Site recording and recovery

A capable Bridge Agent can keep encrypted footage on storage at the Site. Configure it before an outage: footage that was never captured cannot be recovered later. Site recording is optional and depends on the agent's capabilities, available storage and your service. First connect the cameras as described in Bridge Agent.

Check the agent

Open the agent under Cameras > Devices and find Site recording. Read any capability warning before saving. An older agent may accept configuration without being able to record yet, or may record locally without being able to send that footage to Cloud. Update it through the supported agent update process before relying on recovery.

Add storage

1. Under Storage destinations, select Add a destination.
2. In Volume, choose a volume the agent reports and set Quota (GiB). Reserve space for the computer's other work; the quota is an upper limit, not guaranteed free space.
3. On Windows, Or an SMB share allows a share path with Share user and Share password. On Linux, mount the share on the agent's computer so it can be reported as a volume.
4. Select Add destination, then check that it becomes Ready and has available space.

If a destination is full, unavailable or not yet checked, resolve that condition before expecting footage. If the agent reports that another agent owns the storage folder and asks you to remove or rename it, stop and confirm its ownership with the installer. Use a separate destination or contact support. Do not remove existing files just to make the warning disappear.

Choose a recording mode

Select Record on site and choose Mode. The options describe three different policies:

• Keep footage during outages and send it to the cloud afterwards: use local capture to cover a lost connection.
• Record on site and in the cloud: maintain local footage alongside cloud recording.
• Record on site only; the cloud fetches footage when it is needed: available only when the agent supports sending site footage.

Set Keep footage on site (hours), from 1 to 2,160 hours (90 days), then select Save site recording. Each destination's quota still limits retention. In the first two modes, recovery covers the whole outage for continuously recording cameras and the time around alarms for cameras recording on motion. Scheduled cameras do not support site recovery or fetching in this release. Size storage for the chosen policy and verify the resulting coverage.

Fetch footage recorded only on site

In site-only mode, alarm windows are fetched automatically. Requesting other footage needs permission to change that camera; opening playback does not start a request.

1. Under Cameras, select the camera and open Recording > Footage on site.
2. Check the available coverage, then set From and To. Each request covers up to two hours within the last seven days and the camera's retention period.
3. Select Fetch from site and check Requests. Wait for Fetched before looking for the footage in Investigate.
4. If the result is Not fetched, check the agent's connection and reported coverage before requesting the interval again. A request cannot recover footage the agent no longer holds.

In the playback timeline, On site, not fetched marks footage still at the Site; Being fetched from site marks a pending transfer. These are not playable cloud recording yet. Use the camera's request controls above and check the result before relying on the interval.

Check recovery after reconnection

When the connection returns, eligible footage can be recovered for up to the previous seven days, subject to storage allowance and the configured recording policy. Local retention longer than seven days does not promise that all of it will be copied back to Cloud. Allow recovery to finish before treating a missing interval as permanently lost.

1. Check the agent is connected and its destinations are ready.
2. Open the camera in Investigate at the outage period.
3. Look for Recovered from site on the timeline, play the interval and inspect its beginning and end.
4. If evidence is needed for a case, preserve or export the recovered interval using Evidence, exports, and reports.

Bridge offline and restore alarms tell you about connectivity; they do not prove that every camera recorded throughout the interruption. Check actual footage and remaining storage. See Recording, retention, and evidence for Cloud's retention and storage allowance.