Blue Iris 4 - Clips and Archiving question

scootch

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Hi everyone,
Question on archiving.
In settings, on the clips and archiving tab, in the folders section, I have the "New" selected, and I have configured the "limit clip age" to 1 day, and then I have "move to folder" with Stored selected. The "stored" path (not UNC, mapped drive) is to a network location, with the check box selected for "do not monitor free space".

Blue Iris has many files in the New folder location most of which are more then a day old. I was hoping by the configuration listed above that the files older then a day would be moved to the Stored location.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can resolved this?
Thanks
Tony
 

gth

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I was also curious about this area.

I had the intention of a waterfall style archiving, with each folder containing a week's worth of recordings. Not sure to set each dropdown to 7 days, or set them to 7, 14, 21, 28, etc, respectively.

To ask the same question in one long run on sentence -

Is the "days to keep" setting specific to each folder's setting (i.e. the file will only live in that folder for the duration specified, then it will be actioned, and the stopwatch reset for the next folder's setting), or is it continually and consistently based on the file's original date of recording (e.g. setting every folder to '7 days' would shoot it right through to deletion, once it reaches 8 days after the recording was made) ?

PS: To get even more pedantic, are calculations made from date recording starts or finishes, given plenty of them span the midnight date change ..?

PPS: Just noticed this was in the 'mobile apps' section - apologies, as my question was actually about the main windows application (I didn't even know the mobile app had archiving?)
 
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fenderman

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With respect to the original question, there may be files older than 1 day in the folder if you have set a long combine and cut time...however the file should not be there one day after the clip is closed.
@gth, each folder is handled independently...so the counter will begin again in the next folder...that said i dont see the benefit of this setup...say you cascade the files through 5 folders at 3 days each, why not keep it in the stored folder for 15 days and call it a day....moving all these files around taxes the pc.....is there a specific benefit that you gain by using this setup?
 

gth

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I have many, many files. :) I'd be the first to admit I have not got alerts/motion/triggering etc. settings configured 100% right, let alone nicely tuned to reduce all the noise. However for now as well as in the future, my preference is to jump to the date of interest quickly and navigate the relevant footage easily. The last folder would ideally just become a stockpile of "old footage", which I'll probably prune with a rather large time limit, using tools already present on my NAS.

PS: "moving" a file [within the same filesystem] shouldn't be taxing on any CPU (the server or the NAS). I would have thought it'd be a minor change to an index, in essence.
 

fenderman

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I have many, many files. :) I'd be the first to admit I have not got alerts/motion/triggering etc. settings configured 100% right, let alone nicely tuned to reduce all the noise. However for now as well as in the future, my preference is to jump to the date of interest quickly and navigate the relevant footage easily. The last folder would ideally just become a stockpile of "old footage", which I'll probably prune with a rather large time limit, using tools already present on my NAS.

PS: "moving" a file [within the same filesystem] shouldn't be taxing on any CPU (the server or the NAS). I would have thought it'd be a minor change to an index, in essence.
The beauty of blue iris is that it does all the sorting for you...either using the clips list or if using BI4 the timeline....viewing clips in folders seems like a waste of time...there tools are much more efficient than manually sorting within a folder.
 

gth

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Maybe V4 is better (still awaiting correct licence key from my January purchase), but V3 is a PITA for my newbie self. Simple example: +30 seconds button is the same button used to jump to the next alert*... but, it loops to the beginning again if you don't press it at the right time? I know I'm still learning, but for now it's easier for me to look for specific filenaming convention and search within a folder. Haven't found an easy way within BI to look at one camera, navigate through alerts/triggers etc., then playback various cameras from the one incident once I have identified the correct time. I haven't had to do any serious footage searching yet, touch wood, but the for now, the storage pattern I have used means I can get what I need quickly and work through the files myself.

* - Borderline "random" UI functionality isn't very good design, IMHO - this should have been a separate button.
 

fenderman

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Maybe V4 is better (still awaiting correct licence key from my January purchase), but V3 is a PITA for my newbie self. Simple example: +30 seconds button is the same button used to jump to the next alert*... but, it loops to the beginning again if you don't press it at the right time? I know I'm still learning, but for now it's easier for me to look for specific filenaming convention and search within a folder. Haven't found an easy way within BI to look at one camera, navigate through alerts/triggers etc., then playback various cameras from the one incident once I have identified the correct time. I haven't had to do any serious footage searching yet, touch wood, but the for now, the storage pattern I have used means I can get what I need quickly and work through the files myself.

* - Borderline "random" UI functionality isn't very good design, IMHO - this should have been a separate button.
In blue iris options >other you can set the action you want to occur when the clip is done playing...loop, stop, next clip.
In bi3, in the clips list you can select show selected camera only..this will show clips from the camera you select from the main live view panel (you can then choose to view alert/new/stored etc)...you can choose the date and time in the calendar...once you find the even you can then unclick "selected camera only" and view all the clips...in your setup you have the same issue with all the camera clips bunched together... its the same as looking at the clips window...except that the clip window allows you to quickly navigate to specific dates and sort cameras...
In BI4 the timeline makes all this much easier as you not only visually see all the recording events and alert triggers but if you set the cameras to distinct event colors (camera properties>general) each camera will be represented by a different color on the timeline..in BI4 you also have the ability to play back multiple cameras at once - synchronized playback...

In BI4 there is a separate button to go to the next alert.. in BI3 the button was not random...if there are less than 30 seconds left on the clip you are watching it goes to the next clip..
 

scootch

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so I now have files in this folder that are weeks old, how do I troubleshoot why files are not being moved to the storage folder
Thanks for the help
 

fenderman

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so I now have files in this folder that are weeks old, how do I troubleshoot why files are not being moved to the storage folder
Thanks for the help
post a screenshot of your settings...is there room in the storage folder?
 

fenderman

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@scootch First make sure that the path is correct...
I notice that in the stored folder settings you have it set to "move to folder-stored" which means it will be moved to the same folder...is the folder full? if so that would explain why nothing is being moved there...set it to delete...
 
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scootch

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Yes path is correct. I don't want the files deleted out of the stored folder, so before I make the setting change on Stored to delete I just want to make sure it doesn't delete the files in that location. If it does, how do I set the setting to moved to the stored folder and keep the files indefinitely (or a very long time :D)
Thank you for the help.

Is this how I should set it?
 

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fenderman

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if you have the room yes you set it to a larger size...but you need to eventually delete it if not it will fill up and you will have this problem again...
 

scootch

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so I made the change, how soon before BI moves the files? Is this something I need to trigger?
 

scootch

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nothing has moved yet, and I have files in the New folder going back to 2-15-2015
 

fenderman

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nothing has moved yet, and I have files in the New folder going back to 2-15-2015
Make sure that the files you are recording are not being automatically protected...camera properties>record uncheck protect new files...(do this for each camrea)
Regenerate the database as well, right click on the clips list >database
 

scootch

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So the recordings are not being protected, and I did a regenerate of the database. No files moved to the storage file location
 

fenderman

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So the recordings are not being protected, and I did a regenerate of the database. No files moved to the storage file location
Have you tested to see if new clips move over after a day? I would also test sending the files to a local drive to ensure its not a problem with trying to send it to nas..
Does the blue iris log show any attempt to move the files?
 
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