Hi, I just got a 2022 Tesla Model 3 LR Monday. Sentry mode is one thing I'm having some questions on no matter how much I read about it. I can see when I come out to my car if there were sentry events and I can view them. After that where do they go and can I view them again later? I cannot figure that part out.
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Sentry Mode Questions
- Thread starter djchrist74
- Start date
rpiotro
Active Member
You can view them anytime using the interface in the car. You can also remove the thumb drive and download all or part to a PC. Just make sure that that Tesla cam is dormant (car off) when you remove the drive.
pnwadventures
@bpr1de on Instagram
To expand on the above: tap the dashcam icon while in park to launch the viewer. Use the menus in the viewer to replay/manage saved clips - dashcam or sentry. Note that tapping the dashcam icon while in dive will save a new “recents” clip instead of launching the viewer.
Don't ask me why but I was doing it in drive. I wasn't moving but it was in drive. Put it in park and now I see all those videos. Thanks a bunch!
Side note, car doesn’t need to be off to remove the USB storage but you do need to turn off the dashcam by long pressing the icon until it flashes and the red light goes off. When you reinstall the storage device, be sure to turn it back on the same way.
It is really important that you follow the procedure quoted, especially if your USB device is using FAT format.
When you "unmount" the drive following the quoted procedure, you stop the datastream from being written to the drive, the drive's directories are updated, and it becomes safe to remove the drive; you won't cause any directory corruption by removing it at this point.
If you DON'T follow this procedure, the car is still writing a data stream to the USB device when you pull it out. This can result in directory corruption, especially if you're using FAT format. exFAT is a bit more resilient to this type of corruption, but it can still happen.
You'll save yourself potential problems by always "unmounting" your USB storage device by following the above procedure every time you remove your USB storage device.
MillerLite
Member
Just a 2022 S and wanted to activate the Sentry mode. When I opened the Glovebox I noticed that there was already a Tesla USB flash drive installed in the USB port. So I activated the Sentry mode and created an event and the call indicated that I had a Sentry event but I can not figure out how to view the event. There is no place that I can find it says view the Sentry event - also when I push the Dashcam icon it says Dashcam unavailable. Any thoughts on what I need to do? Do I need to format the Tesla USB flash drive that was already in place?? thanks
Knightshade
Well-Known Member
Sentry does not record anything. Only dashcam records video.
Sentry, if there's existing dashcam video, will move the last 10 minutes of footage to the sentry folder if there's a sentry event.
So in short- you need to get dashcam to work if you want anything recorded. Reformatting from the car interface would probably be the first thing to try- then see if dashcam is on (or able to be turned on).
Also some folks have reported that after vehicle delivery Tesla fails to mark the car delivered in their backend system which can cause some features like dashcam not to work, so that's another common thing to look into.
Sentry, if there's existing dashcam video, will move the last 10 minutes of footage to the sentry folder if there's a sentry event.
So in short- you need to get dashcam to work if you want anything recorded. Reformatting from the car interface would probably be the first thing to try- then see if dashcam is on (or able to be turned on).
Also some folks have reported that after vehicle delivery Tesla fails to mark the car delivered in their backend system which can cause some features like dashcam not to work, so that's another common thing to look into.
MillerLite
Member
How do you know which video to look at to see the precipitator of the Sentry event? I see zillions of files, don't know where to start.
Knightshade
Well-Known Member
If you mean immediately on getting back to the car you'll see a prompt for X sentry events occurred, tap to view and it'll take you to one....there'll be a red dot late in the 10 minute video showing the "thing" that triggered the sentry event.
If there's more than 1 event the viewer will let you select others- they should all be listed by time/date and each should have that red dot.
Your statement is incorrect. Sentry mode records video from all 4 cameras and NOT just the dashcam.
Knightshade
Well-Known Member
No, it's not incorrect.
Sentry does not record anything. Ever.
Dashcam does.
Dashcam is not "a camera"
it's the specific name of a Tesla software feature that records 4 cameras feeds at the same time.
Dashcam, if the car is awake, on, and there's a storage device properly attached, is always all 4 cameras to the storage device. That's the only thing that records video to the storage device.
Sentry, if on, keeps the car awake. And if it goes to alert mode will move the last 10 minutes of dashcam recorded video into the sentry folder. It does not record anything.
If you are unclear on this try the following:
Turn OFF the dashcam recording.
But turn Sentry mode ON. (verify dashcam is still off).
Now wait a few minutes. Then do something that would cause a sentry alert.
Check the storage after. There won't be any video. Because sentry does not record stuff, it only moves existing dashcam-recorded video to the sentry folder.
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Dashcam is the application that is doing the recording of video (from four cameras) - this happens anytime the car is awake. Sentry Mode keeps the car awake, allowing Dashcam to record. Sentry Mode monitors the video stream for changes (aka motion detection), marks the corresponding clips as events and moves them in the Sentry Mode folder where it won't get automatically overwritten.
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One thing I've never seen mentioned is how sentry mode actually decides to store an event. When I first got mine, I assumed it would store any time motion is detected but it does not! It seems to have a bit of AI built in and it can detect people, when they get near your car and look like they may have interacted with it in some way, etc. I see many examples of where I come back and I know someone parked next to me while I was away (spot was empty and now it's not) yet no recordings. But if someone parks next to me and gets out on the side of my car, it'll record that (I assume because a door was opened near my car). A bunch of people can drive by in the parking lot, front, back, and it won't store any of them. But then someone backs out of a space near me and gets close to my car, it does store that event. It seems inconsistent at first until you realize it's trying to pick and choose intelligently so you don't always have 50 events at which point you just ignore all of them.
Mike
Mike
Knightshade
Well-Known Member
Pre-covid when I was driving and parking in public 5-7 days a week I'd reformat every 3-4 months--it'd usually be about 2/3rds-3/4 full at that point (128GB Samsung flash storage).... Because flash storage (all kinds) takes a significant performance hit as it fills up so didn't want to wait till it was at 90%+ full.
Post covid since I'm driving far less, and parking with other stuff around to cause sentry alerts far less, I've not had it get anywhere near to full near as quick so I do it annually.
