Summary
The article discusses the possibility of recovering deleted Tesla dashcam footage, emphasizing that success depends on factors such as the age of the footage, the recording mode used, and the condition of the USB drive storing the videos. Tesla dashcams typically record one-minute clips for up to an hour before overwriting the oldest footage, which complicates recovery efforts. The article aims to guide readers through the considerations and steps necessary to potentially retrieve lost dashcam videos.
Table of contents
Losing crucial Tesla dashcam footage when you most require it is a situation no one wants to be in. But, if you do find yourself in this situation, fret not—because you can recover the Tesla dashcam footage . However, your success depends on the age of the dashcam footage, the recording mode you used, and the state of the USB drive where these videos were stored. The sections below cover all these bases, and if everything goes well, you’ll have recovered the deleted footage once you’re through reading this article.
Usually, Tesla dashcams record in one-minute increments for a total of 1 hour. This means that the Tesla dashcam saves one-minute clips, recorded for an hour. After an hour, these clips are overwritten by the clips of the next hour, starting from the oldest first. This is what complicates data recovery—as overwritten footage can’t be recovered. It’s no surprise that many users find this feature annoying and pointless.
In short, the Tesla dashcam will overwrite the 1st minute video clip with the 61st minute video clip.
But, Tesla does this to comply with data privacy laws. Apart from this one-hour loop, Tesla dashcams can permanently save the last 10 minutes of recorded footage. This can be done using three modes:
* Auto: In Auto mode, your Tesla automatically saves a clip to your USB drive when it detects a safety event—like a collision or airbag deployment.
* Manual: In Manual mode, you can save the most recent 10 minutes of dashcam footage by tapping the dashcam icon.
* On Honk: In this mode, just honk to save the last 10 minutes of recorded footage to your USB drive.
Manually saved videos, whether saved by pressing the dashcam icon or honking, are never overwritten. You can find these clips in the SavedClips folder on your Tesla dashcam USB drive.
In addition to these recording modes, Teslas come with a Sentry mode which is activated when the car is in park mode. When enabled, Sentry mode constantly monitors your car’s surroundings using its cameras and sensors. In addition to alerting you when it detects suspicious movement around your car, your Tesla also saves a 10-minute recording of the security event to your USB drive.
There are some steps you can take to maximize your chances of recovering the deleted footage from your Tesla dashcam. Do these before you actually attempt data recovery:
1. Immediately stop recording new footage using your Tesla dashcam , and remove the USB drive. This prevents the new footage from overwriting the previous one.
2. Step 1: Preparing Your New Drive" href="https://www.reneelab.com/clone_boot_drive.html#card-2" target="_blank" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: none; color: rgb(86, 173, 255); text-decoration: none;"Connect your USB drive to a computer. To view your Tesla dashcam footage, go through these folders— RecentClips , SavedClips , and SentryClips . Take a look at each of them to ensure the footage you’re looking to recover is not present on the drive.
3. Finally, and this can’t be stressed enough, don’t write any new files to the USB drive . This will substantially decrease, and potentially obliterate any chances of data recovery.
To prevent overwriting deleted video clips on a Tesla USB drive, disable file previewing and switch to file details mode in Windows Explorer. The preview function and large icon view generate many small files that can overwrite deleted clips.
So, you didn’t find the required footage in your Tesla dashcam’s USB drive. Maybe you accidentally deleted it, or it’s vanished into thin air. The best thing you can do in this situation is to use a reliable data recovery program and scan your USB drive. Now, there are plenty of third-party data recovery tools that can help you achieve this, but it’s recommended you pick some from this article.
This method only Applicable for Tesla Autopilot Recordings
When Tesla collects data, we believe it’s important for you to know what we’re collecting and what it is used for. The data provided to you as part of your request may include information such as Tesla Account details, customer support activity, service history, and vehicle data. Tesla vehicles record operational and diagnostic data at regular intervals and may transmit that data over-the-air to our servers. That data enables our Engineering and Service teams to assess vehicle health remotely and diagnose, and potentially proactively resolve your concerns.
During data collection, Tesla may upload data from certain key events to the server for backup or for training Full Self-Driving (FSD) systems. You can contact Tesla customer service to request access to this data. Fortunately, you do not need to undergo any data recovery process to obtain the desired video clips.
But not all types of videos will be uploaded, please refer to the following table for more details.
| Processed directly on vehicle by default | Shared with Tesla/ but not associated with your account | Shared with Tesla and associated with your account | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sentry Mode camera recordings | ✓ | N/A | N/A |
| Dashcam camera recordings | ✓ | N/A | N/A |
| Cabin camera data | ✓ | If opted in through Data Sharing | N/A |
| Autopilot camera recordings | ✓ | If opted in through Data Sharing | In the occurrence of a safety critical event only |
| Location data | ✓ | If opted in through Data Sharing | In the occurrence of a safety critical event only |
| Speed | ✓ | For fleet analysis and improvement | In the occurrence of a safety critical event only |
| Voice commands | ✓ | N/A | N/A |
| Browsing history | ✓ | N/A | N/A |
| Odometer | ✓ | For fleet analysis and improvement | Last known value only, for warranty calculation |
| Charging data | ✓ | If third-party charging network used | If Supercharger network used |
| Touchscreen interactions | ✓ | ✓ | N/A |
Note : To maintain the accuracy and consistency of the data associated with your account, data privacy requests may change at any time as Tesla’s methods of processing, storage, and collection evolve.
If you’d opted in for data sharing . Here’s how you request Tesla for your footage:
2. Choose Data Privacy Request from the Regarding drop-down menu, under Ask a Question .
3. Then choose Obtain a Copy of My Data from the next drop-down menu.
4. Pick the data range and click on Submit .
Unfortunately, you can’t recover any continuously recorded dashcam footage (RecentClips), and Sentry footage using this method.
Renee Undeleter is designed to restore deleted data files . It’s exceedingly easy to use, and it’s also one of the oldest players in the business. Additionally, the program’s in-built preview feature is a godsend when selecting which footage to recover. Due to the sheer number of files data recovery scans may uncover, a good preview feature makes the herculean task of determining which video you want to recover, much easier.. Whether you’ve accidentally deleted files , emptied the recycle bin , or formatted a disk, this tool can retrieve lost data. It includes four functional modules: Fast Partition Scan , Whole Partition Scan , Whole Disk Scan , and Image Creation , addressing all data loss issues comprehensively.
Here’s how to use Renee Undeleter to retrieve videos from your Tesla dashcam:
Step 1: Connect the Tesla dashcam USB drive to the computer, download and install Renee Undeleter on the computer, and run Renee Undeleter. Select the ( Whole Partition Scan ) option on the main interface.
Note: Do not install Renee Undeleter in the disk where data is lost to avoid data overwriting.
Data Recovery Function
Fast Partition Scan – Retrieve files lost due to accidental deletion or emptying the recycle bin.
Whole Partition Scan – Recover files from inaccessible or formatted partitions.
Whole Disk Scan – Analyze partition information and perform a full partition scan.
Image Creation – Create image to back up the current partition state.
Step 2 : Select the Tesla dashcam USB drive partition and click ( Next ).
Step 3: Wait for the scan, which will depend on the Tesla dashcam USB drive’s memory size . During the scan, you can double-click to preview files. If you find the file you need, check it and click the Recover button to terminate the scan and start recovery. Alternatively, wait for the scan to end, check the files to recover, and then click the Recover button.
Note: It is recommended to save the recovered files in other partitions instead of the original Tesla dashcam USB drive to avoid data overwriting.
Running a Python script to recover deleted MP4 files from a Tesla’s USB drive involves several steps. Teslas typically retain only the last hour of recent footage on their thumb drives. However, older footage can be retrieved using basic data recovery techniques. The provided script scans the entire FAT32 or exFAT USB drive for deleted MP4 files and copies them to a specified directory for viewing. This process is intended for those with some technical knowledge of Python and filesystems. The script has been tested on macOS, but similar instructions apply to Linux and Windows systems .
For more tips on running a Python script, please refer to https://realpython.com/run-python-scripts/
Step 1: save the following python code to local file(such as run.py), or you may download the script here .
Step 2: On MacOS, Plug in your USB drive and unmount it using system commands or buttons without unplug the USB deivce. If your system is Windows, ignore this step.
Step 3: Next, identify the device node for your Tesla dashcam USB drive (FAT32 or exFAT partition) and run the python script.
1. On MacOS , this information can be found in Disk Utility by clicking the “Info” button for your volume, which will display something like “disk2s1”. Create a directory for the output files.
Then, run the script by providing the directory path and device node, using a command such as
sudo ./run.py /dev/disk2s1 myoutputdirectory.
Be prepared for this process to take some time and require significant disk space, potentially up to twice the capacity of your USB drive.
2. On Windows system
1. Create a folder in your internal hard disk. For example, C:\TeslaVideos
2. Open a command prompt and run as administrator.
3. Locate your disk id(in Disk ### column) with Diskpart command
diskpart
list disk
4. Replace the DISK_ID in the following command and run it in command prompt
python ./run.py "\\.\PhysicalDriveDISK_ID" C:\TeslaVideos
If the disk ID of your Tesla USB drive is 1, then you may change to
python ./run.py "\\.\PhysicalDrive1" C:\TeslaVideos
Step 4: As the script runs, your output directory will quickly fill with video files . If you are short on disk space or prefer a more targeted approach, the script includes code for navigating the filesystem, printing detailed information, and exporting individual files. With basic Python knowledge, you can modify the script to perform a faster, more focused search for the files you need.
Tesla vehicles generally store files contiguously and in order, so locating the cluster for an intact file near your desired timeframe can allow you to scan a subset of clusters rather than the entire disk.
If some MP4 files in your output do not play, it is likely because the files were fragmented across multiple cluster runs. This fragmentation occurs when the car writes around previously saved videos. While the script does not automatically extract these fragmented files, you can manually retrieve them with some effort. The MP4 filename indicates the start cluster of the file. To extract the video, read all clusters starting from that one, skipping over clusters used by active filesystem entries. For more detailed guidance, refer to the comments in the run.py script.
Albeit rare, sometimes data recovery programs are unable to find the required dashcam footage. This could be because the footage was overwritten, or there’s a problem with the USB drive itself. But, you’re not out of options yet. There are other things you can do to recover deleted footage from your Tesla dashcam:
A professional data recovery company can recover deleted footage from your USB drive for a fee. However, depending on how severe the data loss is, and how much footage you want to recover, using these services can be quite expensive. Luckily, most companies only charge you if the data is recoverable. Here’s what to expect when using the services of a professional data recovery company:
1. Contact the data recovery company, and explain your situation. Usually, companies have a 24*7 hotline.
2. Ship your USB drive to the company for evaluation, or drop it off at a drop-off point. The evaluation itself is usually free.
3. The data recovery company will get back to you with a quote. You can then decide if you want to go through with the recovery, or not.
4. If you do decide to go ahead, the company will recover your data and typically ship it to you in a brand new storage drive.
Dashcam footage can often be used to prove your innocence in case of a mishap. It can also help authorities find the bad guys in hit-and-run cases, etc. There are some things you can do to ensure that important footage is never overwritten, or deleted:
Copy the Footage to a Secondary Location: Every few days, remove your dashcam USB drive from your Tesla, connect it to a computer, and save all your footage in a secure location. Having a backup of your dashcam footage provides unparalleled peace of mind.
Use the Cloud: It’s a shame Tesla dashcams don’t offer cloud storage features. But you can manually upload the videos from your USB drive to a cloud storage service of your choice. This ensures that your footage remains accessible no matter where you are. If you’re up for a little bit of technical DIY, here’s an article that outlines how to automatically store your Sentry Mode and dashcam videos on the cloud.
Use Reliable USB Drives: USB drives have a finite lifespan, and cheap ones can give up on you quickly, and without warning. So yeah, don’t cheap out on a USB drive, especially if you have continuous recording enabled on your Tesla dashcam.
Well, recovering videos from your Tesla dashcam ain’t rocket science. Accidental deletion is easy to get back from—a good Step 2: Use Data Recovery Software to Recover data from NVMe SSD" href="https://www.reneelab.com/recover_data_from_an_nvme_ssd.html#card-8" target="_blank" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: none; color: rgb(86, 173, 255); text-decoration: none;"data recovery tool should be more than enough. However, the continuous recording feature in your Tesla dashcam continuously overwrites previous footage as well, which is what complicates data recovery. If a data recovery program couldn’t help you out, you can always contact Tesla and request your data, or use the services of a professional data recovery company.
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