60 new sentry events but no files on stick

[Oktoberfest]

Hi,
my sentry mode does not work (M3P made 01/2021 with 2021.4.6 and 2021.4.11).
I have dashcam and sentry on always on.
After being parked in a crowded place, sentry shows up several new events after a day.

But the stick is nearly empty, showing just a couple of sentry files days ago (so it seems to work every now and then) and somtimes as newest video a 1 second file (about 500kb).

I have that issue for weeks now and tried everything:

- 128 GB stick that came with the tesla
- 1 TB USB SSD from SanDisk
- formatted both in the tesla
- formatted both in a PC with FAT32
- formatted both in a PC with exFAT

Dashcam works good while driving.

Any ideas? I'm just glad nothing happened the last couple of weeks...

 

[techmagnetic]

I assume when you formatted via your PC, you created the root folder named ‘TeslaCam‘. FWIW, I had no luck with Tesla auto-formatting the drive for me, so I had to do it manually on PC to get it to work. It seems like you have tried everything, so maybe have service take a look?

 

[entrpreneuramg]

Hi,
my sentry mode does not work (M3P made 01/2021 with 2021.4.6 and 2021.4.11).
I have dashcam and sentry on always on.
After being parked in a crowded place, sentry shows up several new events after a day.

But the stick is nearly empty, showing just a couple of sentry files days ago (so it seems to work every now and then) and somtimes as newest video a 1 second file (about 500kb).

I have that issue for weeks now and tried everything:

- 128 GB stick that came with the tesla
- 1 TB USB SSD from SanDisk
- formatted both in the tesla
- formatted both in a PC with FAT32
- formatted both in a PC with exFAT

Dashcam works good while driving.

Any ideas? I'm just glad nothing happened the last couple of weeks...

I had the car (Model3 2021) tell me there are sentry events to view. This is when I got in the car today. I tapped the message that appeared on the screen (this is without me looking for the "launch viewer"), it just appeared as a pop up on the screen, nothing happened. I then took my G-drive (1T bite) out of the car and tried to view on my mac. I can view all fine, dash cam, recent vids etc, just not sentry mode footage. I instead get a message on the computer that says the files are not compatible with quicktime. Quicktime has no problem opening all the other files.

 

[Lowell]

My car was parked on the street. When I woke up the next day I found out my car was hit. I didn't even get a notification on my phone and I didn't hear my alarm go off.

 

[entrpreneuramg]

My car was parked on the street. When I woke up the next day I found out my car was hit. I didn't even get a notification on my phone and I didn't hear my alarm go off.

Sorry to hear this I can relate because my Model 3 had the fender scraped two weeks after pick up. In my case I was in the car, parked in a lot while my wife shopped. Had my youngest in the car and although I did see the suv pull up in the spot next to me I didn’t think he touched the car even though it appeared to be a close pass on his end. I didn’t realize at the time that a USB flash came with the car either. I noticed he scraped, only days later. Hope your damages weren’t too bad.

 

[EVRider-FL]

I've seen that "incompatible with Quicktime" message on my Mac, but launching Quicktime and then opening the file from there worked.

You might also want to try one of the third-party dashcam viewers to view the footage. I like this one, which is entirely browser-based: TeslaCam Video WebApp Player

 

[entrpreneuramg]

I've seen that "incompatible with Quicktime" message on my Mac, but launching Quicktime and then opening the file from there worked.

You might also want to try one of the third-party dashcam viewers to view the footage. I like this one, which is entirely browser-based: TeslaCam Video WebApp Player

I was excited when I read what you wrote. I gave it a try but it didn’t work for me. Thanks anyways

 

[Phlier]

Most all of the problems you guys are experiencing is due to disk directory corruption. This is caused by removing the storage device from your car without "ejecting" it first.

I'm gonna try and boil this down a bit to keep it from being a novel, but it's still going to be a bit lengthy. If you're having this particular problem, though, it might be worth the time to read it.

Let's say you are using an old school typewriter. You're typing along, when suddenly someone yanks the paper out of the typewriter while you're typing. You're left with a mess... random letters in random places on the paper.

The same thing happens with your video storage device in your Tesla. The car is constantly writing video data to the storage device. If you come along and yank the device out of the car, it's just like someone yanking the paper out of your typewriter. In this case, the storage device doesn't have a chance to update the device's directory (which tells the device where various files are stored and how large those files are), making a mess out of the files on the device.

ALWAYS make sure you properly eject any storage device connected to your Tesla before pulling it out of the car's USB port. To do this, press and hold on the disk icon until it does a little animation. You'll know that the device is correctly ejected if you see a blank camera icon, with no red dot on it.

"Ejecting" the device before you remove it stops the data flow that is being written to the device, and the device has a chance to update the directory information before you pull it, preventing the problems you guys are having.

Some of this is Tesla's fault for not using a better disk format, FAT32 is old, clunky, and prone to corruption.

More information can be found in the Tesla User's Manual.

 

[EVRider-FL]

Although you can can get corruption if you don’t eject the USB properly, I don’t think that’s the issue here. The OP said that the dashcam viewer didn’t show any Sentry clips, so that was before the USB was removed. The OP also tried exFAT, so it’s not a FAT32 issue.

 

[Mastiha]

Hi,
my sentry mode does not work (M3P made 01/2021 with 2021.4.6 and 2021.4.11).
I have dashcam and sentry on always on.
After being parked in a crowded place, sentry shows up several new events after a day.

But the stick is nearly empty, showing just a couple of sentry files days ago (so it seems to work every now and then) and somtimes as newest video a 1 second file (about 500kb).

I have that issue for weeks now and tried everything:

- 128 GB stick that came with the tesla
- 1 TB USB SSD from SanDisk
- formatted both in the tesla
- formatted both in a PC with FAT32
- formatted both in a PC with exFAT

Dashcam works good while driving.

Any ideas? I'm just glad nothing happened the last couple of weeks...

I’m having similar issues. Events captured but nothing on the USB stick.

Tried reformatting in the car and on a MAC. Tried different drives also. Dashcam works fine. Starting to think that perhaps the USB port in the glovebox isn’t getting any power when the car is locked.

 

[HAL2001]

I have read reports of problems with the glove usb, try a USB-C adapter and move the stick to the center as a test. Also did you make sure you picked exFat when you formatted it in the Mac?

 

[Knightshade]

Tried reformatting in the car and on a MAC. Tried different drives also. Dashcam works fine. Starting to think that perhaps the USB port in the glovebox isn’t getting any power when the car is locked.

Isn't the car locked when you're driving? If so and you said Dashcam works fine- that can't be it.

I have seen a surprising # of folks having issues since they moved the storage to the glovebox though.

 

[Mastiha]

Isn't the car locked when you're driving? If so and you said Dashcam works fine- that can't be it.

I have seen a surprising # of folks having issues since they moved the storage to the glovebox though.

I was thinking more that it loses power when the car goes to sleep (hence the car locked statement).

 

[Mastiha]

I have read reports of problems with the glove usb, try a USB-C adapter and move the stick to the center as a test. Also did you make sure you picked exFat when you formatted it in the Mac?

Tried using the centre and I get the following alert:

"UI_a111
DASHCAM USB drive not plugged into glovebox
Sentry Mode will consume additional power"

This alert cannot be removed until I plug it back into the glovebox.

 

[Knightshade]

I was thinking more that it loses power when the car goes to sleep (hence the car locked statement).

Sentry mode prevents the car from going to sleep. It's kind of the point.

If yours is going to sleep with sentry on, open a service ticket, there's something wrong with the car.

 

[Mastiha]

Sentry mode prevents the car from going to sleep. It's kind of the point.

If yours is going to sleep with sentry on, open a service ticket, there's something wrong with the car.

This was just an assumption as sentry modes captured the events. It just doesn’t save them.

I have logged a service ticket but l just have the feeling that the USB in the glovebox doesn’t have any power to it when the car is not in use as the dashcam works and saves the footage whilst I’m driving.

 

[Souni]

Do you have any 3rd party apps polling the data from the car? I have Model S and when using TeslaMaten in cloud and I rarely get any recordings for sentry events. If I use TeslaSpy I get videos recorded most of the time but not always. When I'm not using 3rd party apps it seems like events get recorded as they should.

 

[HowardTDuck]

Hi,
my sentry mode does not work (M3P made 01/2021 with 2021.4.6 and 2021.4.11).
I have dashcam and sentry on always on.
After being parked in a crowded place, sentry shows up several new events after a day.

But the stick is nearly empty, showing just a couple of sentry files days ago (so it seems to work every now and then) and somtimes as newest video a 1 second file (about 500kb).

I have that issue for weeks now and tried everything:

- 128 GB stick that came with the tesla
- 1 TB USB SSD from SanDisk
- formatted both in the tesla
- formatted both in a PC with FAT32
- formatted both in a PC with exFAT

Dashcam works good while driving.

Any ideas? I'm just glad nothing happened the last couple of weeks...

Did you ever figure out the issue or resolve it? I have a new 2021 Model 3 and I started having the same issue...

 

[renovatior]

Did you ever figure out the issue or resolve it? I have a new 2021 Model 3 and I started having the same issue...

Did you guys figure this out? I also have similar issue with my 2022 Model Y. It started recently before that it worked fine for half a year.