Longer sentry retention?

[Bob.W]

Is there any way to increase the amount of time that Sentry files are retained? I see 60 minutes of video takes up about 5 GB of data, but with 500 GB and 1TB+ drives available, 5GB is nothing. I'd like the option to keep 8, 24, 72 or more hours of Sentry recordings if possible.

Current need, a co-worker parked a row behind me at work. During the day, the catalytic converter was cut off/stolen off his truck, but since I only have 1 hour of recordings and they didn't got near my car, the recordings were of no use. Granted, it's not a Tesla problem, but this guy couldn't afford a new catalytic converter, let alone a Tesla so I was curious if the option existed.

TIA.

Bob

 

[MikeyC]

It was my understanding that the rolling 60 minutes is how the "Recent" clips folder is handled and you should still have older sentry clips in the "Sentry" folder. Haven't tried it but that's what I read when trying to figure out what the system would do when the USB card is full.

Mike

 

[sduck]

Get a real dashcam? Even that remedy might not work for the situation you described. Once parked most dashcams need some kind of "event" to trigger recording - things happening in the distance might not trigger them.

 

[diamond.g]

As the others have stated, the 60 minutes rolling capture is for dashcam which is active while the car is "on". When the car is "off" Sentry mode takes over and only records when motion is detected by the cameras. It (Sentry mode) doesn't continuously record; the clips are ~10 minutes in length (it keeps the motion event and the preceding ~9 minutes for said event).

 

[EVRider-FL]

There’s no limit on Sentry Mode footage, other than the fact that older footage will be deleted if you run out of disk space.

 

[Gasaraki]

Is there any way to increase the amount of time that Sentry files are retained? I see 60 minutes of video takes up about 5 GB of data, but with 500 GB and 1TB+ drives available, 5GB is nothing. I'd like the option to keep 8, 24, 72 or more hours of Sentry recordings if possible.

Current need, a co-worker parked a row behind me at work. During the day, the catalytic converter was cut off/stolen off his truck, but since I only have 1 hour of recordings and they didn't got near my car, the recordings were of no use. Granted, it's not a Tesla problem, but this guy couldn't afford a new catalytic converter, let alone a Tesla so I was curious if the option existed.

TIA.

Bob

Yeah, if your sentry cam was activated, it would record stuff. The 60 min rotation is not meant to be a recording, it's just there for when an event occurs, then is records it to the drive permanently.

 

[HAL2001]

There is a performance limit on disk space usage. If you have more than ~200 GB of files stored on your drive the GUI will slow down considerably. I have a 1 TB SSD drive and as I crossed the 200 GB level of files the Viewer would take a very long time to open. I solved this by partitioning my SSD for 150 GB for Sentry and the remaining for music. This does have the side effect of preventing you from formatting the drive in the car.

I have not tested this slowdown since the 2020.40 revision so it may be fixed but I suspect not. I read some other reports that a Full drive can also lock up the GUI completely and you have to pull the stick to drive the car. Never had that happen myself.

 

[mattnis]

Sentry parking mode footage is retained for a very long time, not 60 minutes. I still have some from weeks ago on my 500gb sandisk extreme external ssd.
Driving footage is deleted after the drive is over.

 

[Knightshade]

Lots of folks confused on how this stuff works.

The manual explains it pretty decently (page 74 I think?), but tl;dr as follows-


Sentry does not record anything.

Ever.

Dashcam records.

100% of the time the car is on/awake.

It's the only thing that records.


Dashcam records the most recent 60 minutes in the recent folder. It overwrites this, so if it's older than 60 minutes, it's gone. There's no way to enlarge that 60 minute timeframe before it overwrites what is in recent.

That's the only recording the car ever does to the attached USB storage.


What sentry does is... if it detects someone/something near the car in a way that moves it alert status, is it [B}moves[/B] the last 10 minutes of dashcam recording to the Sentry folder.

That's all sentry does as far as video is concerned. It never records. Just moves existing recordings done by dashcam to another folder.

Stuff in THERE doesn't go away after 60 minutes.

Sentry will overwrite if it has a new event to move and the drive is nearly full, but otherwise that footage stays.


Lastly- there's a SAVED folder.

A few things like manually hitting the button to save, or honking the horn if that's enabled, will [B}move[/B] the last 10 minutes of dashcam recording to the saved folder.

AFAIK that footage is never erased. Potentially you could fill the drive that way.



So in short for the OP- if you want the car to be recording footage for many hours or days at a time, and keep all of it without triggering events, you need a 3rd party dashcam setup.

That's not within the intent or capability of the Tesla system at present.

 

[EVRider-FL]

Sentry parking mode footage is retained for a very long time, not 60 minutes. I still have some from weeks ago on my 500gb sandisk extreme external ssd.
Driving footage is deleted after the drive is over.

Driving footage is deleted when you start the next trip, not at the end of the current one. It matters if you’re trying to copy footage from the USB.

 

[HAL2001]

Driving footage is deleted when you start the next trip, not at the end of the current one. It matters if you’re trying to copy footage from the USB.

I agree with EVRider-FL. Its deleted at the beginning of each drive which IMHO really sux because if something happens and you do not save immediately its gone. IE you get in an accident, get out and check the damage and then get back in to move to the shoulder, your video is gone unless you hit save before you got out. Tesla should not erase the DashCam footage. It should just be a constant loop.

I do understand there is a possibility to un-delete the footage with 3rd party software, but we should not have to take that risk.

 

[EVRider-FL]

Tesla used to keep the last 60 minutes of dashcam footage in RecentClips, regardless of how many trips you made. I'm not sure why they changed it to clear RecentClips for new trips, but I wouldn't be surprised if the behavior changed back to the old way at some point.

In case you didn't know, you can configure the dashcam to automatically save footage whenever you honk the horn, which is easier than pressing on the dashcam icon (but might be more annoying to others ).

 

[HAL2001]

In case you didn't know, you can configure the dashcam to automatically save footage whenever you honk the horn, which is easier than pressing on the dashcam icon (but might be more annoying to others ).

I do have honk to save set too.

Last time I needed footage it was because of an accident in front of me. I got out checked on the other car, got back in and moved to the shoulder. I realized I just killed the video as I got to the shoulder. Luckily the driver at fault was obvious so footage wasn't needed. .

 

[Pink Duck]

Save on honk is also useful for UK annual MOT in case of needing to demonstrate cause of grounding/beaching from improper handling, as often the testers honk the horn as the first thing once vehicle is on ramp/lift.

 

[Buzzz292]

Lots of folks confused on how this stuff works.

The manual explains it pretty decently (page 74 I think?), but tl;dr as follows-


Sentry does not record anything.

Ever.

Dashcam records.

100% of the time the car is on/awake.

It's the only thing that records.


Dashcam records the most recent 60 minutes in the recent folder. It overwrites this, so if it's older than 60 minutes, it's gone. There's no way to enlarge that 60 minute timeframe before it overwrites what is in recent.

That's the only recording the car ever does to the attached USB storage.


What sentry does is... if it detects someone/something near the car in a way that moves it alert status, is it [B}moves[/B] the last 10 minutes of dashcam recording to the Sentry folder.

That's all sentry does as far as video is concerned. It never records. Just moves existing recordings done by dashcam to another folder.

Stuff in THERE doesn't go away after 60 minutes.

Sentry will overwrite if it has a new event to move and the drive is nearly full, but otherwise that footage stays.


Lastly- there's a SAVED folder.

A few things like manually hitting the button to save, or honking the horn if that's enabled, will [B}move[/B] the last 10 minutes of dashcam recording to the saved folder.

AFAIK that footage is never erased. Potentially you could fill the drive that way.



So in short for the OP- if you want the car to be recording footage for many hours or days at a time, and keep all of it without triggering events, you need a 3rd party dashcam setup.

That's not within the intent or capability of the Tesla system at present.

I would suggest that perhaps you are part of the ones that are a little confused. The camera system when switched on records continuously and the Dashcam and sentry mode linc into it independently. Only the dashcam however does this automatically when switched on and it senses something is close by it automatically instructs a ‘save’ instruction . The dash cam however does not automatically save a recording even if the car alarm goes off for lane departure, emergency stop or any other warnings in fact only in the event of a crash does it automatically save a recording otherwise the driver requires to use the horn or touch screen to manually instruct the ‘save’ . The camera system is independent of both dash cam and sentry mode but only sentry mode uses it automatically as required.

 

[Buzzz292]

I would suggest that perhaps you are part of the ones that are a little confused. The camera system when switched on records continuously and the Dashcam and sentry mode linc into it independently. Only the dashcam however does this automatically when switched on and it senses something is close by it automatically instructs a ‘save’ instruction . The dash cam however does not automatically save a recording even if the car alarm goes off for lane departure, emergency stop or any other warnings in fact only in the event of a crash does it automatically save a recording otherwise the driver requires to use the horn or touch screen to manually instruct the ‘save’ . The camera system is independent of both dash cam and sentry mode but only sentry mode uses it automatically as required.

Sorry should read only ‘sentry mode’ line 5 sorry my mistake

 

[Knightshade]

I would suggest that perhaps you are part of the ones that are a little confused

Then you are mistaken.

. The camera system when switched on records continuously and the Dashcam and sentry mode linc into it independently.

Nope.

Read page 74, it explains you're incorrect.

Dashcam is the only function that records- and does so continuously if the car is awake and you haven't manually disabled it (and there's storage attached).

Only the dashcam however does this automatically when switched on and it senses something is close by it automatically instructs a ‘save’ instruction

...what?

Dashcam saves the most recent 60 minutes in the recent folder.

That's it.

It does nothing at all if it senses stuff nearby.

That's Sentry mode.

Which only does so if enabled AND dashcam has footage in recent.

If that's true AND it senses something nearby, it then moves not saves since it's already saved the most recent 10 minutes from the recent folder to the sentry folder automatically.

. The dash cam however does not automatically save a recording even if the car alarm goes off for lane departure, emergency stop or any other warnings in fact only in the event of a crash does it automatically save a recording otherwise the driver requires to use the horn or touch screen to manually instruct the ‘save’

Again--- what? Nobody, at all, brought up things like lane departure being recorded.

If the car alarm (ie the security alarm- not anything related to autopilot or DRIVING systems) goes off, then sentry absolutely will move the 10 minutes recent footage to the sentry folder though.

. The camera system is independent of both dash cam and sentry mode but only sentry mode uses it automatically as required.

Again this makes no sense.

There is no "independent camera system" recording to the owners local storage.

The system that records the last 60 minutes is dashcam. Period full stop.


Sentry can move some of that footage from dashcam to the sentry folder automatically based on some triggering events.

The driver can move some of that footage from dashcam to the saved folder manually by hitting the button on the screen, or honking (if that option is enabled).


In every case, the footage was recorded by dashcam since that's the only thing that records from the cameras that's user facing

Then the footage either gets overwritten as it ages out of the 60 minute recent folder.... or it can be moved (after dashcam has already recorded it) to the saved or sentry folders either manually for saved, or via sentry for sentry.



But again in all cases it's dashcam that did the recording.

Turn dashcam off, specifically, and none of the above other stuff has any footage recorded to be moved elsewhere and saved longer term.



(for internal use Tesla has some onboard storage that may trigger in a legit airbags-went-off crash, but the end user of the car does not generally have access to this).