How to retrieve dash cam footage

Imagine, you are driving and unfortunately confronted with a crazy road accident where another car tries to wrongly overtake you and hits your car causing major damage. You contact the police and share the car description but the police ask you for proof. In such a situation a dashcam recording could be indisputable evidence for the police to take legal action. But what if you check the dash cam SD card and retrieve dash cam footage?

How Can You Recover Lost Videos from a Dash Cam?

Car dash cams or dashboard cameras or car recording cameras like Blackvue New DR650S-2CH and Thinkware f800 pro have become a necessity today with the spurt in the number of road accidents. The video recordings can be very helpful proof to resolve insurance fraud or prove your innocence in an accidental case. But losing such critical video footage can be a distressing experience with all the agony involved in such cases. But before you panic, get relaxed and know that lost videos from dash cams are recoverable.

This post guides you on the best way to recover lost videos from a car video camera. But before that let’s understand how dash cams work to record videos while driving.

How Does Dash Cam Works?

A dash cam is basically a video camera mounted on the dashboard or windscreen of the car. It continuously records the video through the windscreen while you are driving. Usually, it works with the help of a car battery and automatically starts to record videos when the car ignition is turned on. Some dashboard cameras also have Parking Mode that allows them to record visuals when the car ignition is off. The parking mode is helpful in cases of vandalism and hit-and-run accidents when the vehicle is parked.

The video recordings are saved in the memory card. You can transfer the required video footage from the SD card to your computer. The recordings are generally of MP4, MOV, AVI, and M4V, file formats that are played using any compatible video player on your system.

Why do Your DashCam Videos get Lost?

Since the dash cam recordings are continuously saved in SD cards, deletion or corruption of SD cards is very common. There can be many reasons for your lost dash cam videos, some of them are listed below:

• Improper handling of dash cam, like when you try to remove the SD card while the device is recording.
• Continue recording videos at a low battery or when the storage media is running out of space.
• SD cards have a limited lifespan and over a while, they have become corrupted.
• SD card is physically damaged
• You connected the SD card with the system having a virus
• Bad blocks on SD cards caused by exceeding the limit of write/erase cycles
• Incompatible device drivers

How to Recover Lost DashCam Video Footage?

A trusted video recovery software such as Stellar Photo Recovery is the clear-cut solution to the lost video situation. You can also try out some manual fixes to the problem.

Fix – Use a Video Recovery Software

The best way to recover lost video footage from the dash cam of your car is through the professional multimedia recovery software – Stellar Photo Recovery. This quick video recovery method saves your precious time from trying other hit-and-trial manual methods. It efficiently recovers Videos from damaged, corrupt, inaccessible memory cards, mini SD Cards, micro SD cards, SDHC, and SDXC, used in dash cams.

The software supports all the video file formats including MOV, MP4, M4V, 3G2, 3GP, and F4V from all types of dashboard cameras, be it TaoTronics, Goluk T1 FHD Dash Cam, Garmin Dash Cam 35, Old Shark 1080p, KDLINKS DX2, Z-Edge Z3, Falcon F170, or Thinkware F800 Pro, Owl Dashcam, Tesla Dashcam, etc.

Download and run the software, following the simple on-screen instructions. Connect your SD card to the PC. Its intuitive interface allows easy recovery of lost videos from a dash cam in just 3 simple steps:

1. Launch Stellar Photo Recovery Software.
2. Select the location from where you want to recover. Click Scan to start the scanning process
3. A dialog box of ‘Scanning Completed Successfully!’ You can preview them in the right pane.
4. Click Recover. You can also choose to recover only the selective files – select videos that you need, right-click, and click Recover.
5. In the dialog box, specify the location to save the image files. Click Save. All the files get saved at the specified location.

Stellar Photo Recovery is one of the safest applications that you can use without fearing the permanent loss of video footage captured by dash cams.

Watch this video to learn how to recover video footage from DashCam.

Useful Manual Methods to Recover Lost Dash Cam Footage

Manual fixes to recover lost dash cam videos usually work when your computer does not recognize the dash cam SD card. To overcome the issue you can reinstall the driver or assign a new drive letter to the storage media. If the SD card asks for formatting, perform chkdsk to fix any corruption in the card. Remember, these methods do not ensure complete recovery of the lost dash cam videos. It can be only obtained through Stellar Photo Recovery software.

Manual Fix 1: Reinstall the driver

To begin with, connect the SD card of your car dash cam to your computer. Reinstall the driver following the below steps:

• Go to This PC and right-click on it. Click on Manage > Device Manager > Double-click Disk Drives
• Right click on your removable drive (here that of dash cam SD card)
• Click Uninstall > Ok
• Now disconnect your SD card and restart the computer
• Reconnect your SD card, the PC should detect the card now

Manual Fix 2: Assign a new drive letter

Connect the SD card of your car dash cam to your computer.

• Press the Windows+R key to open the Run dialogue box
• Type msc and press Enter
• Under Storage select Disk Management
• Right-click the drive you want to assign a letter, on the right side
• Select Change Drive Letter and Paths
• Click on Change in the dialog box
• Check-in Assign the following drive letter
• Select the drive letter from the drop box
• Click OK. Close Computer Management

Manual Fix 3: Perform Chkdsk

You can apply this fix if errors like ‘SD card is damaged. ‘Try reformatting it’ appears on connecting the dash cam memory card to the computer. To do Chkdsk follow the below steps:

• Go to Windows taskbar, click on Start, and type cmd in the search box
• Right-click cmd and select Run as Administrator
• A command prompt appears, type chkdsk <dash cam SD card drive letter>:/f
• Press Enter

The Chkdsk checks and fixes the corrupt SD card. Now again open your SD card in the system to check if the videos are restored or not. Chkdsk only fixes the minor corruptions in the SD card. For severely corrupt videos, a comprehensive video repair solution is recommended to repair dash cam videos.

Important Tips to Protect Dash Cam Video Recordings after a Car Accident?

• Use the emergency lock feature that protects the recorded videos from overwriting after an accident strikes. Push the lock button to secure the video file and unplug the dash cam. Later transfer the video footage to your PC.
• Before removing the SD card from the device ensure your car is parked and the dash cam is turned off.
• Once you discover the problem in the memory card, immediately stop using it as overwriting would result in a permanent video loss situation.

Dashcam Videos Corrupted! Use Stellar Repair for Video.

Severely corrupt video files fail to repair through any manual methods. For such videos, you require the professional Stellar Repair for Video that easily repairs damaged dash cam videos having header corruptions, sound issues, compression or slider movement problems, etc. The best part of the software is that it saves you from any kind of technical struggle, as all the work is done by its advanced algorithms.

 

Conclusion

Accidents are inevitable even from the best dash cams like Blackvue New DR650S-2CH and Thinkware f800 pro. It is better to manage your car dash cam videos sensibly than repent later. Always transfer the required videos to your computer, delete the ones not usable, and then reuse the SD card for further recordings. Still, if you happen to lose any of your important videos required for the insurance claim or accidental case with police, recover lost videos from the dash cam through trusted Stellar Photo Recovery.

Till then, follow safe driving!

FAQ

1. Why is my dash cam did not record a crash?

Your Dash cam did not record a crash or stopped recording because of following reasons:

• The dash cam is not properly connected to the power source.
• Dash cam’s memory card is full.
• Corrupted, damaged memory card.
• The memory card is not formatted properly, making it incompatible.
• Hardware failure or firmware glitches in the dash cam.

2. Why is my dash cam missing footage?

Your dash cam may be missing footage because of a faulty or low-quality memory card. It can even occur when your memory card is full and has no space to save the dash cam footage.

3. What to do if your dash cam’s rear camera isn’t functioning?

If your dash cam’s rear camera isn’t functioning,

• First, check if the rear camera is properly plugged in and its cable isn’t damaged. 
• Check the settings menu to ensure that the rear camera is enabled.
• Or it could be a hardware issue; contact the dash cam manufacturer for assistance.

4. Is it possible to restore deleted videos from a dash cam’s SD card?

You can use a professional video recovery software such as Stellar Photo Recovery to scan the SD card and recover the deleted dash cam videos.

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About The Author

Nishat Paiker

Nishat Paiker is an expert technical writer and editor with over 8 years of experience. She has deep knowledge about data recovery and loves to explore new technology and DIY tools. Nishat has keen interest in photography. You will often find her giving photography tips and hacks.