Sentry Sucks USB Space

[SJC3]

Exactly, that’s the problem, the car is recording even when sentry mode is not turned on. My car was in the garage with the doors closed, but it may not have been locked. Was it only dash cam then?

 

[Knightshade]

Exactly, that’s the problem, the car is recording even when sentry mode is not turned on. My car was in the garage with the doors closed, but it may not have been locked. Was it only dash cam then?

Yeah- dash cam is always recording-but it doesn't "save" that footage permanently unless you specifically push the cam button to do so (in which case it saves the most recent 10 minutes)

You'll always have recent footage in a rolling buffer though from the dashcam feature (unless you turn that off on the screen)

 

[Need]

Exactly, that’s the problem, the car is recording even when sentry mode is not turned on. My car was in the garage with the doors closed, but it may not have been locked. Was it only dash cam then?

You are looking at the clips in the RecentClips folder right? Those files are the buffer files shared by both DashCam and Sentry Mode. Basically the clips get copied from the car's internal memory to that folder first. And if you never hit the camera icon or turn on Sentry Mode, those files will recycle to keep it at 180 files (3 x 60 one minute files) at about 5.5GB. Now if you hit to save DashCam or an event happened while in Sentry Mode, 10 minutes of those files (30 or so files) will get moved into a folder in the SavedClips folder for you to review. Yes your DashCam will record while you are parked, but I think when the car goes to sleep, it will stop recording. But if you don't lock your car, not sure if the car will go fully to sleep.

So in summary, you should never have to worry about the files in RecentClips. They should keep themselves at under 6GB. You just need to clean up the SavedClips folder.

 

[astrowunder]

128 GB Sandisk acquired. $17.99.

Windows 10 can't format the drive with more than 32GB, but luckily it comes from the factory formatted to 128- just have to create the TeslaCam folder- seems to be working just fine.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TKFCYP0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[aspec818]

I’m having a tough time understanding how sentry mode works.

I’ve turned sentry mode on a few times, and it seems to always record when enabled - not just when someone approaches the car. If sentry is turned on, it’s saving files to the USB drive. I have tons of footage of my car just parked for hours. Is this how its supposed to work?

I thought it would only record when someone came near and alert you to it through your phone. Basically now I have to watch through hours of footage to see if anything happened - and the drive is gonna fill up real fast.

I’ve experienced the same. There are uneventful clips of my car just being parked in the garage in the Savedclips folder. Nothing is going on. Not sure why sentry was recording those clips.

 

[Need]

I’ve experienced the same. There are uneventful clips of my car just being parked in the garage in the Savedclips folder. Nothing is going on. Not sure why sentry was recording those clips.

I can always find the source of the event. Know that out of the 30 or so files, usually only 1 of them will have event that triggered the recording. Scroll all the way to the newest 3 files. Those usually got nothing and their size is smaller than the other files. The next newest 3 files would be the one that triggered the event and probably 1 of the 3 will record something...

 

[TiggerTime]

Behavior is odd, I’ve noticed recordings on my usb when I didn’t even have sentry mode on. I was recently in my garage cleaning up and my Tesla spied on me the whole time...maxed out my drive. Felt violated.

Yup noticing the same thing. Pulled my USB the other night after got home from work and there were recordings showing me walking up to the car and unplugging it even thought Sentry was not activated. Made a stop on way home and the 10 minutes I was parked (no sentry turned on) were recorded much to my surprise.

 

[is2scooby]

I thought the biggest FAT32 format drive was 32GB? What's the largest drive that can be used? Thanks!

 

[kirbo20]

32GB is a Windows limitation. There are several free pieces of software that will allow you to format larger drives.

 

[rajivpsf]

This is pretty goofy, even for the folks who are Tesla apologists, that the data doesn't write over older data when full. Or not as advanced warn when the USB is full.

 

[kirbo20]

I noticed my USB sticks stopped recording quickly with 5.15. I thought they were corrupted, but they're FULL! 8 gigs doesn't even last for a few hours with sentry enabled.

Time for a BFD

I had a similar issue and it turned out to be a bad flash drive. It was causing all sorts of issues with the front camera as well as interfering with LTE connectivity. This information was in the logs from Tesla. I swapped in a new drive and it's been two days now and it's only used a few gigabytes and my front camera isn't freaking out anymore. Attached is a photo of my front cameras recording with the old drive.

 

[Knightshade]

This is pretty goofy, even for the folks who are Tesla apologists, that the data doesn't write over older data when full. .

There's nothing to apologize for. It's a security feature. You wouldn't want it to overwrite anything automatically.

The dash cam does overwrite- because you're actively there to tell it to save anything important.

An unmanned security camera has to assume everything that triggers it is important because he has no way to know otherwise.

 

[SeanM]

What's the largest size flash drive that can be used? I tried a 32 gb & it works, but when I tried the 64 gb that car doesn't 'recognize".

 

[Knightshade]

What's the largest size flash drive that can be used? I tried a 32 gb & it works, but when I tried the 64 gb that car doesn't 'recognize".

There's no real limit... (well, there is but it's multiple terabytes)

Probably your larger drive wasn't formatted FAT32.

 

[Funkmobile]

What's the largest size flash drive that can be used? I tried a 32 gb & it works, but when I tried the 64 gb that car doesn't 'recognize".

Follow these instructions:

[V9] How to Format USB into 2 Partitions for DashCam and Music [Windows]

 

[jkoya]

What's the largest size flash drive that can be used? I tried a 32 gb & it works, but when I tried the 64 gb that car doesn't 'recognize".

I'm using a 256 GB high speed microSD card and it works fine.

 

[BobAbooey]

I would probably recommend everyone switch to dashcam friendly microsd cards (using a usb microsd adapter). Most regular USB flash drives aren't designed for dashcam/constant writing of data and could lead to drive failures.

Do you have one you prefer from amazon?

 

[BobAbooey]

I would probably recommend everyone switch to dashcam friendly microsd cards (using a usb microsd adapter). Most regular USB flash drives aren't designed for dashcam/constant writing of data and could lead to drive failures.

this any good?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B984HJ5/ref=crt_ewc_title_dp_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

[japhule]

this any good?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B984HJ5/ref=crt_ewc_title_dp_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

That should work well. Here's a guide:
MicroSD Cards We Recommend for Dash Cameras

 

[mhan00]

Apparently sentry mode doesn't ever record over itself like the front camera does?

I figured this out today when some jackhole went flying past me in the right lane, darted in front of me because of slower traffic on the right and proceeded to bounce off the center median barrier, almost flipping his 4 runner at 90+ MPH. I went to push the button to save recording and it was grayed out. When I got home I checked the flash drive and it was full of clips of my car sitting in the garage.

I enabled Sentry Mode the night I installed the update and must have filled the drive up right away and not noticed. I have no idea what was triggering it to record, there was nothing going on. I thought it would only record if it sensed something too, but does not seem that is the case.

Your garage is probably haunted, maybe by a doppleganger of yourself like in the movie Us.