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Recording

Recordings can be enabled and are stored at /media/frigate/recordings. The folder structure for the recordings is YYYY-MM-DD/HH/<camera_name>/MM.SS.mp4 in UTC time. These recordings are written directly from your camera stream without re-encoding. Each camera supports a configurable retention policy. Frigate chooses the largest matching retention value between the recording retention and the tracked object retention when determining if a recording should be removed.

New recording segments are written from the camera stream to cache, they are only moved to disk if they match the setup recording retention policy.

H265 recordings can be viewed in Chrome 108+, Edge and Safari only. All other browsers require recordings to be encoded with H264.

Common recording configurations​

Most conservative: Ensure all video is saved​

For users deploying Frigate in environments where it is important to have contiguous video stored even if there was no detectable motion, the following configuration will store all video for 3 days. After 3 days, only video containing motion will be saved for 7 days. After 7 days, only video containing motion and overlapping with alerts or detections will be retained until 30 days have passed.

Navigate to Settings→Global configuration→Recording.

  • Set Enable recording to on
  • Set Continuous retention > Retention days to 3
  • Set Motion retention > Retention days to 7
  • Set Alert retention > Event retention > Retention days to 30
  • Set Alert retention > Event retention > Retention mode to all
  • Set Detection retention > Event retention > Retention days to 30
  • Set Detection retention > Event retention > Retention mode to all

Reduced storage: Only saving video when motion is detected​

To reduce storage requirements, configure recording to only retain video where motion or activity was detected.

Navigate to Settings→Global configuration→Recording.

  • Set Enable recording to on
  • Set Motion retention > Retention days to 3
  • Set Alert retention > Event retention > Retention days to 30
  • Set Alert retention > Event retention > Retention mode to motion
  • Set Detection retention > Event retention > Retention days to 30
  • Set Detection retention > Event retention > Retention mode to motion

Minimum: Alerts only​

If you only want to retain video that occurs during activity caused by tracked object(s), this configuration will discard video unless an alert is ongoing.

Navigate to Settings→Global configuration→Recording.

  • Set Enable recording to on
  • Set Continuous retention > Retention days to 0
  • Set Alert retention > Event retention > Retention days to 30
  • Set Alert retention > Event retention > Retention mode to motion

Pre-capture and Post-capture​

The pre_capture and post_capture settings control how many seconds of video are included before and after an alert or detection. These can be configured independently for alerts and detections, and can be set globally or overridden per camera.

Navigate to Settings→Global configuration→Recording for global defaults, or Settings→Camera configuration→(select camera)→Recording to override for a specific camera.

FieldDescription
Alert retention > Pre-capture secondsSeconds of video to include before an alert event
Alert retention > Post-capture secondsSeconds of video to include after an alert event
Detection retention > Pre-capture secondsSeconds of video to include before a detection event
Detection retention > Post-capture secondsSeconds of video to include after a detection event
  • Default: 5 seconds for both pre and post capture.
  • Pre-capture maximum: 60 seconds.
  • These settings apply per review category (alerts and detections), not per object type.

How pre/post capture interacts with retention mode​

The pre_capture and post_capture values define the time window around a review item, but only recording segments that also match the configured retention mode are actually kept on disk.

  • mode: all — Retains every segment within the capture window, regardless of whether motion was detected.
  • mode: motion (default) — Only retains segments within the capture window that contain motion. This includes segments with active tracked objects, since object motion implies motion. Segments without any motion are discarded even if they fall within the pre/post capture range.
  • mode: active_objects — Only retains segments within the capture window where tracked objects were actively moving. Segments with general motion but no active objects are discarded.

This means that with the default motion mode, you may see less footage than the configured pre/post capture duration if parts of the capture window had no motion.

To guarantee the full pre/post capture duration is always retained:

record:
  enabled: True
  alerts:
    pre_capture: 10
    post_capture: 10
    retain:
      days: 30
      mode: all # retains all segments within the capture window
note

Because recording segments are written in 10 second chunks, pre-capture timing depends on segment boundaries. The actual pre-capture footage may be slightly shorter or longer than the exact configured value.

Where to view pre/post capture footage​

Pre and post capture footage is included in the recording timeline, visible in the History view. Note that pre/post capture settings only affect which recording segments are retained on disk — they do not change the start and end points shown in the UI. The History view will still center on the review item's actual time range, but you can scrub backward and forward through the retained pre/post capture footage on the timeline. The Explore view shows object-specific clips that are trimmed to when the tracked object was actually visible, so pre/post capture time will not be reflected there.

Will Frigate delete old recordings if my storage runs out?​

As of Frigate 0.12 if there is less than an hour left of storage, the oldest 2 hours of recordings will be deleted.

Configuring Recording Retention​

Frigate supports both continuous and tracked object based recordings with separate retention modes and retention periods.

tip

Retention configs support decimals meaning they can be configured to retain 0.5 days, for example.

Continuous and Motion Recording​

The number of days to retain continuous and motion recordings can be configured. By default, continuous recording is disabled.

Navigate to Settings→Global configuration→Recording.

FieldDescription
Enable recordingEnable or disable recording for all cameras
Continuous retention > Retention daysNumber of days to keep continuous recordings
Motion retention > Retention daysNumber of days to keep motion recordings

Continuous recording supports different retention modes which are described below.

Object Recording​

The number of days to retain recordings for review items can be specified for items classified as alerts as well as tracked objects.

Navigate to Settings→Global configuration→Recording.

FieldDescription
Enable recordingEnable or disable recording for all cameras
Alert retention > Event retention > Retention daysNumber of days to keep alert recordings
Detection retention > Event retention > Retention daysNumber of days to keep detection recordings

This configuration will retain recording segments that overlap with alerts and detections for 10 days. Because multiple tracked objects can reference the same recording segments, this avoids storing duplicate footage for overlapping tracked objects and reduces overall storage needs.

Can I have "continuous" recordings, but only at certain times?​

Using Frigate UI, Home Assistant, or MQTT, cameras can be automated to only record in certain situations or at certain times.

How do I export recordings?​

Footage can be exported from Frigate by right-clicking (desktop) or long pressing (mobile) on a review item in the Review pane or by clicking the Export button in the History view. Exported footage is then organized and searchable through the Export view, accessible from the main navigation bar.

Custom export with FFmpeg arguments​

For advanced use cases, the custom export HTTP API lets you pass custom FFmpeg arguments when exporting a recording:

POST /export/custom/{camera_name}/start/{start_time}/end/{end_time}

The request body accepts ffmpeg_input_args and ffmpeg_output_args to control encoding, frame rate, filters, and other FFmpeg options. If neither is provided, Frigate defaults to time-lapse output settings (25x speed, 30 FPS).

The following example exports a time-lapse at 60x speed with 25 FPS:

{
  "name": "Front Door Time-lapse",
  "ffmpeg_output_args": "-vf setpts=PTS/60 -r 25"
}

CPU fallback​

If hardware acceleration is configured and the export fails (e.g., the GPU is unavailable), set cpu_fallback: true in the request body to automatically retry using software encoding.

{
  "name": "My Export",
  "ffmpeg_output_args": "-c:v libx264 -crf 23",
  "cpu_fallback": true
}
note

Non-admin users are restricted from using FFmpeg arguments that can access the filesystem (e.g., -filter_complex, file paths, and protocol references). Admin users have full control over FFmpeg arguments.

tip

When hwaccel_args is configured, hardware encoding is used for exports. This can be overridden per camera (e.g., when camera resolution exceeds hardware encoder limits) by setting a camera-level hwaccel_args. Using an unrecognized value or empty string falls back to software encoding (libx264).

tip

To reduce output file size, add the FFmpeg parameter -qp n to ffmpeg_output_args (where n is the quantization parameter). Adjust the value to balance quality and file size for your scenario.

Apple Compatibility with H.265 Streams​

Apple devices running the Safari browser may fail to playback h.265 recordings. The apple compatibility option should be used to ensure seamless playback on Apple devices.

Syncing Media Files With Disk​

Media files (event snapshots, event thumbnails, review thumbnails, previews, exports, and recordings) can become orphaned when database entries are deleted but the corresponding files remain on disk.

Normal operation may leave small numbers of orphaned files until Frigate's scheduled cleanup, but crashes, configuration changes, or upgrades may cause more orphaned files that Frigate does not clean up. This feature checks the file system for media files and removes any that are not referenced in the database.

The Maintenance pane in the Frigate UI or an API endpoint POST /api/media/sync can be used to trigger a media sync. When using the API, a job ID is returned and the operation continues on the server. Status can be checked with the /api/media/sync/status/{job_id} endpoint.

Setting verbose: true writes a detailed report of every orphaned file and database entry to /config/media_sync/<job_id>.txt. For recordings, the report separates orphaned database entries (DB records whose files are missing from disk) from orphaned files (files on disk with no corresponding database record).

warning

This operation uses considerable CPU resources and includes a safety threshold that aborts if more than 50% of files would be deleted. Only run when necessary. If you set force: true the safety threshold will be bypassed; do not use force unless you are certain the deletions are intended.