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Sentry Mode USB Recording Question

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Recently purchased a new 128 GB USB stick. I have a TeslaCam folder which I created, and under that folder there are 2 subfolders, "Recent Clips" and "Saved Clips".

When I active Sentry Mode, I assume it is only recording when Sentry Mode gets activated by movement. Correct? If so, where do those files get recorded? Under Saved Clips? There does not seem to be any way of identifying the clips as either being "sentry mode clips", or "driving clips" that I chose to save. ?

When I am driving the dash cams are active, I believe those clips are recorded under "Recent Clips", and routinely get written over, unless I press the icon on the screen, in which case, I understand it will save the last 10 minutes. Correct? Where do these clips get saved? Also under Saved Clips?

I have lots of files (each one minute long) which are MP4 files, but interspersed through the list of files, I have a number of .mp4 files that for some reason show up on my Mac as QT files. (Most of them don't, but a few of them have a QT icon, but won't play). Any idea why there is a distinction between the files?

thx.
 
Recently purchased a new 128 GB USB stick. I have a TeslaCam folder which I created, and under that folder there are 2 subfolders, "Recent Clips" and "Saved Clips".

When I active Sentry Mode, I assume it is only recording when Sentry Mode gets activated by movement. Correct? If so, where do those files get recorded? Under Saved Clips? There does not seem to be any way of identifying the clips as either being "sentry mode clips", or "driving clips" that I chose to save. ?

When I am driving the dash cams are active, I believe those clips are recorded under "Recent Clips", and routinely get written over, unless I press the icon on the screen, in which case, I understand it will save the last 10 minutes. Correct? Where do these clips get saved? Also under Saved Clips?

I have lots of files (each one minute long) which are MP4 files, but interspersed through the list of files, I have a number of .mp4 files that for some reason show up on my Mac as QT files. (Most of them don't, but a few of them have a QT icon, but won't play). Any idea why there is a distinction between the files?

thx.
Sentry gets saved to Saved Clips. When you press the camera icon, the last 10 min gets saved to Recent Clips.

Sentry will keep all the clips, until it fills up. Recent will only keep the last 10 min.
 
  • Disagree
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Disagree with the above.

OP yes to your first question. As for the answer to the question of differentiating the saved TeslaCam buffer files from the Sentry ones, well Sentry Mode only records in Park so the files will all be stationery. That should narrow it down a bit but you could be parked (and I have been without Sentry mode on and saved a 10-min. clip from the buffer to check out the files) and it too will be in the SavedClips folder.

This should answer your other questions I think. RecentClips folder is your TeslaCam 1-hour buffer folder that gets written over. Basically 60 consecutive 1-min. clips currently from 3 cameras. Sentry and TeslaCam saved clips will both be placed in SavedClips folder. If you are driving during the hour that is being recorded in the buffer (RecentClips folder) and you save something during that time, you will notice in the RecentClips folder that the time stamp will show a block of 10 minutes missing. It will be in the SavedClips folder in a file with that gets a date/time stamping on it.

From RecentClips folder (60 min. of 1-min. video clips from 3 cameras):
Buffer to SavedClips - 1.jpg


From SavedClips folder (saved files each with 10 1-minute clips from 3 cameras):
Buffer to SavedClips - 2.jpg


As you can see from the second photo, the minutes saved go from 22 to 32.
 
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Sentry gets saved to Saved Clips. When you press the camera icon, the last 10 min gets saved to Recent Clips.

Sentry will keep all the clips, until it fills up. Recent will only keep the last 10 min.

I'm pretty sure you've got that backwards.

When you're driving or when you're parked with Sentry Mode active, the Tesla records continuously to the RecentClips directory. It deletes the oldest files from that directory from time to time, so as to maintain a certain size buffer of files. (I don't recall how long offhand -- I'd guess an hour or two.)

If you hit the "save" button or if Sentry Mode enters its alert or alarm state, it moves the recordings for the most recent ten minutes to a subdirectory of the SavedClips subdirectory, bearing a timestamp as a directory name. This effectively saves the recording forever, or until you delete it or the recording device dies. This enables you to review what's happened in the ten minutes preceding the Sentry Mode event or manual request to save recording.
 
I'm pretty sure you've got that backwards.

When you're driving or when you're parked with Sentry Mode active, the Tesla records continuously to the RecentClips directory. It deletes the oldest files from that directory from time to time, so as to maintain a certain size buffer of files. (I don't recall how long offhand -- I'd guess an hour or two.)

If you hit the "save" button or if Sentry Mode enters its alert or alarm state, it moves the recordings for the most recent ten minutes to a subdirectory of the SavedClips subdirectory, bearing a timestamp as a directory name. This effectively saves the recording forever, or until you delete it or the recording device dies. This enables you to review what's happened in the ten minutes preceding the Sentry Mode event or manual request to save recording.
 

Are you saying that if I enable Sentry mode while my car is parked in my driveway all night, it is recording a continuous 10 minute
loop? Is that even when there are no events triggered by the sensors or only when the sensors detect an event?
 
Are you saying that if I enable Sentry mode while my car is parked in my driveway all night, it is recording a continuous 10 minute
loop? Is that even when there are no events triggered by the sensors or only when the sensors detect an event?

Yes -- only I think the loop is longer than 10 minutes; it just saves 10 minutes worth of the loop when an event or alarm is triggered. That's why so many people here are so concerned about finding media that are rated for heavy use -- because that sort of use is heavy use!
 
Yes -- only I think the loop is longer than 10 minutes; it just saves 10 minutes worth of the loop when an event or alarm is triggered. That's why so many people here are so concerned about finding media that are rated for heavy use -- because that sort of use is heavy use!

Thanks, that is why I formatted a 256g micro SD card as a Fat32 and put it in a USB adapter. So far it seems to working OK.