Configuring Alerts Folder Settings?

tygger

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Not sure what happened, but all of my alerts disappeared. I don't recall making any changes. Even for current alerts, I get the notifications via text and BI app, but when I try to access the clip, it's not there.

As I trigger the motion alert, I see the image of the alert pop up in the alert list, but it just disappears. I have my database and alerts folder stored on the Operating System SSD and the recordings stored on a 3TB HDD. The SSD has over 80GB spare and the HDD has over 1TB to spare.

For the Alert folder setting,I had "Limit clip age" set to 7 days and delete was selected. I assumed this would only delete clips older than 7 days. Is this not true?

On the bottom bar where it says "Blue Iris options, configuration, user preferences," it says this: "Clips 3083 files, 1.01T /0.99T.

I just noticed I had my "New" folder set to 1000 GB limit. Would this affect the Alerts folder? I just increased this folder to 2000 GB. Will let it run for a bit and check back later. May have fixed the issue, but still don't understand why the historical alert clips disappeared.

Sorry for the rant. Kinda working through this issue as I type. Thanks.
 

fenderman

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The alert itself is not a clip, its simply a pointer to a point in the video...unless you select store hi res alert image (which is not needed) then you wont see any alert image saved.
 

tygger

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I'm reading through the help files, but I still have some questions.

1. Do you know why the pointers were all deleted when the "new" folder reached its set limit size? The help file indicates that alerts are images that act as a bookmark in a video clip. So I'm not sure why the images that were within the "Limit clip age" limit were deleted.

2. If folder reaches either a set limit size or limit number of days, how does it handle the files if I have it set to delete.

For instance, if its set to to a size limit, will it begin deleting JUST the oldest files first or the entire contents of the folder? (similar to question 1)

If it's set to a 7 day limit,will it only delete those files that are 8 days old?

3. The clips that appear in the CLIPS viewer come from New folder. Once clips have been moved to the Stored folder, it's not suppose to show up in the CLIPS viewer, correct?

4. Once a clip has been moved to the Stored folder, does the limit clip age count from the original clip creation date or date from which it was moved into the Stored folder?

5. Help file says when compact/repair is running, all camera recordings will be suspended, however, I still see recordings during that time. Is this right?

Thanks
 

fenderman

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1) even though the alert folder is empty try setting it to 30 days and see if that helps.
2) It will only delete the oldest content.
3) The clips list has a drop down..select all, new, stored, or alerts.
4) I believe original date though this is easy to test
5) if its still recording then its still recording..that portion of the help file was probably never updated..he may have made improvements.
 

tygger

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Confirmed everything you said... except I havent tested if it's set to delete after hitting the max size limit, what will happen? I have it set to 2TB and don't have anywhere to move it at the moment and didnt want to lose the files if it ends up deleting everything.

So you think if its set to a size limit, it will, by default, start deleting only the oldest content first and not the entire content of the folder?
 

fenderman

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Confirmed everything you said... except I havent tested if it's set to delete after hitting the max size limit, what will happen? I have it set to 2TB and don't have anywhere to move it at the moment and didnt want to lose the files if it ends up deleting everything.

So you think if its set to a size limit, it will, by default, start deleting only the oldest content first and not the entire content of the folder?
yes it will only delete the oldest content.
 

tygger

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Then I wonder why all of my alerts disappeared when the New folder hit max capacity. I don't recall what the settings were... and I'm still learning the details, so I probably had a setting configured wrong. When it happened, alerts stopped recording. Any how, I have a much better understanding now and will keep an eye out for how this behaves. The configurability of BI is pretty amazing. It just takes some time and trial/error to get things right. Glad we have a resident expert here.
 
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