Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Dash Cam Unavailable

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
My dash cam used to work fine, but recently the icon went away. I dig into the menu and found that it’s flagged as unavailable.

Sentry is still working.

Any ideas?

07D83E8B-A1CE-4B16-A479-EC789C1DEF95.jpeg
 
Sentry does not require dashcam- and does not care if it's working or not.

Dashcam records video, sentry does not.

See here for more details:

But short version- you have a dashcam problem.

Could be the USB key needs to be reformatted.

Could be the USB port has a problem.

Could be the USB key is bad.

Could be wiring.

(that's very roughly in order of likelihood from most to least)

So start with trying a different key (or if you're moderately computer saavy moving your key to a PC and seeing what's up with it)
 
  • Like
Reactions: M-A-B-MCMLXXX
Thanks.

I’m not surprised that sentry doesn’t care, but am somewhat surprised they sentry will work when dashcam won’t, since the former records video. OTOH, maybe in the current situation sentry will alarm someone nearby but not actually record them, and I just don’t know it.

There used to be a reformat option in car but with one of the recent software pushes the menu changed and I can’t find it. Windows 10 won’t let me format a 256GB drive in the correct file system, so I’ll install another card and report back.

Thank you!
 
Thanks. There used to be a reformat option in car but with one of the recent software pushes the menu changed and I can’t find it. Windows 10 won’t let me format a 256GB drive in the correct file system, so I’ll install another card and report back.

Thank you!

Actually yes it will (windows 10 will let you format the drive), because the car now uses exFAT.
 
  • Like
Reactions: M-A-B-MCMLXXX
Thanks.

I’m not surprised that sentry doesn’t care, but am somewhat surprised they sentry will work when dashcam won’t, since the former records video

Sentry does not record video. Not ever.

Only Dashcam does. Sentry will move the existing dashcam video into the sentry folder if it exists, but if it doesn't it'll still do all the other stuff it does that isn't video related.


This is explained in more detail at the link.

There used to be a reformat option in car but with one of the recent software pushes the menu changed and I can’t find it. Windows 10 won’t let me format a 256GB drive in the correct file system, so I’ll install another card and report back.

You can use exfat, or you can use a free 3rd party utility like Rufus in windows if you want to still use FAT32
 
Sentry does not record video. Not ever.
Sure it does; it has been recording video since before DashCam was an option. Here are some recent sentry clips triggered by people walking by or pulling up to my car:

Untitled.png

3untitled.png
4Untitled.png



Are you making the distinction that it is the Dashcam function running but triggered by Sentry's object detection? If so, it's still curious that my car is recording video due to Sentry events, but that Dashcam is unavailable.
 
Last edited:
Try removing and reinserting the USB. The command to format the drive in the car is Controls > Safety > Format USB Drive, but that option won’t be available if no USB drive is detected, or if you have multiple USBs.
Thank you!

Oddly I could read all the data on my computer (see above) but the infotainment system wasn’t able to.

I’d forgotten how to get to the in-car format option. That resolved the problem.

9D30C531-4B00-4A80-9974-698775045D54.jpeg
 
Sure it does

No, it does not.


it has been recording video since before DashCam was an option.

This is outright false.

Dashcam was introduced almost 6 months before Sentry was.



Fall 2018 for Dashcam.


Feb 2019 for Sentry.



Here are some recent sentry clips triggered by people walking by or pulling up to my car:

Nope.

Those are dashcam recordings that sentry moved from the RECENT folder (Where dashcam records) to the SENTRY folder.

How could sentry 'record' the previous 10 minutes before an event it didn't know was going to happen?

It couldn't.

Dashcam is ALWAYS recording if the car is awake (and dashcam is functioning)-- Sentry simple moves the last 10 minutes of that footage to the sentry folder so it's not overwritten as the recent footage always is after an hour.

Are you making the distinction that it is the Dashcam function running but triggered by Sentry's object detection? If so, it's still curious that my car is recording video due to Sentry events, but that Dashcam is unavailable.


That's not possible.

Only dashcam records footage.... and only to the recent folder.

All video in Sentry was moved there from the recent folder.

Just as all video in Saved was moved there from the recent folder.
 
This is outright false.

Dashcam was introduced almost 6 months before Sentry was.



Fall 2018 for Dashcam.


Feb 2019 for Sentry.

My mistake, you're correct. I misremembered which feature was added after I purchased my car. It was indeed Sentry

Those are dashcam recordings that sentry moved from the RECENT folder (Where dashcam records) to the SENTRY folder.
How could sentry 'record' the previous 10 minutes before an event it didn't know was going to happen?
It couldn't.
Dashcam is ALWAYS recording if the car is awake (and dashcam is functioning)-- Sentry simple moves the last 10 minutes of that footage to the sentry folder so it's not overwritten as the recent footage always is after an hour.

Makes sense. Understood.

That's not possible.
Given how the system works (thanks for your explanation), I would agree with that statement. Maybe it was a bug, or something with the formatting of the SD card (despite being usable on a PC), or something else entirely. Either way, it was presented by interface that Dashcam was "unavailable," which I'd posit is distinct from "not functioning," and at the same time footage was being recorded and some of it moved into the sentry folder.

Regardless, it's all normal now. Thanks for the discussion.
 
So is my glovebox USB dead? (2021 M3 LR)

Got the DashCam unavailable check USB message.

Reformat and delete DashCam clips options were grayed out under safety. Using a USB C to A adapter I plugged the Tesla USB drive into the slot in the center console and the car recognized it. DashCam and Sentry clips were available for viewing.

Plugging a usb game controller into the glove box usb gets me a powered on led on the controller but no game control. So power but no data.

Rebooting the screen didn’t do anything.


Is my next step calling the service center or is there something else I should try?
 
I've recently occasionally been having this problem, as well. Unplugging and reinserting the USB drive has always fixed it for me.

There is talk that it's a software bug in recent releases.

 
So is my glovebox USB dead? (2021 M3 LR)

Got the DashCam unavailable check USB message.
I'm also getting this message every couple days now too. The only fix is to unplug and reinsert the USB, but it soon fails again. Of course you won't notice it isn't working until you get a sentry alert that didn't actually save anything.
I'm glad to hear it isn't just me.
EDIT: The Model Y section has a bigger thread on the issue: Dashcam Unavailable Check USB
 
Last edited:
This has been happening to me too—and I just figured out what was causing the problem for me.
My tiny thumb drive finally took a dump, so I got a new one (256gb so it should last longer with fewer overwrites).
I used the car to format the USB drive, and it gave a success message; however, the dashcam was still unavailable (with the red X) and displayed the Dashcam Unavailable, Check USB message.
It turns out that the car is NOT creating the folder called TeslaCam at the root of the drive!
I put the drive in my computer and created the folder, and now the car recognizes it as a legit dashcam drive and works perfectly.

Tesla—please fix the bug and write the proper "TeslaCam" directory to the thumb drive when using the car to format the drive!