Failing to record-Missing footage.

[mms1361]

Went fishing today. Just like i did about a week ago. A week ago i also had mysterious missing footage. Since i didnt remember if i had messed with the lock file function i let it go. I figured maybe the graded bumpy road may have had something to do with it and was generally unsure so i didnt make a thread.

Today i made absolutely sure not to mess with the lock file button. The camera was supposed to be recording all on its own.

Started this morning CAR ON sequence at 11:00am
Car recorded normal driving @2min intervals up until 11:24am
At 11:24am the car stops recording mid drive with only a 19 second clip.
Camera doesnt resume recording until 11:54am (next car on/ignition on sequence)




From 11:54am CAR ON sequence above the car resumes recording normally
12:19pm the same thing happens, camera cuts off with a 9 second clip
Camera resumes recording at 4:21 (next key on/ignition on)


From there on I do some short drives around back and forth and ultimately park the car.
I leave at 7:58pm (car on/ignition on)
This clip only lasts 1min and 50 secs and doesnt record the nearly 2 hour drive home after that.
One I park the car it resumes recording at 9:29pm (PARKING MODE)
Even though it was a graded bumpy road none of the files were locked to the g sensor.
I dont have any RO files relevant to todays date.
I dont think vibration has anything to do with anyway as the camera was cutting off prior to arriving to the graded road.


Something i noted is that the the files that abruptly stop recording have different file times than the timestamp on video. All the other files have matching timestamps (within 2minutes accuracy).

 

[CaptureYourAction]

What memory card are you using? Brand and model Card?

How are you powering the camera?

What firmware are you on?

 

[Kremmen]

The continual break in files - have you got stop / start ?

 

[DAP]

Do you have a hardwire kit installed? If not, is parking mode enabled? If you do not have a hardwire kit, make sure the parking mode toggle in the menu is turned off. I ran into this problem, and lost a recording of a motorcycle accident because of it.

 

[mms1361]

What memory card are you using? Brand and model Card?

How are you powering the camera?

What firmware are you on?

Samsung (MB-ME128GA/AM) 128GB 100 MB/s (u3) MicroSDXC EVO Select
Powered through viofos 3 way kit set for 12.4v
FW 2.4

Do you have a hardwire kit installed? If not, is parking mode enabled? If you do not have a hardwire kit, make sure the parking mode toggle in the menu is turned off. I ran into this problem, and lost a recording of a motorcycle accident because of it.

I do have the hardwire kit installed and parking mode is enabled. It also worries me that the camera might fail me at an accident when i need it the most. I assumed that the camera was supposed to do the job its designed to do but its not doing it. If it wasnt for my curiosity and me having to audit it then I would have never found this out. Who knows how long this has been going on as I dont regularly audit the cameras content because I "trusted" it.

The continual break in files - have you got stop / start ?

No its a normal key on ignition car. No stop/start feature. Its not even a push button start.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

When was the last time you formatted the card in the camera?

Make sure Motion Detection is off.

 

[mms1361]

When i updated the FW to 2.4 July 2021.
I have parking mode set to low bitrate continous.

 

[DT MI]

as I dont regularly audit the cameras content because I "trusted" it.

Trust, but verify. Any component of the system can fail at any time (memory card the most likely as they have a finite life span) so periodic verification of proper function is critical.

 

[mms1361]

Unfortunately the only way to do so is to regularly remove the card and view it on computer. Not exactly a quick process.
The app and wifi mode is slow and unresponsive. It cant even play a 2 minute video clip without buffering 10 seconds for every 15 seconds of footage.

A dash cam is something that should be reliable, set and forget, not something I should have to be constantly checking up on. As far as im aware it notifies you via beeps when it is failing to record footage yet no beeps were heard.

 

[DT MI]

Unfortunately the only way to do so is to regularly remove the card and view it on computer. Not exactly a quick process.
The app and wifi mode is slow and unresponsive. It cant even play a 2 minute video clip without buffering 10 seconds for every 15 seconds of footage.

A dash cam is something that should be reliable, set and forget, not something I should have to be constantly checking up on. As far as im aware it notifies you via beeps when it is failing to record footage yet no beeps were heard.

In a perfect world I would agree with you, but it's not a perfect world. The reality is any number of failures could happen making any notification impossible. The memory card could fail but still tell the camera that recording was successful, the camera itself could fail with a secondary effect being notification couldn't happen, the power supply could fail meaning nothing at all would happen just to name a few scenarios.

Not lecturing by any means, but while 'set and forget' is pretty much what everyone would like the reality is that's not what the reality is. Like it or not, convenient or not, periodically removing the card and checking is the reality if you want to insure everything is working as it should.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

When i updated the FW to 2.4 July 2021.
I have parking mode set to low bitrate continous.

Reformat and test.

When you updated in July, did you manually default the cameras settings, then press and hold the hard reset button on the side of the camera for about 5 seconds? Do so if you did not. This should be done anytime you change firmware.

 

[mms1361]

I am going to disagree. Although failures can happen they shouldnt be happening under normal circumstances. The reality is everyone that buys a dashcam is buying it to ensure they have a reliable device that can be called upon as a witness when needed.

Periodically checking the device to ensure everything is working as it should is good habit but it most certainly shouldnt be a required one. If i have to be constantly checking up on it to ensure that its doing its job then that means its unreliable. An unreliable dash camera is as good as trash. My phone is reliable. I can depend on it to function the way it is designed to 99% of the time. I dont have to constantly check on it to make sure its working.

 

[mms1361]

Reformat and test.

When you updated in July, did you manually default the cameras settings, then press and hold the hard reset button on the side of the camera for about 5 seconds? Do so if you did not. This should be done anytime you change firmware.

I updated, formatted the card in camera, defaulted settings then re-applied my own settings like i do all the time. This is the first time in 5 or so years of owning viofo cameras that i am hearing that the camera needs to be hard reset after a FW update.

I am going to do this along with several other tests and report back

 

[DT MI]

...If i have to be constantly checking up on it to ensure that its doing its job then that means its unreliable. An unreliable dash camera is as good as trash....

Well, all I can say in response to that is get rid of your dash cam because it's trash - as is every other dash cam on the market, if for no other reason than the potential for memory card failure which is almost assured if you record long enough given their finite life span.

 

[mms1361]

Well, all I can say in response to that is get rid of your dash cam because it's trash - as is every other dash cam on the market, if for no other reason than the potential for memory card failure which is almost assured if you record long enough given their finite life span.

The problem I have is that everyone in the forums always gravitates any issues with the camera as being attributed to the wrong brand, "bad sd cards". If it has an sd card slot the camera should accept and work with ALL sd cards as it is a universal standard. If the device is not going to work with ALL sd cards then viofo should add their own onboard memory.

Whenever a problem arises with these cameras almost everyone is given a universal response; try a different card and reset the camera. Although generally doing so will resolve most problems, this "solution" only seems to be a temporary one. Any device should not need to be continuously reset and reformatted, that is not normal.

The current card was tested on H2testw and shows zero errors. None of the files were corrupted on the card. This information suggests that there is nothing inherently wrong with the SD card.

 

[Kremmen]

One of the latest pieces of advice we are seeing here is to perform an indoor test using something like a mobile phone charging adapter.

We are starting to see errors that are being attributed to modern car electrics. Be it stop / start or ECU or CANBUS protection..

This way, if the dashcam produces error free clips, including the last one when you unplug then the dashcam / sdcard is fine and a vehicle rewire is needed.

 

[mms1361]

One of the latest pieces of advice we are seeing here is to perform an indoor test using something like a mobile phone charging adapter.

We are starting to see errors that are being attributed to modern car electrics. Be it stop / start or ECU or CANBUS protection..

This way, if the dashcam produces error free clips, including the last one when you unplug then the dashcam / sdcard is fine and a vehicle rewire is needed.

Looks like im going to have to spend an hour removing the VIOFO camera system from my car to bench test it as the camera cables are routed through various trim panels. Because if i dont remove the rear camera then im only testing half the system. Seems perfectly reasonable

 

[mms1361]

Prior to hard reset
I reformatted the sd card in windows to fat32
I proceed to mount the card on the dashcam and turn on the vehicle.
With the camera powered on:
-I reformatted the card inside the dashcam
-I reset the cameras default settings
After doing that i did a hard reset using the pin reset button the side of the camera

After performing the hard reset
I turned on the ignition/camera
I reformatted the card inside the camera again
I reset the cameras default settings again.
After the camera rebooted i set my preferences
I turned the ignition off
I waited 2 mins
I turned the ignition back on and proceeded to perform a driving test.


HERE IS WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE TEST
-The camera screensaver did not turn off the screen for 10-15mins drive. I assumed the camera wasnt recording because ive had other instances of the screen staying on when using wifimode/app on earlier FW and the camera freezing with the screen on. To my surprise the camera was recording the whole drive when i reviewed it at home. For some reason or other to which i cant explain, the screen stayed on past its alloted 3 minute setting.

MOVING ON TO REVIEW THE FOOTAGE
After i got home i parked the car and turned the igntion off
It didnt seem reasonable for me to remove the SD card while the car was in parking mode so I unplugged the power connectors then removed the SD card after 5 or 10 secs

REVIEWING FOOTAGE
Plugged the sd card into my computer and it says theres an error with the drive
Select Scan and fix recommended option
Review files
ALL front camera files are 855mb (2min loop) and there isnt footage missing
Immediately notice that files dont appear in correct numerical order
Files in BLUE are my departure recording 00:30am
File in GREEN is my last arrival recording of 01:27am which should be appearing first as its the most recent file(timestamp)


The reason the blue files are showing up first is because it shows a (date modified) file time of 07:45am when in fact the timestamp on the recording is showing a time of 00:45am

 

[DAP]

I reported the file time and date stamp error previously and got push back because people thought having the date in the filename itself was sufficient. I don't agree.
The fact that you got an error on the drive when you plugged it into your computer makes me suspicious of your memory card, it may also just be Microsoft trying to spread FUD about Linux as I have found it will often claim it needs to "fix" drives that have been written to by a Linux system.
Don't discount peoples comments about the quality of uSD cards. FLASH memory by its very nature will wear out. Each cell can only be written a fixed number of times. The more times it has been written, the longer it takes to write that cell. Eventually the card will become too slow to keep up with the video the dashcam is writing to it. I have had this happen on my Tesla with a thumb drive. This will cause missing video. Most cameras don't do anything to warn you that this is happening. Some cheap memory cards can wear out very fast.
All dash cams will eventually fail in some way. Usually it is the memory card that goes, but I have had one that had an internal battery fail, and another, a Viofo A119 v2, that would arbitrarily silently stop recording.
A dashcam is much like a backup system for a computer. You must check it on a regular bases to ensure it is working. I remember in the 80s where regular backups were being done to a Bernoulli drive. Someone allowed their spouse to use the office computer. They went to format a floppy, and managed to format C:. We had about 5 backup disks, and every single one of them was completely corrupt. If you don't test your safety systems, you have no idea if they will work when needed.
If you look at my signature, you will se that I have three completely independent camera systems in my car. Each one occasionally malfunctions, but triple redundancy means that it is unlikely they will all fail at once.

 

[mms1361]

It does that somewhat frequent with cards i put in my computer. When i click the repair function it says it finds 0 errors.

.
If i power the camera down rather than unplug it to remove the sd card this "error" doesnt seem to occur.

In an ideal world i would check this on a regular basis but this camera is less than ideal to be checking. As i mentioned before, reviewing stuff within the viofo app is cumbersome and slow. The wifi feature of this cam is at best comical. In order to review whether or not this camera is doing its job im going to have to regularly remove the sd card. That in itself is going to cause physical wear on both the pins of the camera and the pins of the sd card.

Say i do go out and spend another $30-40 on another SD card. I put it in and two weeks later the same thing happens. What then?
Am i going to be told the same thing? Except now that i purchased X brand instead of Y brand i would be told its probably because its an X brand card? Would i need to retest with 3 new SD cards? Whos going to refund me if the SD cards arent the problem? At what point can I blame the camera?

Being logical here, i dont think 99%+ of the people purchasing dashcams go into an agreement that they will need to regularly audit the camera for redundancy. If they printed that on the box none of them would sell.