How does the dashcam "recent clip" really work?

[LTR2018]

As I understand it, Sentry Mode recordings and/or manually saved recordings go into the 'saved clip' folder.
But what about 'recent clips'?

Yesterday, I drove for about twenty minutes. Parked.
Did not activate Sentry Mode.
Drove back home. Parked car and plugged in charger.

This morning, decided I'd check the USB drive.
The saved clip folder is empty (expected).
But the recent clip folder only has the last MINUTE of recording from the three cameras...
me in the garage plugging in the charger.

What happened to the other hour of recordings?
Are they sequentially deleted while the car sits in park mode?
I confirmed that the red light was on the entire time I drove, so I assumed it was recording as advertised and expected on hour's worth of clips that had not been deleted.

Perhaps I have the dashcam function confused.
Any insights would be helpful.
Thanks!

 

[TiggerTime]

What size USB drive are you using?

You should have had multiple sets of files Front, left and right cams in the recent files folder. I have an approx. 40 minutes drive for work and my most recent drive is always there from time I leave work until I park at home. So you are correct you should have about an hours worth of recent dash cam videos.

 

[LTR2018]

128 GB...properly formatted.
No suggestion of recording glitches.
Makes no sense that I only had the last minute of yesterday's driving.

 

[jboy210]

Mine does the same thing. Every time you walk up it overwrites what was recorded on the last trip unless you press the camera button to force a save. And while driving it saves the last trip only.

I am using a 64 GB USB stick and it write about 50 MB before overwriting unless I manually save. It has done this since day one of the webcam support. 2018 X 75D, manufactured May 2018.

 

[LTR2018]

Interesting jboy210. Thanks for that info. Mine is a 2018 100D, manufactured in June 2018.
Maybe it is working properly...? I wonder what 'triggers' the deleting of the earlier files, rather than just an overwrite when the next trip begins. Seems like it shouldn't delete anything until it needs the space for an overwrite.

 

[animorph]

It keeps an hour of "recent" video. As far as I have seen, if an hour has passed since the dashcam last recorded there will be no files. I was expecting the last hour to remain on the USB stick until something new overwrote them. Instead, it deletes files older than an hour as soon as it can.

 

[LTR2018]

Thanks for the observation, Animorph. It looks like it's designed (currently) to delete the last hour's files once an hour of nondriving has passed. Humm...that would explain what I saw when I looked at the files. Seems like something that should be changed. The last hour's video should stay in the recent files folder UNTIL they are overwritten on the next trip...not deleted while the car sits in the garage.

 

[jboy210]

Interesting jboy210. Thanks for that info. Mine is a 2018 100D, manufactured in June 2018.
Maybe it is working properly...? I wonder what 'triggers' the deleting of the earlier files, rather than just an overwrite when the next trip begins. Seems like it shouldn't delete anything until it needs the space for an overwrite.

I also assumed they would accumulated. But, other people pointed out they did not. That really tempered my enthusiasm for the camera.

 

[New123]

I ordered my new Model X and have one basic question. I am still reading and watching the video's and wanted to check do we still need to buy dashcam or tesla has any inbuild dash cam? I am planning to order 128gb BlackVue DR900s 2 channel, but wanted to see if that is no longer needed?

 

[LTR2018]

New123...
I don't have a BlackVue, But I can tell you that new Teslas have a dashcam function built in, using the camera hardware already on the car. It's new. It's developing. Right now, it's what I'd call "primitive"... but it does work. And it is a work in progress. Will it ever be 'better' than a third party front/rear dashcam set up? Tough to say. Probably not, if only because the hardware in the cars isn't quite as high def and wide angle and a third party dashcam. Is it 'enough'...? Well, for me, it is. I use it. I'm glad I have it. And I know that, over time, it will become more robust and feature-full.

 

[Need]

Thanks for the observation, Animorph. It looks like it's designed (currently) to delete the last hour's files once an hour of nondriving has passed. Humm...that would explain what I saw when I looked at the files. Seems like something that should be changed. The last hour's video should stay in the recent files folder UNTIL they are overwritten on the next trip...not deleted while the car sits in the garage.

It had been working like that since the original dashcam was introduced last year. I found that out one time when I left the car sit in the garage for 30 minutes and decided I want to see what's on the 60 minutes buffer, and I only got 30 minutes of it instead of 60.

 

[Scott7]

I feel like 1 hour isn't terrible, but it would be nice if we could adjust that value. Especially if the car is overwriting it even when it's not moving. That somewhat defeats the purpose of a dashcam as you may not realize you need the footage until after that hour and then it's too late.

I have a 240 GB SSD in mine right now and it would be great to dedicate say 100 GB of that to TeslaCam and leave the rest for Sentry.

 

[bay74]

Mine didn't delete RecentClips from at least a day or two ago - despite the fact that the drive was full (only RecentClips, no Sentry mode or anything); so I got nothing from my drives today. Got an alert when I got home today that drive was full (a bit late ey?!).
32.12.1

 

[cbkyro]

Hello, all. I am just wondering if some updated education is what is needed here.
It has always been my understanding that the following structure is how clips are stored.

• RecentClips - Random clips likely pulled by Tesla as part of the opt-in data sharing.
  
• SavedClips - Tapping the camera icon on the screen will store the last 10 minutes of footage.
• SentryClips - All recorded footage for each time sentry detected significant motion.

As of a recent update, the black icon that changes to a red dot once tapped is simply enabling sentry mode for when you exit your vehicle. This is not recording all footage while the vehicle is in use.


Hope this helps catch some folks up. Cheers.

 

[jerseygirl18]

Hello, all. I am just wondering if some updated education is what is needed here.
It has always been my understanding that the following structure is how clips are stored.

• RecentClips - Random clips likely pulled by Tesla as part of the opt-in data sharing.
  
• SavedClips - Tapping the camera icon on the screen will store the last 10 minutes of footage.
• SentryClips - All recorded footage for each time sentry detected significant motion.

As of a recent update, the black icon that changes to a red dot once tapped is simply enabling sentry mode for when you exit your vehicle. This is not recording all footage while the vehicle is in use.


Hope this helps catch some folks up. Cheers.

Silly ? But for me not...are the cameras always going OR one must engage the camera? I certainly hope so b/c I have no intention of using a dash cam. Also concerned if it is always running then I'm not happy using any kind of battery power for it...just my personal thoughts

 

[LTR2018]

As I understand it, the "recent" folder contains the last hour's worth of driving. When the car is parked for a period of time, the system starts deleting these files until this particular folder is empty, readying it for the next group of clips. When you quick press the dashcam icon, the the last 10 minutes of "recent' clips is moved into the "saved" folder, so they are NOT deleted upon parking the car.
Is this accurate?

 

[benjijk]

Wife got into an accident today in a multi car pile up. I have a 500GB drive in the car, plenty of space. The part of the drive prior to being parked by the police has been erased. The only files I see under recent clips are those on the drive back after the incident. I don't get this. So each new drive erases the past one? This wasn't the behaviour before. Now I have no evidence. The drive has enough space for the car to at least keep the day's events.

 

[LTR2018]

This is definitely concerning. If we don't have video of an event...that's not a good thing. I am just wondering: Did you look for the actual accident clips in the "saved" folder? I thought I read that if there is a detected accident, the dashcam system moves the clips into "saved" so as not to overwrite them if they stay in the "recent" folder. Just a thought...let us know. Thanks!

 

[benjijk]

Nothing. Checked through again and also tried looking at hidden files on the drive on a mac. Also checked saved clips. Can anyone else please confirm this new behaviour? This wasn't the case before. Everything I have is from after the incident, after cars were told to park on side of the road by the cops. Everything prior to that is gone. Drive still has 81gb available, so this doesn't make sense.

 

[cbkyro]

Silly ? But for me not...are the cameras always going OR one must engage the camera? I certainly hope so b/c I have no intention of using a dash cam. Also concerned if it is always running then I'm not happy using any kind of battery power for it...just my personal thoughts

So I believe the four cameras are always running and recording the last 10 or so minutes. I figure this because when you tap the icon to save the footage, it saves the last 10 minutes of footage across multiple, multiple clips. Plus if you are using any driver assistance features then you are required to opt in for data sharing in the setting,s, which captures and shares "anonymous" footage back.