What are the files in the Search list and the archive folder

[AlKoch]

Hello,

I see many files in the "archive" folder but I am confused about exactly what they are. I assume that they are both the temporary files as well as the clips stored from Rules. If I delete all of the clips in search list (with a filter of "All objects") I still have three .Mp4 files left in the archive.

I ran a test where I started with nothing in the Search list and started the camera and let in run for 30 seconds. Then I stepped into the frame to trigger a Rule. I stayed in the frame for 5 seconds andt hen turned the camera off. I ended up with one clip. The video player shows this clip is 16 seconds long. The clip starts with about 6 seconds of empty frame and then the rest is of my entry.

I expected two videos to have been recorded: one that was 30 seconds of just the empty room (which I would think is a "tem" clip) and an apprx. 5 second clip that showed me entering the frame. ( I have two Rules - the default and one I created for detecting entry through a door).

To make things even more confusing, after I "permanently" deleted the single clip in the Search list, the archive folder showed two video files. The 1st file showed 30 seconds of empty room and then it showed me enter the frame for about another 5 seconds. That would correspond to what I would expect from the "record everything" temporary clip. The 2nd clip showed 30 seconds of an empty room which doesn't make sense - I though it would be the "saved from a Rule" clip showing me enter the door.

Can someone explain why I'm getting what I got?

Thank you.

[Devin]

Hi AlKoch,

These video files do not correlate 1 to 1 with the clips that you see in the Search View. This is because Sighthound uses a unique file management system which allows you to search all of your video and create new clips from this video without having to duplicate it. Once the temporary video has reached it's expiration time (set in the storage options) Sighthound cuts the video up into the saved clips.

It is recommended to interact with this video through Sighthound and not through the video directory as it is not meant to be interacted with and can interfere with Sighthound.

If you wish to view clips outside of Sighthound you can select the desired clip or clips and select "Export clip(s)" from the tools menu. If you wish to always export clips for a rule you can set the export to local folder option in the rule editor (see https://www.sighthound.com/support/export-local-folder)

Hope that helps,

-Devin

[AlKoch]

Thank Devin - that helps. However, I am still a bit confused. I have deleted (with the permanent option) ALL of the clips in the Search window (with "Any camera" selected) so I expected that I would not see any clips in the storage location I had specified in Tools > Options. But I still see a ton of clips there. Are these the temporary clips you are describing? If so, will they go away within the 48 hours set in Tools > Options?

Also, (as your prompt warns) it takes a really long time to delete the clips from the Search list. It took over 1 1/2 hours to delete 138 clips! You have mentioned in several posts that it is really important to not interact with the clips outside of Sighthound so, if I understand, manually deleting a large number of clips would not be good. But is there some way to delete clips that is faster? I ask, because I have allocated 350GB of storage and if I ever want to reduce that or just clean up all the clips there I expect that would take about 93 years!!! Any way to do this faster?

Thank you.

[ryan]

Hi Al,

You are correct - you only deleted the segments of video contained within the clips you selected. All other video from other rules or from general cache will still exist until the time specified by your "keep all video for" setting.

Permanent delete should only be used when you *need* that actual video file removed from disk immediately. Otherwise you should use quick delete which simply removes the 'saved' tag on the video and removes the associated tracking data so it will no longer appear in searches. The video file itself will later be automatically removed as normal cached video would.

From https://www.sighthound.com/support/search-view

Quick delete. This deletes the category labels associated with the objects, so you will no longer be able to search for the clip or see it in your list of clips. But it does not delete the video. This is convenient if you simply want to clean up your list of clips.​

Permanently delete. This action deletes all of the video displayed in the clip, and therefore takes longer to process (particularly if you have many clips selected). This is useful if you want to make sure that video is not seen again.

I'm not sure what exactly you're trying to do in the archive folder, but as I mentioned in reply to another of your posts I would advise treating Sighthound Video's data folders as a black box. They are not intended to be interacted with through any means other than the application itself.

Best,
- ryan

[AlKoch]

OK Ryan, now I understand. I was using Permanent because that's what I though was required to truly have the file deleted. I didn't realize until reading these posts today that you basically "record all video all the time" (the "temp clips") and when a Rule fires you "extract" a clip from the temp video for the Searches and Exports. So if I want to clean up the whole video storage area I guess I would just have to do the Quick delete and wait till the "Save temp clips for 24 hour" window expires.

Is what I just wrote (mostly) correct?

Thank you.

[ryan]

Hi Al,

Sighthound Video will use up to the amount of disk space specified in the options/preferences. It will first attempt to keep all video for X hours, also specified in options. After that point, assuming that there is space left, it will keep video that was marked to be saved by rules as long as it can, deleting unmarked video. As new video is recorded the oldest saved clips will be deleted as necessary.

More details at: https://www.sighthound.com/support/managing-your-video

Best,
- ryan

[AlKoch]

Thanks Ryan.