# USB drives - suggestions, issues, formatting, partitioning



## Dogwhistle

Hi all, 
At some point in the past, I must have allowed iTunes to convert my .mp3 collection to .m4a. Now I am trying to use music on a USB stick for the first time with the Model 3, and it appears Tesla does not support the .m4a format. Anyone know of a good tool for converting a crap-ton of m4As back to mp3? I see there are online tools, but man they are slow one file at a time. I am on an iMac.
Thanks!


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## TrevP

Try this:

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-convert-m4a-files-to-mp3-format/


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## Alex K

Dogwhistle said:


> Hi all,
> At some point in the past, I must have allowed iTunes to convert my .mp3 collection to .m4a. Now I am trying to use music on a USB stick for the first time with the Model 3, and it appears Tesla does not support the .m4a format. Anyone know of a good tool for converting a crap-ton of m4As back to mp3? I see there are online tools, but man they are slow one file at a time. I am on an iMac.
> Thanks!


I made a command line tool for the Mac that does exactly what you want. You will need to also download, unless you have them handy, additional programs: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fsvocsdmapwq21e/Convert Music to MP3?dl=0


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## 1russianguy

Assuming you already have V9 (although it might not matter), has anyone successfully implemented NOMAD wireless charging with recording dash cam video and playing music from a USB stick USING ONLY THE FRONT USB PORTS? If so, what method did you use? (detailed specifics on usb sticks, hub options, formatting option, etc..)


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## Umar Sear

Not done it, but pretty much any decent USB hub will do the trick.


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## SoFlaModel3

1russianguy said:


> Assuming you already have V9 (although it might not matter), has anyone successfully implemented NOMAD wireless charging with recording dash cam video and playing music from a USB stick USING ONLY THE FRONT USB PORTS? If so, what method did you use? (detailed specifics on usb sticks, hub options, formatting option, etc..)


I put this together - no music in my setup would be easy to include.


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## 1russianguy

SoFlaModel3 said:


> I put this together - no music in my setup would be easy to include.


Thanks, but how would you add music with another USB stick? Don't want to combine video and music into 1.


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## SoFlaModel3

1russianguy said:


> Thanks, but how would you add music with another USB stick? Don't want to combine video and music into 1.


I think you have a few options...

(1) One stick with 2 partitions for music and TeslaCam. I haven't tested that.

(2) 2 USB sticks and the same setup on each side

(3) 2 USB sticks and a USB hub

(4) Run wire from the 12V to free up the front USB


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## 1russianguy

SoFlaModel3 said:


> I think you have a few options...
> 
> (1) One stick with 2 partitions for music and TeslaCam. I haven't tested that.
> 
> (2) 2 USB sticks and the same setup on each side
> 
> (3) 2 USB sticks and a USB hub
> 
> (4) Run wire from the 12V to free up the front USB


I suppose something like this with a charging port should work?


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## garsh

1russianguy said:


> I suppose something like this with a charging port should work?


Yep, that's option #3. Plug the HUB into one of the front ports.


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## Jason Krellner

I have tested the 2 partition trick and it works perfectly. My Nomad pad doesn't come until November (supposed to ship 10/30), but I have my Y splitter and am ready to implement SoFlaModel3's solution. Will report back if/when I get it all working.


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## 1russianguy

Jason Krellner said:


> I have tested the 2 partition trick and it works perfectly. My Nomad pad doesn't come until November (supposed to ship 10/30), but I have my Y splitter and am ready to implement SoFlaModel3's solution. Will report back if/when I get it all working.


Thanks, my Nomad is coming in November as well but I want to use separate USB's for cam & music.. already received my hardware from Amazon, just waiting for my service appointment on the 24th to get the front USBs working (took delivery with them being nonfunctional).


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## allanak

I am happy with teslausb - a raspberry pi w setup that presents two partitions to the car. Takes about 30-40 seconds to be recognized by the car once powered up. When I pull into my garage, the pi connects to my wifi and copies any saved videos to my NAS automatically. Since I also have a Nomad charger, I ran an Anker 5 port USB charger from the cigarette lighter to the front. I plugged the Nomad into that and the pi into one of the now freed up ports as the Nomad requires both USB ports connected to power up. The only hiccup I've noticed is that the car won't start playing music where it left off - I assume it does with standard USB sticks but I've not tried any others. One time I had to remove/replug as the cam icon didn't appear on the screen. The pi with a case and short cable is $20 shipped from Adafruit, the Anker 5 port charger was another $24 and then pick up a microSD card of your choice if you don't already have one. Pretty solid setup for $50.


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## Bokonon

allanak said:


> The only hiccup I've noticed is that the car won't start playing music where it left off - I assume it does with standard USB sticks but I've not tried any others.


In my experience, the car does not resume where you left off with a directly-connected USB stick, so this hiccup may not be specific to your solution.


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## Milo

Have a splitter that allows me to use DashCam and USB-C for Android, but won't work for Apple. Want to add controller for TeslAtari. Is there a hub that will do all this?


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## garsh

Milo said:


> Have a splitter that allows me to use DashCam and USB-C for Android, but won't work for Apple. Want to add controller for TeslAtari. Is there a hub that will do all this?


Get an actual USB HUB instead of one of these non-spec-compliant USB splitters.
Any USB HUB should work.


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## JWardell

Yes, I have an Anker USB3 hub and have charger, game controller, and two USB sticks all plugged in and working well!


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## TMK26

JWardell said:


> Yes, I have an Anker USB3 hub and have charger, game controller, and two USB sticks all plugged in and working well!


Is it the $9.99 version on Amazon... Anker 4-Port USB 3.0 Ultra Slim Data Hub for MacBook, Mac Pro/Mini, iMac, Surface Pro, XPS, Notebook PC, USB Flash Drives, Mobile HDD, and More


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## msjulie

No issues with this, charges a phone and keep USB dashcam happy. This is basically the hub


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## JWardell

TMK26 said:


> Is it the $9.99 version on Amazon... Anker 4-Port USB 3.0 Ultra Slim Data Hub for MacBook, Mac Pro/Mini, iMac, Surface Pro, XPS, Notebook PC, USB Flash Drives, Mobile HDD, and More


Yes. I don't know for sure, but I think USB 3 hubs are more likely to pass higher current to things connected to them, and of course faster speed as well. There is probably something smaller than that one, but it was the one I already had in my laptop bag.


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## Skione65

Well....does anyone have a multi USB 3.0 port/hub that is reliable, doesn’t ‘catch fire and burn thru’ (the Anker), and just plain works? The reviews of these devices (I looked at many and got frustrated) are dismal. Jury is still out.
Also does everyone recommend a ‘powered’ or ‘unpowered’ device? All I’m looking to do is plug my splitter for the onboard dashcam usb into this and a PS4 type controller for my kids to play the Atari games. They hate using the screen!

Regards,

Ski


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## JWardell

Skione65 said:


> Well....does anyone have a multi USB 3.0 port/hub that is reliable, doesn't 'catch fire and burn thru' (the Anker), and just plain works? The reviews of these devices (I looked at many and got frustrated) are dismal. Jury is still out.
> Also does everyone recommend a 'powered' or 'unpowered' device? All I'm looking to do is plug my splitter for the onboard dashcam usb into this and a PS4 type controller for my kids to play the Atari games. They hate using the screen!
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Ski


Yikes...that certainly isn't the case with the Anker, their products are top notch, though I wonder if there are now counterfeits out there.
Frankly for a $10 or less USB Hub, who cares if it dies in a few years.


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## Kizzy

JWardell said:


> Yikes...that certainly isn't the case with the Anker, their products are top notch, though I wonder if there are now counterfeits out there.
> Frankly for a $10 or less USB Hub, who cares if it dies in a few years.


If it dies in flames, I'd care just a little bit.


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## tim-sutherland

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071JTSMVQ/?tag=model3ownersc-20

I have this hub with my phone cable, teslacam thumb drive, and the Amazon basics Xbox 360 controller AL working perfectly.


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## JWardell

Kizzy said:


> If it dies in flames, I'd care just a little bit.


I truly wonder how a USB hub could possibly catch on fire. Did someone our gasoline on it and light it with a flamethrower?
There is nothing int here that is flammable.


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## NJturtlePower

Might give this Anker hub a try myself.... I like the angled design and aluminum construction.

**UPDATE**

Just installed my USB hub last night...works great and very well built and compact. Includes a velcro strip too for a more secure mount.

Using it for my second phone dock, TeslaCam USB and Music USB, which are both Samsung FIT Plus series 32GB versions.


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## Gusm3

NJturtlePower said:


> Might give this Anker hub a try myself.... I like the angled design and aluminum construction.


 I'm gonna try the anker


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## Gusm3

How is Samsung compare to sandisk


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## NJturtlePower

Gusm3 said:


> How is Samsung compare to sandisk


No hard data, but Samsung makes some of the best SSD's and I have never had any failures in 20+ years with any of their other products including SSD's, flash drives, monitors, home electronics or otherwise.


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## Rbrooks84

following as im in need of a hub myself. whats the best solution that looks the cleanest in the console? dont want a huge mess down there


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## 101010

Is anyone else noticing that their USB drives are dying early deaths when being used for dash cam videos?

I'm on my 2nd dead USB now, having only owned the car since November.

The first USB was older, so I wrote off its untimely demise as a fluke.

But I bought a brand new *Kingston Digital DataTraveler SE9 32GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive* from Amazon on Dec 1st and now this one is dead.

And when I say dead, I mean I put it into a Mac or a PC and neither sees the drive at all.

Is anyone else seeing this?

If you're not having this problem, what brand and size of USB drive are you using?

Thanks!

[MOD EDIT - updated thread title to include more of what thread has become. 
original title: "USB drives dying early deaths when used for Tesla dash cam videos"]


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## 101010

Looks like someone posted something on reddit


__
https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/9l6e5o


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## sduck

There's something wrong or bogus about this. I've had dashcams in my cars for many years, and I've never had any problems with the sd cards they use. And it's the same kind of memory, at least as far as I know.


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## Designbot

I ordered a SanDisk 64GB UltraFit drive in October and noticed it was dead at the beginning of March. Same thing happened recently to this person and this person and this person. This person and this person and this person report their drives getting very hot. I think there is an issue here with Tesla's implementation.


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## JWM3

I’m using a old 8gb Sandisk USB drive once I have the dash cam feature, still working fine. 
You might got a fake Kingston drive.


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## Lgkahn

No writing 3 streams at once get a 3.0 USB drive.


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## garsh

Designbot said:


> I ordered a SanDisk 64GB UltraFit drive in October and noticed it was dead at the beginning of March. Same thing happened recently to this person and this person and this person. This person and this person and this person report their drives getting very hot. I think there is an issue here with Tesla's implementation.


Well sure. The issue is that standard, cheap USB flash drives are simply not designed to handle constant writes.

A traditional automaker would have specc'd a particular make & model of flash drive, re-branded it as their own, only allow you to use their branded drive, and sell it to you at 10x markup. It kind of sucks that we are on our own to figure out which makes/models of flash drives can handle this load, but I prefer that to being overcharged for a solution.


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## GDN

sduck said:


> There's something wrong or bogus about this. I've had dashcams in my cars for many years, and I've never had any problems with the sd cards they use. And it's the same kind of memory, at least as far as I know.


Compare apples to apples. You said you don't have problems with SD Cards. That is not what this thread is about. OP is referral by to cheap USB drives. I will have to do some searching but I think I was one of the first to burn up a cheap USB back at Thanksgiving. It was blazing hot when I went to pull it out and it never worked in any device again.

SD cards are built for video recording. There are references her to some using SD cards in an adapter. YMMV.


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## Frully

I tends to be not The degradation of the flash tends not to be in the actual writing of the individual files, since they are pseudorandom sequential across the length of the drive...but in fact from the pounding that the file allocation table takes. Every file getting written causes a write to the File Table section of the drive. That part fails = no more drive. Definitely get a better quality drive (not necessarily a higher capacity) because it will have higher write count performance.
Someone on here has suggested using a usb to sata adapter with an SSD which is a great idea because for not a lot of money you can have WAY higher write count in conjunction with proper wear levelling.


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## SalisburySam

Frully said:


> I tends to be not writing of the files...


I agree with your post, but what the heck does that first part mean?


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## sduck

GDN said:


> Compare apples to apples. You said you don't have problems with SD Cards. That is not what this thread is about. OP is referral by to cheap USB drives.


Yes, could be. I believe the same kind of memory is used, but perhaps the chip or circuit used to write to them is different or in different locations.



GDN said:


> SD cards are built for video recording. There are references her to some using SD cards in an adapter. YMMV.


This might also be a good solution - there are dedicated SD card>USB adaptors, has anyone tried one?


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## W.W.

Go with a Solid State and you should not have an issue I had issues with your standard usb sticks like the author of this thread.

Really happy with this
*Samsung T5 Portable SSD 500GB USB 3.1 (MU-PA500B/AM) [Canada Version]*

it has been running now for 2 months without 1 issue.


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## Rick Steinwand

^^^^ THIS ^^^^

With multiple camera streams, you need a SSD now. I bought one of these:


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## 2021M3lR

W.W. said:


> Go with a Solid State and you should not have an issue I had issues with your standard usb sticks like the author of this thread.
> 
> Really happy with this
> *Samsung T5 Portable SSD 500GB USB 3.1 (MU-PA500B/AM) [Canada Version]*
> 
> it has been running now for 2 months without 1 issue.


I assume it's *FAT32 already? Or *Did you have to format?


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## sduck

I'll third the ssd recommendation - they work much better than a flash drive. I got one of these - I set it up by partitioning it with 64gb set up with fat32 for the dashcam, and the rest formatted ext4 for music. And it works great, is tons faster than any of the flash drives I've tried, and doesn't run hot like any of the flash drives (it gets a bit warm, but that's all).


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## GDN

Very nice to see these bigger SSD drives. Hadn't thought of them working truly. Nice options in the $50 range that should hold up for a several years. I've never implemented a wireless charging pad/option of any kind. Need to read the other thread or two and find a nice small USB hub/splitter that will carry data and make a purchase soon. Way too much video being recorded these days now.


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## Sandy

GDN said:


> Very nice to see these bigger SSD drives. Hadn't thought of them working truly. Nice options in the $50 range that should hold up for a several years. I've never implemented a wireless charging pad/option of any kind. Need to read the other thread or two and find a nice small USB hub/splitter that will carry data and make a purchase soon. Way too much video being recorded these days now.


Great little unit. Anker quality and product support. Data transfer from all 4 ports. Will charge Qi pad and iOs devices as well. I have my iPhone charge cord and a 128gb USB 3 stick for the Tesla Cam plugged into it through the car's front right port.


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## TheHairyOne

I use one of these $4 amazon cables for my ssd. Cheaper than buying a portable drive.


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## Kizzy

I’ve never had a failure (though I don’t drive that much (7K miles in 6 months). I have a class 10, 128 Gb USB flash drive that I only use for the dashcam. I try to regularly remove files that I save.


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## dburkland

As others have said with the increase of streams (and thus write bandwidth) in the recent firmware it is imperative to pick flash media that not only has write performance but good long term write durability. I recently dumped my previous 8GB sandisk solution (which never failed me, just ran out of capacity) and instead went with this drive -> https://www.microcenter.com/product/482373/sandisk-128gb-sandisk-extreme-go-usb-31-flash-drive. With that said I think the Samsung SSD option (mentioned above) is superior as it has double the write performance over the previous drive I linked to and I'm sure even greater long-term durability when it comes to the flash media inside.


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## wackojacko

What about something like this:


Sorry not up on the SSD tech.


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## MelindaV

Like @Kizzy - I've also not had any issues with my USB drive(s) failing. I am yet to see a grey X and only issue I've had is now with Sentry one repeater camera gets pixelated for some of the recordings (but not the drive recordings), so expect that is a software issue, not USB drive issue (same on two different flash drives).


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## GDN

Rick Steinwand said:


> ^^^^ THIS ^^^^
> 
> With multiple camera streams, you need a SSD now. I bought one of these:





Sandy said:


> Great little unit. Anker quality and product support. Data transfer from all 4 ports. Will charge Qi pad and iOs devices as well. I have my iPhone charge cord and a 128gb USB 3 stick for the Tesla Cam plugged into it through the car's front right port.


I purchased both of these, Amazon Prime had them at the house yesterday. I wanted to partition the drive, but no matter what I did on the Mac I couldn't do so, will have to see what I can do with it on a PC. To say the least, it is reformatted and has the TeslaCam folder on it. It is in the car, plugged into the hub and recording away. Will see how it holds up long term and to the TX heat (I do use overheat protection though.)


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## Mosess

The Model 3 dash cam writes at a very low bit rate. Even with 3 camera views now recording, USB-2 is plenty sufficient for this and any flash drive can handle it easily. The issue has more to do with heat. Many low end drives are not rated for sustained high temp operation. I expect that the temps inside that center console can exceed 100ºf even if the cabin is kept at or below that temperature. 
I use a Sandisk Extreme drive and have kept it in there since Nov/2018 and it has yet to fail. The Extreme drives are meat to be able to operate at sustained high and low temperatures where others would fail after some time.


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## dburkland

Mosess said:


> The Model 3 dash cam writes at a very low bit rate. Even with 3 camera views now recording, USB-2 is plenty sufficient for this and any flash drive can handle it easily. The issue has more to do with heat. Many low end drives are not rated for sustained high temp operation. I expect that the temps inside that center console can exceed 100ºf even if the cabin is kept at or below that temperature.
> I use a Sandisk Extreme drive and have kept it in there since Nov/2018 and it has yet to fail. The Extreme drives are meat to be able to operate at sustained high and low temperatures where others would fail after some time.


Well just after I posted earlier this morning my Sandisk extreme drive is now no longer recording after 2 uses of sentry yesterday and then sitting over night


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## mswlogo

dburkland said:


> Well just after I posted earlier this morning my Sandisk extreme drive is now no longer recording after 2 uses of sentry yesterday and then sitting over night


But that probably isn't a drive failure. It's just the normal buggy Tesla code at work. Just reformat and it will probably be fine (for 3 more days  ).
Sure wish they would move beyond very vulnerable FAT32 formatting.


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## dburkland

mswlogo said:


> But that probably isn't a drive failure. It's just the normal buggy Tesla code at work. Just reformat and it will probably be fine (for 3 more days  ).
> Sure wish they would move beyond very vulnerable FAT32 formatting.


Yea my laptop would not detect the drive anymore so guessing I got unlucky and got a bad drive. Using this as an excuse to give the T5 a shot...


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## mtimmy

You need to purchase the SD card that is built for repetitive writing ., normal MICRO SD or USB will die very easily because it keep rewriting again and again.


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## dburkland

mtimmy said:


> You need to purchase the SD card that is built for repetitive writing ., normal MICRO SD or USB will die very easily because it keep rewriting again and again.


Did some research after the fact and the Sandisk Extreme PRO 3.1 has a history of random drive failures :/. I think the Samsung T5 is a better deal anyways and after 1 day of driving + sentry mode it is working well so far.


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## japhule

Here's a dashcam sd card guide.

https://carcamcentral.com/guide/recommended-sd-cards-for-dash-cameras

The 64gb Samsung is $18 currently on amazon.


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## mtimmy

I uses alot of WIFI cams in my retail stores., Samsung endurance is gives the best result,

I had one for over a year 24/7 and it is still going


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## Frank99

Just lost a Sandisk Ultra Fit 32GB drive, bought new when dashcam functionality came out. I guess a brand-name isn't good enough. The drive marked itself "Read-only", with no recovery.

I replaced it with a Samsung drive. We'll see how that works.


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## Eric714

sduck said:


> I'll third the ssd recommendation - they work much better than a flash drive. I got one of these - I set it up by partitioning it with 64gb set up with fat32 for the dashcam, and the rest formatted ext4 for music. And it works great, is tons faster than any of the flash drives I've tried, and doesn't run hot like any of the flash drives (it gets a bit warm, but that's all).


Just bought the 500GB version of that drive for $68 plus tax. https://shop.sandisk.com/store/sdiskus/pd/productID.5153191200/varProductID.5153191200

Figured with the new three-camera recording, will need extra space. Probably overkill.

Thanks for the recommendation.

Eric


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## tesla m3

Fat32 can support 16TB partitions. Anyone know what the max size the Tesla can read? Was thinking about getting a 2TB SSD


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## Lgkahn

i have been having good luck with this drive.. no issues since the last two updates.


for music i do use a samsung t5 512gb in the other slot.


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## drobin59

Just got the latest software update and it blew the dash cam out. Just reformatted the drive and it would not work. Anyone else have this issue?


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## Bokonon

drobin59 said:


> Just got the latest software update and it blew the dash cam out. Just reformatted the drive and it would not work. Anyone else have this issue?


Yup, see the posts above -- there have been a lot of issues with USB drives that worked just fine before, but haven't been able to handle the three concurrent dashcam streams present in 2019.5.4 and above. A few other people here have reported exactly what you're seeing, where the drive stops working altogether following a reformat.

My 32 GB SanDisk USB drive has survived so far, but if it dies, I'm going to try either a USB-connected SSD (as some upthread have done without issue) or a UHS SD-card reader. Either of those solutions are better-equipped to endure three simultaneous video streams being written anytime the car is on.


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## viperd

For those that haven’t updated, i wonder if removing the flash drive before updating helps.

I can’t tell from other’s posts if the drives fail immediately after the update, or soon after.


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## drobin59

Bokonon said:


> Yup, see the posts above -- there have been a lot of issues with USB drives that worked just fine before, but haven't been able to handle the three concurrent dashcam streams present in 2019.5.4 and above. A few other people here have reported exactly what you're seeing, where the drive stops working altogether following a reformat.
> 
> My 32 GB SanDisk USB drive has survived so far, but if it dies, I'm going to try either a USB-connected SSD (as some upthread have done without issue) or a UHS SD-card reader. Either of those solutions are better-equipped to endure three simultaneous video streams being written anytime the car is on.


Thanks for the reply and the above posts. I'm going to try one that is specific to dash cams.


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## DarkNRG

I wonder if the problems with both sides of the aftermarket Qi chargers not working properly is related to the USB drive failures. There seems to have been a change to the front USB ports with recent firmware (2019.5.15 and above)


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## Eric714

DarkNRG said:


> I wonder if the problems with both sides of the aftermarket Qi chargers not working properly is related to the USB drive failures. There seems to have been a change to the front USB ports with recent firmware (2019.5.15 and above)


I got a note from Jeda that the software versions above 2019.8.1 break the front USBs. I am using the Jeda V2.

Here's the email:


> *Firmware 2019.8.1+ update*
> 
> Hi Eric,
> 
> We have discovered that many of you have experienced problems with the front USB ports of your Tesla Model 3 and the Jeda Wireless Pad after updating your software to the version *2019.8.1* or above.
> 
> Our team has conducted extensive testing using the Jeda Wireless Pad and many other accessories that use USB cables. What we have seen is that when those accessories make use of the data wires inside a USB cable, the Tesla Model 3 resets or interrupts the power connection. This *happens with many wireless chargers*, *battery packs* and *other car accessories*.
> 
> We haven't received an official response from Tesla to know if this may be a software issue or if the new software limits the front USBs to power only for non-storage connections.
> 
> One way or another, the solution is to replace the existing USB cable for a pair of USB cables that are charging only, which means they don't use the data wires. The Jeda Wireless Pad is the only wireless charger that uses *independent USB cables*, meaning that to fix this issue, you just need to replace the cables. The Jeda Wireless Pad *will charge as fast as it always did* and won't lose any power.
> 
> All units that haven't been delivered yet will come with the proper charger only cables. So If you are a V1 customer and are planning on upgrading your Jeda Wireless Pad to our 2nd gen during our Member Upgrade you don't need to worry about this. But if you already have your Jeda Wireless Pad and are experiencing this issue, the following are good and fast solutions to fix this issue. (Member Upgrade Program coming in April)
> 
> 2ft USB cable from Mycablemart.com. Buy now $0.75
> 
> 3ft USB cable from Mycablemart.com. Buy now $1
> 
> Portapower Charge Only Usb Cable from Amazon Buy now $12
> 
> Portapower Data Blocker USB connector from Amazon Buy now for $12 (not tested)
> 
> Some customers have also reported to us that using a USB hub or USB splitter fixes this issue. Although we can not guarantee that any USB splitter or USB hub will help, it is likely that the data connection is interrupted by those intermediate devices, delivering power only to the Jeda Wireless Pad.
> 
> - The Jeda team
> 
> _Note: We have no affiliation nor take any benefit from Mycablemart.com, or Amazon, or any links mentioned in this email. We offer their services as a solution to help customers who are experiencing the mentioned issue._


I noticed that there seemed to be some drain the battery as I have been getting charge updates more often.

I just got my y-splitter from Amazon, which has data and charge only. I unplugged the other side to the Jeda V2 test this out more.


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## groundlevelpaint

Rick Steinwand said:


> ^^^^ THIS ^^^^
> 
> With multiple camera streams, you need a SSD now. I bought one of these:


I bought one of these and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong but I can't get it to work? Do you put the same folder Tesla cam?


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## Rick Steinwand

groundlevelpaint said:


> I bought one of these and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong but I can't get it to work? Do you put the same folder Tesla cam?


I repartitioned it for a 32 gb partition, then formatted it to fat32, then created the folder and it works great.


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## groundlevelpaint

sduck said:


> I'll third the ssd recommendation - they work much better than a flash drive. I got one of these - I set it up by partitioning it with 64gb set up with fat32 for the dashcam, and the rest formatted ext4 for music. And it works great, is tons faster than any of the flash drives I've tried, and doesn't run hot like any of the flash drives (it gets a bit warm, but that's all).


I can't get this to work I tried formatting it and I just can't get it to write? Is it same file folder Tesla cam


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## Rick Steinwand

groundlevelpaint said:


> I can't get this to work I tried formatting it and I just can't get it to write? Is it same file folder Tesla cam


https://www.dummies.com/computers/pcs/how-to-repartition-a-disk-drive-in-windows/

I think your partition has to be no larger than 32 gb.


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## garsh

groundlevelpaint said:


> Is it same file folder Tesla cam


No, it's TeslaCam, no space.


----------



## may_m3

Rick Steinwand said:


> https://www.dummies.com/computers/pcs/how-to-repartition-a-disk-drive-in-windows/
> 
> I think your partition has to be no larger than 32 gb.


there's a windows GUI app that will format any size drives with fat32. http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm 
I've been using an old 120GB ssd with no issues even-though it only seems that the last hour is about 1.8GB (fw 2019.5.15)


----------



## garsh

Rick Steinwand said:


> I think your partition has to be no larger than 32 gb.


That particular tool might have a limitation that low, but FAT32 works with partition sizes up to 2TB.


----------



## Chip Douglas

No having sentry I think having a larger USB drive is warranted. What are some drives people are using out there? Approximately what is the rate for GB to minutes? Thanks


----------



## Long Ranger

drobin59 said:


> Just got the latest software update and it blew the dash cam out. Just reformatted the drive and it would not work. Anyone else have this issue?


I think some people are seeing real drive failures, but others just need to partition and format their drive differently.

There was apparently a change starting with 5.15 where Tesla won't recognize the drive if the entire drive is formatted as FAT32. It only recognizes a partition formatted as FAT32. This gets a bit confusing, because you can have a drive formatted as a single partition and that's fine, you don't need multiple partitions, but the drive needs a partition table. If your drive still works fine on a computer, but not in the car, this could be your problem.

https://teslaownersonline.com/threa...15-f5def7e-3-7-2019.11657/page-25#post-217335


----------



## SoFlaModel3

Chip Douglas said:


> No having sentry I think having a larger USB drive is warranted. What are some drives people are using out there? Approximately what is the rate for GB to minutes? Thanks


In my experience so far in normal conditions with daily Sentry use and disabling via the app before I approach the car to avoid unnecessary recordings being saved - ~10 GB/week.

I use a 64 GB drive and pull it weekly to check the recordings for anything fun and then wipe the drive.


----------



## Chip Douglas

Any recommendations on a specific drive? Currently using 64gb Sandisk cruzer


----------



## groundlevelpaint

Yeah thank you that worked I had to format the larger drive thank you all


----------



## groundlevelpaint

Long Ranger said:


> I think some people are seeing real drive failures, but others just need to partition and format their drive differently.
> 
> There was apparently a change starting with 5.15 where Tesla won't recognize the drive if the entire drive is formatted as FAT32. It only recognizes a partition formatted as FAT32. This gets a bit confusing, because you can have a drive formatted as a single partition and that's fine, you don't need multiple partitions, but the drive needs a partition table. If your drive still works fine on a computer, but not in the car, this could be your problem.
> 
> https://teslaownersonline.com/threa...15-f5def7e-3-7-2019.11657/page-25#post-217335


oh and FYI I formatted the entire 256 gig drive with no problem no partition required


----------



## drobin59

Long Ranger said:


> I think some people are seeing real drive failures, but others just need to partition and format their drive differently.
> 
> There was apparently a change starting with 5.15 where Tesla won't recognize the drive if the entire drive is formatted as FAT32. It only recognizes a partition formatted as FAT32. This gets a bit confusing, because you can have a drive formatted as a single partition and that's fine, you don't need multiple partitions, but the drive needs a partition table. If your drive still works fine on a computer, but not in the car, this could be your problem.
> 
> https://teslaownersonline.com/threa...15-f5def7e-3-7-2019.11657/page-25#post-217335


That must be it. I got a new 128mb drive and no luck. Can you please lay out step by step how to partion the drive? I use Mac OS. I have been trying to format the drive like in the past (fat 32) and no luck.
Very much appreciate any help.


----------



## Joaquin

One more data point about dying usb memory sticks: My SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive (which has a USB connector + iPhone lightning connector) also stopped working a few days ago.

First I noticed that the car was not showing the recording icon, even after any reset, so I decided to try it on my mac. Dead, not recognized at all. Disk Utility is not showing anything for this guy either 

But, interestingly, I tried the lightning end point with my iPhone, and it still works! And all the TeslaCam folder videos are there, up to the latest day it decided to stop working on the USB end point...

So, it seems that the memory itself is OK, but the USB end point broke for any reason. I'm thinking overheating probably, and a fail on the connector itself due to that.


----------



## drobin59

Joaquin said:


> One more data point about dying usb memory sticks: My SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive (which has a USB connector + iPhone lightning connector) also stopped working a few days ago.
> 
> First I noticed that the car was not showing the recording icon, even after any reset, so I decided to try it on my mac. Dead, not recognized at all. Disk Utility is not showing anything for this guy either
> 
> But, interestingly, I tried the lightning end point with my iPhone, and it still works! And all the TeslaCam folder videos are there, up to the latest day it decided to stop working on the USB end point...
> 
> So, it seems that the memory itself is OK, but the USB end point broke for any reason. I'm thinking overheating probably, and a fail on the connector itself due to that.


I think I need to partion the drive but see no option on my Mac.


----------



## sduck

If you can afford a ssd get one. They are much faster, more reliable in the long term, and run cool. I have one of these - - partitioned into 2 partitions, one is 64gb fat32 for the dashcam, and the rest is formatted ext4 for music.


----------



## drobin59

Rick Steinwand said:


> ^^^^ THIS ^^^^
> 
> With multiple camera streams, you need a SSD now. I bought one of these:


Did you use this after software update 2019.8.3? After the update my dash cam wouldn't work. I bought a new 128mb drive and no luck. How does this drive work with USB? Did you have to partition the drive? I use a MAC and couldn't do it.


----------



## japhule

As far as space goes. The continuous recording (RecentClips folder) will use up 5.4GB of space (60minutes x 30mb x 3 cameras). Each 10 minute save, whether it's a manual save or Sentry Mode save (SavedClips folder) will be 900mb (10minutes x 30mb x 3 cameras).

You can find 120gb SSDs on amazon for ~$20. Sata to USB adapters are $8-10. These are probably the best options if you're not concerned about the physical size. For something smaller physically, I would do a dash friendly micro sd card with a usb adapter.

Some options below.

Kingston 120GB $20
SATA to USB $9

Samsung 64gb MicroSD Endurance $18
MicroSD USB Adapter $6


----------



## drobin59

japhule said:


> As far as space goes. The continuous recording (RecentClips folder) will use up 5.4GB of space (60minutes x 30mb x 3 cameras). Each 10 minute save, whether it's a manual save or Sentry Mode save (SavedClips folder) will be 900mb (10minutes x 30mb x 3 cameras).
> 
> You can find 120gb SSDs on amazon for ~$20. Sata to USB adapters are $8-10. These are probably the best options if you're not concerned about the physical size. For something smaller physically, I would do a dash friendly micro sd card with a usb adapter.
> 
> Some options below.
> 
> Kingston 120GB $20
> SATA to USB $9
> 
> Samsung 64gb MicroSD Endurance $18
> MicroSD USB Adapter $6


Did you do anything special to format it? After 2109.8.3 my old stick didn't work. So I got a 128mb Samsung drive and it doesn't work either. Very frustrating!


----------



## Rick Steinwand

drobin59 said:


> Did you use this after software update 2019.8.3? After the update my dash cam wouldn't work. I bought a new 128mb drive and no luck. How does this drive work with USB? Did you have to partition the drive? I use a MAC and couldn't do it.


I'm on 8.4. I initially deleted the partition on my SSD and created a much smaller (32 gb) partition and formatted it to fat32 and it worked great. Last night I removed the drive as I wanted to review content from Sentry mode while we were parked in front of a busy restaurant. (There were a LOT, but nothing interesting.) Today I tried to create a fat32 partition while in Windows, but it failed while formatting (from a command prompt) just as it would hit 99%. So ended up with a 32 gb partition again. I saw mention of using an app to do that, but didn't want to install one.

Other than Windows not liking to create > 32 gb partitions (they think you should use ntfs), it works great.


----------



## japhule

drobin59 said:


> Did you do anything special to format it? After 2109.8.3 my old stick didn't work. So I got a 128mb Samsung drive and it doesn't work either. Very frustrating!


Using Windows, I had to install an app to format the drive to fat32 since my drive is over 32GB. I used EaseUS Partition Master Free.

EaseUS Partition Master Free


----------



## Kizzy

I use a 128 GB SanDisk UltraFit USB 3.0 drive. Used it as formatted from the factory and have never had any issues.

I see that it’s operating temperature is 32°F to 113°F (0°C to 45°C) and all my time using it has been within that temperature range.


----------



## 9114s

*Samsung T5 Portable SSD - 500GB - USB 3.1 External SSD (MU-PA500B/AM)*
Price:$97.99 
Now with Sentry on all the time outside home and the 3 camera, you need a big solid SSD. I use this one formatted MSDOS ( fat 32) on my Mac.
Run perfect no more issue of missing anything, very solid, no corruption. Transferring back to Mac or PC is so quick with USB 3.1.
With Teslafi or Stat, you can program Sentry automatically and forget about it.


----------



## StromTrooperM3

Have any of you nailed down if the partition is getting corrupted or that the drive is actually failing? USB drives are not really designed for this task of heavy contentious writing so I have gone ahead and ordered something that is purpose built for video. Hope this helps you all! I was a little worried about slower write speeds than a thumb drive but then I found the tesla ports are only USB2 anyway so I don't suspect this will be a problem. Will test and report back


----------



## garsh

StromTrooperM3 said:


> ...I have gone ahead and ordered something that is purpose built for video.[/MEDIA]


The problem now is that you need to put it in a USB card reader that is purpose-built for handling video, and I don't know if such a thing exists.

It's more likely that the communication & control electronics are what's burning out - not the flash memory itself.


----------



## StromTrooperM3

Rick Steinwand said:


> With multiple camera streams, you need a SSD now. I bought one of these:


Can you provide some guidance on why an SSD is needed? Besides having a higher cycle count than a USB drive, I am not seeing the real need for SSD being that the ports are USB2.0. I have gone with a memory card specifically made for dash and body cams, so I think this would be more than sufficient and I am trying to keep size to an absolute minimum. I appreciate your direction.


----------



## garsh

StromTrooperM3 said:


> Can you provide some guidance on why an SSD is needed?


So that you have USB control & communication components that are designed to handle continuous writes.
A USB SSD solution will definitely be designed to handle this.


----------



## StromTrooperM3

garsh said:


> The problem now is that you need to put it in a USB card reader that is purpose-built for handling video


I believe I just need to find a USB card reader that is purpose built to handle data..the type is not important. Thus this will be a good test if the USB connector is failing or the cycles are causing the death. If this is the case then the SSDs recommended above will also fail due to the connector IMO.

One can never have too many SSDs or Memory cards so I am in for all the testing under the sun  Worst case is I have a spare drive for music in my other cars or for my DJI drone.


----------



## StromTrooperM3

garsh said:


> A USB SSD solution will definitely be designed to handle this.


I agree that the built in devices like the T5 or SanDisk Extreme are much better suited for then than a cheap sata to USB cable that I've seen mentioned. However you are then down to the quality of the USB cable and other things. I'm not sure there really is a good bulletproof solution at this point. You should make one!

You think this is the better option?


----------



## garsh

StromTrooperM3 said:


> I believe I just need to find a USB card reader that is purpose built to handle data.


They're _all_ designed to handle data.

They're just not all designed to handle continuous writing of data.


----------



## drobin59

9114s said:


> *Samsung T5 Portable SSD - 500GB - USB 3.1 External SSD (MU-PA500B/AM)*
> Price:$97.99
> Now with Sentry on all the time outside home and the 3 camera, you need a big solid SSD. I use this one formatted MSDOS ( fat 32) on my Mac.
> Run perfect no more issue of missing anything, very solid, no corruption. Transferring back to Mac or PC is so quick with USB 3.1.
> With Teslafi or Stat, you can program Sentry automatically and forget about it.


Did you have to partition it or just format to Fat32?


----------



## DvdRbrts

I use the Samsung FIT Plus. It's a 128GB USB 3.1 Flash Drive. Works flawlessly and is extremely fast at 300MB/s. To put that into perspective, you can transfer a 3GB 4K UHD video file from your FIT Plus to your PC in just 10 seconds.


----------



## drobin59

DvdRbrts said:


> I use the Samsung FIT Plus. It's a 128GB USB 3.1 Flash Drive. Works flawlessly and is extremely fast at 300MB/s. To put that into perspective, you can transfer a 3GB 4K UHD video file from your FIT Plus to your PC in just 10 seconds.


Just to confirm: You are running 8.3 and didn't partition the drive. U just formatted to Fat32 and went from there.
Thanks!


----------



## DvdRbrts

drobin59 said:


> Just to confirm: You are running 8.3 and didn't partition the drive. U just formatted to Fat32 and went from there.
> Thanks!


Yes, that is correct.


----------



## drobin59

DvdRbrts said:


> Yes, that is correct.


Ok. Thanks. I'll get one from Amazon and it. Thanks!


----------



## TheTony

I've been running a SSD drive for TeslaCam duties for about 5 months now with no noted issues. I went with a 128GB SSD drive and an enclosure and partitioned the drive for dual use - reserved some of that space for USB audio. Quite happy with the solution and the cost to me was minimally more than a high capacity flash USB drive.


----------



## garsh

I have no idea if this drive is any good, but for $5.99 for 128GB & free prime shipping, I'm giving it a try.


----------



## iChris93

This 


garsh said:


> I have no idea if this drive is any good


followed by this


garsh said:


> for $5.99 for 128GB


tells me no. 

Looking forward to hearing your experience.


----------



## BluestarE3

TheTony said:


> I've been running a SSD drive for TeslaCam duties for about 5 months now with no noted issues. I went with a 128GB SSD drive and an enclosure and partitioned the drive for dual use - reserved some of that space for USB audio. Quite happy with the solution and the cost to me was minimally more than a high capacity flash USB drive.


I recently made the switch to SSD as well. In my case, it wasn't because of any drive corruption; instead, it's because USB music playback would pause for a few seconds after every third or fourth track played. Very annoying. It would only happen if TeslaCam is active. Didn't matter if I had TeslaCam and music on the same (partitioned) drive or on two separate drives. Turn off TeslaCam and music playback is fine.

After the switch to SSD, USB music plays without any hiccups even with TeslaCam running.


----------



## GDN

I pulled my 256 GB SSD last night (only been in the car a week) to partition it and load my iTunes music on it. I'd had a problem as my Mac wouldn't partition it so I was looking for tools. By chance I attached it to my work PC and Windows 10 partitioned it quickly and easily. Then I just reattached back to the Macbook and it formatted each partition in a couple of seconds - task completed.

Proceeded to copy about 80 GB of music to the drive, blazing fast I might add, took about 5 minutes and then reinstalled in the car.

I'll say that although I thought my iTunes music was well organized I'm baffled today at how many duplicate songs and album entries there are on the drive after indexing. I'll have to research and read up on to see if the indexing went crazy or if I need to do some clean up on the files. iTunes doesn't show all of the duplicates. I also know there is a Teslatunes utility someone has written that might do some clean up. I've got research to do there.

To say the least, the camera is recording and the music plays. I'll likely still opt for bluetooth and play the music right from the phone, but I've got it if I want it on the drive.


----------



## garsh

iChris93 said:


> This
> 
> followed by this
> 
> tells me no.


You sound like my wife. She refuses to try any of the generic products.


----------



## iChris93

garsh said:


> You sound like my wife. She refuses to try any of the generic products.


I'm fine with most generic. Just not electronics.


----------



## Long Ranger

iChris93 said:


> I'm fine with most generic. Just not electronics.


Gotta agree here. @garsh that flash drive looks pretty suspect. Lots of 1 star reviews that say it either didn't work at all or you have to install some app from China to get it to work?  The 5 star reviews don't look too legit to me.


----------



## Deadbattery

On a road trip (Chicago, Cincinnati from Western mass) and got the 8.4 update the night before we left. I am Parking on the Street in Chicago and turned on surveillance mode for the first time. Annnnnd, killed the flash drive... 

So I went to Best buy since, I am on the road and did not want to wait to get my dashcam back. I bought an Sandisk SSD, formatted it, and will get it cranked up tomorrow. More to come.

I feel like I want to put a false wall in front of the USB plugs and maybe even put a flash drive in it for the 2% of people smart enough to know they need to get rid of the drive.


----------



## Artdept

Got my jeda pad and installed it only on the left side data /power port . The usb for dash cam and a usb for music is on the right side data port with a splitter.

.1 week and so far so good. Red dot is on every time I check which is about every other day ( it’s my wife daily driver we replaced her minivan with it)

For now I did not see a need of hooking up the jeda on both ports. I mean how often do I charge 2 phones wirelessly anyways. Plus. I got scared when I started reading some issues could be caused by drawing power to the wireless pad. I’m not technically savvy to understand it all. But hey . So far so good. 
These are the drives I bought. And the splitter .


----------



## drobin59

drobin59 said:


> Ok. Thanks. I'll get one from Amazon and it. Thanks!


Got the drive today and it didn't work. Also was upgraded to 8,5.


----------



## Long Ranger

drobin59 said:


> Got the drive today and it didn't work. Also was upgraded to 8,5.


Is it formatted as FAT32 and did you remember to create a folder named TeslaCam?


----------



## drobin59

Long Ranger said:


> Is it formatted as FAT32 and did you remember to create a folder named TeslaCam?


Yes. Although this may not be significant, previously when it worked Teslacam was all in lower case. Now all caps is the only option.


----------



## sduck

Not all caps. It has to be TeslaCam - caps on the T and C. Also, if you get the dashcam icon, but it's greyed out, try clicking it - the icon - sometimes you need to do that to activate it.


----------



## Long Ranger

drobin59 said:


> Yes. Although this may not be significant, previously when it worked Teslacam was all in lower case. Now all caps is the only option.


Are you sure that's not the flash drive volume name you're talking about? You need to create a folder on the drive.


----------



## drobin59

Long Ranger said:


> Are you sure that's not the flash drive volume name you're talking about? You need to create a folder on the drive.


Hummm. Maybe. Thanks!


----------



## drobin59

sduck said:


> Not all caps. It has to be TeslaCam - caps on the T and C. Also, if you get the dashcam icon, but it's greyed out, try clicking it - the icon - sometimes you need to do that to activate it.


Ok. Must be formatting it incorrectly!


----------



## drobin59

What are the steps after formatting? In other words, I need to create a folder. 
Thanks!


----------



## Unplugged

DvdRbrts said:


> I use the Samsung FIT Plus. It's a 128GB USB 3.1 Flash Drive. Works flawlessly and is extremely fast at 300MB/s. To put that into perspective, you can transfer a 3GB 4K UHD video file from your FIT Plus to your PC in just 10 seconds.


I found this highly rated ADATA 512GB to work very nicely, for $80:
*ADATA SD600 3D NAND 512GB USB3.1 Ultra-Speed External Solid State Drive Read up to 440 MB/s Red (ASD600-512GU31-CRD)*


----------



## Long Ranger

drobin59 said:


> What are the steps after formatting? In other words, I need to create a folder.
> Thanks!


After formatting as FAT32, there's not much to it, create a folder
https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-create-folders-on-a-flash-drive

and be sure to name the folder TeslaCam


----------



## Unplugged

Two highly rated items that some might be interested in: One for Play and the other for Work. I have used the SSD for about three weeks. No heat or issues. The controller isn't here yet. But i'll update this in 8 hours or so and indicate whether it works for Teslatari games.


----------



## Unplugged

I had no luck with the game controller. I have instead bought a wireless adapter on Amazon (that has been confirmed to work) and will "borrow" the kids PS4 controller.
*8Bitdo Wireless Controller Adapter for Nintendo Switch,Windows,Mac*


----------



## drobin59

Long Ranger said:


> After formatting as FAT32, there's not much to it, create a folder
> https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-create-folders-on-a-flash-drive
> 
> and be sure to name the folder TeslaCam


Got it ! Thanks. It works now. FYI. I was using a splitter but after reading the forum I directly plugged into front USB. 
Thanks for the help.


----------



## StromTrooperM3

japhule said:


> I would do a dash friendly micro sd card with a usb adapter


I'm currently starting to test this setup and getting away from a regular USB drive. I've been told it's not as good as an SSD. But I don't think an SSD is really necessary. I'm also looking for the smallest possible solution. So for the cost savings it's worth a shot. Worst case is I have a spare 128gb micro SD card for my drone 🤪


----------



## bwilson4web

I sent this note to Customer Support:
​I tested the dash cam today and noticed some problems (see attached).​​1) all three files are different sizes​2) the "left" file has about 1/2, green screen​​I suspect the flash drive may be too slow but I am wondering if the left camera might have a problem.​​Could you check the car and confirm the left camera is OK and it is probably a slow USB thumb drive?​
Here is the screen capture:









Bob Wilson


----------



## garsh

japhule said:


> I would do a dash friendly micro sd card with a usb adapter.





StromTrooperM3 said:


> I'm currently starting to test this setup


If this ends up working well, please share what SD-reader you are using. It would be nice to have a list of SD-readers that can handle this kind of continuous writing.


----------



## StromTrooperM3

garsh said:


> If this ends up working well, please share what SD-reader you are using


Will do. Card reader is showing up tomorrow. I'll test for a couple weeks and report back


----------



## japhule

I'm currently using this as my card reader. No issues so far.


----------



## iChris93

bwilson4web said:


> 1) all three files are different sizes


Why is this a problem?


----------



## Eric714

Anyone else get the message that the disk needs to be repaired? I do. Then I do a scan and repair and it all seems fine.


----------



## Bokonon

Eric714 said:


> Anyone else get the message that the disk needs to be repaired? I do. Then I do a scan and repair and it all seems fine.


Yes, I get that message every time I plug the thumbdrive into my PC. It doesn't seem to matter in my case whether I run the scan or just ignore it, I can browse the drive and its files just fine either way.


----------



## NJturtlePower

drobin59 said:


> Got it ! Thanks. It works now. FYI. I was using a splitter but after reading the forum I directly plugged into front USB.
> Thanks for the help.


You don't want to use USB splitters, but a hub will work fine. I'm running two of these Samsung FIT drives (one Music one TeslaCam) on this Anker Hub for months with no issues.


Currently on 8.3


----------



## bwilson4web

The Costco, "Cruzer Glide 3.0", 256 GB, USB Flash drive works perfectly fine for the dash cam function.

Bob Wilson


----------



## undergrove

Eric714 said:


> Anyone else get the message that the disk needs to be repaired? I do. Then I do a scan and repair and it all seems fine.


I need to repair the drives nearly every time I check them on my Mac. There are usually Orphaned Clusters, which generally indicates that the files have not been closed properly, as when the drive is unmounted improperly. I get this even on the fastest drives.

The drives still function alright, but eventually those kinds of errors will cause problems, so I swap the drives out every few days and repair them.


----------



## garsh

undergrove said:


> I need to repair the drives nearly every time I check them on my Mac. There are usually Orphaned Clusters, which generally indicates that the files have not been closed properly, as when the drive is unmounted improperly. I get this even on the fastest drives.


After deactivating dashcam (with a long press), you need to wait up to an entire minute for the car to finish writing any current files to the drive.

Two of the drives I use include activity lights, which makes this much easier - you just wait until the activity lights stop flashing. But if your drive doesn't have that, then you really need to just wait an excruciatingly long time before pulling the drive out if you want to avoid filesystem corruption.

The filesystem corruption isn't that big of a deal though. It just means that you might lose some files, and possibly have to reformat the drive. But the drive itself should be fine.


----------



## MelindaV

undergrove said:


> I need to repair the drives nearly every time I check them on my Mac. There are usually Orphaned Clusters, which generally indicates that the files have not been closed properly, as when the drive is unmounted improperly. I get this even on the fastest drives.
> 
> The drives still function alright, but eventually those kinds of errors will cause problems, so I swap the drives out every few days and repair them.


I have also noticed one of the USB drives I use (of two) will require I delete my trash following deleting files, while the USB is still plugged in, before the space is restored. the other drive automatically actually deletes them without emptying the trash. took me reformatting it a couple times to clear out its capacity before realizing that was its issue.


----------



## garsh

MelindaV said:


> I have also noticed one of the USB drives I use (of two) will require I delete my trash following deleting files, while the USB is still plugged in, before the space is restored. the other drive automatically actually deletes them without emptying the trash. took me reformatting it a couple times to clear out its capacity before realizing that was its issue.


Is this a Mac thing?

Seems strange to have a trash folder on a USB drive.


----------



## Scubastevo80

MelindaV said:


> I have also noticed one of the USB drives I use (of two) will require I delete my trash following deleting files, while the USB is still plugged in, before the space is restored. the other drive automatically actually deletes them without emptying the trash. took me reformatting it a couple times to clear out its capacity before realizing that was its issue.


I'll have to check that on mine, since I"m having issues. I scheduled a service center appt (hopefully mobile in lieu) to have them look at my front USB drives, neither of which work anymore.


----------



## MelindaV

garsh said:


> Is this a Mac thing?
> 
> Seems strange to have a trash folder on a USB drive.


It's the main trash folder. But while the docs show removed when deleted, the free space doesn't change until deleting the trash, while the usb is still plugged it.


----------



## garsh

MelindaV said:


> It's the main trash folder. But while the docs show removed when deleted, the free space doesn't change until deleting the trash, while the usb is still plugged it.


So... it's a Mac thing.


----------



## MelindaV

garsh said:


> So... it's a Mac thing.


idk - because my second thumb drive doesn't do this 

next time this one needs to be cleared off, I'll do it from my work computer and see if it acts the same.


----------



## Kizzy

garsh said:


> Is this a Mac thing?
> 
> Seems strange to have a trash folder on a USB drive.


Back in the day, I remember floppy disks having their own trash folder. I thought it strange when my empty trash can became full after inserting a disk.


----------



## Eric714

garsh said:


> After deactivating dashcam (with a long press), you need to wait up to an entire minute for the car to finish writing any current files to the drive.
> 
> Two of the drives I use include activity lights, which makes this much easier - you just wait until the activity lights stop flashing. But if your drive doesn't have that, then you really need to just wait an excruciatingly long time before pulling the drive out if you want to avoid filesystem corruption.
> 
> The filesystem corruption isn't that big of a deal though. It just means that you might lose some files, and possibly have to reformat the drive. But the drive itself should be fine.


 Thanks Garsh! Very helpful


----------



## Gatornail

Ok, dumb questions (I haven't set up the dashcam or sentry mode in my car yet and want to soon): Can I use the same USB drive for the Dashcam and sentry mode or do I need to have 2 different thumb drives? I know that the dashcam one needs a folder called TelsaCam, does the sentry mode use the same folder?

On a side note, has anyone else noticed that they are loosing their ability to easily understand technology? I'm slowly turning into my parents - you know, the folks that couldn't program their VCR!


----------



## Ksb466

Gatornail said:


> Ok, dumb questions (I haven't set up the dashcam or sentry mode in my car yet and want to soon): Can I use the same USB drive for the Dashcam and sentry mode or do I need to have 2 different thumb drives? I know that the dashcam one needs a folder called TelsaCam, does the sentry mode use the same folder?
> 
> On a side note, has anyone else noticed that they are loosing their ability to easily understand technology? I'm slowly turning into my parents - you know, the folks that couldn't program their VCR!


Use the same stick for both. Setup is no different than when only Teslacam existed. It will Automatically create a separate sub folder for the sentry recordings. Just be aware you probably need a large disk size to accommodate all of the recordings from three , or possibly more in the future , cameras


----------



## undergrove

garsh said:


> After deactivating dashcam (with a long press), you need to wait up to an entire minute for the car to finish writing any current files to the drive.
> 
> Two of the drives I use include activity lights, which makes this much easier - you just wait until the activity lights stop flashing. But if your drive doesn't have that, then you really need to just wait an excruciatingly long time before pulling the drive out if you want to avoid filesystem corruption.
> 
> The filesystem corruption isn't that big of a deal though. It just means that you might lose some files, and possibly have to reformat the drive. But the drive itself should be fine.


Thanks for the suggestion. Waiting longer does seem to eliminate the Orphaned Clusters--no problem in two removals. It definitely takes longer to unmount the drives from the Model 3 than from my Mac.

I still get some zero byte files, mainly on the right rear and other artifacts on both side cams--even with very fast drives. I think that is another issue stemming from how they buffer and compress the Sentry footage in memory and how they dump it out when it is triggered--no problem with Dashcam footage when driving.


----------



## Griff

I'm using a Kingston 240GB ssd

Kingston 240GB A400 SSD 2.5'' SATA 7MM 2.5-Inch SA400S37/240G 
And an enclosure

Vantec USB 3.0 to 2.5" SATA HDD Adapter with case (CB-STU3-2PB) 
I just set it up yesterday, and the drive seems to work well. My only problem is that after installing, my wife drove to work and then home this morning. I pulled the drive and plugged it in to the computer. The only footage I have is some boring parking lot footage. Nothing from the drive to or from work. What did I do wrong?


----------



## japhule

Griff said:


> I just set it up yesterday, and the drive seems to work well. My only problem is that after installing, my wife drove to work and then home this morning. I pulled the drive and plugged it in to the computer. The only footage I have is some boring parking lot footage. Nothing from the drive to or from work. What did I do wrong?


The drive will have 2 folders in the TeslaCam folder. The "RecentClips" folder will have the last 60 minutes since the car was on. Anything older would be deleted. If your wife came home at 9am and you turned the car on and pulled the drive at 12pm then the RecentClips folder would've likely been cleared out except for the minute or two that the car was just on at 12pm. The "SavedClips" folder will have any footage that was manually saved by pressing the camera icon or footage that was triggered by Sentry Mode. If your wife didn't do any manual saving from her drive to work it was likely cleared by the time she got home.


----------



## Griff

What's weird is that it has footage of the parking lot at work, not the drive home though. And I pulled it right away when she got home.


----------



## BluestarE3

Griff said:


> What's weird is that it has footage of the parking lot at work, not the drive home though. And I pulled it right away when she got home.


Did the Dashcam icon have a red dot on it while she was driving?


----------



## JeffcM3

I'm rapidly filling up the 32GB Sandisk USB drive. Have two that I periodically switch. Am thinking of switching to this:

So.. just to confirm what I read in this thread.... it is possible to use the drive for writing dash cam images, and also playing music at the same time ... with one USB flash drive, correct?


----------



## rsf

JeffcM3 said:


> So.. just to confirm what I read in this thread.... it is possible to use the drive for writing dash cam images, and also playing music at the same time ... with one USB flash drive, correct?


Yes it will work like that. Two FAT32 partitions, 1st one for Teslacam, 2nd one for music. I've seen no ill effects so far


----------



## TheMagician

Griff said:


> What's weird is that it has footage of the parking lot at work, not the drive home though. And I pulled it right away when she got home.


Mines been doing the same thing as yours I bet (but I'm still using cheap drives I have laying round the house since they always worked perfectly up until the 2019 updates so I have an excuse  ). I format it, plug it in and it works one or two times. Then I'll look over at the camera icon while I'm driving and sure enough, it's grayed out. When I get home and look at the footage, it's from the previous drive (or even one or two days ago). Point is, it's not from the last 60 minutes since it stopped working at some point.

I know I need to upgrade to a better (bigger) drive but figure I'll let all the smart people on this forum figure out what's best first.


----------



## Griff

BluestarE3 said:


> Did the Dashcam icon have a red dot on it while she was driving?


No idea, but there was no icon the next time I drove, but the time after there was. I have to review the footage of that drive to see if it worked.


----------



## garsh

garsh said:


> I have no idea if this drive is any good, but for $5.99 for 128GB & free prime shipping, I'm giving it a try.


So far, this drive has been a great purchase!

I've confirmed that it really is 128GB. I used it in my car for TeslaCam duties for a week, and had no issues. Both the USB-A and USB-C connectors worked fine. It also has micro-USB, but I haven't tried that. My Android phone is able to read the files with no additional software required, so it's nice to quick check a video in the car, or download a video to my phone.


----------



## MelindaV

garsh said:


> I have no idea if this drive is any good, but for $5.99 for 128GB & free prime shipping, I'm giving it a try.


Compared to the one I got, stopped being recognized by the car after half a day (no grey x, just nada), it is readable on both my Mac and windows (usb-a and usb-c), but the usb-a connector isn't sized right and has to be forced in or just doesn't fit at all on most ports I tried it on (my work computer has something like 8 ports and it fit in 2 of those). iPad Pro (usb-c) recognized it, but it's software natively only can access video/image files in a camera file structure so is not able to access the TeslaCam folder. 
Reformatted it, and again stopped working after a partial day - it likely is due to the badly sized usb-a


----------



## SR22pilot

JeffcM3 said:


> I'm rapidly filling up the 32GB Sandisk USB drive. Have two that I periodically switch. Am thinking of switching to this:
> 
> So.. just to confirm what I read in this thread.... it is possible to use the drive for writing dash cam images, and also playing music at the same time ... with one USB flash drive, correct?


That looks like what I use. I just have one partition but it has been great. I haven't filled it up. I have cleaned it once so far just because I wanted to look at the videos so I had it out f the car.


----------



## Perscitus

JeffcM3 said:


> I'm rapidly filling up the 32GB Sandisk USB drive. Have two that I periodically switch. Am thinking of switching to this:
> 
> So.. just to confirm what I read in this thread.... it is possible to use the drive for writing dash cam images, and also playing music at the same time ... with one USB flash drive, correct?


I have been using two of these for a few months with good results. Both formatted with a single large FAT32 partition (using Rufus). One drive for TeslaCam, the other for FLAC music. No issues with multiple camera streams or drive corruption since old 2018.x to current 2019.8.x and 2019.12.x firmwares.


----------



## 9114s

Since I upgraded to the Samsung T5 3 weeks ago and using Sentry all the time except Home locations. No more errors. 
Transferring to Mac or PC is extremely fast as the disk is USB 3.1


----------



## garsh

tivoboy said:


> I wonder why they wouldn't have some level of FIFO even on the older Sentry "saved" items, so that further sentry recordings could continue.


Patience. 

This is basically Version 0.1 of the feature. Tesla will ultimately make changes to make it more useful.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1113986303144624128


----------



## Needsdecaf

Griff said:


> I'm using a Kingston 240GB ssd
> 
> Kingston 240GB A400 SSD 2.5'' SATA 7MM 2.5-Inch SA400S37/240G
> And an enclosure
> 
> Vantec USB 3.0 to 2.5" SATA HDD Adapter with case (CB-STU3-2PB)
> I just set it up yesterday, and the drive seems to work well. My only problem is that after installing, my wife drove to work and then home this morning. I pulled the drive and plugged it in to the computer. The only footage I have is some boring parking lot footage. Nothing from the drive to or from work. What did I do wrong?


Did you ever figure this out? Considering going with this setup..


----------



## foo

Designbot said:


> I ordered a SanDisk 64GB UltraFit drive in October and noticed it was dead at the beginning of March. Same thing happened recently to this person and this person and this person. This person and this person and this person report their drives getting very hot. I think there is an issue here with Tesla's implementation.


I agree that the drives get REALLY hot.


----------



## tivoboy

Perscitus said:


> I have been using two of these for a few months with good results. Both formatted with a single large FAT32 partition (using Rufus). One drive for TeslaCam, the other for FLAC music. No issues with multiple camera streams or drive corruption since old 2018.x to current 2019.8.x and 2019.12.x firmwares.


These things are pretty cheap these days. I think what I'm going to do is just have TWO 64GB or 128GB drives, leave one in the car in the USB port and the other, after deleting everything (except the TeslaCam folder of course) just leave that in the tray so I can just easily swap if the camera shows the grey X, and I don't have to do the manual delete quickly to get it to work again for SentryMode


----------



## Griff

Needsdecaf said:


> Did you ever figure this out? Considering going with this setup..


So, the drive itself appears to be working. I'm getting recordings of the drives,but it seems that no matter how large the drive is, it only saves the previous hour. Also, it likes to keep recoding when parked. So when I pull the drive, I usually only have footage of the driveway, garage or parking lot.


----------



## Needsdecaf

Griff said:


> So, the drive itself appears to be working. I'm getting recordings of the drives,but it seems that no matter how large the drive is, it only saves the previous hour. Also, it likes to keep recoding when parked. So when I pull the drive, I usually only have footage of the driveway, garage or parking lot.


Even if you hit record?

And what happens when you activate Sentry?


----------



## iChris93

Griff said:


> I'm getting recordings of the drives,but it seems that no matter how large the drive is, it only saves the previous hour.


Working as intended then.


----------



## Griff

Needsdecaf said:


> Even if you hit record?
> 
> And what happens when you activate Sentry?
> 
> In both of these cases, the videos are saved to a separate folder.





iChris93 said:


> Working as intended then.


That's too bad. I assumed that it would work like a surveillance system, it would fill up the drive, and then begin writing over the oldest footage. Why wouldn't the dash cam work this way?


----------



## GDN

Griff said:


> That's too bad. I assumed that it would work like a surveillance system, it would fill up the drive, and then begin writing over the oldest footage. Why wouldn't the dash cam work this way?


The one hour of driving history does wrap and overwrite the oldest footage. If you choose to save the last 10 minutes by pressing the camera icon it will save those 10 minutes to a different area on the drive and then continue to overwrite the other driving footage.

It does not wrap and automatically overwrite the oldest footage of the Sentry recording, and it shouldn't. If it worked like you want it would be worthless. What if you have a 16 GB drive, you park at the airport for 5 days in a high traffic area. Day 1, unfortunately your car is broken into and the footage is recorded, you get face shots and a tag of the getaway car. However you aren't back to your car for 4 more days and Sentry keeps recording every time some passer by gets close enough to your car to see the damage done. After 4 days Sentry has run out of space and starts recording over the oldest video and over writes the video of the perp that actually did the damage. What are you going to want to have happen in that situation?

If not over writing bothers you, you can buy a bigger drive, 256GB and 512GB SSD drives are proving to work very well. Then take it in the house once every couple of weeks and delete the files from sentry that you don't need.

All things Tesla continue to improve, we might even get video playback or clean up from the cars screen one day. That will make all of this easier, unti then we have some pretty cool stuff at no additional charge. You are welcome to skip out on the Teslacam and purchase your own $300 cloud based Dashcam, Tesla certainly won't be bothered by it.


----------



## garsh

Griff said:


> Why wouldn't the dash cam work this way?


Because this is the first version of the feature. They got something working quickly for now. It'll get better over time.


----------



## Needsdecaf

Interesting note. 

I got the gray camera icon the other day, but was still able to access the drive on the computer. Got the “this drive is damaged, click here to repair” when I put it in the computer. Fixed, put it back in the car, no go. Tried reformatting drive, that worked.


----------



## MarkB

garsh said:


> Because this is the first version of the feature. They got something working quickly for now. It'll get better over time.


The dash cam has already become significantly better already.


----------



## hydrofied714

FYI Amazon is having a sale on a 1TB Sandisk SSD for $96. I just bought one for Sentry/Dashcam. You'll need a SATA to USB enclosure.


----------



## StromTrooperM3

After the release of sentry mode what size are you formatting that partition if only using one drive? I did 64gb with my new "dashcam" specific sd card to start off with. I thought previously 32gb was more than enough for dashcam but did sentry bump this size?

Does sentry mode permanently store recordings? I thought the dashcam only feature would rewrite.. Just trying to understand how frequently I'll need to remove the drive and clean it up. Thanks all!!


----------



## garsh

StromTrooperM3 said:


> Does sentry mode permanently store recordings?


Sentry mode will "Save" recordings every time somebody walks by your car - they don't have to actually touch or hit the car. This results in a lot of extra saved recordings, so plan on checking the drive fairly often if you turn on sentry mode.


----------



## japhule

StromTrooperM3 said:


> After the release of sentry mode what size are you formatting that partition if only using one drive? I did 64gb with my new "dashcam" specific sd card to start off with. I thought previously 32gb was more than enough for dashcam but did sentry bump this size?
> 
> Does sentry mode permanently store recordings? I thought the dashcam only feature would rewrite.. Just trying to understand how frequently I'll need to remove the drive and clean it up. Thanks all!!


The continuous recording will need about 5.4gb of space. Each full 10 minute save (either manual or sentry mode) will need about 900mb of storage. If you have a 64gb drive, that will amount to about 65 ten minute saves.

60 minutes x 30mb x 3 cameras = 5.4gb
65 saves x 10min x 30mb x 3 cameras = 58.5gb
Total 63.9gb


----------



## jsmay311

GDN said:


> *It does not wrap and automatically overwrite the oldest footage of the Sentry recording, and it shouldn't. If it worked like you want it would be worthless.* What if you have a 16 GB drive, you park at the airport for 5 days in a high traffic area. Day 1, unfortunately your car is broken into and the footage is recorded, you get face shots and a tag of the getaway car. However you aren't back to your car for 4 more days and Sentry keeps recording every time some passer by gets close enough to your car to see the damage done. After 4 days Sentry has run out of space and starts recording over the oldest video and over writes the video of the perp that actually did the damage. What are you going to want to have happen in that situation?


This reasoning only makes sense in this one highly cherry-picked example. Allowing overwriting would be better in almost every other conceivable situation.

Allowing overwriting means you'd never have to remember to routinely take the USB drive out of the car to clear out old recordings. And you'd always have more recent recordings saved instead of older recordings, and newer recordings are going to be more valuable in an overwhelming majority of cases. (Depending on how often you use Sentry Drive and the size of your USB drive, these older recordings could be months or even years old.)

And even in this cherry-picked _"parked at airport with a small storage device that starts out empty and ends up full just prior to the owner's return" _scenario, if the car gets broken into on Day 5 instead of Day 1, then the owner is equally as screwed as if the Day 1 recordings were overwritten. So even in this scenario it's basically a wash.

(And, side note: independent of whether or not Tesla chooses to overwrite old Sentry Model videos, they should absolutely update the system so that it always retains enough space for the dashcam to record its looping hour of videos. The current situation where USB drives get filled up with Sentry Mode videos and then just stop recording dashcam videos altogether (as reported here), is just awful execution.)


----------



## garsh

jsmay311 said:


> Allowing overwriting means you'd never have to remember to routinely take the USB drive out of the car to clear out old recordings.


Eventually you'll be able to review videos without having to remove the USB drive, preferably from anywhere on the internet. That's the correct solution to the problem. It'll just take them a while to implement.


----------



## bwilson4web

We need the GPS longitude, latitude, velocity, and altitude (i.e., $GPRMC and $GPGGA.) In a perfect world, the data would be another, CSV extractable, data channel in the MP4 file.

Bob Wilson


----------



## Needsdecaf

Griff said:


> I'm using a Kingston 240GB ssd
> 
> Kingston 240GB A400 SSD 2.5'' SATA 7MM 2.5-Inch SA400S37/240G
> And an enclosure
> 
> Vantec USB 3.0 to 2.5" SATA HDD Adapter with case (CB-STU3-2PB)
> I just set it up yesterday, and the drive seems to work well. My only problem is that after installing, my wife drove to work and then home this morning. I pulled the drive and plugged it in to the computer. The only footage I have is some boring parking lot footage. Nothing from the drive to or from work. What did I do wrong?


So I bought this but I can't format it to Fat32. only EXFAT. I'm trying to format to Fat32 using the command line but it's not working. When prompted for a volume name, it always tells me incorrect volumen name specified no matter what I select.

Any help?

Thank you!

UPDATE - I had my IT guy look at it and he downloaded a 3rd party formatting tool and got it formatted to FAT32 and it's working. Hopefully no issues with this drive...


----------



## kennitala

Can anyone recommend what size flash drive I should use for Sentry Mode?


----------



## japhule

kennitala said:


> Can anyone recommend what size flash drive I should use for Sentry Mode?





japhule said:


> The continuous recording will need about 5.4gb of space. Each full 10 minute save (either manual or sentry mode) will need about 900mb of storage. If you have a 64gb drive, that will amount to about 65 ten minute saves.
> 
> 60 minutes x 30mb x 3 cameras = 5.4gb
> 65 saves x 10min x 30mb x 3 cameras = 58.5gb
> Total 63.9gb


I would recommend at least 32gb. Get a bigger drive if you want to be able to save more clips without the need to clear out the drive more often.


----------



## kennitala

Thank you 
That is very helpful:yum:


----------



## FurryOne

Has anyone tried a USB powered spinning drive - such as a WD "Passport"? I realize that Solid State is all the rage, but from my experience if you're continuously writing, a spinning drive's FAT is much more robust than that of an SSD as far as longevity goes. I plan to try a 500GB "My Passport" drive in the next day or so. I have a Lexar 256GB USB 3.0 stick hooked up right now.


----------



## BluestarE3

I'd be concerned about head crashes with it sitting in a moving vehicle going over rough roads, speed bumps and potholes.


----------



## garsh

BluestarE3 said:


> I'd be concerned about head crashes with it sitting in a moving vehicle going over rough roads, speed bumps and potholes.


Or just the performance suffering as the drive parks the head every time you hit a hard bump.


----------



## lance.bailey

Yet another Cruzer user and happy

I bought a pair of 64G SanDisk Cruzer Glide 3.0 USB sticks at Costco on Friday. put the TeslaCam folder on both, deleted the free SanDisk security s/w and noticed that they come vfat format. Plugged one into the M3 and it seems to work fine. The second is sitting right beside it for swapping when the first fills.

They do have an annoying pulsating red/blue/purple lightshow that may get fixed with a piece of electricians tape...


----------



## sduck

FurryOne said:


> Has anyone tried a USB powered spinning drive - such as a WD "Passport"? I realize that Solid State is all the rage, but from my experience if you're continuously writing, a spinning drive's FAT is much more robust than that of an SSD as far as longevity goes. I plan to try a 500GB "My Passport" drive in the next day or so. I have a Lexar 256GB USB 3.0 stick hooked up right now.


I wouldn't use a normal off the shelf hdd for this application, if i was inclined to even believe there was any benefit to using older hardware. I'd try to find a ruggedized auto grade hdd - like the kind they used to install in chevy volts and such. Those kinds are designed to take the beating a car environment has to offer, and will last much longer than a standard HDD. Whether or not you can actually find one of these readily, and for a decent price, I don't know. I do know that ssd's work great, and for practical purposes will outperform any hdd for this use.

Edit: or maybe something like this? - - if tons of space and ruggedness is of interest, it's hard to beat this for the price.


----------



## BluestarE3

garsh said:


> Or just the performance suffering as the drive parks the head every time you hit a hard bump.


I briefly tested a laptop drive for music storage/playback while my car was parked in the garage. It was very slow indexing the files compared to an SSD or even a thumb drive.


----------



## Shadow LI

Has anyone gotten the SanDisk ixpand 64 gig to work? I formatted it to fat32 and added TeslaCam folder. Plug it in but camera icon never appears. 
Plugged in my older SanDisk drive. Worked no problem. Help!


----------



## JWardell

Has anyone tried TeslaUSB on a Raspberry Pi Zero W?
This emulates a USB stick but automatically archives footage when it connects to wifi and automatically cleans up corruption. Nice.

https://github.com/cimryan/teslausb


----------



## japhule

JWardell said:


> Has anyone tried TeslaUSB on a Raspberry Pi Zero W?
> This emulates a USB stick but automatically archives footage when it connects to wifi and automatically cleans up corruption. Nice.
> 
> https://github.com/cimryan/teslausb


I've been using this over the past few weeks. Been working well. The github you listed is outdated and doesn't work since sentry mode was added. The forked repository below is more up to date.

https://github.com/marcone/teslausb


----------



## James M

Question on the teslausb approach - how long after you park at home does the RasPiZW remain powered by the car? It seems like sleep mode would kick in and shut the device down before files are done being transferred over wifi?


----------



## japhule

James M said:


> Question on the teslausb approach - how long after you park at home does the RasPiZW remain powered by the car? It seems like sleep mode would kick in and shut the device down before files are done being transferred over wifi?


This seems to vary quite a bit, but it is determined by how soon (or late) your car goes to sleep. I've noticed on the 12.1.2 firmware, the car hasn't been going to sleep like it's supposed to and may stay on for 1+ hours before going to sleep. Prior to that, the car would sleep in about 10-30 minutes after parking.

Using Tasker for Android, I've programmed it so that my car turns on Sentry Mode at 3am while home and turn off in 3:30am to force the RaspPi to sync every night.

Other people have mentioned using passthrough charging battery powerbanks that will continue to power pi further when the car is off/sleep.


----------



## Shadow LI

Shadow LI said:


> Has anyone gotten the SanDisk ixpand 64 gig to work? I formatted it to fat32 and added TeslaCam folder. Plug it in but camera icon never appears.
> Plugged in my older SanDisk drive. Worked no problem. Help!


Anyone?


----------



## GateFather

Purchased a 64GB SanDisk iXpand Thumb Drive to replace the 32GB Thumb Drive I was using before. I formatted the drive using guiformat.exe to FAT32 just as I did on my last drive and created a single TeslaCam folder. I've done this 4 or 5 times now and the Model3 won't recognize it and give me the cam icon like my last drive did. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm at a loss as to why this isn't working.


----------



## Shadow LI

GateFather said:


> Purchased a 64GB SanDisk iXpand Thumb Drive to replace the 32GB Thumb Drive I was using before. I formatted the drive using guiformat.exe to FAT32 just as I did on my last drive and created a single TeslaCam folder. I've done this 4 or 5 times now and the Model3 won't recognize it and give me the cam icon like my last drive did. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm at a loss as to why this isn't working.
> 
> View attachment 25830


Same problem here


----------



## Bokonon

GateFather said:


> Purchased a 64GB SanDisk iXpand Thumb Drive to replace the 32GB Thumb Drive I was using before. I formatted the drive using guiformat.exe to FAT32 just as I did on my last drive and created a single TeslaCam folder. I've done this 4 or 5 times now and the Model3 won't recognize it and give me the cam icon like my last drive did. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm at a loss as to why this isn't working.





Shadow LI said:


> Same problem here


It seems like a lot of people are having issues getting their cars to recognize their iXpand drives. And those that have found success seem to be unable to read the same drive on their iPhone:

https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/using-sandisk-ixpand-usb-stick-tesla-dashcam-128gb-tips

That said, I also found an old Reddit thread claiming success with a 32 GB iXpand drive.

Out of curiosity -- and I fully admit that this suggestion doesn't make any logical sense -- have either of you tried partitioning your 64 GB drives into two 32 GB partitions, and adding the TeslaCam folder to one of the partitions? Drive size really shouldn't matter (plenty of people here have no issue using the dashcam with larger drives)... but maybe there's some quirk with the 64 GB iXpand drives specifically? Grasping at straws here...


----------



## Shadow LI

Bokonon said:


> It seems like a lot of people are having issues getting their cars to recognize their iXpand drives. And those that have found success seem to be unable to read the same drive on their iPhone:
> 
> https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/using-sandisk-ixpand-usb-stick-tesla-dashcam-128gb-tips
> 
> That said, I also found an old Reddit thread claiming success with a 32 GB iXpand drive.
> 
> Out of curiosity -- and I fully admit that this suggestion doesn't make any logical sense -- have either of you tried partitioning your 64 GB drives into two 32 GB partitions, and adding the TeslaCam folder to one of the partitions? Drive size really shouldn't matter (plenty of people here have no issue using the dashcam with larger drives)... but maybe there's some quirk with the 64 GB iXpand drives specifically? Grasping at straws here...


Worth a try. How do we do that?


----------



## GateFather

Bokonon said:


> It seems like a lot of people are having issues getting their cars to recognize their iXpand drives. And those that have found success seem to be unable to read the same drive on their iPhone:
> 
> https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/using-sandisk-ixpand-usb-stick-tesla-dashcam-128gb-tips
> 
> That said, I also found an old Reddit thread claiming success with a 32 GB iXpand drive.
> 
> Out of curiosity -- and I fully admit that this suggestion doesn't make any logical sense -- have either of you tried partitioning your 64 GB drives into two 32 GB partitions, and adding the TeslaCam folder to one of the partitions? Drive size really shouldn't matter (plenty of people here have no issue using the dashcam with larger drives)... but maybe there's some quirk with the 64 GB iXpand drives specifically? Grasping at straws here...


Trying it now. If that doesn't run I will let a full format run overnite (vs the quick format) and see if that works.


----------



## GateFather

Wow - can't explain it but @Bokonon, your idea worked. Two 32GB FAT32 partitions did the job. @Shadow LI - to do this right click on the windows icon and chose Computer Management. Then go to Disk Management on the left bar. Right click on the drive you're using for tesla (AND MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT ONE) and choose delete volume. Then chose New Volume and make a volume that is 30452MB. Call it whatever you want but make sure to create it as FAT32. If you want, create another volume on the remainder of the drive's unused space as extra. Create the TeslaCam folder in the first 30452MB FAT32 partition and it works!









EDIT: can also confirm Tesla is writing to the drive and the iPhone is able to view recordings on the phone in the iXpand app. Wow! Thanks @Bokonon. Doesn't make sense and waste of 32GB but it works.


----------



## Bokonon

GateFather said:


> Wow - can't explain it but @Bokonon, your idea worked. Two 32GB FAT32 partitions did the job.


Wow, I'm just as surprised as you! Glad it worked, and thanks for sharing the steps you followed for Shadow LI.


----------



## Shadow LI

Bokonon said:


> Wow, I'm just as surprised as you! Glad it worked, and thanks for sharing the steps you followed for Shadow LI.


I don't have an option for New Volume. I tried using a partition tool but no matter what I do I cannot get any options to recognize the drive. Any suggestions?


----------



## Shadow LI

Shadow LI said:


> I don't have an option for New Volume. I tried using a partition tool but no matter what I do I cannot get any options to recognize the drive. Any suggestions?


Ok finally got it to work but now playback in the app required another sandisk app called Top Reel. Is this normal?


----------



## GateFather

Shadow LI said:


> Ok finally got it to work but now playback in the app required another sandisk app called Top Reel. Is this normal?


Using Computer Management > Disk Management, try to first format as NTFS, then delete the volume of the drive. Then right click on it and see if you have option for New Volume. Are you using a Windows 10 PC?


----------



## Shadow LI

GateFather said:


> Using Computer Management > Disk Management, try to first format as NTFS, then delete the volume of the drive. Then right click on it and see if you have option for New Volume. Are you using a Windows 10 PC?


Using windows 10 on surface go tablet

How does that effect playback in the app?


----------



## GateFather

Shadow LI said:


> Using windows 10 on surface go tablet
> 
> How does that effect playback in the app?


I was asking about your operating system just to help give you directions that would make sense. Given that you're on Windows 10, the directions I provided should work. Any luck?


----------



## Shadow LI

GateFather said:


> I was asking about your operating system just to help give you directions that would make sense. Given that you're on Windows 10, the directions I provided should work. Any luck?


Got it to work but through a third party app. Still not sure how I did it.

Any clue on why I need the other sandisk app to view the videos?


----------



## GateFather

Shadow LI said:


> Got it to work but through a third party app. Still not sure how I did it.
> 
> Any clue on why I need the other sandisk app to view the videos?


What other app are you talking about? You need to iXpand app to view the videos since that's the app designed to recognize the USB stick and view the videos from. There isn't native integration into the iphones photos app. However you can download the videos from the iXpand app to your phones camera roll in photos.


----------



## Shadow LI

GateFather said:


> What other app are you talking about? You need to iXpand app to view the videos since that's the app designed to recognize the USB stick and view the videos from. There isn't native integration into the iphones photos app. However you can download the videos from the iXpand app to your phones camera roll in photos.


The sandisk app makes me open the Top Reel app to view the videos.


----------



## GateFather

Shadow LI said:


> The sandisk app makes me open the Top Reel app to view the videos.


Woah that's strange. That's not happening for me. I can view the videos directly from the sandisk IXpand app.


----------



## Shadow LI

GateFather said:


> Woah that's strange. That's not happening for me. I can view the videos directly from the sandisk IXpand app.


Yes can't figure out why.


----------



## Manole

I’m having intermittent failures. Got a new SD card rated for high writes and a USB card reader. Half the time when I get in the car I don’t see the Icon on the top right so I restart the infotainment system and it works. Anyone else have this issue?


----------



## harrison987

Release of the dashcam feature...I have had noooooo problems whatsoever. Plugged everything in correctly....and voila....cam icon on screen...and video recording working.

As if yesterday everything stopped. Icon went bye bye.

Removed card...cleared all videos...and inserted the stick again.

still nothing.


thoughts?


----------



## Needsdecaf

Your card is dead, likely. Many threads on this.


----------



## GateFather

harrison987 said:


> Release of the dashcam feature...I have had noooooo problems whatsoever. Plugged everything in correctly....and voila....cam icon on screen...and video recording working.
> 
> As if yesterday everything stopped. Icon went bye bye.
> 
> Removed card...cleared all videos...and inserted the stick again.
> 
> still nothing.
> 
> thoughts?


What USB stick are you using?


----------



## harrison987

Sandisk...128GB FAT32.

The odd thing is that I thought all the cam footage was supposed to automatically overwrite, unless I save? There were hundreds of files saved on their going back 6 months.


----------



## GateFather

harrison987 said:


> Sandisk...128GB FAT32.
> 
> The odd thing is that I thought all the cam footage was supposed to automatically overwrite, unless I save? There were hundreds of files saved on their going back 6 months.


Is it a Sandisk iXpand? I purchased on recently and the car wasn't recognizing it. It was a 64gb. I had to partition it into 2 32GB partitions and put the TeslaCam folder on only one of the partitions in order for the car to recognize it.

You can try to partition your drive into two 64GB partitions and see if it works - directions here if you're interested.


----------



## garsh

harrison987 said:


> Sandisk...128GB FAT32.
> 
> The odd thing is that I thought all the cam footage was supposed to automatically overwrite, unless I save? There were hundreds of files saved on their going back 6 months.


If you turn on Sentry Mode, it will save files automatically every time somebody walks past your car, even if they don't actually activate the alarm.


----------



## harrison987

Needsdecaf said:


> Your card is dead, likely. Many threads on this.


What do you mean by dead?

Totally works on my computer....🤔


----------



## harrison987

GateFather said:


> Is it a Sandisk iXpand? I purchased on recently and the car wasn't recognizing it. It was a 64gb. I had to partition it into 2 32GB partitions and put the TeslaCam folder on only one of the partitions in order for the car to recognize it.
> 
> You can try to partition your drive into two 64GB partitions and see if it works - directions here if you're interested.


Mmmmm...

it just seems weird that it's been working for the past 7 months....and now nothing...😞


----------



## GateFather

harrison987 said:


> Mmmmm...
> 
> it just seems weird that it's been working for the past 7 months....and now nothing...


Is it an iXpand? I've read that as of 2019.12.1.2 they have started acting funny for some.


----------



## harrison987

GateFather said:


> Is it an iXpand? I've read that as of 2019.12.1.2 they have started acting funny for some.


Don't think so...it is this one here:

*SanDisk 128GB Ultra Fit USB 3.1 Flash Drive - SDCZ430-128G-G46*

Tried adding a link...but the forum won;t take it for some reason.


----------



## garsh

harrison987 said:


> Don't think so...it is this one here:
> 
> *SanDisk 128GB Ultra Fit USB 3.1 Flash Drive - SDCZ430-128G-G46*
> 
> Tried adding a link...but the forum won;t take it for some reason.


WFM
If you have an ad-blocker, turn it off, at least for this forum. That will block the Amazon links.


----------



## harrison987




----------



## SoFlaModel3

harrison987 said:


> What do you mean by dead?
> 
> Totally works on my computer....🤔


Rather than just deleting old files, have you tried formatting the drive?


----------



## NR4P

I find the drives fill up over time and files never get deleted. Even in Recent Video. They stay for weeks. Sometimes. 

Deleting files and and reinserting the drive doesnt always work. Delete TeslaCam then add a new folder TeslaCam that always resolves it for me.


----------



## harrison987

Yup...tried that as well.

Mike


----------



## harrison987

Another thing...

I noticed a week before this happened...the Camera Icon would show an X. It would happen randomly. Also...right before the camera icon disappeared completely, my screen kept shutting off and resetting itself. It shut off and reset about 6 times in a 1.5 hour drive. I assume this is not related.

Mike


----------



## harrison987

AH HA!!!

I figured it out...

Let's just say I must have having a loooooooooooooooooooooong week.

One thing I did not check (doh!) was the plug itself...so I got up this morning wondering if the plug/splitter may be the issue.

I went in to remove the splitter, and noticed I was looking at 2 ends...a scratched my head for a second...wondering why I have a splitter with 2 free ends? Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd...then is dawned on my that the main plug came out of the right side USB port.

I laughed at myself for a second...realizing that the entire time, the issue was me. 

Somehow the main plug came undone...and with all the clutter in the storage bin, had no clue. Not sure when or why this happened, as I never go in there...but clearly this was human error...

ARG!


----------



## SoFlaModel3

harrison987 said:


> AH HA!!!
> 
> I figured it out...
> 
> Let's just say I must have having a loooooooooooooooooooooong week.
> 
> One thing I did not check (doh!) was the plug itself...so I got up this morning wondering if the plug/splitter may be the issue.
> 
> I went in to remove the splitter, and noticed I was looking at 2 ends...a scratched my head for a second...wondering why I have a splitter with 2 free ends? Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd...then is dawned on my that the main plug came out of the right side USB port.
> 
> I laughed at myself for a second...realizing that the entire time, the issue was me.
> 
> Somehow the main plug came undone...and with all the clutter in the storage bin, had no clue. Not sure when or why this happened, as I never go in there...but clearly this was human error...
> 
> ARG!


Classic


----------



## MJJ

I'm still feeling befuzzled by the video-on-a-stick thing. First of all, the file names. Good grief. Arcane much? Let's take:

2019-05-16_17-27-front.mp4

I'm assuming this is the one minute clip taken on 5/16/2019, starting at? ending at? 5:27 PM. And the date stamp is May 16, 2019 5:28 PM. So probably the clip started at 5:27.

Now let's look at its companion, 2019-05-16_17-27-left_repeater.mp4. Why is this one's date stamp May 16, 2019, 5:38 PM?

And the clips following get even worse. First, the right_repeater files drop out. They're missing. Then a few minutes later, there are front and left pairs, named similarly, but which contain video of different times.

Finally, I check my SavedClips folder, because I did save a clip. It does contain a folder, but it's empty.

I'm seeing quite a few model 3 owners who are posting seemingly complete sets of video. How on earth are you guys getting all this clean video?

I'm using a 64GB Sandisk Cruzer, which I thought was one of the ones found to be workable.

Sentry Mode also is reporting events when I get in the car, but there are no single incidents in the SavedClips folder... just a whole string of captures of my car just... sitting there... nothing going on... Generally missing the right repeater clip also.

I'm getting the distinct feeling that the MCU is the thing that needs to be boosted more than the AP computer. It just seems way overtaxed.


----------



## MelindaV

MJJ said:


> I'm still feeling befuzzled by the video-on-a-stick thing. First of all, the file names. Good grief. Arcane much? Let's take:
> 
> 2019-05-16_17-27-front.mp4
> 
> I'm assuming this is the one minute clip taken on 5/16/2019, starting at? ending at? 5:27 PM. And the date stamp is May 16, 2019 5:28 PM. So probably the clip started at 5:27.
> 
> Now let's look at its companion, 2019-05-16_17-27-left_repeater.mp4. Why is this one's date stamp May 16, 2019, 5:38 PM?
> 
> And the clips following get even worse. First, the right_repeater files drop out. They're missing. Then a few minutes later, there are front and left pairs, named similarly, but which contain video of different times.
> 
> Finally, I check my SavedClips folder, because I did save a clip. It does contain a folder, but it's empty.
> 
> I'm seeing quite a few model 3 owners who are posting seemingly complete sets of video. How on earth are you guys getting all this clean video?
> 
> I'm using a 64GB Sandisk Cruzer, which I thought was one of the ones found to be workable.
> 
> Sentry Mode also is reporting events when I get in the car, but there are no single incidents in the SavedClips folder... just a whole string of captures of my car just... sitting there... nothing going on... Generally missing the right repeater clip also.
> 
> I'm getting the distinct feeling that the MCU is the thing that needs to be boosted more than the AP computer. It just seems way overtaxed.


all answered with the following... this is a BETA feature. it has been around in any form for just about 6 months. If you had your car when it first came out, you would be happy you see it working as well as it does now vs what it was with the first release. As with all of the BETA things Tesla shares with us, give it time and know this is not the final version and it is improving on each iteration.


----------



## SimonMatthews

SoFlaModel3 said:


> Rather than just deleting old files, have you tried formatting the drive?


Depending on your desktop system, deleting may not actually delete the files, instead it may just move them to a trash folder, leaving the drive full.

I had a Sandisk USB drive die this week. The files could be read, but I could not write to it. I replaced it with a 64GB Samsung drive that I partitioned into 2 partitions, one 40GB (TeslaCam) and the other 20GB (for music). I formatted the music partition using ext4 and it works, but I could not get TeslaCam to work with an ext4 partiton.


----------



## tesla m3

How to use SSDs instead of thumb drives for sentry:


----------



## MelindaV

SimonMatthews said:


> Depending on your desktop system, deleting may not actually delete the files, instead it may just move them to a trash folder, leaving the drive full.
> 
> I had a Sandisk USB drive die this week. The files could be read, but I could not write to it. I replaced it with a 64GB Samsung drive that I partitioned into 2 partitions, one 40GB (TeslaCam) and the other 20GB (for music). I formatted the music partition using ext4 and it works, but I could not get TeslaCam to work with an ext4 partiton.


or just empty the trash while the USB is plugged in.


----------



## SimonMatthews

MelindaV said:


> or just empty the trash while the USB is plugged in.


Not sure what you point was. My USB drive went read-only. I could not empty the trash. I could not re-format it. Hence the need for a new drive.


----------



## garsh

SimonMatthews said:


> Not sure what you point was. My USB drive went read-only. I could not empty the trash. I could not re-format it. Hence the need for a new drive.


It was in response to your first paragraph, when you said that deleting might not actually remove the files.


----------



## TimKraynak

Hey all, the only solution (agreeing with the above) was to create a primary 32 gig primary partition. So I now have an E (32 gig) and F drive (87 or so gig). Whatever.


----------



## Talent

MelindaV said:


> all answered with the following... this is a BETA feature. it has been around in any form for just about 6 months. If you had your car when it first came out, you would be happy you see it working as well as it does now vs what it was with the first release. As with all of the BETA things Tesla shares with us, give it time and know this is not the final version and it is improving on each iteration.


Probably a dumb question, but how do I report bugs in this beta?

I had two files 00.47 and 00.48 where between the two files it's missing about 20 seconds of footage. I only knew because I recorded someone hydroplaning and spinning across four lanes last night and it did not save it despite pressing saved. Somehow between Min 47 and min 48 it erased it. And I can't find it in the recent files since sentry mode replaces my last hour of driving I think. Should have an hour continuous of driving; or maybe last 30min of driving and last 30min of sentry.


----------



## MelindaV

The RecentClios folder has the last 60 minutes. The SavedClips folder is any Sentry events and when you tap the camera to save something while driving (the prior 10 minutes). Because clips are saved in 60 second increments, if you see something you want to save, wait a minute or so before hitting save to make sure you get it. If you immediately hit save, it often will be lost.


----------



## MJJ

Talent said:


> but how do I report bugs in this beta?


Email [email protected] for stuff like this. This address is at the top of the forum pages.


----------



## WonkoTheSane

I have been using an old CMS UABS254-60 60GB spinny hard drive partitioned as 20GB for TeslaCam and 40 for TeslaMusic. It has been working well. 
The TeslaCam recently got full so I transferred the data to my computer. 

I thought it would clean itself up after a while but that didn't happen. Not sure why.


----------



## MelindaV

I've been using this Samsung T5 SSD 500G for about a week now and it has been fantastic. 

I made 3 partitions, Audio, TeslaCam, Misc and use the Misc as the drive to process the videos using @ehendrix23 script. It has performed great while plugged into the car as well as using it to process the videos (while the same setup on my prior USB thumb drive would often fail on the processing).

formatting from OSX, I've found it to work best to first format the entire drive as Mac OS Extended Journaled, GUID Partition Map. Once formatted, then partition. Once the partitions are created, you can then reformat the individual partitions to FAT32. I left the Misc partition as Mac Extended. (if you try to go right to FAT32, the partitioning typically will fail or not give you the option to partition).


----------



## StromTrooperM3

garsh said:


> If this ends up working well, please share what SD-reader you are using. It would be nice to have a list of SD-readers that can handle this kind of continuous writing.


I've been running a Samsung Endurance 128gb, partitioned into 2 64gb drives flawlessly without any issues in this Kingston card reader for over a month now. Sentry mode always enabled when I leave the car so its getting plenty of cycles on it. Ymmv but I've been happy with this setup. write speed has been consistent 30mb sec during all my testing

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B984HJ5/?tag=model3ownersc-20


----------



## crazym3

101010 said:


> Is anyone else noticing that their USB drives are dying early deaths when being used for dash cam videos?
> 
> I'm on my 2nd dead USB now, having only owned the car since November.
> 
> The first USB was older, so I wrote off its untimely demise as a fluke.
> 
> But I bought a brand new *Kingston Digital DataTraveler SE9 32GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive* from Amazon on Dec 1st and now this one is dead.
> 
> And when I say dead, I mean I put it into a Mac or a PC and neither sees the drive at all.
> 
> Is anyone else seeing this?
> 
> If you're not having this problem, what brand and size of USB drive are you using?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> [MOD EDIT - updated thread title to include more of what thread has become.
> original title: "USB drives dying early deaths when used for Tesla dash cam videos"]


I also have big problem with the flash drive not recording. I got it format it to fat 32 and 128 gb new drive too. It's the recent folder that's showing one clip and missing all driving clips.

Everytime I checked the recent folder and it always show 1 clip and it's always corrupt. When I pull out I always hold the camera button on the screen before unplugged. Did I didn't do something?

It's 128gb flash drive I format it to fat32 and created Teslacam folder.

It got recent and saved folder but missing and always never show driving videos.

Everytime I checked the recent folder and it always show 1 clip and it's always corrupt. When I pull out I always hold the camera button on the screen before unplugged. Did I didn't do something?


----------



## mswlogo

MelindaV said:


> I've been using this Samsung T5 SSD 500G for about a week now and it has been fantastic.
> 
> I made 3 partitions, Audio, TeslaCam, Misc and use the Misc as the drive to process the videos using @ehendrix23 script. It has performed great while plugged into the car as well as using it to process the videos (while the same setup on my prior USB thumb drive would often fail on the processing).
> 
> formatting from OSX, I've found it to work best to first format the entire drive as Mac OS Extended Journaled, GUID Partition Map. Once formatted, then partition. Once the partitions are created, you can then reformat the individual partitions to FAT32. I left the Misc partition as Mac Extended. (if you try to go right to FAT32, the partitioning typically will fail or not give you the option to partition).


I've found OSX to work the best as well. It would corrupt when I used a 3rd party tool (I forget what tool I used) on Windows 10 which I used for years on 3 other car radios that required large Fat32 drives.

I can't convince @crazym3 of that though.


----------



## japhule

crazym3 said:


> I also have big problem with the flash drive not recording. I got it format it to fat 32 and 128 gb new drive too. It's the recent folder that's showing one clip and missing all driving clips.
> 
> Everytime I checked the recent folder and it always show 1 clip and it's always corrupt. When I pull out I always hold the camera button on the screen before unplugged. Did I didn't do something?
> 
> It's 128gb flash drive I format it to fat32 and created Teslacam folder.
> 
> It got recent and saved folder but missing and always never show driving videos.
> 
> Everytime I checked the recent folder and it always show 1 clip and it's always corrupt. When I pull out I always hold the camera button on the screen before unplugged. Did I didn't do something?


A few things....

You may have a bad drive. When my usb flash drive went bad, it was stuck in read only, where I could not write or delete new files on to the drive. Can you use your pc and copy some files into your flash drive, then unplug it and plug it back in to confirm that your drive is able to retain the files copied on to it? If not then it may be bad. As others have mentioned, I would consider using an SSD drive or microsd cards like samsung pro endurancce with usb adapter.

Also, when you removed your usb drive from the car, how soon after driving did you remove it? The car will delete any video clips in the RecentClips folder that is older than an hour. So if you drove for 30 minutes, parked your car, and came back 3 hours later to pull the drive, the 30 minutes you drove earlier would have already been deleted. You mention the checking the RecentClips folder, can you confirm that you are also saving clips, either by tapping the camera icon to save the last 10 minutes or anything captured from sentry mode?


----------



## MJJ

MelindaV said:


> The SavedClips folder is any Sentry events and when you tap the camera to save something while driving (the prior 10 minutes).


Yesterday I tapped the icon after some ants-in-pants cut me off. Looking at the folders later, I discovered that I had captures in the Recent folder up to three minutes before I tapped, then it resumed a couple of minutes after I tapped. The Saved folder contained one clip starting (mid-clip) exactly when I tapped. So the two segments before tapping were missing, as was one or two following (except for the partial that started when I tapped).

Assuming you're tapping to save because something interesting has *been* happening, I'd like to see the +/- 5 minute window surrounding the tap saved.


----------



## SunDevilM3

Question for you guys. Trying out Sentry Mode for the first time on my Model 3 and looks like SSD is the best option. I'm looking at the following one:


Will this drive fit nicely inside the car by itself (since internal) or do I need to buy some type of enclosure? Or do I need to buy like a portable SSD drive?


----------



## MelindaV

SunDevilM3 said:


> Question for you guys. Trying out Sentry Mode for the first time on my Model 3 and looks like SSD is the best option. I'm looking at the following one:
> 
> 
> Will this drive fit nicely inside the car by itself (since internal) or do I need to buy some type of enclosure? Or do I need to buy like a portable SSD drive?


There is a post further up that is using loose internal SSDs. You will need the USB to SATA (or whatever connection the drive has) to connect it.


----------



## Blue Meanie

Okay, I'm lost, and my forum searches don't seem to get me closer to an answer.
1) Is there a definitive post about accessing music via USB? I gave up trying to do so some months ago due to long indexing times. But now, I don't even see "USB" as an option when selecting music like I used to... just streaming, radio, etc. Has the option to access music via USB been removed?

Signed,
Dazed and Confused


----------



## Enginerd

Blue Meanie said:


> I don't even see "USB" as an option when selecting music like I used to... just streaming, radio, etc. Has the option to access music via USB been removed?


You might check whether your USB drive has been corrupted by all the video recordings. The detritus tends to build up over time.

This weekend I followed the advice from this thread and now I have USB music and dashcam/Sentry video recording on separate partitions on the same USB. I made two FAT32 partitions, each only 32 GB to be safe (still plenty of room for my _full_ music collection). Make a TeslaCam folder in one of them, and put your music in the other. It indexed slowly the first time only, then at subsequent startups it seems to be pre-fetched and ready to go as soon as I sit down.


----------



## SunDevilM3

MelindaV said:


> There is a post further up that is using loose internal SSDs. You will need the USB to SATA (or whatever connection the drive has) to connect it.


Cool. went ahead and purchased an external enclosure just in case for like $8 on Amazon. Excited to try this feature out...


----------



## wackojacko

Question, Are we supposed to be deleting/cleaning the drive when full? I thought that it would just override the oldest file.

This might be the issue I'm having with the x on the dashcam button on the screen. I'm therefore leaning towards a 240GB SDD option with USB cable to reduce how often I need to maintain the drive.


----------



## garsh

wackojacko said:


> Question, Are we supposed to be deleting/cleaning the drive when full? I thought that it would just override the oldest file.


If you're only using the Dashcam feature, then there is no need to delete files. The only time you'll have permanent files that need to be manually deleted are when you press the dashcam icon to save recent recordings.

If you're using Sentry Mode, then the car will save files whenever there is motion near your car. This will result in a LOT of saved files. You'll need to periodically delete these entries from the drive.


----------



## Blue Meanie

Enginerd said:


> You might check whether your USB drive has been corrupted by all the video recordings. The detritus tends to build up over time.
> 
> This weekend I followed the advice from this thread and now I have USB music and dashcam/Sentry video recording on separate partitions on the same USB. I made two FAT32 partitions, each only 32 GB to be safe (still plenty of room for my _full_ music collection). Make a TeslaCam folder in one of them, and put your music in the other. It indexed slowly the first time only, then at subsequent startups it seems to be pre-fetched and ready to go as soon as I sit down.


Thank You Enginerd! Reformatted again and USB is again recognized... AND I can play music... now let's see how MUCH I can put on there


----------



## wackojacko

garsh said:


> If you're only using the Dashcam feature, then there is no need to delete files. The only time you'll have permanent files that need to be manually deleted are when you press the dashcam icon to save recent recordings.
> 
> If you're using Sentry Mode, then the car will save files whenever there is motion near your car. This will result in a LOT of saved files. You'll need to periodically delete these entries from the drive.


The Sentry part is what I suspected, as my DashCam had been rolling along nicely on a Staples branded 16GB. But now it stops almost every day.

Anyone else notice in your home garage a bunch of events? I'll get in in the morning and it will say like 150 sentry events. Lights have been off, no one in the garage, i'm wondering if I've got mice lol.


----------



## Mayhem

Ok, I'm still having trouble with the front USB set up. I have the Nomad V1 (included battery) and Onvian USB splitter. (Onvian USB Splitter from Amazon)

Model 3 2019.16.2
Nomad V1 charging pad
Onvian splitter
iPhone 8

Most of the time there is no issue but once or twice a week since 2019.8.3 (and later) the USB dashcam icon will be gone when I get into the car. Concurrent with this the pad stops charging. Unplugging the splitter and connecting the L/R USB of the Nomad to the L/R USB Model 3 restores the power to the Nomad and ability to connect/communicate with the dashcam.

ALSO occasionally the pad will only charge my iPhone partially (e.g. 76%), then give a white light (charge finished) indication. Sometimes it will or will not continue to charge the battery if I remove and replace it on the pad.

Anyone else still having issues?


----------



## Jason Krellner

Since 16.2, the side with the splitter (for dashcam and right side of nomad) will not charge. The left side (direct connection from USB to nomad) delivers a charge.


----------



## MJJ

I contacted service with my issue, and they had a couple of recommendations that seem to be helping. First, they say to not use a drive larger than 32GB. Second, they say Sentry Mode and TeslaCam hate partitions. I got a 32 GB SanDisk Cruzer Glide, set up one partition using DISKPART and formatted it... I'm not seeing the weird missing segments like before.


----------



## GDN

MJJ said:


> I contacted service with my issue, and they had a couple of recommendations that seem to be helping. First, they say to not use a drive larger than 32GB. Second, they say Sentry Mode and TeslaCam hate partitions. I got a 32 GB SanDisk Cruzer Glide, set up one partition using DISKPART and formatted it... I'm not seeing the weird missing segments like before.


My car and functions couldn't be happier using a 256 GB drive split in to two partitions - one with music and one for the camera recordings. I know they need to simplify for troubleshooting, but way too many of us are using large drives and partitions. Very likely the OS doesn't know or even care how big or how many.

I know you are just passing that along, so I don't mean to shoot the messenger.


----------



## pdp1

SunDevilM3 said:


> Question for you guys. Trying out Sentry Mode for the first time on my Model 3 and looks like SSD is the best option. I'm looking at the following one:
> 
> 
> Will this drive fit nicely inside the car by itself (since internal) or do I need to buy some type of enclosure? Or do I need to buy like a portable SSD drive?


I would get a USB to SATA enclosure. Here is an example . You can probably find cheaper ones than that one though.

After burning through 2 USB flash drives in 6 months on my Tesla dashcam, I also decided to go this route with an SSD. Granted the USB flash drives I used weren't the best quality... but if I did get a high quality flash drive, it wouldn't have been much cheaper than a 120GB SSD and an enclosure. Plus, a cheap SSD will out perform most usb flash drive out there. The only drawback I can see is that it will take up a bit more room in the center console than a small flash drive. Only have used the SSD for a month so far but no problems yet.


----------



## SimonMatthews

MJJ said:


> ... Second, they say Sentry Mode and TeslaCam hate partitions. I got a 32 GB SanDisk Cruzer Glide, set up one partition using DISKPART and formatted it... I'm not seeing the weird missing segments like before.


That seems odd. In my experience, USB drives are always partitioned: they all have a single partition when new.

I have seen issues with Windows not recognizing the second partition on a USB drive. This was some time ago, but I found that Windows simply did not appear to see the second partition.

Perhaps it depends on which partition you use for TeslaCam and which you use for Music.

When you had a USB drive with multiple partitions, which one held the TeslaCam directory?


----------



## sduck

MJJ said:


> I contacted service with my issue, and they had a couple of recommendations that seem to be helping. First, they say to not use a drive larger than 32GB. Second, they say Sentry Mode and TeslaCam hate partitions. I got a 32 GB SanDisk Cruzer Glide, set up one partition using DISKPART and formatted it... I'm not seeing the weird missing segments like before.


I would cautiously suggest that whoever whoever said these things doesn't really know what he/she's talking about. Larger than 32gb volumes work fine. And there's no hating of partitions, they work fine.


----------



## MelindaV

MJJ said:


> I contacted service with my issue, and they had a couple of recommendations that seem to be helping. First, they say to not use a drive larger than 32GB. Second, they say Sentry Mode and TeslaCam hate partitions. I got a 32 GB SanDisk Cruzer Glide, set up one partition using DISKPART and formatted it... I'm not seeing the weird missing segments like before.


as with many service topics, this thread is always good advise
https://teslaownersonline.com/threa...-the-knowledge-of-tesla-representatives.7344/


----------



## garsh

MelindaV said:


> as with many service topics, this thread is always good advise
> https://teslaownersonline.com/threa...-the-knowledge-of-tesla-representatives.7344/


Thanks.

I've added this to the list.


----------



## MJJ

sduck said:


> I would cautiously suggest that whoever whoever said these things doesn't really know what he/she's talking about. Larger than 32gb volumes work fine. And there's no hating of partitions, they work fine.


Let's not lose sight of the sequence of events. I asked, they answered, it helped. There are many aspects of our teslas that *can* work, such as using AP around town, but they lie outside their design specs. I don't see this as an example of inept customer service. They have parameters within which they must work just like the rest of us.


----------



## MJJ

SimonMatthews said:


> When you had a USB drive with multiple partitions, which one held the TeslaCam directory?


I never did, but I proposed it (as a way to present a 32GB footprint on my 64 GB drive) during the service chat, and was advised against it.


----------



## MelindaV

MJJ said:


> I never did, but I proposed it (as a way to present a 32GB footprint on my 64 GB drive) during the service chat, and was advised against it.


Im using a 500G drive with 2 large partitions (audio & Teslacam) and one small (used for processed dashcam videos after the fact) and haven't yet had any issues with the Dashcam, Sentry or any of the other oddball things some are seeing with the cameras (either auto-wipers or AP) acting up.


----------



## SimonMatthews

MJJ said:


> Let's not lose sight of the sequence of events. I asked, they answered, it helped. There are many aspects of our teslas that *can* work, such as using AP around town, but they lie outside their design specs. I don't see this as an example of inept customer service. They have parameters within which they must work just like the rest of us.


Perhaps what really happened was that you called them, then you got a new USB drive, which you formatted. Perhaps the real problem was a corrupted filesystem on the USB drive.


----------



## MJJ

SimonMatthews said:


> Perhaps what really happened was that you called them, then you got a new USB drive, which you formatted. Perhaps the real problem was a corrupted filesystem on the USB drive.


That's definitely a possibility, although the replacement drive was not new and each has had many rebuilt file systems.


----------



## SimonMatthews

MJJ said:


> That's definitely a possibility, although the replacement drive was not new and each has had many rebuilt file systems.


There have been plenty of reports of corrupted filesystems in the USB drives used for the TeslaCam. I think that is the most likely explanation, given that plenty other people (myself included) have used USB larger drives with more than 1 partition.


----------



## Blue Meanie

MelindaV said:


> Im using a 500G drive with 2 large partitions (audio & Teslacam) and one small (used for processed dashcam videos after the fact) and haven't yet had any issues with the Dashcam, Sentry or any of the other oddball things some are seeing with the cameras (either auto-wipers or AP) acting up.


Melinda, are your partitions over 32Gb? When I tried to make partitions over 32Gb the option to format as FAT32 was no longer available (only NTFS and exFAT), so I made three 32Gb FAT32 partitions. Also, curious as to what size your Teslacam partition is...


----------



## sduck

There are many third party options for formatting (windows) fat32 at larger than 32gb sizes. Look back in this thread, several have probably been mentioned. You are NOT limited to 32gb partitions.


----------



## MelindaV

Blue Meanie said:


> Melinda, are your partitions over 32Gb? When I tried to make partitions over 32Gb the option to format as FAT32 was no longer available (only NTFS and exFAT), so I made three 32Gb FAT32 partitions. Also, curious as to what size your Teslacam partition is...


yes - all the partitions are over 32G. The teslacam and audio partitions are something like 220G each and the balance of the 500G goes to the misc. folder. I added info on what I'd done to partition and format in this post


----------



## Doug Joubert

I am now on my second USB thumb drive. Both were 16GB SanDisc Cruzer Glides (bought a two-pack). Both were corrupted within a week or so. The last one was left in the car when I went on vacation. The tech at Tesla said I should leave the car plugged in while I was gone (only allowed it to charge to about 80%). When I returned, and saw the icon for recording had disappeared, I went to remove the thumb drive. It was hot to the touch. Then, I tried to read it on my computer (the same one that I used to format it), and it was corrupted. It wouldn't even read it after initially plugging it in.

I'm frustrated, to say the least....


----------



## GDN

Doug Joubert said:


> I am now on my second USB thumb drive. Both were 16GB SanDisc Cruzer Glides (bought a two-pack). Both were corrupted within a week or so. The last one was left in the car when I went on vacation. The tech at Tesla said I should leave the car plugged in while I was gone (only allowed it to charge to about 80%). When I returned, and saw the icon for recording had disappeared, I went to remove the thumb drive. It was hot to the touch. Then, I tried to read it on my computer (the same one that I used to format it), and it was corrupted. It wouldn't even read it after initially plugging it in.
> 
> I'm frustrated, to say the least....


Understand the frustration, but the thumb drives just aren't holding up to the rigor required by a lot of driving and Sentry recordings. Consider an SSD drive for longevity.


----------



## Nom

OK, I'm worn out trying to find some info. Hoping kind souls on here can help. 

I've been using a 32GB disk for my teslacam. Stopped working today. I took it out and could read it in my computer except for the last 4 files that were posted to it. Those didn't look like mini movies ... couldn't open them. Decided to just reformat the disk and start over. But couldn't do it. Errors. Searched sites, went to terminal on my mac, did plenty of commands to try to force an erasure of the disk. No go. I'm giving up for now.

Is there a trick? (sorry, I haven't read all the pages of this thread but have read others)

Is there a simple 'lessons learned' summary regarding dashcam USB issues or things not to do or be careful with? For example, my microphone wasn't working so I rebooted (fixed the mic).... not sure if rebooting the car caused the issue. Did that yesterday. Today when I got the car after work, I unplugged, got in the car, put foot on brake and noticed car was self rebooting. Didn't notice if teslacam wasn't working. But by this evening, I noticed it wasn't working. Again, are reboots something to be careful about (as in remove the USB before rebooting). I think I read something on this somewhere.

Anyway - if anyone has some lessons learned link, would really appreciate it.

I'm about to get another USB drive ...


----------



## MelindaV

Nom said:


> OK, I'm worn out trying to find some info. Hoping kind souls on here can help.
> 
> I've been using a 32GB disk for my teslacam. Stopped working today. I took it out and could read it in my computer except for the last 4 files that were posted to it. Those didn't look like mini movies ... couldn't open them. Decided to just reformat the disk and start over. But couldn't do it. Errors. Searched sites, went to terminal on my mac, did plenty of commands to try to force an erasure of the disk. No go. I'm giving up for now.
> 
> Is there a trick? (sorry, I haven't read all the pages of this thread but have read others)
> 
> Is there a simple 'lessons learned' summary regarding dashcam USB issues or things not to do or be careful with? For example, my microphone wasn't working so I rebooted (fixed the mic).... not sure if rebooting the car caused the issue. Did that yesterday. Today when I got the car after work, I unplugged, got in the car, put foot on brake and noticed car was self rebooting. Didn't notice if teslacam wasn't working. But by this evening, I noticed it wasn't working. Again, are reboots something to be careful about (as in remove the USB before rebooting). I think I read something on this somewhere.
> 
> Anyway - if anyone has some lessons learned link, would really appreciate it.
> 
> I'm about to get another USB drive ...


the reboots restart the screen only. so should have not impact on the USB.
In short, most typical USB stick drives are intended for users to copy files from their computer onto and back to the computer. So they don't all do well with the continual writing that the dashcam does. Not to say some can't handle it, but many can't.
A SD card specifically intended for video is a good alternative or a SSD drive. both should be much more durable than a typical USB stick.

did you try to do the reformat using different options? (like the standard Mac journaled?) and did you try the disk repair/first aid in Disk Utility?


----------



## Nom

@MelindaV - yes, started with Disk Utility. Moved into Terminal, then trying options with computer in recovery mode. Tried various options I could find on a few websites in terminal and all failed.

Thank you for your advice.

Newbie Q - you mention an SD card. Is there a place to put that or do I need a SD card reader to plug into the USB?

And if you have advice on good inexpensive options, I'd take that too!

Thanks again.


----------



## pdp1

Nom said:


> @MelindaV - yes, started with Disk Utility. Moved into Terminal, then trying options with computer in recovery mode. Tried various options I could find on a few websites in terminal and all failed.
> 
> Thank you for your advice.
> 
> Newbie Q - you mention an SD card. Is there a place to put that or do I need a SD card reader to plug into the USB?
> 
> And if you have advice on good inexpensive options, I'd take that too!
> 
> Thanks again.


You will need a micro sd to USB adapter to use it.

You may want to consider getting a 120GB ssd, just a quick glance at a google shopping search, they're actually a bit cheaper than a typical high endurance micro sd card.


----------



## Nom

@pdp1 - thanks, will check it out. ....

Looking at this one ...

I see more options but they don't have an obvious USB interface. I'm obviously no expert at this. And frankly, I'm dealing with choice paralysis a bit ... too many options and permutations, not sure which way to go.

If I did do this, what's the approach for formatting it so that it works with the Teslacam? Same approach with the USB drive?

(again, showing my ignorance on this stuff).

Thanks a lot for the help.


----------



## Nom

Hmm, my pasted link didn't work. But here is one that I just noticed. I'm seeing how it hooks up now (USB 3.0 to micro-B connecter at the SSD drive that is included).

*KEXIN 120GB Portable External SSD Drive USB 3.0 High Speed Read & Write up to 400MB/s & 300MB/s External Storage Ultra-Slim Solid State Drive for PC, Desktop, Laptop, MacBook Black*

$40. Thumbs up?


----------



## MelindaV

Nom said:


> Hmm, my pasted link didn't work. But here is one that I just noticed. I'm seeing how it hooks up now (USB 3.0 to micro-B connecter at the SSD drive that is included).
> 
> *KEXIN 120GB Portable External SSD Drive USB 3.0 High Speed Read & Write up to 400MB/s & 300MB/s External Storage Ultra-Slim Solid State Drive for PC, Desktop, Laptop, MacBook Black*
> 
> $40. Thumbs up?


Seems like a good price. My post up a few #250, includes a link to the post I noted how I formatted my ssd to get to larger than 32g FAT32 partitions.


----------



## pdp1

Nom said:


> @pdp1 - thanks, will check it out. ....
> 
> Looking at this one ...
> 
> I see more options but they don't have an obvious USB interface. I'm obviously no expert at this. And frankly, I'm dealing with choice paralysis a bit ... too many options and permutations, not sure which way to go.
> 
> If I did do this, what's the approach for formatting it so that it works with the Teslacam? Same approach with the USB drive?
> 
> (again, showing my ignorance on this stuff).
> 
> Thanks a lot for the help.


Sorry, I didn't make myself really clear. The bare SATA 120GB SSDs look cheaper than the high endurance micro SDs. Crucial BX500 120GB 3D NAND SATA 2.5-Inch Internal SSD - CT120BX500SSD1Z 
But like the micro SDs you have to get a USB adapter, which is pretty cheap too (around the same as a usb to micro sd adapter) ORICO USB3.0 to SATA III 2.5" External Hard Drive Enclosure for 7mm and 9.5mm 2.5 Inch SATA HDD/SSD Tool Free [UASP Supported] Black(2189U3) 
Total will be less than $30 for better performance and likely better reliability than a micro SD.

EDIT: I changed the SATA to USB adapter I linked originally to another one that I think is better, and cheaper!


----------



## Reliev

I've been rocking this ( ) besides maybe 2 issues of corrupted recording that does not seem to be unique to the drive I've had no issues, other than of course not knowing its full which has been alleviated with the teslcam app


----------



## Nom

Thanks again all. I'll go for the $40 one I mentioned above. Simple enough. @MelindaV, I will aim to follow that path you took on the partitions and formatting. A learning experience!

@relidtm, FYI for some reason your example isn't showing up. I'm noticing links others are sharing aren't working either (like pdp1 and mine above). ???


----------



## MelindaV

Nom said:


> @relidtm, FYI for some reason your example isn't showing up. I'm noticing links others are sharing aren't working either (like pdp1 and mine above). ???


are you using an ad blocker?


----------



## wackojacko

StromTrooperM3 said:


> I've been running a Samsung Endurance 128gb, partitioned into 2 64gb drives flawlessly without any issues in this Kingston card reader for over a month now. Sentry mode always enabled when I leave the car so its getting plenty of cycles on it. Ymmv but I've been happy with this setup. write speed has been consistent 30mb sec during all my testing
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B984HJ5/?tag=model3ownersc-20


How often do you need to clean the drive, i.e. remove the sentry videos? I want an idea of how long the drive will take to fill up.


----------



## MelindaV

wackojacko said:


> How often do you need to clean the drive, i.e. remove the sentry videos? I want an idea of how long the drive will take to fill up.


from the owners manual:









when used for Sentry, how long it takes to fill will depend on the activity around where you park. If you are in a low traffic area and only have 2 alerts a day, 128G could fill up in 2 months. If parked on a downtown curb with constant foot traffic, it could be constantly triggering and could be filled in 2 or 3 days.


----------



## sduck

So much depends on your usage. I find that for me it fills up 64gb in about 2 weeks.


----------



## Reliev

MelindaV said:


> are you using an ad blocker?


nope i never do

Edit
was looking at the wrong post lol I see it clear as day now


----------



## StromTrooperM3

wackojacko said:


> How often do you need to clean the drive, i.e. remove the sentry videos? I want an idea of how long the drive will take to fill up.


I only drive the Tesla maybe 100 miles a week and always park far away from traffic so mine doesn't trigger much. I think everyone's mileage will widely vary so go as big as you can.

I looked again and on my trial setup I only did 32gb for the dashcam. At 3 weeks I had 17gb used. I'll be extending it to 64gb


----------



## SimonMatthews

Jan Groenen said:


> I deleted all files on the drive and pluged it in again but still it does not work.... Also reset the Model3 but also no result. Hope Tesla will have received this error and will fix it soon.


How did you delete the files? Some methods of deleting files don't actually free up disk space.


----------



## Konstantinos Kostis

SimonMatthews said:


> How did you delete the files? Some methods of deleting files don't actually free up disk space.


Make sure to select the files and then delete them pressing Shift+Del or empty the recycle bin after a regular deletion (directory @Recycle on your USB drive used for TeslaCam).


----------



## Jan Groenen

Konstantinos Kostis said:


> Make sure to select the files and then delete them pressing Shift+Del or empty the recycle bin after a regular deletion (directory @Recycle on your USB drive used for TeslaCam).


Thanks that was it! I moved the files and I could not see them anymore on the drive but it did not release the diskspace! I reformatted the disk and now it works again!


----------



## 2Kap

128GB drive on sale for only $15

64GB drive on sale on Amazon for only $10. Limited time only.


----------



## tivoboy

Today I'd probably go for this one 128 go for $18


----------



## Doug Joubert

Here is an interesting video from a guy who hosts a YouTube channel called "Living Tesla":

Managing TeslaCam and Sentry Video from Mobile

He recommends SD cards (because of their ability to record and read at a rapid pace, as is needed in a camera) and has a few recommendations. These are the ones from his YouTube video:

Best App for Android: TeslaCam/Sentry Reviewer: https://play.google.com/store/apps/de... 
Best Durability Storage Option (works with Android or Apple): Samsung Pro Endurance 128GB MicroSD: https://amzn.to/2WCMvvC 
Vikasi 4-in-1 Reader: https://amzn.to/2ETPtBU 
My Backup Storage: Transcend High Endurance 32GB MicroSD: https://amzn.to/2Xxn8IA 
Rocketek MicroSD Adapter: https://amzn.to/2EPiLkW 
Solid USB OTG Adapter: Anker USB-C OTG: https://amzn.to/2EPa8qI 
Best Option for Massive Storage: Samsung T5 2TB SSD: https://amzn.to/2Ws5UQM 
Best Convenience Option for Apple: Sandisk iExpand 256GB with Lightning: https://amzn.to/2Xn2tXK 
Sandisk Connect: https://amzn.to/2WnX1aE 
Highly-Recommended Android Phone: Google Pixel 3a: https://amzn.to/2XoC4sJ 
Since I have a Google phone, I'm thinking of getting

TeslaCam/Sentry Reviewer (free, with the pro version costing $3.99)
Samsung Pro Endurance 128GB MicroSD ($34.99)
Vikasi 4-in-1 Reader ($16.99)
Unless someone here puts on the brakes for me on any of these purchases, I will be getting busy with my Amazon purchases and let you know how things work out.


----------



## gary in NY

pdp1 said:


> Sorry, I didn't make myself really clear. The bare SATA 120GB SSDs look cheaper than the high endurance micro SDs. Crucial BX500 120GB 3D NAND SATA 2.5-Inch Internal SSD - CT120BX500SSD1Z
> But like the micro SDs you have to get a USB adapter, which is pretty cheap too (around the same as a usb to micro sd adapter) ORICO USB3.0 to SATA III 2.5" External Hard Drive Enclosure for 7mm and 9.5mm 2.5 Inch SATA HDD/SSD Tool Free [UASP Supported] Black(2189U3)
> Total will be less than $30 for better performance and likely better reliability than a micro SD.
> 
> EDIT: I changed the SATA to USB adapter I linked originally to another one that I think is better, and cheaper!


I decided to go with this option. This after my Sandisk Cruiser stopped working. I'll let you know how it goes.


----------



## gary in NY

gary in NY said:


> I decided to go with this option. This after my Sandisk Cruiser stopped working. I'll let you know how it goes.


Received the drive and case today (Crucial 120GB SSD and Sabrent SATA 2.5 to USB enclosure). Amazon suggested a SATA to USB cable, but you don't need that - the enclosure comes with the cable.

Initialized the drive on my Mac (FAT32), created the TeslaCam folder, and ready to go try it out. Also, it turns out my Sandisk 16GB drive was full, not bad.

EDIT: New drive works fine. I did partition the drive to include about 40GB of music files. The Sabrent case is well made and durable, but I could do without the blue LED "on" light.


----------



## TheHairyOne

Anyone have any luck with a specific usb power cable to power a ssd so it doesn't over power a raspberry pi zero? Was going to setup auto rsync but it wouldn't power my ssd and don't want to use microSd for storage.

Anyone have Linux(ubuntu 18.04) parted mkfs.fat syntax for creating a >32GB partition for camera? Posts I've seen are for win32/osx/mac looking for Linux with gnu tools.


----------



## SimonMatthews

TheHairyOne said:


> Anyone have any luck with a specific usb power cable to power a ssd so it doesn't over power a raspberry pi zero? Was going to setup auto rsync but it wouldn't power my ssd and don't want to use microSd for storage.
> 
> Anyone have Linux(ubuntu 18.04) parted mkfs.fat syntax for creating a >32GB partition for camera? Posts I've seen are for win32/osx/mac looking for Linux with gnu tools.


mkfs -t vfat /dev/sdX1

Where X is your usb drive. I assume only one partition. Works for me. You might need to add "sudo " at the beginning of the command if you are not already root.


----------



## Nom

@MelindaV & @pdp1 - thanks for your help. I went with the Kexin SSD drive I mentioned earlier and all is working well.

and MelindaV - yes, I likely do have adblocker on, thus blocking some of the links people are sharing.


----------



## enowu

Hi all,

Thought I'd share this thumb drive which I've been using as a storage medium for Sentry.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sandis...sb-type-c-flash-drive/5219002.p?skuId=5219002

Love it because you can toggle it between a Type A head and a Type C head. 128Gb seems to be a good size as well. In my experiences I've been able to get about two months of events stored. What are your experiences?

Got the drive because I was hoping to be able to view and manage events on my iPad Pro, which has not been possible up to this point, but in playing with iOS13 I can say that I now stick the drive directly into my iPad and review things quickly.


----------



## John

My issue is that Sentry Mode will create 46 events as people walk around the car.
So the major workflow isn't viewing the videos, it's cleaning all of those useless events off before the drive fills.
So now the most important major workflow is walking around the car to look for damage to see if any of those many events are worth keeping.


----------



## enowu

Yeh, sentry mode seems to be getting better with multiple events, trimming down the unnecessary footage. That’s my big issue with it too, having to clear the drive, which involves scrubbing through a ton of footage. Being able to finally do that on an iPad in addition to the ability to deleting entire folders has made the process a lot better. I just bought a second one of those flash drives so that I can swap out and review as I please.


----------



## raptor

Just received my USB M.2 drive. Includes a 256 GB M.2 SSD, around $46 USD, and M.2 can be replaced with a larger capacity one (Black Friday).


edit: Initial impressions are positive, no problems, faster to copy data from drive to your main system, and in theory, should last much longer.


----------



## pdp1

Everytime I remove the dashcam usb storage and insert it into my Windows 10 machine to review the footage, I always get a message "There is a problem with this drive. Scan the drive now and fix it". Before removing the drive from the car, I always long press the camera icon until the red dot disappears first. Before, I thought it was because I had a bad usb flash drive, or it was too slow... However, I have since switch to a USB 2.5" SSD, and I'm still getting this problem. I have seen some posts about similar stuff before, but I haven't seen a solution to this. Anyone?


----------



## sduck

I think that's a windows 10 thing. I get that all the time, with just about every flash drive I use with win10. Granted, I'm running it via bootcamp on a mac, so it's only used for certain utility functions. But, it's annoying. I don't have any similar problems with the same drives on the mac.


----------



## MelindaV

sduck said:


> I think that's a windows 10 thing. I get that all the time, with just about every flash drive I use with win10. Granted, I'm running it via bootcamp on a mac, so it's only used for certain utility functions. But, it's annoying. I don't have any similar problems with the same drives on the mac.


same - my work pc with windows10 gives the error, but my mac does not - and disk utility on the mac doesn't find any errors with the drive


----------



## pdp1

sduck said:


> I think that's a windows 10 thing. I get that all the time, with just about every flash drive I use with win10. Granted, I'm running it via bootcamp on a mac, so it's only used for certain utility functions. But, it's annoying. I don't have any similar problems with the same drives on the mac.


I definitely don't get it all the time with other usb drives on Windows 10, but I've never not gotten it with the usb drive I use for my Tesla dash cam.


----------



## raptor

This error is common, and has been around for a very long time. Usually triggered because not properly ejecting the drive before removing the drive, or when shared between multiple operating systems.

In most cases, the drive is fine.


----------



## SunDevilM3

Anyone else having the following type of issue? I went the SSD route and on some of the recommendations on here, went w/ the Crucial 120GB SSD w/ Sabrent HD enclosure and Onvian USB Splitter. The first time I plugged in the HD, it worked fine...dashcam icon popped up and was recording. Pulled it and recorded video just fine. A couple of days later, I noticed the icon wouldn't pop up. This enclosure has a status light indicator and it's a steady light. So I unplug and replug back in and sometimes the icon comes back but then a couple of times shortly after, disappears and I have to go through the same charade. Any ideas? Should I reformat the HD once more? It's FAT32 and named the folder "TeslaCam"


----------



## Rick Steinwand

SunDevilM3 said:


> Anyone else having the following type of issue? I went the SSD route and on some of the recommendations on here, went w/ the Crucial 120GB SSD w/ Sabrent HD enclosure and Onvian USB Splitter. The first time I plugged in the HD, it worked fine...dashcam icon popped up and was recording. Pulled it and recorded video just fine. A couple of days later, I noticed the icon wouldn't pop up. This enclosure has a status light indicator and it's a steady light. So I unplug and replug back in and sometimes the icon comes back but then a couple of times shortly after, disappears and I have to go through the same charade. Any ideas? Should I reformat the HD once more? It's FAT32 and named the folder "TeslaCam"


Did you check to see if the drive was full? A couple sessions of Sentry easily fills my 32 gb drive in a week. If you turn it on by default, it'd fill faster.


----------



## SunDevilM3

Issue happens within a day or the next time I get into the car so no way the drive is full. Hasn’t even been a week with the drive plugged in so space not an issue


----------



## sduck

It sounds like a fairly common sata enclosure failure. Try a new one. Those things are dirt cheap, and not really designed for the kind of stress that riding around in a car will subject them to.


----------



## SunDevilM3

sduck said:


> It sounds like a fairly common sata enclosure failure. Try a new one. Those things are dirt cheap, and not really designed for the kind of stress that riding around in a car will subject them to.


Well that's a bummer. Also, I'm wondering if heat can be an issue?? I live in Phoenix and the interior temp reads well over 100 degrees when Model 3 has been out in the sun


----------



## TheHairyOne

SimonMatthews said:


> mkfs -t vfat /dev/sdX1
> 
> Where X is your usb drive. I assume only one partition. Works for me. You might need to add "sudo " at the beginning of the command if you are not already root.


Ugh missed the fdisk unformatted optiOn before. Thanks, at 64GB now for cam.

Now need to find a split power data usb to sata cable to power the drive from separate usb port than raspberry zero and im set.


----------



## MelindaV

SunDevilM3 said:


> Well that's a bummer. Also, I'm wondering if heat can be an issue?? I live in Phoenix and the interior temp reads well over 100 degrees when Model 3 has been out in the sun


if your drive works the next time when the car is cooler, that could be the case. most SSD drives (not sure if your enclosure adds to the issue or helps with any passive heatsink cooling) have an operating temp max around 150F - if your car is in the sun in 100F temps without running Cabin Overheat Protection, it easily can get that hot inside when parked in the sun.
The good thing with SSD drives though, is if they do overheat, the worse that happens is they lose data - but the heat doesn't typically do any hardware damage.


----------



## pdp1

SunDevilM3 said:


> Anyone else having the following type of issue? I went the SSD route and on some of the recommendations on here, went w/ the Crucial 120GB SSD w/ Sabrent HD enclosure and Onvian USB Splitter. The first time I plugged in the HD, it worked fine...dashcam icon popped up and was recording. Pulled it and recorded video just fine. A couple of days later, I noticed the icon wouldn't pop up. This enclosure has a status light indicator and it's a steady light. So I unplug and replug back in and sometimes the icon comes back but then a couple of times shortly after, disappears and I have to go through the same charade. Any ideas? Should I reformat the HD once more? It's FAT32 and named the folder "TeslaCam"


you say you're using a USB splitter? What are you plugging into the other port of the splitter? Is it possible the other device is drawing too much power, leaving the SSD with not enough power?


----------



## swanson21

Not sure if it's been said yet, but make sure you have a 2nd (backup) USB or SSD or whatever drive IN THE CAR for when you forget to hit the "last 10 minute" save button, you can always pull the last 60 minutes and not be without a recorder on a roadtrip with a 2nd USB etc. Pays off on long trips especially if you see something and forget how long it's been before you hit the save button.


----------



## zigzag

W.W. said:


> Go with a Solid State and you should not have an issue I had issues with your standard usb sticks like the author of this thread.
> 
> Really happy with this
> *Samsung T5 Portable SSD 500GB USB 3.1 (MU-PA500B/AM) [Canada Version]*
> 
> it has been running now for 2 months without 1 issue.





japhule said:


> As far as space goes.
> 
> You can find 120gb SSDs on amazon for ~$20. Sata to USB adapters are $8-10. These are probably the best options if you're not concerned about the physical size. For something smaller physically, I would do a dash friendly micro sd card with a usb adapter.
> 
> Some options below.
> 
> Kingston 120GB $20
> SATA to USB $9


considering switching to SSD after flash drive failure. Is it worth switching? Will appreciate feedback from people using these above 2 options for ease of use/longevity of drive. I guess it will be best to go with biggest storage. Kingston 240 is for $30 and 480 is for $50.


----------



## raptor

zigzag said:


> considering switching to SSD after flash drive failure. Is it worth switching? Will appreciate feedback from people using these above 2 options for ease of use/longevity of drive. I guess it will be best to go with biggest storage. Kingston 240 is for $30 and 480 is for $50.


IMHO, I still believe the M.2 option I mentioned earlier in this thread is the best bang for the buck, and takes up less space.


----------



## SunDevilM3

sduck said:


> It sounds like a fairly common sata enclosure failure. Try a new one. Those things are dirt cheap, and not really designed for the kind of stress that riding around in a car will subject them to.


Yeah I'm suspecting it is the enclosure. Got in the car, no dash cam icon. So I toggled the on/off switch (although it was already on) and it worked. Going to get a different one and see if that fixes it.



pdp1 said:


> you say you're using a USB splitter? What are you plugging into the other port of the splitter? Is it possible the other device is drawing too much power, leaving the SSD with not enough power?


I got the Nomad Wireless Pad which shouldn't really be an issue


----------



## MAO

101010 said:


> Is anyone else noticing that their USB drives are dying early deaths when being used for dash cam videos?
> 
> I'm on my 2nd dead USB now, having only owned the car since November.
> 
> The first USB was older, so I wrote off its untimely demise as a fluke.
> 
> But I bought a brand new *Kingston Digital DataTraveler SE9 32GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive* from Amazon on Dec 1st and now this one is dead.
> 
> And when I say dead, I mean I put it into a Mac or a PC and neither sees the drive at all.
> 
> Is anyone else seeing this?
> 
> If you're not having this problem, what brand and size of USB drive are you using?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> [MOD EDIT - updated thread title to include more of what thread has become.
> original title: "USB drives dying early deaths when used for Tesla dash cam videos"]


Same here. Tried it twice with brand new Flash drives. Died on me within 2 days. Cannot be re-formatted because no longer accessible via laptop/pc either.


----------



## GDN

A lot gets buried in many pages, but there are many reports of USB's not holding up, dating back to November of last year. They get blazing hot an die.

Some have had luck with certain USB's, but I and others have gone all the way to SSD. You can get a 256 to 512 GB drive for $45 to $70 depending on where you look. That is maybe a bit pricey, but you're getting a big drive. I don't think we've had a single report of one of them dying and you've got room to put some music on there as well. This is also still a small price to pay for a decent dash cam.


----------



## garsh

GDN said:


> I don't think we've had a single report of one of them dying


You need to pay more attention to this thread. 
We've had one such report now.



SunDevilM3 said:


> Anyone else having the following type of issue? I went the SSD route and on some of the recommendations on here, went w/ the Crucial 120GB SSD w/ Sabrent HD enclosure and Onvian USB Splitter. The first time I plugged in the HD, it worked fine...dashcam icon popped up and was recording. Pulled it and recorded video just fine. A couple of days later, I noticed the icon wouldn't pop up. This enclosure has a status light indicator and it's a steady light. So I unplug and replug back in and sometimes the icon comes back but then a couple of times shortly after, disappears and I have to go through the same charade. Any ideas? Should I reformat the HD once more? It's FAT32 and named the folder "TeslaCam"


----------



## MelindaV

garsh said:


> You need to pay more attention to this thread.
> We've had one such report now.


but sounds like that one likely was due to the enclosure/disk connection not being rated for constant read/write speeds more than the SSD drive itself. have there been any failures of factory complete SSDs?


----------



## GDN

garsh said:


> You need to pay more attention to this thread.
> We've had one such report now.


Dang - I get busted over missing one. I've added a poll. Check it out, let me know how you'd like it enhanced or options added. I may add on to @MelindaV as well, we don't know that the SSD drive failed, but will acknowledge a solution that did work is no longer working.

I've noted my drive once or twice, but many others have having success buying a reasonable SSD and putting it in an enclosure. All of that is good, but reading the one issue I'm going to start pushing and touting my solution over those that you assemble yourselves. Those are what they are, likely good and few problems, but they aren't built for the environment we are in.

I bought this drive from Adata from Aamazon. It is marketed as rugged and meant for a tougher application other than laying on your desk beside your PC. It has even dropped $7 since I bought it 2 months ago. It is enclosed and has been a very good drive and is blazing fast.

If you have any doubt try this drive:


and this hub -


----------



## pdp1

MelindaV said:


> but sounds like that one likely was due to the enclosure/disk connection not being rated for constant read/write speeds more than the SSD drive itself. have there been any failures of factory complete SSDs?


If the enclosure (or more accurately, the USB to SATA bridge) is slower than the SSD can provide/receive data, like if it is USB 2.0, then it will force the SSD to transfer data slower than its max speed, this is not a problem. When you say "factory complete" SSDs, do you mean the external SSD drives that you can buy that comes with a USB enclosure? If so, there really is nothing technically different about those. They also have some sort of USB to SATA bridge chip in them, some may even have the same USB to SATA bridge in them as a separate USB SSD enclosure.

And incidentally, even USB 2.0 speeds are plenty fast for TeslaCam performance (rough ballbark around 35MB/s). There is no "rating" of a enclosure to match SSD drive transfer speeds, just USB2.0 or USB3.0. If something goes wrong with the data transfer, it is more likely a defect in the enclosure/bridge or the SSD itself. Or possibly, the car accidentally corrupted data on the SSD.


----------



## undergrove

MAO said:


> Same here. Tried it twice with brand new Flash drives. Died on me within 2 days. Cannot be re-formatted because no longer accessible via laptop/pc either.


I had been swapping between a number of different USB drives to test speed and convenience. I particularly liked the iDiskk, because it can be directly read on my iPhone or iPad through its built in Lightning plug. One of them recently became read only, so now I am swapping between a couple of camera capable SD cards and a USB SSD drive.

I will ultimately probably just go with SSD drives, because they are faster and bigger, but I am interested in how well the SD cards will hold up. I am hoping to find an SD card to Lightning adapter that will allow me to play the video directly on my iPhone, like the iDiskk. So far the two I have tried are very inconsistent. Only certain files will play on the iPhone, even though all will play on the computer.


----------



## undergrove

GDN said:


> Dang - I get busted over missing one. I've added a poll. Check it out, let me know how you'd like it enhanced or options added. JI may add on to @MelindaV as well, we don't know that the SSD drive failed, but will acknowledge a solution that did work is no longer working.
> 
> I've noted my drive once or twice, but many others have having success buying a reasonable SSD and putting it in an enclosure. All of that is good, but reading the one issue I'm going to start pushing and touting my solution over those that you assemble yourselves. Those are what they are, likely good and few problems, but they aren't built for the environment we are in.
> 
> I bought this drive from Adata from Aamazon. It is marketed as rugged and meant for a tougher application other than laying on your desk beside your PC. It has even dropped $7 since I bought it 2 months ago. It is enclosed and has been a very good drive and is blazing fast.
> 
> If you have any doubt try this drive:
> 
> 
> and this hub -


I suggest adding video ready SD cards to the poll.


----------



## pdp1

pdp1 said:


> Everytime I remove the dashcam usb storage and insert it into my Windows 10 machine to review the footage, I always get a message "There is a problem with this drive. Scan the drive now and fix it". Before removing the drive from the car, I always long press the camera icon until the red dot disappears first. Before, I thought it was because I had a bad usb flash drive, or it was too slow... However, I have since switch to a USB 2.5" SSD, and I'm still getting this problem. I have seen some posts about similar stuff before, but I haven't seen a solution to this. Anyone?


It just occurred to me that I do a steering wheel + brake reboot everytime after a firmware update. I do not stop the camera before doing the reboot. Since firmware updates have been coming to me about once every 2-3 weeks, and I don't view my dashcam videos that often so it's pretty much guaranteed that a reboot is done before everytime I review dashcam footage. Maybe the reboot is what is "corrupting" the drive? Do I need to stop the dashcam before a reboot?


----------



## japhule

undergrove said:


> I suggest adding video ready SD cards to the poll.


+1


----------



## garsh

undergrove said:


> I suggest adding video ready SD cards to the poll.


I think the SD card reader is going to be more important here. Most SD cards will be able to handle constant writing, but SD card readers aren't generally designed for demanding performance.


----------



## MarkB

2Kap said:


> 128GB drive on sale for only $15


I have one of these at work. Would never buy one for myself as it's quite slow, although I can't tell for certain whether I have a "Turbo" or not.

Faster than the 1.44 MB floppies it replaced, but I doubt it would be fast enough for dash-cam functionality.


----------



## MelindaV

MarkB said:


> I have one of these at work. Would never buy one for myself as it's quite slow, although I can't tell for certain whether I have a "Turbo" or not.
> 
> Faster than the 1.44 MB floppies it replaced, but I doubt it would be fast enough for dash-cam functionality.


I also have that thumb drive as one of my spare backups. It seems pretty reliable in the car, but is is ridiculously slow when plugging into the computer to pull/review files directly from it. When it is first plugged in, there is at least a 8 second lag before the partitions and files begin to show (compared to my SanDisk Ultra and Samsung SSD that show up immediately when plugged in). Maybe it is the same in the car, but normally it gets plugged in as I am getting out of the car, and removing the SSD that is my main TeslaCam drive, so Im not waiting for the camera icon to show up, but plugging in and getting out of the car.


----------



## japhule

garsh said:


> I think the SD card reader is going to be more important here. Most SD cards will be able to handle constant writing, but SD card readers aren't generally designed for demanding performance.


Not sure about most sd cards being able to handle the constant writing dashcams/security cams. Many external dashcam users would disagree. Even the sd card manufacturers warn of dashcam usage in their warranties (for non dashcam specific cards).


----------



## MarkB

I've had the above for a couple years, and use it while travelling.

Today in my car, I plugged in my thumb drive (it can read any connected USB drive, or SD card.), connected my iPhone to the device's Wi-Fi, and looked at the videos on my phone.

I think I'm going to get one to leave in the car. This one is a bit cheaper and smaller, but doesn't do SD cards directly.

They both use the same app.


Probably the best solution for me until Tesla adds the capability to view the saved files on the nice big screen!


----------



## JML

TeslaCam partition formatted ext4

Somebody, but I can't seem to find where, mentioned that _he_ thought that ext3 and ext4 could now be used for the TeslaCam partition. I finally had an opportunity to try it, and I can confirm that ext4 does work for the TeslaCam partition. This is with 2019.20.4.2.

I formatted a USB drive as ext4, created a directory called TeslaCam, and stuck it into the car. The camera icon appeared, and it successfully recorded a few minutes of video. I tapped the camera to save the videos, let it record a bit longer, and then long pressed the camera to stop recording. I didn't have any trouble reading the videos on my computer. Apropos nothing, the directory and videos were created with uid and gid 1984.

I can't think of any good reason to use ext4 over fat32 for the TeslaCam recordings, though. ext4 is superior in all kinds of ways to fat32, but I don't think it matters for writing out a few large files. The main advantage of fat32 is that it will work on just about anything that you plug it into. I mean, you can probably review your fat32 saved sentry recordings by plugging your drive directly into a TV.

Perhaps if somebody is really bored they can iterate through all of the Linux filesystems and see which ones work.


----------



## Protect1989

I bought a 250gb SSD to be used as a music folder and as TeslaCam. 150gb for each (overkill yes but whatever). 

I noticed today that my Teslacam was 100% full. 150gb of recorded video. 

I was looking at some of the saved clips and the majority of them are absolutely nothing. No one walking by the car, no one messing with, absolutely nothing. There are also a good portion of videos of my car just sitting in my garage in the pitch black. 

It seems like my vehicle is recording everything all the time and it is eating up my storage space. Has anyone else encountered this or have a solution? How long should it really take to fill up 150gb? 


Note: I have only manually saved footage a handful of times since the last time I cleared it out maybe 2 weeks ago.


----------



## sduck

I read somewhere that 2019.20.4.1 had a bug that sometimes caused continual sentry recording - are you one of the few outliers that hasn't gotten 20.4.2? Of course, this may be an unsubstantiated rumor, such is the ways of the internet. Other than that, sentry mode is just ridiculously sensitive - someone driving by, even a row away in a parking garage, will set it off. Bugs will set it off.


----------



## Protect1989

sduck said:


> I read somewhere that 2019.20.4.1 had a bug that sometimes caused continual sentry recording - are you one of the few outliers that hasn't gotten 20.4.2? Of course, this may be an unsubstantiated rumor, such is the ways of the internet. Other than that, sentry mode is just ridiculously sensitive - someone driving by, even a row away in a parking garage, will set it off. Bugs will set it off.


I've got 20.4.2.

I just erased the HD and dedicated the full 250gb to Teslacam. I'm going to give it a couple days and see how much memory it takes up


----------



## sduck

The 64gb partition that I use for the dashcam/sentry fills up in about 2 weeks typically. Of course, everyone is going to have different usage depending on their needs.


----------



## NJturtlePower

Rbrooks84 said:


> following as im in need of a hub myself. whats the best solution that looks the cleanest in the console? dont want a huge mess down there


This might be what you're looking for...just saw this in a FB Tesla group.

*Jeda USB Hub*
The Tesla Model 3 USB Hub Designed For DashCam, Sentry Mode and More.

https://getjeda.com/tesla-model3-usb-hub/


----------



## MelindaV

Protect1989 said:


> I bought a 250gb SSD to be used as a music folder and as TeslaCam. 150gb for each (overkill yes but whatever).
> 
> I noticed today that my Teslacam was 100% full. 150gb of recorded video.
> 
> I was looking at some of the saved clips and the majority of them are absolutely nothing. No one walking by the car, no one messing with, absolutely nothing. There are also a good portion of videos of my car just sitting in my garage in the pitch black.


generally speaking, the trigger is the 2nd from last clip (minute) of the set of clips per folder. So if quickly looking thru multiple, start with the 2nd from last of each set.


----------



## WonkoTheSane

I have a 38GB drive connected as my TeslaCam and it keeps filling up and disabling the save file feature. Am I missing a setting which would allow it do delete "RecentClips"?


----------



## MelindaV

are you using Sentry Mode? depending on where you park, it will fill up that size drive pretty quickly.
the files in the recent folder are only the last 60 minutes and record over themselves.

Also, when you have your drive plugged into your computer, check what it's available space is. Depending on your computer and the USB drive, some require you empty the computers recycle bin while the USB is plugged in to clear out its deleted files.


----------



## SoFlaModel3

WonkoTheSane said:


> I have a 38GB drive connected as my TeslaCam and it keeps filling up and disabling the save file feature. Am I missing a setting which would allow it do delete "RecentClips"?


As @MelindaV said, Sentry Mode is the most likely culprit. In a typical week, I'm storing 16-20 GB of footage from Sentry Mode, so with a 64 GB drive, I just do a quick check and format on an every 1-2 week basis.


----------



## Mesprit87

Didn't have much problem with my Sandisk datatraveler 32GB until 2 days ago. I noticed that when I set the hvac at work before leaving, the camer icon is gone when I climb IN. the stick is burning hot.
Checking the files, it seems it started recording when the car woke up (all corrupted files). Clearing the stick makes it operable again.
I don't have sentry ON and there is plenty of space on the drive.
Anybody experienced this?


----------



## Rick Steinwand

Heat like that eventually leads to failure. Time to find a high-endurance drive made for dash cams. I'd seriously consider a SSD drive.


----------



## Mesprit87

Rick Steinwand said:


> Heat like that eventually leads to failure. Time to find a high-endurance drive made for dash cams. I'd seriously consider a SSD drive.


Makes sense, and that is what I plan to do, never anticipated my usb drive would get _that_ much exercise. Sentry + multiple camera recording just pushed it across the line.


----------



## MelindaV

Rick Steinwand said:


> Heat like that eventually leads to failure. Time to find a high-endurance drive made for dash cams. I'd seriously consider a SSD drive.


actually, on SSD drives, heat only impacts the current saved data, but doesn't cause permanent damage like on a hard drive or other types of media. One of the benefits of using SSD drives.


----------



## rrolsbe

101010 said:


> Looks like someone posted something on reddit
> 
> 
> __
> https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/9l6e5o


I think the following is still true.

USB flash drives even the more expensive ones do not usually support "Static Wear Leveling" whereas many if not ALL good SSD's do. Static wear leveling will also move the NAND data in the erase blocks that contain the file allocation tables; however, dynamic wear leveling will not. Linux files systems ext2/ext3 have a mount option "noatime" which helps reduce the number of writes to the file allocation table but I do not know if FAT32 file systems have such a feature. Since Tesla cars run Linux, ext files systems might/could be supported. I have not tried anything other than FAT32 with my Model 3. Many USB flash drives use Triple Level NAND which does not support a large number of writes to a given erase block.


----------



## M3OC Rules

MelindaV said:


> actually, on SSD drives, heat only impacts the current saved data, but doesn't cause permanent damage like on a hard drive or other types of media. One of the benefits of using SSD drives.


I think he was suggesting an SSD over a Flash drive. Are you agreeing?

I have one of these small USB drives.
It for sure cannot handle the heat. If it's in the garage it can record fine but if it's in the sun it gets all corrupted. Edit: I think its the controller because it only corrupts while recording new data in the heat. :Edit I'm guessing it's just too small to dissipate the heat. The thing gets hot not doing anything plugged into a computer so it's not surprising it can't handle 3 video streams in 100 deg. heat.

I have been waiting to see if any automotive grade thing comes out of the woodwork since I'll clearly be out of the temperature range of any consumer SSD but maybe I'll get a Samsung T5 until something better comes along.


----------



## sduck

FWIW ext4 is currently supported for both music and dashcam drives. The support for it in the dashcam is new as of this update (2019.20.4.2). I have both partitions on my ssd (a sandisk 250gb external) formatted ext4 currently. Haven't checked the dashcam status yet though. For music it works great.


----------



## WonkoTheSane

SoFlaModel3 said:


> As @MelindaV said, Sentry Mode is the most likely culprit. In a typical week, I'm storing 16-20 GB of footage from Sentry Mode, so with a 64 GB drive, I just do a quick check and format on an every 1-2 week basis.


I guess my question is why doesn't it delete the "RecentClips" when it runs out of space?


----------



## garsh

WonkoTheSane said:


> I guess my question is why doesn't it delete the "RecentClips" when it runs out of space?


It's not an ideal solution. People who rely on the car keeping the last hours' worth of recordings would have an unpleasant surprise when they find those recent clips missing.


----------



## TrevP

I have both a BlackVue dashcam in my X and the Tesla dashcam mode. Lately I'm finding the BlackVue will power up with the usual "Blackvue for your safe driving" which is an indication that it crashed or rebooted. Mine runs off constant 12V power tapped from the door actuator so I know it runs 24/7 with ill-effect but my previous MicroSD card died in it so I think it's an indication the SDcard needs to be replaced.

My 64GB USB stick in the Tesla dashcam has filled up (pretty annoying) so reformatting isn't a big deal but I recently bought the Samsung T5 500GB SSD for my Jeda USB hub review and I'm using that. Seems to get a hot but then cools off pretty quickly. So far it's working properly and I don't have to empty it as fast


----------



## PNWmisty

sduck said:


> FWIW ext4 is currently supported for both music and dashcam drives. The support for it in the dashcam is new as of this update (2019.20.4.2). I have both partitions on my ssd (a sandisk 250gb external) formatted ext4 currently. Haven't checked the dashcam status yet though. For music it works great.


Is ext4 a Linux only format or can it be used with Windows?


----------



## garsh

PNWmisty said:


> Is ext4 a Linux only format or can it be used with Windows?


Windows does not (yet) include a native ability to read ext4 partitions. But there's no reason why it couldn't be added by Microsoft. Currently, there are several third-party drivers and apps for reading ext4 partitions within windows.

Android systems switched over to ext4 about 8 years ago.

Macs have a few ways of accessing ext4 filesystems.


----------



## tivoboy

Does anyone know what is means if one camera doesn't seem to store footage reliably? Is it a cam recording issue or a CAMERA issue?


----------



## Bokonon

tivoboy said:


> Does anyone know what is means if one camera doesn't seem to store footage reliably? Is it a cam recording issue or a CAMERA issue?


Are you referring to zero-byte video files, and does the camera in question happen to be a repeater? If so, it's a common problem that seems to come and go for a lot of folks. Most likely is firmware-related, not an issue with the camera itself.


----------



## SoFlaModel3

WonkoTheSane said:


> I guess my question is why doesn't it delete the "RecentClips" when it runs out of space?


So the Sentry Clips are saved in the "Saved" folder which is never deleted by the system.

The Recent Clips folder is (or should be) purged every hour.

The ideal solution would probably be to give you something right on the screen to manage it.


----------



## sduck

SoFlaModel3 said:


> The ideal solution would probably be to give you something right on the screen to manage it.


I'm not sure that's the ideal solution, but it's one of several ones that are better than the current implementation.

Personally, I think they should do what just about every other dashcam does, which is delete the oldest clips when the drive becomes close to full. Then it would up to the user to review old clips or not, depending on whether they wanted/needed to or not. That's how the rexing dashcam worked in my volt, and how my current blackvue dashcam works. 99% of the time you're not going to want to look at that old stuff anyway, but if you do, you've got a 2 week window to do it (approximation assuming a 64gb drive - of course size and use situations will make this vary widely).


----------



## slotti

just put in a SSD with 2 partitions (1 music 1 dash). Worked for 2 hrs, and now it won't find it anymore. All FAT 32....any idea?


----------



## garsh

slotti said:


> just put in a SSD with 2 partitions (1 music 1 dash). Worked for 2 hrs, and now it won't find it anymore. All FAT 32....any idea?


Pull it out, plug it into a computer, and see if it still works.
Check if the dashcam partition is full.

I don't know if it will help, but you should also switch to ext4. There are reports that it is now supported, and it's a much better filesystem.


----------



## slotti

garsh said:


> Pull it out, plug it into a computer, and see if it still works.
> Check if the dashcam partition is full.
> 
> I don't know if it will help, but you should also switch to ext4. There are reports that it is now supported, and it's a much better filesystem.


It is fine on the computer, not full either, and obviously, the music partition wouldn't be able to fill up. 
I had tried ext4 before, and it did work for the music partition, but the dashcam partition wasn't recognized at all. Only on FAT 32 it worked....well, for a couple hours at least.


----------



## garsh

slotti said:


> I had tried ext4 before, and it did work for the music partition, but the dashcam partition wasn't recognized at all.


It's a recent change, but apparently it works for the dashcam partition too now.


----------



## slotti

how recent? I was on 20.4.2. already!


----------



## sduck

It (ext4) became available for dashcam use with 20.4.2. If the car isn't recognizing either partition of your ssd, and it's all working on the computer, check your connections in the car. It's probably a bad wire or hub. If you have an extra flash drive you could test them with it also.


----------



## SoFlaModel3

sduck said:


> I'm not sure that's the ideal solution, but it's one of several ones that are better than the current implementation.
> 
> Personally, I think they should do what just about every other dashcam does, which is delete the oldest clips when the drive becomes close to full. Then it would up to the user to review old clips or not, depending on whether they wanted/needed to or not. That's how the rexing dashcam worked in my volt, and how my current blackvue dashcam works. 99% of the time you're not going to want to look at that old stuff anyway, but if you do, you've got a 2 week window to do it (approximation assuming a 64gb drive - of course size and use situations will make this vary widely).


I can see that, but I guess my viewpoint is that nothing that's in a saved folder should ever be purged without user intervention. Happy medium -- user defined options!


----------



## M3OC Rules

tivoboy said:


> Does anyone know what is means if one camera doesn't seem to store footage reliably? Is it a cam recording issue or a CAMERA issue?





Bokonon said:


> Are you referring to zero-byte video files, and does the camera in question happen to be a repeater? If so, it's a common problem that seems to come and go for a lot of folks. Most likely is firmware-related, not an issue with the camera itself.


In my case, I'm pretty sure its temperature related. I think the USB drive slows down when it gets too hot and then can't handle all of the streams. The hotter it gets the less video and more corruption. I have a physically really small USB drive that gets very hot even when it's not doing anything. Based on this it seems that it writes the front camera first, then left, and then the right. So I'll lose the right sometimes, right and left sometimes but never just the left for example.


----------



## tivoboy

M3OC Rules said:


> In my case, I'm pretty sure its temperature related. I think the USB drive slows down when it gets too hot and then can't handle all of the streams. The hotter it gets the less video and more corruption. I have a physically really small USB drive that gets very hot even when it's not doing anything. Based on this it seems that it writes the front camera first, then left, and then the right. So I'll lose the right sometimes, right and left sometimes but never just the left for example.


Could be.. So, maybe those longer stick USB drives, which are actually CHEAPER might be better. That thing is so deep in the cavity below, it's probably not at too much risk.


----------



## JoeP

Im having the problem that my new USB3.0 128GB USB drive that i use with the Dashcam function only (no partitions) simply stops working with dashcam after a few weeks (usually 2-3?) . The black "x" symbol appears on the Tesla monitor where normally there's a red dot for dashcam. I can plug it into a computer, read the files and "scan/fix" the drive but it wont work in the Tesla anymore.

Reformatting the USB drive works. It will then work again for a few weeks.

Has anyone else seen this? I deliberately bought a newer drive for this purpose and its worked for a up to about 6 weeks at a time i suppose between "failures" which seem unrecoverable without formatting. Is it time to switch to an actual SSD?


----------



## sduck

Your drive is filling up. The tesla currently has no way of deleting old files to make room for new ones, unlike most other dashcams. You'll have to manually purge the old files (on your computer) when (or before) it gets full.


----------



## JoeP

When i do this though, there's never more than about 30GB of files on the drive, which is 128GB. So there's plenty of space. Unless Tesla considers the drive full at 32GB maybe, no matter how large it really is?


----------



## sduck

Did you format it using the built in windows formatting utility? If so, then you only have 32GB available. You'll need to reformat it using a third party formatting utility that can create fat32 drives larger than 32gb.


----------



## JoeP

OH... now there's a good point.


----------



## SimonMatthews

garsh said:


> It's a recent change, but apparently it works for the dashcam partition too now.


What settings for ownership/permissions? I suppose 1777 would work, but is there are less permissive setting that will work?


----------



## JML

SimonMatthews said:


> What settings for ownership/permissions? I suppose 1777 would work, but is there are less permissive setting that will work?


I'm guessing your asking about an ext4 partition?

I created the directory as either root, or my normal uid (I can't remember), with just the normal permissions of 755. Tesla changed the ownership of the directory to (if I remember correctly) 1984:1984. So, don't worry about it, the car will do what is necessary to put files in the directory.

I decided to stick with FAT though, because then the drive can be read easily not only on my Linux computer, but also the Macs, Android, and iOS devices that are around.


----------



## Sandy

TrevP said:


> My 64GB USB stick in the Tesla dashcam has filled up (pretty annoying) so reformatting isn't a big deal but I recently bought the Samsung T5 500GB SSD for my Jeda USB hub review and I'm using that. Seems to get a hot but then cools off pretty quickly. So far it's working properly and I don't have to empty it as fast


I ordered the Jeda Hub on day 1 and just ordered a 500GB T5. Your comments are interesting as I was concerned about temperature in the completely enclosed compartment. I may drill some ventilation/cooling holes in the hub cover to help. The hub cover is magnetically attached. Is the all steel or just around the edge where it mates with the box? 
I bought the hub more to clean up the mess and not so much for the hidden memory security feature.


----------



## SimonMatthews

JML said:


> I'm guessing your asking about an ext4 partition?
> 
> I created the directory as either root, or my normal uid (I can't remember), with just the normal permissions of 755. Tesla changed the ownership of the directory to (if I remember correctly) 1984:1984. So, don't worry about it, the car will do what is necessary to put files in the directory.
> 
> I decided to stick with FAT though, because then the drive can be read easily not only on my Linux computer, but also the Macs, Android, and iOS devices that are around.


1984? Really?

Has anyone tried an M.2 SSD in a USB adapter/enclosure? This would be more compact than than a 2.5" SSD.


----------



## sduck

I think the sandisk ones are just M.2 in an enclosure with a built in adaptor. They're pretty small. And I'm not sure about the samsung ones, but they look smaller than a 2.5 device.


----------



## JML

SimonMatthews said:


> 1984? Really?


According to my post from a few days ago, yes, that is the number i found. So the surveillance system has the uid and gid of 1984. I wonder what the names are.


----------



## SimonMatthews

sduck said:


> I think the sandisk ones are just M.2 in an enclosure with a built in adaptor. They're pretty small. And I'm not sure about the samsung ones, but they look smaller than a 2.5 device.


At work, we have some processes that write a lot of data to SSDs. Samsung drives seem to work well. We have had some other brands fail early, while the Samsung drives keep chugging along until they reach their limit of LBAs written, at which time we swap them out.


----------



## tvu

I have the m.2 sata B+M version in a usb enclosure working.

I have not and don’t have any m.2 nvme disks so don’t know about those.


----------



## kataleen

Hi all, since there was quite a lot of information scattered all around, I did a write up for how to format and configure an SDD to work with the Model 3 for both personal media and the dash cam recordings. For now this targets Windows computers for setting up. If anyone can do something similar for Macs, would be great.

http://www.thebrainspike.com/how-to-set-up-dash-cam-recording-and-media-files-on-the-same-ssd-for-tesla-model-3-complete-windows-guide/

Hope this helps!


----------



## Doug Joubert

Doug Joubert said:


> Here is an interesting video from a guy who hosts a YouTube channel called "Living Tesla":
> 
> Managing TeslaCam and Sentry Video from Mobile
> 
> He recommends SD cards (because of their ability to record and read at a rapid pace, as is needed in a camera) and has a few recommendations. These are the ones from his YouTube video:
> 
> Best App for Android: TeslaCam/Sentry Reviewer: https://play.google.com/store/apps/de...
> Best Durability Storage Option (works with Android or Apple): Samsung Pro Endurance 128GB MicroSD: https://amzn.to/2WCMvvC
> Vikasi 4-in-1 Reader: https://amzn.to/2ETPtBU
> My Backup Storage: Transcend High Endurance 32GB MicroSD: https://amzn.to/2Xxn8IA
> Rocketek MicroSD Adapter: https://amzn.to/2EPiLkW
> Solid USB OTG Adapter: Anker USB-C OTG: https://amzn.to/2EPa8qI
> Best Option for Massive Storage: Samsung T5 2TB SSD: https://amzn.to/2Ws5UQM
> Best Convenience Option for Apple: Sandisk iExpand 256GB with Lightning: https://amzn.to/2Xn2tXK
> Sandisk Connect: https://amzn.to/2WnX1aE
> Highly-Recommended Android Phone: Google Pixel 3a: https://amzn.to/2XoC4sJ
> Since I have a Google phone, I'm thinking of getting
> 
> TeslaCam/Sentry Reviewer (free, with the pro version costing $3.99)
> Samsung Pro Endurance 128GB MicroSD ($34.99)
> Vikasi 4-in-1 Reader ($16.99)
> Unless someone here puts on the brakes for me on any of these purchases, I will be getting busy with my Amazon purchases and let you know how things work out.


I bought these items from Amazon:

Samsung Pro Endurance 128GB MicroSD ($34.99)
Vikasi 4-in-1 Reader ($16.99)
I also downloaded the free version of the TeslaCam/Sentry Reviewer for my Android phone (Google Pixel 3)

So far, because of the size of the MicroSD I bought, I only have to erase my old videos once a week or so. I just unplug the reader (after pressing on the camera icon for a few seconds to eject it), plug it into my Pixel 3, and view and/or erase what's on there. So simple!

Now, if Tesla would make this easier for us, such as enabling us to view and/or erase videos on the Tesla phone app... Now *THAT *would be simple!


----------



## Dasher

kataleen said:


> Hi all, since there was quite a lot of information scattered all around, I did a write up for how to format and configure an SDD to work with the Model 3 for both personal media and the dash cam recordings. For now this targets Windows computers for setting up. If anyone can do something similar for Macs, would be great.
> 
> http://www.thebrainspike.com/how-to...ssd-for-tesla-model-3-complete-windows-guide/
> 
> Hope this helps!


@kataleen - your timing was impeccable for me. I just received my SSD through the post today. I am gradually buying stuff for my Model 3 in anticipation of it finally arriving in the next few weeks (fingers and everything else crossed). Something had to be done to break up the dreadful wait for a RHD M3.

I followed your write up easily and quickly, and it worked brilliantly. Thanks for the effort; you saved me (and others) ploughing through 19 pages of this thread.


----------



## choney22

My dashcam had the grey x so I hooked up to computer and it was full, I thought the cam would write over itself unless you pressed the button to save it? The entirety of what filled it up was about 4 days worth of things from June, and I did not press the button to record it that many times. It is a Sandisk 32gb I bought back in November and worked well until about a month ago. So I deleted everything and today an alert told me the USB is too slow. Seems like I need a new one? A quick scan of this thread seems SD cards are recommended? Any advice would be helpful, not super tech oriented here.


----------



## garsh

choney22 said:


> My dashcam had the grey x so I hooked up to computer and it was full, I thought the cam would write over itself unless you pressed the button to save it?


Turn off sentry mode. That saves recordings every time someone walks by your car.


----------



## sduck

choney22 said:


> My dashcam had the grey x so I hooked up to computer and it was full, I thought the cam would write over itself unless you pressed the button to save it?


You'd think that would be the case as virtually EVERY OTHER DASHCAM ON THE MARKET WORKS THIS WAY, but no, tesla had to do it their own way. It's like it was designed by aliens who only read about dashcams in books or something. I also have a blackvue dashcam installed, for more than a year now, and I've never had to do any kind of maintainance with it - it always is recording, and overwrites the old stuff when it runs out of room. And it stores more than a month worth of recordings, higher quality, wide angle, back and front cameras, with integrated gps. Highly recommended for people who don't like to mess with this stuff.


----------



## choney22

garsh said:


> Turn off sentry mode. That saves recordings every time someone walks by your car.


Interesting, so options are periodically clear the drive or turn off a security feature, seems they didn't think that through. It would be nice to access, view, and delete the videos from the Tesla screen.


----------



## MelindaV

choney22 said:


> Interesting, so options are periodically clear the drive or turn off a security feature, seems they didn't think that through. It would be nice to access, view, and delete the videos from the Tesla screen.


the recent does clear itself off ever 60 minutes. the whole purpose of the saved folder is that the owner needs to decide what to delete. with a decent sized drive, that doesn't seem too unreasonable. I personally want to see what all those events were that caused Sentry to be triggered and regularly pull the drive to take a look. I've not yet have had a drive fill to the point it can not record any more content, and that includes when first using just a 32GB drive. it could go a few days when parked in a busy parking lot with tons of foot traffic and still have spare space.


----------



## ChiTesla

M3OC Rules said:


> In my case, I'm pretty sure its temperature related. I think the USB drive slows down when it gets too hot and then can't handle all of the streams. The hotter it gets the less video and more corruption. I have a physically really small USB drive that gets very hot even when it's not doing anything. Based on this it seems that it writes the front camera first, then left, and then the right. So I'll lose the right sometimes, right and left sometimes but never just the left for example.


I also think that heat affects the usb drive. I cannot confirm that it loses video, but when I notice that the dashcam is not operating, I pull the usb drive (I also have the really small one), let it cool for 5 minutes and it always works when I plug it back in.


----------



## garsh

choney22 said:


> Interesting, so options are periodically clear the drive or turn off a security feature, seems they didn't think that through. It would be nice to access, view, and delete the videos from the Tesla screen.


Yeah, it's a bit half-baked.

Elon has talked about the videos being uploaded to Tesla and being able to review them on your phone. Who knows when they'll get around to adding those abilities. But I assume once those are added, we'll also be able to delete saved videos.


----------



## Gabzqc

New in software update is a notification with the red (!) mark saying "your USB stick is full"...

A second drive I have (Kingston DataTraveler G4 16GB) has mysteriously turned READ ONLY by the Tesla Dashcam... and no application I can find, will reverse the read only... 

Please Please Please give us support to retrieve Dashcam footage through Tesla App! Even if both car and phone have to be on wifi to save bandwidth over LTE...


----------



## japhule

Gabzqc said:


> New in software update is a notification with the red (!) mark saying "your USB stick is full"...
> 
> A second drive I have (Kingston DataTraveler G4 16GB) has mysteriously turned READ ONLY by the Tesla Dashcam... and no application I can find, will reverse the read only...
> 
> Please Please Please give us support to retrieve Dashcam footage through Tesla App! Even if both car and phone have to be on wifi to save bandwidth over LTE...


USB sticks turning read only appears to be a common symptom of when drives go bad. It's likely your memory controller on the drive has gone bad (probably due to the large amount of writes/rewrites) and can no longer write/delete from the drive.


----------



## MelindaV

Gabzqc said:


> A second drive I have (Kingston DataTraveler G4 16GB) has mysteriously turned READ ONLY by the Tesla Dashcam... and no application I can find, will reverse the read only...


does that USB drive have a lock switch (like on an SD card)?

I have one that the tiny switch moves too easily, and will move to the 'lock' position without intending it to be locked (making it read only).


----------



## Gabzqc

MelindaV said:


> does that USB drive have a lock switch (like on an SD card)?
> 
> I have one that the tiny switch moves too easily, and will move to the 'lock' position without intending it to be locked (making it read only).


Hi Melinda, no it doesnt have any switch, first thing I checked!


----------



## lance.bailey

Yesterday I got the red (!) warning that my drive (64G SanDisk Cruzer Glide 3.0) is too slow for the dash cam (has worked fine for many weeks before 28.2).

The day before the identical drive (I buy in pairs at Costco) corrupted and is now useless. Both having issues within 2 days of upgrading to 28.2 indecates it isn't entirely the fault of the drives. The drives are plugged into via the splitter cable that came with the Nomad charger pad. I have been using the splitter cable since January or so.

Is there a definitive list somewhere telling what USB drives are more succesful than others for the dash cam? I am not interested in a SSD drive.


----------



## Gabzqc

lance.bailey said:


> Yesterday I got the red (!) warning that my drive (64G SanDisk Cruzer Glide 3.0) is too slow for the dash cam (has worked fine for many weeks before 28.2).
> 
> The day before the identical drive (I buy in pairs at Costco) corrupted and is now useless. Both having issues within 2 days of upgrading to 28.2 indecates it isn't entirely the fault of the drives. The drives are plugged into via the splitter cable that came with the Nomad charger pad. I have been using the splitter cable since January or so.
> 
> Is there a definitive list somewhere telling what USB drives are more succesful than others for the dash cam? I am not interested in a SSD drive.


A list would be very helpful!
I use a Kingston Datatraveler 100 G3 64GB, and its worked flawlesly for 4 months...


----------



## lance.bailey

i had a data traveler 100 G3 in the car for a while, but it filled up fast at 16G - so I moved to the 64G SanDisk - I'll go back to the data traveler while I look for a bigger one.


----------



## sduck

lance.bailey said:


> I am not interested in a SSD drive.


Just curious, why not?


----------



## lance.bailey

mostly price and size.


----------



## SimonMatthews

lance.bailey said:


> mostly price and size.


Ignoring price, one can get an m.2 drive and put it in an enclosure. This is much smaller than a standard 3.5" drive.


----------



## NYer

A week ago, my Model 3 alerted me saying that my USB drive was full and that I had to manually remove files. Besides this being a manual process, and the Model 3 not auto-overwriting the drive like a DVR, which is a feature shortcoming, I cannot get it to work again.

I took it out of the car, stuck it in my Mac, and removed the video files and the subfolders for Recent and Saved files. Still says it is full. This is a huge waste of time.

Anyone else experience this? I'm hoping that I don't have to reformat the USB drive every month or so, because reformatting with FAT32 is also a pain in the ass as it's not a standard offering on my MacPro.

Thanks in advance for your tips. I also set up a service schedule so that I can ask them, "What the hell is up with the USB functionality?" directly.


----------



## iChris93

What does your Mac show the storage situation of the drive is? Did you empty your trash after deleting the files?


----------



## GDN

To re-emphasize what @iChris93 says. Be sure to empty the trash bin. The trash for a portable drive is held on the portable drive not the Mac itself.


----------



## simpsonhomer

NYer said:


> I took it out of the car, stuck it in my Mac, and removed the video files and the subfolders for Recent and Saved files. Still says it is full.


By default, deleting a file/folder only marks it for deletion (puts it in the "trash") so it's still occupying space. Open up your Trash app on your Mac and permanently delete those files/folders (or just reformat the USB drive).

Next time, delete using Option + Command + Delete which will skip the trash. https://www.idownloadblog.com/2018/11/09/skip-trash-delete-files-on-mac/


----------



## Robert Herrmann

My dash cam drive fills up after a couple of weeks. I thought it was supposed to just save the last 10 minutes. Is there a setting I missed?


----------



## jmaddr

Agreed on the empty'ing the trash. 

In the future, another option is to not move them to the trash when emptying but instead use "Delete Immediately". You can do that with by pressing Command-Option together and then press the delete key. You will see a dialog box pop up asking if you are sure (since there is no recovery if you do it this way). You can also choose "Delete Immediately" from the File Menu if you can't remember the shortcut. Select the file, select the File Menu then press the option key. You will see "Move to Trash" change to "Delete Immediately". This works system wide in OSX.

Finally, OSX can natively format FAT32 very easily. Just choose MS-DOD (FAT) and it will format in FAT32 automatically.


----------



## jmaddr

The recents folder does "loop", the saved folder does not (arguable if it should or not). So any sentry events or if you press the dash cam icon on the display (and move the recents files to saved) are permanent and must be manually removed.


----------



## garsh

Robert Herrmann said:


> My dash cam drive fills up after a couple of weeks. I thought it was supposed to just save the last 10 minutes. Is there a setting I missed?


Turn off sentry mode.


----------



## Gabzqc

Has the stick become "read only"? The car did this to one of my USB sticks and it was irreversible


----------



## NYer

simpsonhomer said:


> By default, deleting a file/folder only marks it for deletion (puts it in the "trash") so it's still occupying space. Open up your Trash app on your Mac and permanently delete those files/folders (or just reformat the USB drive).
> 
> Next time, delete using Option + Command + Delete which will skip the trash. https://www.idownloadblog.com/2018/11/09/skip-trash-delete-files-on-mac/


Extremely helpful. Thank you!


----------



## NYer

jmaddr said:


> Agreed on the empty'ing the trash.
> 
> In the future, another option is to not move them to the trash when emptying but instead use "Delete Immediately". You can do that with by pressing Command-Option together and then press the delete key. You will see a dialog box pop up asking if you are sure (since there is no recovery if you do it this way). You can also choose "Delete Immediately" from the File Menu if you can't remember the shortcut. Select the file, select the File Menu then press the option key. You will see "Move to Trash" change to "Delete Immediately". This works system wide in OSX.
> 
> Finally, OSX can natively format FAT32 very easily. Just choose MS-DOD (FAT) and it will format in FAT32 automatically.


Thank you. Appreciated!


----------



## NYer

Gabzqc said:


> Has the stick become "read only"? The car did this to one of my USB sticks and it was irreversible


I hope not. If it does, I assume that I can just reformat it.


----------



## GDN

An interesting issue with my SSD. Yesterday I got in the car and got the "drive is full" message. However I forgot and did not bring the drive in last night. Got in the car this morning, same drive full message, as would be expected. 

I got in the car to come home tonight from work and had a message “1 New Sentry Recording” or however it reads, I had done nothing to clear the drive. 

I just brought the drive in to check it and there is NO new recording, and the drive is indeed full, just a few MB available out of the 125 GB partition.

I don't know why the car thought there was room again and tried to make a recording. There hasn't been a recording for 4 days. I'll wipe it clean and put it back in. Suspect all will be OK, just a full drive.


----------



## Rick Steinwand

We need an initialize option. Use it to format a new drive and add the Teslacam folder or fix a full drive with nothing on it that needs saving.

You could long press on the icon to bring up a menu:

Sentry
eject
initialize/erase
cancel


----------



## GDN

I will go on record as changing my view on the Sentry recordings being over written. I was a staunch supporter that they should not be over written automatically. Well now the shoe is on the other foot and I see how quickly the drive can fill up and then nothing records at all. 

I'm all about the sentry files being over written now, I'd just have to remember to check the car every few days and if something has happened pull the drive before they get overwritten. 

My drive had been in the car for a month since I'd cleaned it up and deleted files, so with 256 GB I figure that should be more than enough time to go back a few days or a week to review files and save any evidence from a problem.


----------



## SimonMatthews

NYer said:


> I hope not. If it does, I assume that I can just reformat it.


Probably not. Typically, it is the stick itself that is readonly, not the filesystem.


----------



## NYer

GDN said:


> An interesting issue with my SSD. Yesterday I got in the car and got the "drive is full" message. However I forgot and did not bring the drive in last night. Got in the car this morning, same drive full message, as would be expected.
> 
> I got in the car to come home tonight from work and had a message "1 New Sentry Recording" or however it reads, I had done nothing to clear the drive.
> 
> I just brought the drive in to check it and there is NO new recording, and the drive is indeed full, just a few MB available out of the 125 GB partition.
> 
> I don't know why the car thought there was room again and tried to make a recording. There hasn't been a recording for 4 days. I'll wipe it clean and put it back in. Suspect all will be OK, just a full drive.


Happened to me over the past few days as well. Sentry Events still happen, but it's not intelligent enough, yet, to say, "something happened, but I couldn't record it because your USB is full. Have a nice day, not knowing what recently happened to your beloved Model 3..."


----------



## NYer

NYer said:


> Extremely helpful. Thank you!


Yes, it worked. Plugged the USB back into my Mac, and then emptied the trash. Put the USB back into the Model 3 and the dashcam started to work again.

Man - that is a manual process... Tesla should automate it. Even better, just ship each Tesla with an onboard flash SSD so we don't need to deal with it...


----------



## Norm Rechtman

BluestarE3 said:


> I recently made the switch to SSD as well. In my case, it wasn't because of any drive corruption; instead, it's because USB music playback would pause for a few seconds after every third or fourth track played. Very annoying. It would only happen if TeslaCam is active. Didn't matter if I had TeslaCam and music on the same (partitioned) drive or on two separate drives. Turn off TeslaCam and music playback is fine.
> 
> After the switch to SSD, USB music plays without any hiccups even with TeslaCam running.


An SSD certainly gives you the space for recordings, but you still need to unplug it and plug it into your computer, what happens if you needed to show a police officer on scene the video and you don't have a computer with you? That's why I own, use and carry 3 San Disk Wireless Connect Flash drives, I have a 64 gig and 2-32 gig Wireless Connect drives in my car, I carry the extras as backups in case I run out of space or need to pull the drive that was in use.

I can then turn on the WiFi of the drive and connect to it with either my iPhone or my iPad and view the video immediately with the Sentry view app I purchased which will show all 3 videos on the screen, I've been using them for months without any failures of the drive, yes there are times when 1 or more of the cameras don't get recorded, but I think this is more a Tesla software issue than A drive problem.

Plus you can buy the bulk drives from San Disk directly that don't have all the fancy cardboard and bubble packaging and save quite a bit of money, I just looked on their site and only saw the 16, 200 & 256gig drives available. Here is the link

https://shop.sandisk.com/store/sdiskus/en_US/list/ThemeID.4846328000/categoryID.4883773700


----------



## Norm Rechtman

Norm Rechtman said:


> An SSD certainly gives you the space for recordings, but you still need to unplug it and plug it into your computer, what happens if you needed to show a police officer on scene the video and you don't have a computer with you? That's why I own, use and carry 3 San Disk Wireless Connect Flash drives, I have a 64 gig and 2-32 gig Wireless Connect drives in my car, I carry the extras as backups in case I run out of space or need to pull the drive that was in use.
> 
> I can then turn on the WiFi of the drive and connect to it with either my iPhone or my iPad and view the video immediately with the Sentry view app I purchased which will show all 3 videos on the screen, I've been using them for months without any failures of the drive, yes there are times when 1 or more of the cameras don't get recorded, but I think this is more a Tesla software issue than A drive problem.
> 
> Plus you can buy the bulk drives from San Disk directly that don't have all the fancy cardboard and bubble packaging and save quite a bit of money, I just looked on their site and only saw the 16, 200 & 256gig drives available. Here is the link
> 
> https://shop.sandisk.com/store/sdiskus/en_US/list/ThemeID.4846328000/categoryID.4883773700


 Until Tesla makes the files viewable on our displays or they incorporate the ability to view files on the screen from a plugged in flash drive, this is the perfect solution, maybe one day when Tesla has the ability to run apps and runs an App Store, then maybe we will get that opportunity, wouldn't it be great to be able to view a file on the car display and immediately email it or text it from the car to someone as evidence.


----------



## xof

NYer said:


> Yes, it worked. Plugged the USB back into my Mac, and then emptied the trash. Put the USB back into the Model 3 and the dashcam started to work again.
> 
> Man - that is a manual process... Tesla should automate it. Even better, just ship each Tesla with an onboard flash SSD so we don't need to deal with it...


Hopefully this will come in the v10 update!


----------



## TheHairyOne

Saved video files auto delete would be a nice toggle option. If you have 64GB for cam and don't see a key mark or broken window the. Most videos will just be people walking by, wind or a sun set.
Never got my raspberry pi zero installed. Setup the rootfs, scripts and gui jist never tested it. Testing is when the ba[sh]isms come out to play. Still looking for a functional usb power split cable so i can mount ssd on pi but power externally. Tried one that didnt work, reply if you can link to one that does from amazon or elsewhere.


----------



## Tesla4Me!

Norm Rechtman said:


> An SSD certainly gives you the space for recordings, but you still need to unplug it and plug it into your computer, what happens if you needed to show a police officer on scene the video and you don't have a computer with you?


I use a Samsung T5 SSD (500GB) drive. I just connect it to my phone (Samsung S7) and use a TeslaCAM app to view the videos if I want to view videos in the car.


----------



## garsh

GDN said:


> I got in the car to come home tonight from work and had a message "1 New Sentry Recording" or however it reads, I had done nothing to clear the drive.


It reports an "event", not a "recording". 










> I just brought the drive in to check it and there is NO new recording, and the drive is indeed full, just a few MB available out of the 125 GB partition.


Sentry mode doesn't require a USB drive in order to work. You can activate it even without a drive inserted. It will still sound an alarm if someone assaults your vehicle. And it will still report "events" whenever somebody walks by. You just don't get any video of these events.


----------



## NYer

garsh said:


> It reports an "event", not a "recording".
> View attachment 28413
> 
> 
> Sentry mode doesn't require a USB drive in order to work. You can activate it even without a drive inserted. It will still sound an alarm if someone assaults your vehicle. And it will still report "events" whenever somebody walks by. You just don't get any video of these events.


Reporting an event without recording does little good. These events can range from someone walking by the car to someone keying or doing other damage to your car. Without a recording, you are left wondering what it was that set it off which is more frustrating than helpful.


----------



## sduck

Hence, this thread.


----------



## Tesla Newbie

Shout out to member @*kataleen* for the detailed yet simple-to-follow instructions on formatting and partitioning portable drives for both dashcam/sentry and music (post 363 in this thread). I'm behind the rest of you getting started (sometimes life gets in the way of playing with the new toys), but had it easy due to your experience.

Kataleen - the only snag I faced was random but frequent error messages indicating that the volume was in use and therefore unavailable. It took me awhile to realize that it was "in use" simply because I had file explorer open. Strange (to me) but easily repeatable. Also, thanks for your mention of the Samsung Portable SSD T5 500gb which is incredibly small and seems to be working well. Amazing that it's not much bigger than the first USB stick I bought years ago. It held a whopping 10mb and cost about the same as the T5.


----------



## MelindaV

thought I'd share an interesting Sentry Mode point for those that use small thumb drives or otherwise have limited storage space or don't regularly clear out their drive.

Since 2019.28.3.1, seems Sentry is much more sensitive to what triggers an event. Friday at work (around 11-12 hours) I had 52 'events'. reviewed and didn't see anything out of the ordinary than any other day where I get 10 or 15 triggers.
Yesterday before leaving for work, I reformatted my drive to have a clean fresh start for the week (I have a 500G Samsung T5, so not worried about space, but no need to keep what was on there). At work there was a surveyor working in our parking lot most of the day and ended up with 82 triggers (over 12 hours)!
Combined the videos last night and it ended up just over 7 ½ hours worth of video for that 12 hour time frame! 
BUT important thing I wanted to bring up is, it used 44GB of space for the one day. or nearly 4GB per hour parked.

So, if you are using anything less than a 128GB drive and in a high traffic area, and want to ensure everything that happens could be recorded, you have to clear the drive out every day, and larger drives every few days.


----------



## Achooo

SR22pilot said:


> Yes. I was shocked when I benchmarked my USB drives and found they were fast to read but slow to write. I bought an SSD and that solved the problem. USB thumb drive 5MB/s write. SSD 400+ MB/s write. I have wondered if this revision has caused a heavier data stream when recording such that 5MB/s is inadequate.


If you don't mind, which SSD did you end up purchasing? I've never purchased an SSD other than the ones that came included within our most recent laptop purchases, so some guidance would be a big help.


----------



## M3OC Rules

Achooo said:


> If you don't mind, which SSD did you end up purchasing? I've never purchased an SSD other than the ones that came included within our most recent laptop purchases, so some guidance would be a big help.


I believe the Samsung T5 is the most popular in general and among Tesla owners buying a SSD. Another popular one is the Sandisk Extreme. I haven't seen people complaining about either of these. I read one review comparing the two and they said the Sandisk Extreme ran hotter so I got the Samsung T5. I will note that neither of these claims to operate over typical car temperatures for hot or cold but good luck finding one that does.


----------



## Achooo

M3OC Rules said:


> I believe the Samsung T5 is the most popular in general and among Tesla owners buying a SSD. Another popular one is the Sandisk Extreme. I haven't seen people complaining about either of these. I read one review comparing the two and they said the Sandisk Extreme ran hotter so I got the Samsung T5. I will note that neither of these claims to operate over typical car temperatures for hot or cold but good luck finding one that does.


Thanks for the info! T5 it is!


----------



## sduck

I think you'd do fine with either the sandisk or the samsung. I don't believe the report about sandisks running "hotter" - mine barely registers to my fingers as generating any heat at all under use. They're both excellent choices. There's also one by adata that's had some good reports here. Just find the one that fits your needs for a compromise between size and price and you'll be good.


----------



## M3OC Rules

sduck said:


> I think you'd do fine with either the sandisk or the samsung. I don't believe the report about sandisks running "hotter" - mine barely registers to my fingers as generating any heat at all under use. They're both excellent choices. There's also one by adata that's had some good reports here. Just find the one that fits your needs for a compromise between size and price and you'll be good.


You're probably right. I haven't heard anything bad about either of those two. There is a Western Digital one that is highly rated as well. I have a super small Flash drive that definitely has heat issues so maybe I'm a little sensitive. The review I read is here and the temperature part isn't very scientific. I guess I also thought the Samsung metal case might dissipate heat better. The SanDisk was $2 less and better dust and impact protection I think.


----------



## M3OC Rules

This might help make the formatting easier someday: https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/28/microsoft-wants-to-bring-exfat-to-the-linux-kernel/


----------



## SR22pilot

Achooo said:


> If you don't mind, which SSD did you end up purchasing? I've never purchased an SSD other than the ones that came included within our most recent laptop purchases, so some guidance would be a big help.


I have two Model 3's. One is using a 512GB Samsung T5 and the other a 512GB Sandisk. Both work fine. I prefer the form factor of the Samsung T5. Also, the Samsung came with two cables - USB-C to USB-C and USB-C to standard USB. You will use the latter cable. The Sandisk came with a USB-C to USB-C plus a C to standard adapter which is a bulky solution that I don't care for that as much. It places more sideways force on the Tesla's USB connector.


----------



## dano

Read above comments...Tesla will quickly remind you that this Sentry and Camera software is still Beta version. Everyone agrees that the software needs to
loop recordings ...just like security camera's do. Patiently waiting for final version of this code.


----------



## M3OC Rules

dano said:


> Read above comments...Tesla will quickly remind you that this Sentry and Camera software is still Beta version. Everyone agrees that the software needs to
> loop recordings ...just like security camera's do. Patiently waiting for final version of this code.


Book em Danno... I mean welcome dano! Agreed and I hope they don't stop there. They need a way to review, delete, send over wifi from the car, add more cameras, remote viewing... There is a ton of cool stuff they could do.


----------



## Skione65

So I’ve switched from a 128g Sandisk flashdrive to the Samsung 500g T5 SSD. I’ve reformatted the SSD from the default Exfat to FAT32 (on Windows 10 using RidgeCrop) and created the TeslaCam folder. I for the life of me cannot get the Tesla to recognize the drive and put up the camera icon. I put the 128b flash drive in and bam...there’s the cam and working fine.
Any advice or troubleshooting gouges for those of you running the T5?

Ski


----------



## sduck

Double check the capitolization of the TeslaCam folder. And can you try a different formatting utility? I don't know if that will make a difference, as I'm not a windows user, but it's possible they aren't all created the same.


----------



## SimonMatthews

Skione65 said:


> So I've switched from a 128g Sandisk flashdrive to the Samsung 500g T5 SSD. I've reformatted the SSD from the default Exfat to FAT32 (on Windows 10 using RidgeCrop) and created the TeslaCam folder. I for the life of me cannot get the Tesla to recognize the drive and put up the camera icon. I put the 128b flash drive in and bam...there's the cam and working fine.
> Any advice or troubleshooting gouges for those of you running the T5?
> 
> Ski


I got the "Too slow" message, so I switched from a USB thumb drive to a 256GB M2. SATA SSD in a USB adapter. I created two partitions (one for music) and formatted both as EXT4. I created the TeslaCam folder and set the permissions on the folder to 1777 (drwxrwxrwt). Plugged it in and it started working.


----------



## Skione65

sduck said:


> Double check the capitolization of the TeslaCam folder. And can you try a different formatting utility? I don't know if that will make a difference, as I'm not a windows user, but it's possible they aren't all created the same.


 @sduck,

Capital T and C are there for TeslaCam, I'm familiar with that requirement.....that's not it. And RidgeCrop is the second utility I've tried figuring that might be the difference....no joy.

Ski


----------



## Bokonon

Skione65 said:


> @sduck,
> 
> Capital T and C are there for TeslaCam, I'm familiar with that requirement.....that's not it. And RidgeCrop is the second utility I've tried figuring that might be the difference....no joy.


Have you tried putting music on the drive (any partition) to see if the car can read it?

Also -- and I dislike suggesting this because it makes no sense and doesn't seem to apply to everyone -- have you tried reducing the size of your TeslaCam parititon to 32 GB or smaller?

FWIW, I have a T5 that I formatted on Windows, and for whatever reason, my car doesn't seem to want to read a FAT32 partition larger than 32 GB. There are a few of similar reports in the various USB/TeslaCam threads here, where reducing the parititon size to 32 GB resolved the issue... but there are also plenty of people here with T5s that have had no issue with TeslaCam partitions larger than 32 GB. (Though I know at least one of those is a Mac user, so maybe the formatting utility matters...)


----------



## sduck

Skione65 said:


> @sduck,
> 
> RidgeCrop is the second utility I've tried figuring that might be the difference....no joy.


You might want to try a third formatting utility. Talked to a few other tesla owners at a meet today, this came up, the mac guys laughed, the windows guys said that yes, some formatting utilities are better than others. Rufus has been recommended before - https://rufus.ie


----------



## Tesla4Me!

A random thought, are you plugging your Samsung T5 directly into a Tesla console USB port, or are you using a splitter or USB hub? If not directly into a console USB port, perhaps the T5 is not getting enough power?


----------



## Rick Steinwand

Maybe this has been mentioned before, but splitters (not hubs) have a power side and a data side. USB devices need the data side. Cell phones can use the power side.


----------



## SR22pilot

Rick Steinwand said:


> Maybe this has been mentioned before, but splitters (not hubs) have a power side and a data side. USB devices need the data side. Cell phones can use the power side.


In general, splitters don't work with Apple devices.


----------



## fazluke

JWardell said:


> I would recommend any USB3 hub. I have the Anker USB3 hub.


Do you use your hub on the right or left USB, does it matter?


----------



## sduck

It doesn't matter in my car, but I've heard that for some people one or the other side works better for a hub/splitter. They may have changed the USB implementation somewhere along the line.


----------



## scamp333

I have a 128GB flash drive in the car and it records 230MB and stops recording. Can anyone tell me why it stops.


----------



## slasher016

scamp333 said:


> I have a 128GB flash drive in the car and it records 230MB and stops recording. Can anyone tell me why it stops.


Unless you hit the record button at the top, it just cycles the recent files. If you can't get it to save, then that sounds something else.


----------



## scamp333

Shouldn't it keep recording as I go down the road?


----------



## scamp333

Would it have any thing to do with the write speed of flash drive?


----------



## scamp333

By recording I mean taking pictures.


----------



## sduck

Counterfeit drive?


----------



## garsh

scamp333 said:


> I have a 128GB flash drive in the car and it records 230MB and stops recording. Can anyone tell me why it stops.


Can you provide more details?
How are you detecting that it "stops"?
Does the recording symbol on the car's display change from a red dot to an X?
Are there individual videos still on the drive?
In what directories?
Are they watchable? Or are they 0-byte files?


----------



## scamp333

It shows video from all 4 cameras for about a mile down the road and than just stops, no more video. The display changes from a red dot to an x. The only videos on the drive are the ones for the first mile, and than none. In the TeslaCam folder. The are watchable for the first mile and than nothing in the folder.


----------



## scamp333

sduck said:


> Counterfeit drive?


What do you mean "Counterfeit drive"


----------



## garsh

scamp333 said:


> What do you mean "Counterfeit drive"


It sounds like you have a bad flash drive.
Try another one.

@sduck mentions "counterfeit drive" because some of the cheap ones you find on eBay are fake, and are actually much smaller than the stated size.

But even some legit drives can't handle the constant writes that a Tesla performs. So try a different drive.


----------



## scamp333

I bought a 128 GB Samsung micro sd card and the 4 cameras are working just fine recording going down the rod. The sentry I don't think is working correctly. There are a bunch of hits, about 30 or 40, that are not showing anyone any where close to the car. I thought it was only supposed to record when someone got close to the car. Am I wrong?


----------



## BluestarE3

scamp333 said:


> There are a bunch of hits, about 30 or 40, that are not showing anyone any where close to the car. I thought it was only supposed to record when someone got close to the car. Am I wrong?


Were there any things that may have caused sudden changes in light and shadow where you were parked? Such as tree branches, flags, vehicles passing by, etc.? Did you review all 3 (now 4) camera views for possible trigger events?


----------



## garsh

scamp333 said:


> I bought a 128 GB Samsung micro sd card and the 4 cameras are working just fine recording going down the rod. The sentry I don't think is working correctly. There are a bunch of hits, about 30 or 40, that are not showing anyone any where close to the car. I thought it was only supposed to record when someone got close to the car. Am I wrong?


It's also triggered by loud noises - things like fighter jets flying overhead, or loud trucks driving by.


----------



## scamp333

BluestarE3 said:


> Were there any things that may have caused sudden changes in light and shadow where you were parked? Such as tree branches, flags, vehicles passing by, etc.? Did you review all 3 (now 4) camera views for possible trigger events?


I could not see any. The video does not show any cars or any thing else going by.


----------



## choney22

I was having lots of issues recently before the version 10 software update and upon recommendation after reading through here purchased the Samsung Portable SSD T5 500GB to use for dashcam functions. Installed and has worked great ever since, likely the software update helped too since I believe it allowed SentryMode footage to write over it self but this device will hold a lot more and has been great the last few weeks. Though I did have to download a third party program to my computer to format this large drive to FAT32 but there are many demos on how to do it out there so it was fairly easy for me even though I'm not the most tech savvy. Just an FYI for anyone having issues with small USBs.


----------



## cogarch

I have a 500gb Sandisk SSD with a USB C plug and USB A adaptor. I am having trouble trying to get my Mac to creat two partitions on it either using FAT32 or EXT4 (I have a Paragon utility that allows my Mac to recognise these). The partition button stays greyed out for both formats. Can anyone suggest a fix?


----------



## MarkB

cogarch said:


> I have a 500gb Sandisk SSD with a USB C plug and USB A adaptor. I am having trouble trying to get my Mac to creat two partitions on it either using FAT32 or EXT4 (I have a Paragon utility that allows my Mac to recognise these). The partition button stays greyed out for both formats. Can anyone suggest a fix?


I followed Terry Whites guide.

The guide is for a thumb drive, but I used a T5, and all is good.


----------



## JWardell

fazluke said:


> Do you use your hub on the right or left USB, does it matter?


I don't think it matters, but FWIW I have the hub plugged into the right side with all the USB drives and accessories plugged in with no issue. I keep the left plug free to plug directly into the phone for full charging power.


----------



## NJturtlePower

JWardell said:


> I don't think it matters, but FWIW I have the hub plugged into the right side with all the USB drives and accessories plugged in with no issue. I keep the left plug free to plug directly into the phone for full charging power.


Same setup here with no issues....

Left USB for Phone Charging - Right USB with 4-port Anker Hub (Tesla Cam USB / Music USB / Other Phone Charger / Empty Spot).


----------



## F0ZZ

I have one of the cars waiting for V10. I’ve read that Sentry mode will record on a loop with V10? I’m using an old 8gig USB stick that needs to be deleted every night. I was going to buy a 256g micro SD card but if the video will be on a loop, maybe that’s overkill? 

Looking for suggestions for storage devices. 

Thanks,


----------



## sduck

Sentry mode - it doesn't loop. Yet. They did add the back camera, which means more data is being recorded, I doubt your 8gb drive is going to work at all now. Dashcam loops, sort of - only the last hour is kept.


----------



## garsh

sduck said:


> Sentry mode - it doesn't loop. Yet.


It's supposed to as of software v10.

https://www.tesla.com/support/software-version-10-0#dashcam


----------



## sduck

Oh - I'd missed that, or forgotten about it. Does it actually work? I have a 128GB drive for dashcam, so am not running out of room that fast.


----------



## Perscitus

Make sure to periodically plug your T5 into a PC running Samsung's Portable SSD software (latest as of this post is v1.6.5)

It will pull an updated firmware from time to time (at least three revision thus farsince early summer) and flash to the drive. 

Current firmware as of this post is MVT42P1Q_0408


----------



## bwilson4web

Partial functionality:

"RecentClips" has gaps - can't tell if it is the car or flash memory stick. In contrast I have a legacy dash cam in the cabin to record driver actions and the screen display with no data gaps except for a few seconds between files. The legacy dash cam has time stamps, GPS data, 3-axis accelerometer, and audio which are sadly missing from what appears to be unreliable Tesla dash cam data.
"SavedClips" - no problems
"SentryClips" - no problems and sentry does keep the 12V working as the cabin dash cam
Using DiskMark (2.1), the USB stick measures

140 MB/s sequential read, new 134 MB/s, reformatted 106 MB/s
38 MB/s sequential write, new 39 MB/s, reformatted 7.3 MB/s
2.3 MB/s random reads, new 3.4 MB/s, reformatted 12 MB/s
0.9 MB/s random writes, new 4.3 MB/s, reformatted 3.8 MB/s
I can't rule out a USB flash drive problem, especially with random read/performance. That would be the part that handles filesystem maintenance which would explain the missing files. I tried to reformat and retest and still get variable results.

Bob Wilson


----------



## 2Kap

I think my 4-port Anker Hub fried 2 of my usb flash drives. I had one 64GB drive with music and one 128GB for Teslacam and now neither of them will register in the car, or when i try and access them from my laptop. I have the two other slots filled for USB controllers, but those are working fine. I dont recall seeing anybody else with this issue though from a quick search.


----------



## garsh

2Kap said:


> I think my 4-port Anker Hub fried 2 of my usb flash drives. I had one 64GB drive with music and one 128GB for Teslacam and now neither of them will register in the car, or when i try and access them from my laptop. I have the two other slots filled for USB controllers, but those are working fine. I dont recall seeing anybody else with this issue though from a quick search.


TeslaCam does a LOT more continuous writing to USB flash drives than any other application in which they're generally used. I've had a couple of my USB drives fry themselves because of that. They're just generally not designed to handle that kind of traffic. A lot of people were reporting drive failures when TeslaCam was first introduced (warning: it's a LONG thread).

The point is, it's likely not the hub's fault - it's the car's fault for writing so much data continuously, or the drive's fault for producing too much heat when being written to continuously.

Unfortunately, I can't find anyone who advertises a flash drive's ability to handle continuous writing. So buying one to use for TeslaCam is basically "rolling the dice" to see if it will survive. Because of this, many people have given up on them, and instead are using a solid state drive (SSD). These can handle continuous writing just fine.


----------



## 2Kap

garsh said:


> TeslaCam does a LOT more continuous writing to USB flash drives than any other application in which they're generally used. I've had a couple of my USB drives fry themselves because of that. They're just generally not designed to handle that kind of traffic. A lot of people were reporting drive failures when TeslaCam was first introduced (warning: it's a LONG thread).
> 
> The point is, it's likely not the hub's fault - it's the car's fault for writing so much data continuously, or the drive's fault for producing too much heat when being written to continuously.
> 
> Unfortunately, I can't find anyone who advertises a flash drive's ability to handle continuous writing. So buying one to use for TeslaCam is basically "rolling the dice" to see if it will survive. Because of this, many people have given up on them, and instead are using a solid state drive (SSD). These can handle continuous writing just fine.


that makes a lot of sense. I guess I'll bite the bullet and upgrade to an SSD now. It was nerve wracking to not have the ability to save videos or see what triggered sentry mode when I was out and about yesterday.


----------



## MelindaV

but would that explain the audio drive failing? if the car is not finding the "TeslaCam" folder on the drive, is it doing anything taxing to it?


----------



## garsh

MelindaV said:


> but would that explain the audio drive failing? if the car is not finding the "TeslaCam" folder on the drive, is it doing anything taxing to it?


I don't recall anybody complaining about killing their USB drives until the TeslaCam feature became available.


----------



## MelindaV

garsh said:


> I don't recall anybody complaining about killing their USB drives until the TeslaCam feature became available.


@2Kap that you were replying to was saying 2 usb drives - one for audio and one for the teslacam both were fried.


----------



## 2Kap

MelindaV said:


> @2Kap that you were replying to was saying 2 usb drives - one for audio and one for the teslacam both were fried.


Yes that is correct. I had all 4 slots on my hub filled, 2 wireless usb controller adapters, 1 usb for music, and 1 usb for teslacam. 
Sometime yesterday they both failed. I only had the music drive as a backup just incase i couldnt stream music for any odd reason.


----------



## M3OC Rules

2Kap said:


> Yes that is correct. I had all 4 slots on my hub filled, 2 wireless usb controller adapters, 1 usb for music, and 1 usb for teslacam.
> Sometime yesterday they both failed. I only had the music drive as a backup just incase i couldnt stream music for any odd reason.


Maybe they were overheating. I had a small USB drive that got really hot even when it wasn't transferring data. Do you have the cabin overheat protection on for the car?


----------



## 2Kap

M3OC Rules said:


> Maybe they were overheating. I had a small USB drive that got really hot even when it wasn't transferring data. Do you have the cabin overheat protection on for the car?


I noticed everytime i pulled the teslacam flash drive from the car, to view the footage, that it was hot to the touch. I think they must have overheated as well. My car sits in the garage most of the time, but yes i have cabin overheat protection on.

I was using a Sabrent usb hub in the car, with no issues, but recently switched to the anker when cuphead came out so i could have another port for 2 controllers.


----------



## 2Kap




----------



## garsh

Ever since v10 came out, my three USB drives (that appeared to be working almost perfectly on v9) have been having issues. Sometimes, the car will pop up the warning message stating that they're "too slow". Other times, Tesla Cam would fail to start when I begin a drive. Removing & reinserting the USB drive would temporarily fix the issue.

I'm considering upgrading to an SSD, but I wanted to try something else first. I had a high speed MicroSD card lying around, along with a USB MicroSD card reader, so I decided to try those in the car.

The MicroSD card is designed for cameras and video recorders (like dashcams), so it should be able to handle Tesla's continuous writing just fine. I'm concerned about the USB MicroSD reader, as it's just some cheap no-name one from China that I probably picked up for $1 at some point in the past.

So far, it's been working perfectly, but it's only been a few days. I'll try to remember to report back in a week.

Here are the specific items I'm currently testing. I actually ordered the MicroSD card from Amazon. The other Amazon link below is for a product that looks exactly like the one I have, but I did not purchase it from Amazon, so it may be different.


----------



## garsh

This combination has been rock-solid all week!
And it's a less-expensive and smaller solution compared to an SSD.


garsh said:


> Ever since v10 came out, my three USB drives (that appeared to be working almost perfectly on v9) have been having issues. Sometimes, the car will pop up the warning message stating that they're "too slow". Other times, Tesla Cam would fail to start when I begin a drive. Removing & reinserting the USB drive would temporarily fix the issue.
> 
> I'm considering upgrading to an SSD, but I wanted to try something else first. I had a high speed MicroSD card lying around, along with a USB MicroSD card reader, so I decided to try those in the car.
> 
> The MicroSD card is designed for cameras and video recorders (like dashcams), so it should be able to handle Tesla's continuous writing just fine. I'm concerned about the USB MicroSD reader, as it's just some cheap no-name one from China that I probably picked up for $1 at some point in the past.
> 
> So far, it's been working perfectly, but it's only been a few days. I'll try to remember to report back in a week.
> 
> Here are the specific items I'm currently testing. I actually ordered the MicroSD card from Amazon. The other Amazon link below is for a product that looks exactly like the one I have, but I did not purchase it from Amazon, so it may be different.


----------



## Long Ranger

garsh said:


> This combination has been rock-solid all week!
> And it's a less-expensive and smaller solution compared to an SSD.


My one comment on the Samsung EVO Select is that while it is designed for video, it's still not intended for continuous dashcam recording. If you look at the warranty, it specifically excludes continuous video recording applications. I'd recommend a high endurance flash card like the Samsung Pro Endurance to reduce the chance of premature failure.


----------



## F0ZZ

If the latest software update allows for loops on both video modes, what size storage device would be best? I was going to buy 256gigs but that seem excessive now?


----------



## sduck

It's really up to you. I guess it just depends on how long you want to keep old sentry videos around. 128gb is more than enough for most people I'd guess. I wouldn't go lower than 64gb personally. FWIW I have a 500gb ssd for dashcam stuff.


----------



## SalisburySam

F0ZZ said:


> If the latest software update allows for loops on both video modes, what size storage device would be best? I was going to buy 256gigs but that seem excessive now?


Not all of us are on that version of firmware, but would hope to be at some point as determined by the Tesla software wheel-of-fortune. Usually with computer storage (hard disk, solid-state disk, flash disk, RAM, etc.) the rule of thumb has always been more is better but you're right: you may not need that much space...today. I went from using two 32GB Kingston flash drives to a Samsung 500GB SSD and haven't looked back. I partitioned the SSD for a portion dedicated to Sentry and Dashcam videos, and the rest for music. Works very well, so well that I'll likely get another SSD to make it easier to switch off when I want to view the TeslaCam folder, and edit the music library. At under $90 now, these appear to work amazingly well, still a small convenient size though larger than a flash drive, and lots of storage for drive wear, bad blocks creeping in, whatever.

Another consideration: Tesla recently enabled recording of the rear camera, so an uptick of 33% more storage needed than prior. Should the interior camera be enabled and recorded, more storage will be needed to hold those video clips as well. Future-proofing is always more of a marketing concept than a prudent investment factor but I go back to storage rule #1 above: more is better.


----------



## 2Kap

if you’re at a public event for a fairly long period of time, with a lot of foot traffic i could see a small drive filling up pretty quickly. I know at one point during an hour lunch I had 7 sentry events triggered from people just walking by.

I partitioned off my SSD for music and hopefully videos at some point.


----------



## MelindaV

2Kap said:


> I know at one point during an hour lunch I had 7 sentry events triggered from people just walking by.


Last time I parked downtown Portland for a lunch meeting, at a curb with a food cart pod, There literally was a new alert for every minute I was parked.


----------



## android04

I searched but haven't seen anybody post this link yet https://cammem.com/
That is a wealth of information on memory for the Tesla Dashcam and Sentry Mode. I like to share the section on Fakes and Counterfeits with people that purchased a flash drive from Amazon.com and have issues. That section has tips on using a program on your computer to test out flash drives/cards for corruption or other issues.


----------



## garsh

android04 said:


> I searched but haven't seen anybody post this link yet https://cammem.com/
> That is a wealth of information on memory for the Tesla Dashcam and Sentry Mode. I like to share the section on Fakes and Counterfeits with people that purchased a flash drive from Amazon.com and have issues. That section has tips on using a program on your computer to test out flash drives/cards for corruption or other issues.


Awesome! Thanks for posting that!

_"Before V10, Tesla added a performance test and will shut out the drive if too slow. We and others are finding even some seemingly fast drives are being failed by Tesla's speed test. On closer examination, the drives fail to maintain the write speeds at a sustained rate and can slow down dramatically as the drive fills up._​​_*We're now recommending using micro SD cards with an adapter.*.."_​


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## NJturtlePower

Just got an email about this new Portable SSD (500Gb & 1TB) option from Crucial... Might be a good option for the TeslaCam

https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/storage-ssd-x8


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## crmatson

I was having intermittent problems with my USB thumb drive over the summer which mysteriously went away and was working flawlessly until the latest firmware (36.2.1).
The issue resolves if I remove the drive and plug it back in or do a two-button reset on the steering wheel.
I am going to try switching to a high-endurance micro-SD card and see if that fixes my issue permanently.


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## garsh

FYI, my MicroSD card reader appears to have died. It won't work on any computer, or with any MicroSD card.
I've got another reader ordered.


garsh said:


> Ever since v10 came out, my three USB drives (that appeared to be working almost perfectly on v9) have been having issues. Sometimes, the car will pop up the warning message stating that they're "too slow". Other times, Tesla Cam would fail to start when I begin a drive. Removing & reinserting the USB drive would temporarily fix the issue.
> 
> I'm considering upgrading to an SSD, but I wanted to try something else first. I had a high speed MicroSD card lying around, along with a USB MicroSD card reader, so I decided to try those in the car.
> 
> The MicroSD card is designed for cameras and video recorders (like dashcams), so it should be able to handle Tesla's continuous writing just fine. I'm concerned about the USB MicroSD reader, as it's just some cheap no-name one from China that I probably picked up for $1 at some point in the past.
> 
> So far, it's been working perfectly, but it's only been a few days. I'll try to remember to report back in a week.
> 
> Here are the specific items I'm currently testing. I actually ordered the MicroSD card from Amazon. The other Amazon link below is for a product that looks exactly like the one I have, but I did not purchase it from Amazon, so it may be different.


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## 2Kap

garsh said:


> FYI, my MicroSD card reader appears to have died. It won't work on any computer, or with any MicroSD card.
> I've got another reader ordered.


interesting. So just the cheap china reader died, but the SDcard is still fine right?


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## garsh

2Kap said:


> interesting. So just the cheap china reader died, but the SDcard is still fine right?


Well, that was apparently the only MicroSD reader I had, so I won't be able to definitively answer that until a new one arrives later today. 
I ordered this one based on the limited information I found at https://cammem.com/tesla/recommendations/ :


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## garsh

2Kap said:


> interesting. So just the cheap china reader died, but the SDcard is still fine right?





garsh said:


> Well, that was apparently the only MicroSD reader I had, so I won't be able to definitively answer that until a new one arrives later today.
> I ordered this one based on the limited information I found at https://cammem.com/tesla/recommendations/ :


The new MicroSD reader finally arrived.
I tested it with all my MicroSD cards, and they all seem fine.
So hopefully this will work well in the car.


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## TrevP

I've had excellent and consistent results with the Samsung T5 SSD in my Jeda USB hub. In my case as I explained in my video, I partitioned it 50/50 to allow for my complete music library to be contained on it along with dashcam./sentry mode on the other partition. Never skips or hiccups. If you want to do the same thing follow my instructions on how to partition and at the very least how to format it as FAT32 so the car can see all the storage.


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## F0ZZ

I’m still looking for a perfect option. I’m considering the SanDisk Endurance cards. Any thought on getting two cards of 128g each, so I can always have a spare or one 256 card?


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## Reliev

F0ZZ said:


> I'm still looking for a perfect option. I'm considering the SanDisk Endurance cards. Any thought on getting two cards of 128g each, so I can always have a spare or one 256 card?


I would go 256 myself. I have a 128 now it does fine though I dont think you can do 2 I could be wrong, I've heard of people dividing the partition for music and video though.


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## garsh

F0ZZ said:


> I'm still looking for a perfect option.


If you're looking for "perfect", then get an SSD. They are able to handle several magnitudes more write cycles than MicroSD cards, and MicroSD cards can generally handle more write cycles than USB flash drives.


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## SalisburySam

F0ZZ said:


> I'm still looking for a perfect option. I'm considering the SanDisk Endurance cards. Any thought on getting two cards of 128g each, so I can always have a spare or one 256 card?


Don't worry as much about perfection as new and better drives are constantly coming to market. This thread and many others give great purchase guidelines and specific recommendations. Read them and take one of the recommendations. 
As to one drive or two, two will allow you to clean up (view and delete the videos) on one drive at your leisure while the other is in use in your car. 
Don't make this a lifetime quest.


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## Needsdecaf

garsh said:


> If you're looking for "perfect", then get an SSD. They are able to handle several magnitudes more write cycles than MicroSD cards, and MicroSD cards can generally handle more write cycles than USB flash drives.


100% this.


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## 2Kap

I partitioned my SSD only with the hope that Tesla one day allows us to play videos (mkv/mp4) off of it.


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## Vin

I have the same as Trev (but 1 TB version, 500 gb is fine too) and it's been working great so far... Samsung T5 SSD 1 TB (no hub) and formatted it to Fat32 using the
Evannex recommended link https://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html
That's why this M3 forum site rocks! 
Here's the link to the evannex thread about formatting for Sentry https://teslaownersonline.com/threads/how-to-use-teslas-built-in-dashcam.14746/


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## MelindaV

for those on macs, no extra application is needed to format the larger drives to FAT32.


MelindaV said:


> ...I've found it to work best to first format the entire drive as Mac OS Extended Journaled, GUID Partition Map. Once formatted, then partition. Once the partitions are created, you can then reformat the individual partitions to FAT32. I left the Misc partition as Mac Extended. (if you try to go right to FAT32, the partitioning typically will fail or not give you the option to partition).


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## BluestarE3

MelindaV said:


> for those on macs, no extra application is needed to format the larger drives to FAT32.


Same goes for Linux. Plus, you have the option to format it as ext4 instead of FAT32 if you prefer.


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## RickO2018

I have changed out my thumb drive three times now, making sure the thumb drive packaging indicates the capability to meet Tesla's required drive write speed and space requirements. Once again Sentry has begun reporting that the thumb drive is two slow, but also suggests putting in a service request. Can anyone recommend a thumb drive that actually works? That is -- enough space and speed so that Sentry events can be recorded error-free? Or could this be a sign of a failing USB port? I am using a Lexar 128G


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## Collier007

I use this one: www.puretesla.com/rtl


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## Rick Steinwand

If you value the importance of the drive when you need it most (accident), you should consider a SSD.


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## GDN

Rick Steinwand said:


> If you value the importance of the drive when you need it most (accident), you should consider a SSD.


I agree completely with this. I know there are a lot of specs for Thumb drives and other small form factor cards, but there are several SSD drives with high heat specs and rugged, that aren't much more expensive. It's well worth the $50 to me for the recording insurance. I've got the adata drive from Amazon in 2 cars. Never had a failure yet. Close to a year now if I recall.


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## Paul Spiers

I recently bought two 32GB micro SD cards with an USB adapter and so far it works very well. This is a cheaper solution and I understand that it is better than the standard USB drive because they are designed to be rewritten over without degradation.


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## Gatornail

Collier007 said:


> I use this one: www.puretesla.com/rtl


I just ordered that one from PureTesla (I should get it on Monday) because I kept getting the drive too slow error message when my usb drive was filled to a certain point. I like the fact that I will be able to view and erase the drive on my iPhone.


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## Rick Steinwand

I installed my Roadie in my Jeda hub today. Works great. I can review my videos from my phone from my car at any time or in my living room recliner w/o unplugging the drive.


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## oshw

Samsung SSD, (T5, 500GB) has been solid since sentry came out. Shouldnt get anything else ($/GB is also unbeatable in portable SSDs)

Only other thing would be microSD rated for endurance (high write cycles, 24/7) if for some reason you can stomach the $80-100 for a good SSD.

Flash drives are not good enough...


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## StromTrooperM3

I've had great luck with one of the endurance microsd cards and a USB card adapter for 6+ months now. I don't see the need to have a SSD regarding storage space or it taking up any room in the bin

Every month I check it, delete everything and free up the space and add some new music to it


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## SAronian

I've ben using the two items mentioned in this thread - Sentry-Why no MicroSD w/ USB adapter AND Lightning (iPhone connector)?

The VIKASI card reader/adapter along with a 128GB Samsung PRO Endurance MicroSDXC Memory Card have been 100% reliable for several months now.

I'm able to preview clips directly from USB-C on my laptop or Lightning on my iPad.


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## sduck

I've been using a Sandisk Extreme ssd for over a year now with no problems - 
There seems to be a cult for the samsung version in teslaland, which I think is a bit of clever marketing by someone, as there are several equally good alternatives. Not that there's anything wrong with them, just do some comparison shopping.


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## Flashgj

Rick Steinwand said:


> I installed my Roadie in my Jeda hub today. Works great.


How fast does the roadie load the videos to the app and is there any lag when trying to quickly scrim through the videos? Would appreciate your thoughts and experience when viewing footage.

Thanks in advance!


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## Rick Steinwand

Flashgj said:


> How fast does the roadie load the videos to the app and is there any lag when trying to quickly scrim through the videos? Would appreciate your thoughts and experience when viewing footage.
> 
> Thanks in advance!


I had it installed for a couple of hours prior to my post so not much experience using it. I did not notice any lag and the video on the Roadie website doesn't show any either. That said, if you have to wake your Tesla from sleep, you'll have to wait for Roadie to start up before you can use it, probably around 2 minutes.


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## NJturtlePower

sduck said:


> I've been using a Sandisk Extreme ssd for over a year now with no problems -
> There seems to be a cult for the samsung version in teslaland, which I think is a bit of clever marketing by someone, as there are several equally good alternatives. Not that there's anything wrong with them, just do some comparison shopping.


Just a heads up...for $17 more ($90) you can get the 500gb version of this SanDisk right now on Amazon. $5 cheaper than the Samsung T5's.


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## psppbb

Getting my Model 3 next month. Can you use a usb hub for dashcam, already bought a usb/microSD drive. Also any way to charge two phones from one port without a powered usb hub. Thanks.


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## sduck

Hubs are no problem - I've been using one for nearly 2 years. I'm on my second one - the data connection on the first one blew out for whatever reason early on. And charging 2 phones off one port - shouldn't be a problem. Keep in mind that the 2 front usb ports are already a hub, so the power that's available is split between the 2 ports, so while you can draw enough to power the 2 phones from one of those ports, there may not be a lot left available from the other port.


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## garsh

garsh said:


> The problem is that exFAT is proprietary to Microsoft and patented, and so it's not supported by Linux (I assume that Tesla uses Linux as the OS).
> But you don't need to format as FAT32. You can format the drive as ext4, but that's not supported by Windows.





M3OC Rules said:


> This might help make the formatting easier someday: https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/28/microsoft-wants-to-bring-exfat-to-the-linux-kernel/


Good news everybody!
Software Build 2020.8 will supposedly support exFAT!


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1235385149967101954
https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/opensource/2019/08/28/exfat-linux-kernel/


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## littlD

Tried exFat, no workie. Back to FAT32 format on a 256GB drive (238GB formatted)


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## garsh

Long Ranger said:


> My one comment on the Samsung EVO Select is that while it is designed for video, it's still not intended for continuous dashcam recording. If you look at the warranty, it specifically excludes continuous video recording applications. I'd recommend a high endurance flash card like the Samsung Pro Endurance to reduce the chance of premature failure.


These Samsung Pro Endurance cards have dropped in price recently.
The 128GB version is now only $24.99
64GB version is $14.99


For some reason the forum embeddings still show older $27.99 and $15.99 prices. Click through to see updated prices.


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## Needsdecaf

garsh said:


> These Samsung Pro Endurance cards have dropped in price recently.
> The 128GB version is now only $24.99
> 64GB version is $14.99
> 
> 
> For some reason the forum embeddings still show older $27.99 and $15.99 prices. Click through to see updated prices.


The Pro Endurance is the one I've been using since July, and recently run into issues where I got the "slow drive" message. Still worked, just had a persistent error message despite being less than half full (128GB). I re-formatted and error message has gone away.

Will post any updates.


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## garsh

Needsdecaf said:


> The Pro Endurance is the one I've been using since July, and recently run into issues where I got the "slow drive" message. Still worked, just had a persistent error message despite being less than half full (128GB). I re-formatted and error message has gone away.


The FAT32 file system is very basic. In particular, it doesn't try to deal with file fragmentation. So it could simply be that the drive became too fragmented, which would slow down access. If my theory is correct, then reformatting or simply deleting all files should be enough to solve the issue.


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## Needsdecaf

garsh said:


> The FAT32 file system is very basic. In particular, it doesn't try to deal with file fragmentation. So it could simply be that the drive became too fragmented, which would slow down access. If my theory is correct, then reformatting or simply deleting all files should be enough to solve the issue.


Good point.

none of this is my wheelhouse, but that would tie in with the fact that often when I pull the drive and put it in my computer, I get the "drive is damaged, we need to repair before you can access" warning (paraphrased obviously). Interestingly enough, both my 2018 and 2020 cars did this.


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## garsh

Another price drop!
128GB is now $19.99
64GB is $12.99



garsh said:


> These Samsung Pro Endurance cards have dropped in price recently.
> The 128GB version is now only $24.99
> 64GB version is $14.99


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## garsh

You can now purchase the official Tesla 128GB USB drive for $35 USD

https://shop.tesla.com/product/usb-drive---128-gb


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## iChris93

garsh said:


> You can now purchase the official Tesla 128GB USB drive for $35 USD
> 
> https://shop.tesla.com/product/usb-drive---128-gb


Didn't @TrevP find the one that comes with the 3 now is 64gb? Interesting...


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## littlD

garsh said:


> You can now purchase the official Tesla 128GB USB drive for $35 USD
> 
> https://shop.tesla.com/product/usb-drive---128-gb


Specs don't indicate it, sure hope it's a High Endurance chip inside...


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## Needsdecaf

garsh said:


> You can now purchase the official Tesla 128GB USB drive for $35 USD
> 
> https://shop.tesla.com/product/usb-drive---128-gb


Wonder what Tesla is going to do when these drives start showing "Failed to write dashcam, device too slow, some video may be lost" errors. 



littlD said:


> Specs don't indicate it, sure hope it's a High Endurance chip inside...


Exactly. Because I'm using the one they recommend in the owner's manual and that's the error I'm getting!


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## JoeP

I get that error occasionally (on a samsung i have) but i didnt when it started out. I'm guessing its fragmentation. I ordered the Tesla one and will swap to it when it gets here. The error is very imtermittent for me. (I get i *maybe* one out of 20 drives).


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## Needsdecaf

I have the error constantly. I re-formatted and it went away for about a day, so I know it's not "full".


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## GDN

I'd like to think Tesla did their homework on this one, but (knock on wood) I've never had any drive issues or write errors on my SSD drive.


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## sduck

Ditto to that. For only a few dollars more you can get an ssd that'll last for years with no issues. Mine is nearly 2 years old and has never had any of the issues that others have reported.


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## NJturtlePower

Tried several setups now over the years as far as USB/SD cards for Dash Cam/Sentry options along with USB hubs and charging options, but I'm finally really happy with this TAPTES combo. :thumbsup:

Highly recommended for early Model 3's with the pre-refreshed console.

Perfect fitment, charging pads are independent and well designed and the hidden DashCam/Sentry MicroSD w/ adapter has has zero faults or errors through many recent updates. 🤞


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## gary in NY

NJturtlePower said:


> Tried several setups now over the years as far as USB/SD cards for Dash Cam/Sentry options along with USB hubs and charging options, but I'm finally really happy with this TAPTES combo. :thumbsup:
> 
> Highly recommended for early Model 3's with the pre-refreshed console.
> 
> Perfect fitment, charging pads are independent and well designed and the hidden DashCam/Sentry MicroSD w/ adapter has has zero faults or errors through many recent updates. 🤞


I've installed the Taptes wireless charger and usb hub with a SSD mini drive (I forget which one). Also very happy with the results for over a year now.


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## 2Kap

NJturtlePower said:


> Tried several setups now over the years as far as USB/SD cards for Dash Cam/Sentry options along with USB hubs and charging options, but I'm finally really happy with this TAPTES combo. :thumbsup:
> 
> Highly recommended for early Model 3's with the pre-refreshed console.
> 
> Perfect fitment, charging pads are independent and well designed and the hidden DashCam/Sentry MicroSD w/ adapter has has zero faults or errors through many recent updates. 🤞


I've had the taptes since November 2020 with a Samsung SSD, 2 wireless controllers, and I've loaded several custom light shows with not a single issue.


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## gary in NY

2Kap said:


> I've had the taptes since November 2020 with a Samsung SSD, 2 wireless controllers, and I've loaded several custom light shows with not a single issue.


My light show won't load 😡


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## 2Kap

gary in NY said:


> My light show won't load 😡


I'm assuming you following all the steps with putting a custom light show on a usb drive?


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## gary in NY

2Kap said:


> I'm assuming you following all the steps with putting a custom light show on a usb drive?


I thought so, but I suspect I've done something wrong because one that I downloaded plays fine. I will troubleshoot when I have time.


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## 2Kap

gary in NY said:


> I thought so, but I suspect I've done something wrong because one that I downloaded plays fine. I will troubleshoot when I have time.


Only thing I can think of is did you make sure the file is saved in "V2 Uncompressed" for the FSEQ version.

And do you have that python validator script installed to check to make sure your show meets the limitations?


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## gary in NY

2Kap said:


> And do you have that python validator script installed to check to make sure your show meets the limitations?


I do not. Wasn't sure how to do that, and didn't try to find out at the time.


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