but before you have 60 clips?


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## Yanquetino

garsh said:


> Yep, pretty much. Whether or not you have clips older than an hour in RecentClips will all depend on whether or not you were lucky enough to unplug the drive before the car got around to removing them. It's a crapshoot.


Well… if true, it's not just a crapshoot, but *crap*. Since DashCam will overwrite the oldest clips in the one-hour cache, why delete them all? The Model 3 manual says *nothing* about such deletions. Indeed, it gives the impression that the oldest clips is in the RecentClips folder will only be *overwritten. *


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## Bigriver

Yanquetino said:


> I need other owners to confirm that they do or do not have clips in their RecentClips folder. C'mon, folks: you didn't drive your car all night. Go unplug your drives this morning and check. Is your RecentClips folder *empty*?


Yes, for my model 3, the recent folder on my Samsung SSD is empty.

For my model X, the recent folder on the Samsung SSD is not empty. It has over 100 files of clips from 4:16 pm to 5:16 pm from 5/18/2020. Very riveting video of the non-happenings in my garage. Non-coincidentally, the car installed 2020.16.2.1 at 5:20 pm that day, and since that update my model X has not been able to recognize the SSD. I think it is a bug associated with MCU1, and as I am non-patiently waiting for the parts to get the MCU2 upgrade, I've not spent any time trying to resolve the issue. My original USB sticks work (most of the time).

I have not often pulled the SSD's to review any footage. When I have, tho, my recollection is that there would be files in the recent folder, which have always been my garage. It may not record when it is asleep, but the cars don't instantly go to sleep when arriving home. Anyway, I've never expected the recents folder to be of any use. I've always understood that I need to reach over to initiate a save if there is particular footage I want to keep.

Both of my cars are currently on 2020.20.12.


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## garsh

Yanquetino said:


> Well… if true, it's not just a crapshoot, but *crap*. Since DashCam will overwrite the oldest clips in the one-hour cache, why delete them all? The Model 3 manual says *nothing* about such deletions. Indeed, it gives the impression that the oldest clips is in the RecentClips folder will only be *overwritten. *


Yep. It's important to manually save any recordings that you may want to look at more than an hour into the future.


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## Yanquetino

Bigriver said:


> Yes, for my model 3, the recent folder on my Samsung SSD is empty.
> 
> For my model X, the recent folder on the Samsung SSD is not empty. It has over 100 files of clips from 4:16 pm to 5:16 pm from 5/18/2020. Very riveting video of the non-happenings in my garage. Non-coincidentally, the car installed 2020.16.2.1 at 5:20 pm that day, and since that update my model X has not been able to recognize the SSD.


Thanks, Bigriver! My guess (?) is that your Model X still retains its RecentClips, since the 2020.16.2.1 update downloaded just a few minutes after the last clip, and thus DashCam hasn't been able to delete those files from the now "unrecognized" SSD -unlike with your Model 3. For the life of me, I'll never understand why Dashcam would delete those clips after more than an hour, since they will simply be overwritten anyway. Makes no sense. The software already has the necessary programming to keep the memory used within a pre-defined limit and *not* fill up the entire drive.


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## Yanquetino

garsh said:


> Yep. It's important to manually save any recordings that you may want to look at more than an hour into the future.


I will henceforth remember to immediately do that. And I purport that _Tesla needs to clarify in the manual _that Dashcam erases RecentClips entirely if you haven't driven the car for more than an hour. That omission is negligent, a serious oversight in the instructions for using DashCam.

I decided to put this problem to the test. I got in my Model 3 and drove around town for a little over an hour. As soon as I got home, I immediately removed the SSD and plugged it into my computer. Sure enough, there were 240 files in the RecentClips folder (240 ÷ 4 cameras = 60 one-minute recordings). I copied them to my hard drive.

I then put the SSD back in the car. After waiting more than an hour, I went back out to the garage and removed the SSD a second time. Yup: DashCam had* deleted* all of the 240 files that were in RecentClips an hour ago. Sheesh!

Again, that deletion makes *no sense* to me. The software is already programmed to rewrite over the oldest clips in the folder, and thus keep the occupied memory to a pre-determined limit of one hour of video recordings. *Why* delete those files, rather than just rewriting over them when another hour of video starts recording? That's just… dumb.


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## bwilson4web

After getting an alert ‘USB drive too slow,” I replaced with a USB 3.0 thumb drive and reformatted. But I notice there are USB 3.1 and two were write rated a 150 MB’s, $50, and 180 MB’s, $90, at Best Buy.

Do we have the minimum USB write speed?

Bob Wilson


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## garsh

bwilson4web said:


> After getting an alert 'USB drive too slow," I replaced with a USB 3.0 thumb drive and reformatted. But I notice there are USB 3.1 and two were write rated a 150 MB's, $50, and 180 MB's, $90, at Best Buy.
> 
> Do we have the minimum USB write speed?
> 
> Bob Wilson


Usually advertised USB thumb drive speeds are read speeds. And I've never seen one advertise sustainable speeds, just burst speeds. TeslaCam performs non-stop writing to the drive, and thumb drives just aren't designed to handle that.

That's why I recommend getting a micro SD card designed for digital cameras, along with a good micro SD card reader. Or you can go high-end and get an SSD.


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## bwilson4web

Here is the one I got:


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