Do keep in mind that the alerts folder does hold on to the thumbnail pointers for the alerts, you just don't see them in the alerts folder (hidden files), so do give it at least 1GB.
This is not quite right... The
alert thumbnail images (sometimes called ‘postage stamps’ in the Help PDF, see the screenshot below)
are stored inside the database clips.dat file... A peak inside of the C:\
BlueIris\db\ folder reveals that this is relatively large file. The reason why is that it can contain thousands of these images.
BTW, the database thumbnail images can be user-accessed via the
\thumbs\{filename} or
\thumbs\{@record} HTTP interface command. If you want to try this, an easy way to get and use an alert's
@record is to ctrl-right-click the alert in the Window app clips list (the
@record is loaded to the Windows clipboard, ready to paste as needed, more
here).
This also explains why you lose all the alert thumbnails when you do a Database Delete & Regenerate action. The
sole exception are protected alerts that ALSO have a hi-res JPG files, or AI mark-up image. More
here.
As suggested, there is a
good reason to allocate the Alerts folder at least 1 GB - even if you are not intentionally saving hi-res JPGs, or AI mark-up images. The reason is that
in the absence of an internationally saved JPG file, Blue Iris uses this folder to save a temporary JPG file when an action uses the
&ALERT_PATH macro. This is how actions using the macro still work - like those we use to send Pushover notifications - with the lack of an intentionally saved JPG file. More info
here,
here, and
here.
For obvious reasons, I’ve not tested how Blue Iris handles the
&ALERT_PATH macro in actions if you've allocated 0 GB to the Alerts folder. I am guessing it probably forces the allocation of 1 GB to the folder.
Excerpt from the Help PDF...
