# Sentry Mode disappointment



## TetonTesla (Nov 18, 2018)

Well… can’t say I’m impressed with Sentry mode. Parked my car for 4 days in airport parking. It was an designated EV parking spot with slow charging for EV’s, and there was extra space between the cars. Car was trickle charging the entire time, so was fully charged and no reason for Sentry mode to turn off. Sentry mode recorded several people walking by the car on the first day. Then the next 3 days, zip, nada, no video recordings at all. Unfortunately… during that time someone parked next to me and intentionally doored my car… HARD. It is pretty obvious this was intentional. Sentry caught a couple of other Teslas parking and charging next to me the 1st day and there was TONS of room to fully open the doors. There is noticeable dent and full thickness paint damage. The one time I need Sentry mode and it fails me…


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## Flashgj (Oct 11, 2018)

That really sucks, sorry to hear that your car got damaged. I really don’t understand the hate people have that somehow justifies such actions.
Just curious, did you look at your phone app while you were away, and did it show that Sentry Mode was still active? Was it still on when you got in the car? If the battery charge never dropped below 20%, it should have never turned off. I wonder what caused it to turn off or stop working!


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## leenanj (Oct 19, 2021)

That is a bummer for sure that it stopped recording.

I do an in car reformat once every month at least just to be safe.

I have not had my sentry fail in the Tesla yet but using other dash
cams over the years it's not if but when the memory card will get corrupted.


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## shareef777 (Mar 10, 2019)

Yeah, I'm in 100% agreement. Tesla should at least pop up a warning that recording stopped.


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## SoFlaModel3 (Apr 15, 2017)

Sorry to hear that, I think it can run into issues with extended use because the car never “goes to sleep”. Obviously not a good answer as it should just work.


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## Madmolecule (Oct 8, 2018)

I have received 3 false sentry mode alarms in the last week. The last one I could see my car from a distance, and nothing was around it


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

If it's some consolation, at least it happened at a time when Sentry Mode footage wouldn't have really helped much. The police won't help with private property "hit and run", and it's unlikely they guilty party is insured.


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## Klaus-rf (Mar 6, 2019)

I've never found Sentry to be of any use at all - and the rather excessive power consumption makes it less than worthless. My M3 AWD uses 8-10 miles per hour of Sentry engagement where an 8-hopur period os Sentry active uses 68-100 miles of range while recording zip.

Not useful at all.


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## Madmolecule (Oct 8, 2018)

JasonF said:


> If it's some consolation, at least it happened at a time when Sentry Mode footage wouldn't ke have really helped much. The police won't help with private property "hit and run", and it's unlikely they guilty party is insured.


all I was saying is the loud car alarm went off three times in the last week, honking the horn and making kind of a growling sound. (They could of picked a better sound), were all false alarms, I believed the second one was set off when a motorcycle went by.
I have never had this happen before, mobile tech are coming next week to fix the recall, I did note it to the service bot


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## Madmolecule (Oct 8, 2018)

Good video on why disabled sentry at home might be a mistake. Gives a great tip on how the thieves spot cars with keys inside. Also his Tesla was nearby but the interface to go through the sentry video was not worthwhile. The door bell cameras worked very well.

i think there should be a home sentry, with only video and not the blinking lights when plugged in


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

Madmolecule said:


> Good video on why disabled sentry at home might be a mistake. Gives a great tip on how the thieves spot cars with keys inside. Also his Tesla was nearby but the interface to go through the sentry video was not worthwhile. The door bell cameras worked very well.


I live in one of those neighborhoods where people are not smart, and because it looks to be safe and crime free, they leave their cars outside and unlocked all night. So of course that attracts thieves who search through them at night. So far they haven’t taken any entire cars, but I’m sure they would if keys were in it.

They fortunately aren’t very brave, so they don’t go into garages even though some of those cars have transmitters in them. And they’re also fortunately not brave enough to take cars left unlocked and running in the driveway for 30 minutes with the keys in them. But someday those could happen if people aren’t more careful.


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## Rub"Y" (4 mo ago)

leenanj said:


> I do an in car reformat once every month at least just to be safe.


 May I ask how and where in the menu you can do this. Mine is exFAT formated and so far has recorded zilch.

Do you somehow have to eject the USB key so you don't corrupt data or do you just yank it out?

*** found it









But still not recording anything on the USB key, maybe it is defective. The lights flash when somebody comes too close but nothing is being recorded.


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## Kizzy (Jul 25, 2016)

Rub"Y" said:


> May I ask how and where in the menu you can do this. Mine is exFAT formated and so far has recorded zilch.
> 
> Do you somehow have to eject the USB key so you don't corrupt data or do you just yank it out?
> 
> ...


You can press and hold the DashCam Recording button in Quick Controls to stop recording before removing the drive to avoid possible corruption, but many people are unaware of this and have functional video recordings.

when you open the DashCam viewer, you should at the very least show a recent recording (up to an hour long) that would indicate that it is indeed capable of storing footage on the drive.


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## Rub"Y" (4 mo ago)

Thank You!


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## Rub"Y" (4 mo ago)

Klaus-rf said:


> I've never found Sentry to be of any use at all - and the rather excessive power consumption makes it less than worthless. My M3 AWD uses 8-10 miles per hour of Sentry engagement where an 8-hopur period os Sentry active uses 68-100 miles of range while recording zip.
> 
> Not useful at all.


I was at mom's tonight for 3 hours lost 4kms of range while on sentry mode ( about 2.5 miles ) Well worth it for me, 5 minutes of charging for 8 cents.


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## Rub"Y" (4 mo ago)

Anybody know the biggest USB key the model Y will format and the dashcam still works? I tried a 2 Terrabyte and it said format successful but a red X remained on the dashcam icon.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Rub"Y" said:


> Anybody know the biggest USB key the model Y will format and the dashcam still works? I tried a 2 Terrabyte and it said format successful but a red X remained on the dashcam icon.


USB thumb drives often don't offer good enough performance to work for Tesla dashcam. 

I'd suggest getting either an external SSD, or a microSD card rated for dashcams.


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## Rub"Y" (4 mo ago)

I just tried a 256G SSD and it works. I Have a 500G that I will try but need to save the files that are on it first before I format it to the "Y". lol

It was actually a 1 TB and it didn't work, I'm sure I have a 500G somewhere I will try it when I find it.


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## SimonMatthews (Apr 20, 2018)

garsh said:


> USB thumb drives often don't offer good enough performance to work for Tesla dashcam.
> 
> I'd suggest getting either an external SSD, or a microSD card rated for dashcams.


I use an M.2 drive in a USB enclosure. Works well and is quite compact.


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## Rub"Y" (4 mo ago)

SimonMatthews said:


> I use an M.2 drive in a USB enclosure. Works well and is quite compact.


Which size of memory, I'm looking to find the maximum it will record with. Didn't see it listed in the owner's manual.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Rub"Y" said:


> Which size of memory, I'm looking to find the maximum it will record with. Didn't see it listed in the owner's manual.


IIRC, a larger drive may allow you save more incidents and record more sentry mode events, but it won't cause the vehicle to save more history of regular recordings. It just blows old recordings away after an hour.









What happened to TeslaCam ordinary recordings?


I have a 500GB SSD in my car for recording TeslaCam footage. It used to record everything, day after day, and I could go back and review stuff from weeks earlier. It's one reason I got the huge SSD -- so it wouldn't fill up. On Thursday I took my new puppy to training and when I was loading...




www.teslaownersonline.com


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## SimonMatthews (Apr 20, 2018)

Rub"Y" said:


> Which size of memory, I'm looking to find the maximum it will record with. Didn't see it listed in the owner's manual.


I think it will only record 1 hour of Teslacam video, so the smallest M.2 you can buy is overkill on the amount of space. Mine is 200GB, but I partitioned it so much of that space is not available for the Teslacam recordings.


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