The Tesla Dashcam is a fantastic feature that utilizes your car's built-in cameras to record footage while you're driving and even when parked. This can be incredibly useful for documenting incidents, capturing interesting road events, or simply having a record of your drives. Let's dive into how you can view this footage step-by-step.
Step 1: Prepare Your USB Drive
Before you can even think about viewing footage, you need to ensure your Tesla has a properly formatted USB drive. Think of this as the brain that stores all those valuable memories from your drives!
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| How To View Tesla Dashcam Footage |
A. Choosing the Right USB Drive
Not all USB drives are created equal for Tesla Dashcam. Here's what you should look for:
Capacity: Tesla recommends at least 32 GB, but for Sentry Mode (which records more frequently), a larger drive like 64GB, 128GB, or even 500GB SSDs are highly recommended. The larger the capacity, the more footage you can store before it starts overwriting older clips.
Write Speed: This is crucial. The drive needs a sustained write speed of at least 4 MB/s. Many drives have high peak speeds but can slow down considerably, leading to corrupted or missing footage. Look for "high endurance" microSD cards if you're using an adapter.
Compatibility: The drive must be USB 2.0 compatible. If you use a USB 3.0 drive, it must support USB 2.0.
Dedicated Use: It's best to use a dedicated USB drive exclusively for your Tesla's dashcam.
B. Formatting Your USB Drive
Your USB drive needs to be formatted correctly for your Tesla to recognize it. You have two main options:
Format in Your Tesla:
Insert the USB flash drive into your Tesla's USB port (preferably the one in the glovebox for vehicles manufactured after approximately November 1, 2021, as center console ports might be charging-only).
On your Tesla's touchscreen, navigate to Controls > Safety > Format USB Drive.
Confirm the formatting. Your Tesla will do the rest!
Format on a Computer:
Insert the USB flash drive into your computer.
The drive needs to be formatted as FAT32 or exFAT. For drives larger than 32 GB, you might need a third-party application to format as FAT32 on some operating systems.
Crucially, create a folder named
TeslaCamin the root directory of the USB drive. Without this folder, your Tesla won't know where to save the recordings.
Step 2: Enable Dashcam in Your Tesla
Once your USB drive is ready, it's time to activate the Dashcam feature.
A. Activating Dashcam
Ensure your formatted USB drive is inserted into a compatible USB port in your Tesla.
On your Tesla's touchscreen, go to Controls > Safety > Dashcam.
Tap to enable Dashcam.
B. Understanding Dashcam Recording Modes
Tesla's Dashcam offers different ways to save footage:
Auto: The Dashcam automatically saves a recording when your Tesla detects a safety-critical event, like a collision or airbag deployment. Keep in mind that detection can vary based on your vehicle's power, sleep, and Autopilot state.
Manual: You can manually save the most recent ten minutes of footage by touching the Dashcam icon on the touchscreen. This is great for saving a specific event you witnessed.
On Honk: When you press the horn, the Dashcam saves the most recent ten minutes of footage. You can enable this alongside Auto or Manual.
QuickTip: Slow down if the pace feels too fast.
C. Monitoring Dashcam Status
The Dashcam icon on your touchscreen will change to indicate its status:
RECORDING: Dashcam is actively recording. Tap the icon to save footage, or press and hold to pause recording.
AVAILABLE: Dashcam is ready but not actively recording. Tap to start recording.
PAUSED: Dashcam is paused. To avoid losing footage, always pause it before removing the USB drive.
BUSY: Dashcam is processing, saving, or overwriting footage. During this time, it's not capturing new video.
SAVED: Footage has been successfully saved.
Step 3: Viewing Your Footage
Now for the main event – accessing those precious recordings! You have a couple of convenient options.
A. Viewing on Your Tesla Touchscreen
This is the easiest way to quickly review recent events.
Ensure your Tesla is in Park.
Touch the Dashcam icon in the app launcher on your touchscreen. You can also add it to your bottom bar for quick access.
The Viewer will display your video recordings, organized by timestamp. You can browse through clips, play them back, and even delete them directly from the screen.
For vehicles with AMD Ryzen processors (most Model 3 and Model Y, and 2021+ Model S and Model X), recent updates (like 2025.20.3) allow you to tap the "expand" button (two diagonal arrows) to slightly zoom out on the video as it plays, providing a clearer look at details like license plates. You can also delete multiple videos at once, which is a great time-saver!
B. Viewing on a Computer
For more in-depth review, sharing, or long-term storage, transferring files to a computer is ideal.
Safely Remove USB Drive: On your Tesla's touchscreen, long press the Dashcam icon until it turns grey (paused status) before physically removing the USB drive. This helps prevent file corruption.
Insert into Computer: Plug the USB flash drive into a USB port on your computer (Mac or PC).
Locate Footage:
Navigate to the USB drive.
You'll find a folder named
TeslaCam.Inside
TeslaCam, you'll see sub-folders likeRecentClips,SavedClips, andSentryClips. Videos are organized by timestamp within these folders.
Play Videos: The video files are typically in MP4 format. You can play them using any standard media player on your computer (e.g., VLC Media Player, Windows Media Player, QuickTime).
Note: Each event often creates multiple MP4 files (front, rear, left repeater, right repeater cameras), with each minute stored in a separate file. This can mean many files for a single event. Some third-party tools exist (like
tesla_dashcamon GitHub) to combine these into a single video with different layouts.
Copy and Backup: Copy the relevant clips to your computer for long-term storage or to share them. It's a good practice to back up important footage to an external drive or cloud service.
C. Viewing on the Tesla Mobile App (iOS Only for now)
For a more convenient way to check your Sentry Mode and Dashcam footage on the go:
Ensure your Tesla has Premium Connectivity.
Enable "View Live Camera from Mobile App" on your Tesla's touchscreen.
Ensure your Tesla mobile app is version 4.39.5 or newer (iOS only at present).
On your mobile app, navigate to Security > Dashcam Viewer.
Step 4: Troubleshooting Common Issues
Sometimes, things don't go as smoothly as planned. Here are some common Dashcam issues and their solutions:
Tip: Reread sections you didn’t fully grasp.
A. USB Drive Too Slow or Corrupted
Symptoms: "Dashcam: USB drive is too slow to save" notification, distorted video, or no recording.
Solution: Your drive's write speed is insufficient. Replace it with a faster, higher endurance drive (refer to Step 1A). If the drive becomes corrupted, sometimes formatting it again (either in the car or on a computer) can help. Always pause the Dashcam before removing the drive.
B. No Dashcam Recording
Symptoms: Dashcam icon shows "AVAILABLE" but not "RECORDING," or no footage is saved.
Solution:
Check Controls > Safety > Dashcam to ensure it's enabled and the "Recording" button has a red dot.
Verify you have a folder named
TeslaCamin the root directory of your USB drive.Confirm the drive is formatted to FAT32 or exFAT.
For Model 3/Y, ensure you're using the glovebox USB port if your car was manufactured after November 1, 2021, as front console ports might be charging-only.
Try removing the drive, rebooting your Tesla (hold both scroll wheels until the screen goes black), and then reinserting the drive.
C. Missing or Deleted Footage
Symptoms: Can't find specific footage, or older clips are being overwritten too quickly.
Solution:
Your USB drive might be full. Tesla's Dashcam system overwrites the oldest footage when the drive is full. Regularly back up important clips.
For accidentally deleted footage, data recovery software (like Disk Drill or EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard) can sometimes help retrieve files from the USB drive.
Step 5: Best Practices for Tesla Dashcam Usage ✨
To maximize the effectiveness and longevity of your Tesla's Dashcam:
A. Regularly Check Your USB Drive
Periodically check the drive's health and free space. If you use Sentry Mode heavily, consider a larger capacity drive to avoid frequent overwrites.
B. Backup Important Clips
Don't wait until it's too late! If there's an event you want to keep, save it manually and transfer it to your computer or cloud storage as soon as possible.
C. Use a High-Quality, Dedicated USB Drive
Investing in a reliable, high-endurance USB drive or SSD specifically for your Tesla Dashcam will save you headaches in the long run. Cheap, generic flash drives often fail under the continuous writing demands of a dashcam.
QuickTip: Ask yourself what the author is trying to say.
D. Pause Before Removal
Always pause the Dashcam via the touchscreen before physically removing the USB drive. This prevents data corruption.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How to: Format a USB drive for Tesla Dashcam?
You can format the USB drive directly in your Tesla by going to Controls > Safety > Format USB Drive, or on a computer as FAT32 or exFAT with a top-level folder named TeslaCam.
How to: Save a specific Dashcam clip?
While driving or parked, touch the Dashcam icon on your touchscreen. If it's recording, a single tap will save the last 10 minutes of footage.
How to: View Tesla Dashcam footage on an iPhone?
Currently, you need Premium Connectivity and mobile app version 4.39.5 or newer. Go to Security > Dashcam Viewer in the Tesla mobile app.
How to: Distinguish between Dashcam and Sentry Mode footage?
Dashcam records while driving, while Sentry Mode activates when the car is parked and detects a perceived threat. Both save footage to your USB drive, typically in separate subfolders within the TeslaCam directory (e.g., RecentClips for Dashcam, SentryClips for Sentry Mode).
How to: Recover lost or deleted Tesla Dashcam footage?
Tip: The middle often holds the main point.
If footage is accidentally deleted or the drive is corrupted, data recovery software like Disk Drill or EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard may be able to retrieve the files from the USB drive when connected to a computer.
How to: Know if my Tesla Dashcam is recording?
The Dashcam icon on your Tesla's touchscreen will show "RECORDING" (with a red dot) when it's actively capturing footage.
How to: Troubleshoot a "USB drive too slow" error?
This error usually means your USB drive cannot keep up with the data write speed required by the Dashcam. Replace it with a higher-performance, high-endurance USB drive or SSD.
How to: Turn off Tesla Dashcam?
Go to Controls > Safety > Dashcam and toggle the setting to "Off."
How to: Combine multiple Dashcam video files into one?
Since Tesla records separate files for each camera and each minute, you can use third-party tools like tesla_dashcam (available on GitHub) to combine these individual MP4 files into a single video with various layout options.
How to: Ensure privacy with Tesla Dashcam?
Tesla states that video recordings are saved locally to your formatted USB flash drive and are not sent to Tesla, protecting your privacy.
For a visual guide on viewing Sentry Mode and Dashcam footage through the Tesla App, check out this video:
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