Over the last week or so I noticed an "X" at the top right corner of the dashcam icon, indicating that recording isn't available. Re-inserting the usb drive in the glovebox seemingly clears the error, but the message soon returns again. Important to note that viewing live camera footage via Sentry still works fine (live, unrecorded video). Updated to the latest software update 2023.20.8 today, which is supposed to address "minor improvements, bugs and fixes" but of course the issue remained unresolved. My next option was to remove the flash drive and see what comes up on my PC. Sure enough, drive errors were found. I also noticed that I only had less than 10 gb free space. One would think that the video footage over-writes the oldest data (about 3 months of stored data), but unsure if this is happening. With few other options, I reformatted the drive and all appears to be OK. Wondering if anyone else experienced this, as the dashcam was working perfectly up until the latest 2023.20.6 update with park assist.
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Dashcam not available?
- Thread starter mm9351
- Start date
vcor
Tech Specialist
I'll also add USB flash drives do not last forever. Cheap ones may last for 200 cycles or so and good ones maybe 1000 cycles if you're lucky. The smaller the drive the more often it fills up and cycles through all the memory. All dashcams are tough on flash drives. For a small drive (under 128 GB) you might get 6 months out of a drive before parts of the memory start to fail. If you buy a really cheap no-name drive, it might start failing in a month or two. Stick with the brand names and avoid eBay (lots of counterfeited drives) or used ones (which may have very little life left).
vcor
Tech Specialist
Few drives (even extreme 128 GB) are likely to last 10 years in dashcam applications. Perhaps a couple of years. It depends on how much data is being written and some of the better error-correcting algorithms and spare memory they include to deal with memory failures. As you get to a good 1TB drive, I can see them lasting 10 years with the amount of data Tesla's dashcam generate. @DerbyDave is right that endurance versions should last the longest.
Note also that NO USB drive is really designed for vehicle environments. These are all consumer-grade devices intended for home or camera-type applications. The temperature range 32 to 120F is too narrow for most vehicle environments. That said, they seem to work ok. Micro SD cars are rated for vehicle temperature range -13 to 185F and are far more suitable for use in a vehicle. I wrote up far more details here: Tesla Dashcam – TeslaTap
Note also that NO USB drive is really designed for vehicle environments. These are all consumer-grade devices intended for home or camera-type applications. The temperature range 32 to 120F is too narrow for most vehicle environments. That said, they seem to work ok. Micro SD cars are rated for vehicle temperature range -13 to 185F and are far more suitable for use in a vehicle. I wrote up far more details here: Tesla Dashcam – TeslaTap
BitJam
Active Member
For me, size was not an issue. I had a 500 GB Samsung T5 drive fail after about a year. This was indicated by repeatedly getting the "X". I think the problem is the high heat in my car during the summer in the hot New Mexico sun.
I switched to a Samsung Pro Endurance micro SDcard and so far so good. I use it with a Samsung adapter/reader.
PS: I always have at least one spare in my glove box. The idea is I have a backup in case of failure but also, if there is an incident I want a record of, I can swap out the SDcard and make sure I've got the last hour of recorded video. This makes it less likely I will need to resort to undelete or file recovery.
I switched to a Samsung Pro Endurance micro SDcard and so far so good. I use it with a Samsung adapter/reader.
PS: I always have at least one spare in my glove box. The idea is I have a backup in case of failure but also, if there is an incident I want a record of, I can swap out the SDcard and make sure I've got the last hour of recorded video. This makes it less likely I will need to resort to undelete or file recovery.
TheSD and MicrSD cards are guaranteed for 10 years, and are designed for continuous rewrites in harsh automotive environments. Designed for dashcam use. If one is worried about running out of rewrites, buy double what you need and the card will last twice as long. I have had my microSD ard since June 2020. No problems, and it is so small it is difficult to remove or see, a plus for extra security.
Just took delivery of a new Model S and in the glove box USB-C port there is a small (about an inch long), kind of triangular, metal USB drive. I took it out in order to plug in my Dashcam USB drive from my previous 2017 Model S. But now I'm wondering: what is this grey metal thing? A dashcam drive provided by Tesla?
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