Let’s say you use outdoor cameras to keep an eye on your vehicles. Since you don’t use one of your vehicles often, however, it takes you a few days to realize that someone stole the valuables you left in that car.
Your cameras likely captured the theft, but can you still access the footage? How long does your system store video from your security feeds?
Key Takeaways
- Where you store your footage and how much storage space you have affects how long you can save security videos
- Depending on the size of your files and amount of storage, your cameras will likely save footage between one and thirty days
- Your cameras will delete the old footage to make room for new videos
Where is the footage stored?
How your security cameras store the footage they capture will determine how long you can access it.
If you are using a wired system that connects to a digital video recorder (DVR) or network video recorder (NVR), you will likely store video on a physical hard drive. You can also use an NVR to store footage on the cloud.
Wireless cameras typically use cloud storage. If you want to keep your footage off the internet or avoid paying for cloud storage, you can also choose a camera that stores recordings on an SD card.
No matter which storage device you use, you will also need to factor in the quality of your video and how much storage space you want to pay for. The higher your video quality, the more space it will require in storage and the faster it will reach your limit.
How long do security cameras keep footage?
Depending on your storage options, your system will likely save between one to thirty days of security footage.
As mentioned, you can save more low-quality videos than high-quality ones because they require less storage space. The more memory space you have, the more days of video you can store.
You need good video quality to get helpful information, such as a clear shot of a thief’s face and license plate, so don’t degrade your video to save more of it. Instead, work with a security expert to understand how much storage you need for the amount of video you want to save.
Do home security cameras delete footage?
Once your storage device reaches capacity, it will have to delete old videos to make room for new footage. Most devices will do this automatically. They will continuously erase the oldest footage and replace it with new videos to make sure you can access the most recent events.
If you use a cloud storage option with unlimited space, you may be able to keep your security footage indefinitely. You might also have the option to choose how long your videos are stored. After the set amount of time, your cloud drive will automatically delete the old content.
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