Save Video from View Live Camera?

[LVTD]

From my Android, is there a way to capture a video clip if I'm watching the Sentry Mode live camera? As in, have it saved on the USB drive in the car, not have to transferred to my phone.

 

[Knightshade]

Short answer- no. Long answer below.



Technically, sentry does not record anything. Dashcam does.

What you see on live cam IS being recorded- but it will be overwritten in time.


The way the system works is this:

If the car is on/awake, and dashcam is on, then dashcam is always recording to the recent folder on the USB stick. Always.

That's the ONLY place video is ever recorded to.

Any footage older than 1 hour is overwritten by default.


There's 2 other folders on the stick- saved, and sentry. How video gets in there is either:


If you manually save dashcam footage (either pressing the dashcam button or honking if you have that enabled) it will move existing video (last 10 minutes worth) to the saved folder. Nothing "new" gets recorded. (it also does this in an accident, I think if airbags deploy specifically). Content in the saved folder is NEVER overwritten.

or

If sentry mode (which DOES NOT RECORD VIDEO) goes to an alert state, then it will move existing video (last 10 minutes worth) to the sentry folder. Content in the sentry folder is NEVER overwritten UNLESS your drive is nearly full- then it will be. (I think this happens at 90 or 95% full?)


So anyway, that's how the system operates, and what records and where.

If you pull up live view right now, watch it for a couple of minutes-- -then walk out to your car and remove the USB drive-- that couple of minutes you saw live will be recorded in the recent area of the drive.



But there's no way to MANUALLY trigger that video being moved to the sentry folder ever- that only happens when sentry itself gets sent to an alert state. There are ways to manually trigger video being moved to saved, but only when you're IN the car.

 

[jjrandorin]

(moderator note)

@Knightshade

Are you interested in perhaps writing up a "how sentry / dashcam recording works" post in a manner in which I could sticky it? I think it might be helpful to have such a post here, as there is a lot of confusion around it and you have one of the best understandings of how it works here on TMC.

This would also save you from having to repeatedly post this information every few days, as you could say "I wrote up an explanation on how sentry / dashcam works, you can find it here: (link)". If interested, you can either craft such a post and let me know by tagging me when you post it, or send it to me in a PM if you prefer it be posted by a moderator (with credit to you of course, similar to how I posted the "calculating your battery" post from alansubie4life here:

Calculating Your Battery's Estimated Capacity Using the Car's Energy Screen.

thanks in advance for considering this.

 

[LVTD]

But there's no way to MANUALLY trigger that video being moved to the sentry folder ever- that only happens when sentry itself gets sent to an alert state. There are ways to manually trigger video being moved to saved, but only when you're IN the car.

Great explanation. What if I remotely trigger the horn?

 

[awokeinthelbc]

Short answer- no. Long answer below.



Technically, sentry does not record anything. Dashcam does.

What you see on live cam IS being recorded- but it will be overwritten in time.


The way the system works is this:

If the car is on/awake, and dashcam is on, then dashcam is always recording to the recent folder on the USB stick. Always.

That's the ONLY place video is ever recorded to.

Any footage older than 1 hour is overwritten by default.


There's 2 other folders on the stick- saved, and sentry. How video gets in there is either:


If you manually save dashcam footage (either pressing the dashcam button or honking if you have that enabled) it will move existing video (last 10 minutes worth) to the saved folder. Nothing "new" gets recorded. (it also does this in an accident, I think if airbags deploy specifically). Content in the saved folder is NEVER overwritten.

or

If sentry mode (which DOES NOT RECORD VIDEO) goes to an alert state, then it will move existing video (last 10 minutes worth) to the sentry folder. Content in the sentry folder is NEVER overwritten UNLESS your drive is nearly full- then it will be. (I think this happens at 90 or 95% full?)


So anyway, that's how the system operates, and what records and where.

If you pull up live view right now, watch it for a couple of minutes-- -then walk out to your car and remove the USB drive-- that couple of minutes you saw live will be recorded in the recent area of the drive.



But there's no way to MANUALLY trigger that video being moved to the sentry folder ever- that only happens when sentry itself gets sent to an alert state. There are ways to manually trigger video being moved to saved, but only when you're IN the car.

Is this true? Sentry mode doesn't work if live cam is on?

 

[Knightshade]

Not aware of any such limitation, nor is one mentioned in the manual.

Further the live cam couldn't have been the cause of NO recording if they didn't even start live cam until after the alarm was triggered.

The fact there were NO recordings for any events suggests to me dashcam was not working properly in the first place- so there was no footage for sentry to move over to its own folder.

 

[zoomer0056]

This is the Sentry Mode part in the 2021+ Model S owners manual.

Model S Owner's Manual | Tesla

Learn about the features you can use to monitor the security of your vehicle when parked.

www.tesla.com

If you have an Android phone you can use Screen Recorder to capture live action seen on your phone.