It appears to be a software bug. It began with one of the updates late last fall. I've even had a notification to remove and reinsert the USB drive with nothing plugged into the USB ports. Guess we'll have to wait for Tesla to fix the problem.
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Dashcam Flash Drive Repeatedly Disconnecting
- Thread starter NMolargik
- Start date
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- Tags
- dashcam flash drive sentry
I'm very cautiously optimistic that I just fixed it on my vehicle.
The one thing that I never tried, or knew was an actual process, was fully power cycling the vehicle by disconnecting the 12V, disconnecting the main battery contractor, waiting a few minutes, and then undoing that process.
Where all week I couldn't get a single sentry recording (the drive would always disconnect AT the time of each event as seen in the car's service notifications section), after doing the power cycle the car successfully recorded three sentry events and did not show any signs of corruption or disconnection.
I'll continue to test this over the next few days and, fingers crossed, I can cancel my service appointment.
The one thing that I never tried, or knew was an actual process, was fully power cycling the vehicle by disconnecting the 12V, disconnecting the main battery contractor, waiting a few minutes, and then undoing that process.
Where all week I couldn't get a single sentry recording (the drive would always disconnect AT the time of each event as seen in the car's service notifications section), after doing the power cycle the car successfully recorded three sentry events and did not show any signs of corruption or disconnection.
I'll continue to test this over the next few days and, fingers crossed, I can cancel my service appointment.
Anyone notice the front USB ports seem to have a loose fit no matter what is plugged into them? Very different feel compared to say those on a laptop or PC. I’ve tried the original charge cables, aftermarket cables and various flash drives. Wiggle around like crazy.
I wonder if this may be causing connectivity issues with devices plugged in.
Been this way since day one.
2018 RWD LR
I wonder if this may be causing connectivity issues with devices plugged in.
Been this way since day one.
2018 RWD LR
JCtx
Member
Do you have USB-A or USB-C ports? The USB-A for the dashcam is fine, but the other 4 (USB-Cs) are crap. Disappointed they weren't As. Had to buy new cables and adapters, even OEM Apple ones, and all have a loose fit. I bet yours is not worse than mine 
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.Do you have USB-A or USB-C ports? The USB-A for the dashcam is fine, but the other 4 (USB-Cs) are crap. Disappointed they weren't As. Had to buy new cables and adapters, even OEM Apple ones, and all have a loose fit. I bet yours is not worse than mine
Since mine is a 2018, all 4 ports are USB-A
Same problem on and off dash cam and viewer. 2021 with Tesla USB stick. Today someone reversed into me and of course nothing was recorded. I hit the horn before he actually made contact and it also didn’t trigger dash cam. Why is this so hard to get right. Even updated the software 2 days ago…. Brutal
I have a 2021 Model 3 I got in January. It came with a 128GB USB drive, with Tesla labelling, but I believe it is a Samsung BAR Plus USB 3.1 Flash Drive 128GB (as sold on Amazon for $21. It looks exactly the same.
It works for several days, then simply stops recording. I can still play but it won't write until I pull it out and reinsert it. It has happened with the last two software updates (I now have2021.4.6).
I am going to try reformatting on my Linux system to ext4 and see if that's more reliable. I may get a 256GB model from Amazon for $36, possibly in silver so it's more visible to someone rummaging about in the glovebox.
I attached a picture of the Samsung drive if anyone's interested.
It works for several days, then simply stops recording. I can still play but it won't write until I pull it out and reinsert it. It has happened with the last two software updates (I now have2021.4.6).
I am going to try reformatting on my Linux system to ext4 and see if that's more reliable. I may get a 256GB model from Amazon for $36, possibly in silver so it's more visible to someone rummaging about in the glovebox.
I attached a picture of the Samsung drive if anyone's interested.
1.21Jigawatts
Member
I could never get the included Tesla flash drive to work. Dashcam is extremely sensitive to write speeds. I currently use this one and it has worked 100% for the last 4 days (I've only had the car 8 days as of this writing).
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D7Q41PM/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_PRVN3KSMKC8H44KN6RDP
I've also ordered this as a backup when summer comes because the NC heat can get intense come July.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08PZTP34M/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_TFFTWC3E7QKT06RTNVVG?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D7Q41PM/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_PRVN3KSMKC8H44KN6RDP
I've also ordered this as a backup when summer comes because the NC heat can get intense come July.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08PZTP34M/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_TFFTWC3E7QKT06RTNVVG?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
tstolze
Member
We picked up our car this week, once home I swapped the provided flash drive for the recommended Sandisk Micro SD Card Reader and 128 gig High Endurance Micro SD. It won't stay connected, format, everything shows good, then disappears.
I fought it for 2 days and last night put the provided thumb drive back in, went for a drive and it worked, my Wife drove the car to work today, I will be interested to see if it's still functioning when she gets home.
I did notice connectivity of the Micro SD in the recommended readers can be hit/miss while accessing on a computer, you can move the Micro SD side/side in the slot of the reader.
I fought it for 2 days and last night put the provided thumb drive back in, went for a drive and it worked, my Wife drove the car to work today, I will be interested to see if it's still functioning when she gets home.
I did notice connectivity of the Micro SD in the recommended readers can be hit/miss while accessing on a computer, you can move the Micro SD side/side in the slot of the reader.
ODWms
Member
I have the earlier setup (Sept 2018), and have used an aftermarket SanDisk 128 card in an adapter, and haven’t had this issue. Once in a blue moon (maybe once every several months), I may get the grayed out icon, or a notice that the drive is disconnected. Most of the time, I do nothing and it goes away. I even see the red dot is still on, indicating the drive is functioning as intended. But all of this is very rare.
tstolze
Member
If you have another flash drive you can test with I would do that first before opening a ticket.
Spacep0d
Active Member
Nothing I've done with drives has resolved my Sentry Mode issues. Taking it in for service this week!
ICEBreaker
Member
I stumbled across this thread while I was having very similar issues after taking delivery of my (used) 2019 Model 3. It took me a while to figure out a solution, but I finally got my sentry mode and dashCam to work. I thought I should share my solution here in case anyone else lands on this thread too.
Car info:
2019 Model 3 Dual Motor LR
Version number (at time of sentry/dashcam issue): 2021.36.5.1
Brand new Samsung t7 1tb ssd
The bug/symptoms:
After I took delivery of the car, I purchased a new SSD for sentry/Dashcam. When I would plug the SSD into the car, I went to the car‘s menu and formatted the drive. After the formatting was complete I would see the correct dashcam icon in the top right of the screen. All seems good. But as soon as I would try to launch the cam viewer or if an event would happen that should save the to SSD, the icon would disappear. No matter what I would do, the only way to get the cam back was to reformat the SSD. Even after doing so the problem continued.
So I decided to format the SSD on my computer but still had the same issue.
The Cause:
I do not fully understand why, but after going through several other unrelated posts, I believe I have found some sort of bug. It seems like when the car reformats the SSD, it is not creating the additional directories required for sentry/Dashcam to save footage properly. And thus has no files to access when reading/writing data to the SSD.
How to solve:
These are the step I took to fix my issue. I am working on Mac, so these steps may different for you.
Car info:
2019 Model 3 Dual Motor LR
Version number (at time of sentry/dashcam issue): 2021.36.5.1
Brand new Samsung t7 1tb ssd
The bug/symptoms:
After I took delivery of the car, I purchased a new SSD for sentry/Dashcam. When I would plug the SSD into the car, I went to the car‘s menu and formatted the drive. After the formatting was complete I would see the correct dashcam icon in the top right of the screen. All seems good. But as soon as I would try to launch the cam viewer or if an event would happen that should save the to SSD, the icon would disappear. No matter what I would do, the only way to get the cam back was to reformat the SSD. Even after doing so the problem continued.
So I decided to format the SSD on my computer but still had the same issue.
The Cause:
I do not fully understand why, but after going through several other unrelated posts, I believe I have found some sort of bug. It seems like when the car reformats the SSD, it is not creating the additional directories required for sentry/Dashcam to save footage properly. And thus has no files to access when reading/writing data to the SSD.
How to solve:
These are the step I took to fix my issue. I am working on Mac, so these steps may different for you.
- Connect your SSD/Hard drive to a computer
- Reformat your drive (I used Disk Utility) with a format: MS-DOS FAT & Name: Tesladrive
- Once the drive has been formatted, open the drive on your computer and ensure there is a directory (folder) called “TeslaCam”. I have also read that sometimes it needs to be “Teslacam”. (no quotes). The first worked for me.
- Once that is complete, safely eject your drive and you should now be good to use the drive in the car.
Yep, that seems the only solution. Just had the OEM drive disconnect and it's only 80F outside.
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