A119v3 recorded everything except for the night of the accident

waazaaa

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I guess at this point it's just more of a rant, but wtf is going on?

My wife's had the A119v3 for awhile now, and it does its job fine. It records video and I tested it, so no complaints...

Until she got into an accident on a rainy night. We needed the footage to prove that she's not at fault. We tried to access the footage...

11/10 AM and PM, 11/11 AM and PM, day of the accident AM....... where's the PM footage????, 11/13 AM and PM is there fine too

So we realized that THAT PARTICULAR NIGHT was not recorded by Viofo. wtf? How could this happen? It wasn't just the accident itself missing, that night's driving footage was all absent.

Can someone shed light as to how/why it might've happened?
 
Welcome to DCT @waazaaa :)

Have you checked all the file folders including the locked ones? If there is nothing there either then it could be that the cam wasn't on, either through a glitch in powering or by inadvertently pushing a button, maybe when adjusting the mirror? Is she sure the cam was on that night?

It could also be an SD card failing or failed. Which card are you using, and have you regularly checked it and formatted it in the cam? Smaller cards don't last as long, and cards do wear out. Though it's rarely to never mentioned in user manuals, most experienced dashcam users recommend checking some random files on the card, then formatting it in the cam at least every 2-4 months. Somehow this seems to help reliability considerably.

There are some other more isolated issues with the V3 but let's cover these basics first as they're the most common problems.

Phil
 
Hi @waazaaa,

The incident happened on 12 November? Footage the day before and the day after is OK?

If the above is correct then it sounds like the A119 may not have been powered at the time of the incident.

When you start the car, does the cigarette lighter socket power up automatically or is it live all the time so you have to manually switch on the power?

I agree with @SawMaster, the first things to check are:
1. The power
2. The SD card

Although as a thought, pop the SD card into your computer and sort the files by name and then by date just to check that the files really aren't there.

Regards,
 
Yes, also check the file list for anomalies, such as other 'missing' dates/times or those listed when there should have been none. The file system in dashcams functions by date-time or associated file numbers,so that it knows which files to overwrite, and if there is a date-time glitch things like this can happen.

BTW, do you have the GPS mount or the plain one?

Phil
 
@waazaaa I have one question
What changed before that drive?
ok two questions
And what changed again after the accident?
 
I was also having a similar issue in an accident I had with another camera: All recordings were good except the recording where the crash has happened. In my case the g-shock-detection somehow corrupted the video (instead of locking it to prevent overwriting).
 
Cut/Paste the contents of the SD so it looks empty, then check the capacity to see if it is indeed now empty or not.

If it is empty try one of those file recovery programs to see what it can find.
 
Have you checked in the RO folder (Read Only) where all the files where the G Sensor was triggered are moved?

That happened to me for the time I was tailgated and all the times I hit a pothole...
 
G-sensor is more trouble than it's worth IMO. I have parking mode and sensors all off, or low where off isn't an option.

I just record driving and never had a problem and all video is in the same place with no gaps.
 
My hands move towards my hair when i find no OFF option for such things. o_O
And that is no good CUZ some times i have less then 10 mm hair so not much to grab, and when it is long like now ( 20 mm ) there still are not so much of it i can afford pulling it out.
Im going to get a haircut tomorrow.
 
Mine has a habit of not powering up. I noticed the Rec light not on whilst sitting waiting at a junction.
It has happened a few times so I have enabled the system sounds so I can listen out for the squarble to let me know it has started up.

Mine is connected on a GPS mount and powered by a 12v socket so I pull the power lead out and refit it to get it going.

A bit dissapointed to fear I could miss an accident as the OP did by the camera deciding not to start up.
 
I'm still suspicious using the vehicle power socket. If they are anything like mine, it's very deep and some plugs don't reach the bottom properly and cause a make/break.

I have mine wired to a dedicated fusebox pin that only becomes live on IGN position 2 but is a steady power source. That and the 5 second delay have never caused any issues.
 
I used to run RoadHawk dashcams, unfortunately my own experience with them was that they could just stop working for no reason (i.e. the plug would be still in the 12v cigarette lighter socket). I developed a nervous habit to regularly check that the recording and GPS LEDs were working.

With the Viofo A119 V3, I start the engine and wait for the display screen to start and then wait for the GPS icon to show that it's working. This only takes 15 to 20 seconds from starting the engine but it's a useful habit to ensure that the dashcam is working before you start your journey. I still check that the unit is recoding during a journey but the frequency of checking is much less than when I used RoadHawks.
 
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