The 128 Gb USB Drive that came with my 2021 M3LR (delivered on 6/25/21) no longer is recording new Sentry or Dashcam events. I tried reformatting, both in the car and on a PC, but to no avail. I cannot write or delete files. I inserted another drive I had and I can successfully record on that, both Sentry and Dashcam. So the problem must be with the USB Drive and not the car software. So here are my questions: Is this covered by the warranty? If so, how do I go about getting a new drive under the warranty? Thanks...
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USB Drive [the tesla supplied USB drive no longer works]
- Thread starter pobguy
- Start date
But I heard that the USB pendrives are too "weak" to be recording 24/7 and the number of write/read cycles would expire very soon.
The recommended option I've seen (not tested by me) is "endurance" microsd card.
If you try to solve the problem with a Service appointment with Tesla, would be nice to know their answer. GL!
The recommended option I've seen (not tested by me) is "endurance" microsd card.
If you try to solve the problem with a Service appointment with Tesla, would be nice to know their answer. GL!
lUtriaNt
Member
lUtriaNt
Member
totally disagree with the above statement. i use these samsung brand "pen drives" which is what tesla supply with ZERO issue. lots of people who dont even frequent this forum also use these drives.
My drive also reports "not available" more time then I care for. I did schedule a service visit and the response I received is,
"This is a known firmware characteristic and we are recommending users unplug and replug the USN at the start and every drive. A fix is coming soon."
And it is true, if you press the sentry mode button once in park and it only shows you the message "Dashcam not available..." simply unplug and replug the USB and push the button again, and the sentry mode footage comes up. Unfortunately you don't know when the USB goes out, So you have to do this before each trip as well as once the car is going to be parked. I had sentry tell me, it registered an sentry mode event but when checking I got the message "Dashcam unavailable" and nothing was recorded, even so before I started the trip it was working...
Very frustrating... fortunately the only time someone tapped my car, it was working and I got the perpetrator on sentry cam.
"This is a known firmware characteristic and we are recommending users unplug and replug the USN at the start and every drive. A fix is coming soon."
And it is true, if you press the sentry mode button once in park and it only shows you the message "Dashcam not available..." simply unplug and replug the USB and push the button again, and the sentry mode footage comes up. Unfortunately you don't know when the USB goes out, So you have to do this before each trip as well as once the car is going to be parked. I had sentry tell me, it registered an sentry mode event but when checking I got the message "Dashcam unavailable" and nothing was recorded, even so before I started the trip it was working...
Very frustrating... fortunately the only time someone tapped my car, it was working and I got the perpetrator on sentry cam.
Tesla USB failed after 5 months, physically, as soon as you try to copy files to it it stops working. I do have sentry mode on all the time. It records few events every day. USB should fail after so much pumped through it, but Tesla won't acknowledge it. And NVME drives in USB enclosure are "not supported".
My USB drive on my 2021 Tesla Model 3 just failed and Tesla tried to charge me $47 to replace it. They tried to tell me it wasn't covered by warranty and that the engraving on the new USB thumbs drive they installed clearly absolves them of warranty coverage. Bullshit because I didn't agree to that contract change.
I showed the service member the copy of my warranty where it says materials supplied by Tesla are covered under the 4 year warranty, and nowhere in my warranty is it listed as an exclusion. They insisted I was wrong and told me the manager wouldn't help me. I left and refused to pay. The manager called me later after I sent a nasty message. He looked into it, and called me back to say that he removed the charge.
To top it all off, I went back on the internet wayback machine and Tesla got sneaky and changed the warranty terms on their website in the summer of 2021 to try and absolve themselves of thumb drive failure claims along with a whole list of other exclusions that weren't previously there.
Tesla service keeps repeatedly showing me that they don't really care about their customers.
I showed the service member the copy of my warranty where it says materials supplied by Tesla are covered under the 4 year warranty, and nowhere in my warranty is it listed as an exclusion. They insisted I was wrong and told me the manager wouldn't help me. I left and refused to pay. The manager called me later after I sent a nasty message. He looked into it, and called me back to say that he removed the charge.
To top it all off, I went back on the internet wayback machine and Tesla got sneaky and changed the warranty terms on their website in the summer of 2021 to try and absolve themselves of thumb drive failure claims along with a whole list of other exclusions that weren't previously there.
Tesla service keeps repeatedly showing me that they don't really care about their customers.
You can get a 1TB USB drive that USB 3 on one side and Type C on the other for $35. It is really unbelievable to me that someone would ask if a USB drive is under warranty after a year. Storage is really inexpensive.
stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
If you find a 1TB USB stick drive that cheap, I would do some tests to make sure it does not have faked capacity. It is a very common scam to fake the capacity of drives:
Avoid these fake 1 and 2TB flash drives on Amazon and other sites.
Tools to test true capacity of drive:
5 Tools to Test and Detect Fake or Counterfeit USB Flash Drives
The typical price for a brand name 1TB USB drive is $100+.
https://www.tomshardware.com/features/1tb-flash-drives-test
https://www.westerndigital.com/prod...ual-drive-luxe-usb-3-1-type-c#SDDDC4-1T00-G46
I believe that USB drive costs about $25 on Amazon, but I wouldn't buy one. The one I got with my Tesla never worked reliably, and I replaced it with some much more reliable, with more capacity, plus smaller. And in spite of what one person here out of hundreds of experts who disagree with him, thumb drives are not ideal for this application. There are technical reasons, and they are well-known.
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