Lost Clips
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Uncdude33 - Posts: 1
- Joined: Sun Jul 12, 2015 6:59 am
Lost Clips
New to the program and renamed a few of the video clips to make them easier to find and after a short period they disappear from their external folder and show up as unavailable clips in the sighthound app itself. Have these clips moved, or are they gone? Is there any way to recover these clips? Thanks for any help.
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Semper Vaporo - Posts: 331
- Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2010 11:51 am
Re: Lost Clips
I am 99.99% sure they are gone. There is a very, VERY slight chance that a file recovery type utility might be able to recover the files. If SightHound (or any other program) has been writing to the disk since their deletion, then the area on the platters has been overwritten and nothing can recover them (the CIA, MI5 and NCSI notwithstanding).
It is my understanding that SightHound will delete any files in the "Archive" folder that it doesn't know about, so when you renamed the files, they became "unknown" and were deleted to make room for more files.
If you want to keep a video clip, use the EXPORT function of SightHound to store them somewhere other than in the purview of SightHound... a different folder on the HDD or an external drive or memory stick, etc.
This is one of those "shoot yourself in the foot" by messin' where you ain't s'posed to be messin'. I do this sort of thing regularly and often used to wing myself. I have learned to not do some things and one of those is to not rename files (nor store additional files) in the folders that SightHound is controlling.
You can copy files out of the SightHound folders if you want, but it is better to EXPORT only the desired clips using the SightHound feature for that purpose. The only reason to copy a whole file would be if you need a long clip of a scene where there is either no motion or it is so slight as to be ignored by SightHound. Otherwise, use the Search mode of SightHound and select the clip of interest and either right-click on the entry in the list on the left or on the big view of the scene and select "Export" from the context menu that appears. There is also an entry in the TOOLS menu to do so. Follow the dialog box instructions to save the clip elsewhere (an external drive/memory stick/CD etc. or a different folder on the HDD).
You can also save (2 minutes at a time) video that is between "motion detected" clips. Select a clip before or after the time you want to save or click in the timeline below the main scene view and play to the point of interest then pause the video and right click the display and select "Export". It will Export a 2 minute clip of the scene, centered around the time of the clip presently being displayed. This only works if the "non-motion" data is still available... remember, non-motion video is deleted after the time specified in:
"TOOLS / Options... | Storage (tab)| Temporarily save all video for up to: xx Hours"
(Default is 48 hours, I think).
You can delete files from the SightHound folders and SightHound will recover gracefully (not blow up or die) when it cannot find a file it thinks should be there; it just updates its databases and proceeds with what it can find. The only reason to do this is if there is A LOT of video saved in the folder that you really, really want to get rid of, otherwise either use the Delete function of SightHound or just wait until storage space runs out and let SightHound delete old data to make room for new.
Otherwise it is best to not mess with any files in the SightHound folders. If you can accept the consequences of doing so, then it is your gun and your foot...
It is my understanding that SightHound will delete any files in the "Archive" folder that it doesn't know about, so when you renamed the files, they became "unknown" and were deleted to make room for more files.
If you want to keep a video clip, use the EXPORT function of SightHound to store them somewhere other than in the purview of SightHound... a different folder on the HDD or an external drive or memory stick, etc.
This is one of those "shoot yourself in the foot" by messin' where you ain't s'posed to be messin'. I do this sort of thing regularly and often used to wing myself. I have learned to not do some things and one of those is to not rename files (nor store additional files) in the folders that SightHound is controlling.
You can copy files out of the SightHound folders if you want, but it is better to EXPORT only the desired clips using the SightHound feature for that purpose. The only reason to copy a whole file would be if you need a long clip of a scene where there is either no motion or it is so slight as to be ignored by SightHound. Otherwise, use the Search mode of SightHound and select the clip of interest and either right-click on the entry in the list on the left or on the big view of the scene and select "Export" from the context menu that appears. There is also an entry in the TOOLS menu to do so. Follow the dialog box instructions to save the clip elsewhere (an external drive/memory stick/CD etc. or a different folder on the HDD).
You can also save (2 minutes at a time) video that is between "motion detected" clips. Select a clip before or after the time you want to save or click in the timeline below the main scene view and play to the point of interest then pause the video and right click the display and select "Export". It will Export a 2 minute clip of the scene, centered around the time of the clip presently being displayed. This only works if the "non-motion" data is still available... remember, non-motion video is deleted after the time specified in:
"TOOLS / Options... | Storage (tab)| Temporarily save all video for up to: xx Hours"
(Default is 48 hours, I think).
You can delete files from the SightHound folders and SightHound will recover gracefully (not blow up or die) when it cannot find a file it thinks should be there; it just updates its databases and proceeds with what it can find. The only reason to do this is if there is A LOT of video saved in the folder that you really, really want to get rid of, otherwise either use the Delete function of SightHound or just wait until storage space runs out and let SightHound delete old data to make room for new.
Otherwise it is best to not mess with any files in the SightHound folders. If you can accept the consequences of doing so, then it is your gun and your foot...
Semper Vaporo,