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Storage and retention

An administrator configures Settings → Storage & retention. Choose a persistent mounted folder, then Use this folder. The recorder runs as root, so the folder needs no particular owner; what it does need is to still be there after a reboot, which rules out desktop automounts.

New recordings and event images go to the selected location. Existing indexed footage remains playable at its original path and keeps its retention policy. Switching locations briefly restarts camera streams.

USB drives and desktop mounts​

A drive mounted by a desktop login, such as /run/media/<user>/<drive> or /media/<user>/<drive>, appears in Mounted drives and the recorder can write it — but that path is created by the login session, not the system. When the appliance reboots unattended the drive is not mounted there, the recording location is missing, and recording waits until someone signs in. The storage form and the setup wizard warn when a selected path looks like a desktop mount.

Mount it permanently and use it on that warning does the whole conversion for you, and is the recommended route. The recorder:

  • writes a systemd .mount unit that mounts the drive at /mnt/evernvr/<drive label> by filesystem UUID, at every boot;
  • moves the running mount there with mount --move, so nothing is unmounted and a recording already writing to the drive keeps its open files;
  • brings the registered storage locations on the drive with it — the footage and event images already indexed there stay playable at their new path;
  • starts recording in the same folder on the drive;
  • adds a udev rule so desktop sessions stop mounting it: a drive the recorder records to should not be ejectable from a file manager.

If the mount cannot be moved, the desktop copy is unmounted and the unit mounts the drive instead; if it cannot be unmounted either, both mountpoints stay for now and the message says so — the desktop one goes away at the next reboot.

The button appears only when the recorder can do the work itself: it must be running as root and its service must grant the two directories it writes (/etc/systemd/system and /etc/udev/rules.d); otherwise the warning gives the manual instructions below instead. The button needs a filesystem the kernel can mount by name (ext2/3/4, xfs, btrfs, f2fs, exFAT, FAT or NTFS via ntfs3) and a filesystem UUID. A drive mounted through a userspace driver such as NTFS-3G is refused, with the reason. NTFS and FAT drives have no ownership of their own, so the recorder's mount gives them root's (uid=0,gid=0,umask=0077): a desktop user who could read the drive before will not be able to afterwards. To undo a conversion, stop and disable the unit under /etc/systemd/system (mnt-evernvr-*.mount) and delete it along with /etc/udev/rules.d/60-evernvr-<uuid>.rules.

To mount a drive yourself instead — for a partition shared with something else, or a layout the button will not touch — mount it by filesystem UUID at a persistent system path. For a USB disk that is only ever used by this recorder:

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/recordings
sudo blkid /dev/sdX1          # note the UUID and the filesystem type
sudo tee -a /etc/fstab <<'FSTAB'
UUID=<uuid> /mnt/recordings ext4 defaults,nofail,x-systemd.device-timeout=10 0 0
FSTAB
sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo mount /mnt/recordings

Use nofail so a drive that is absent or slow at boot does not hold the boot up. For NTFS or exFAT, replace the filesystem type and note that those have no POSIX ownership of their own: permissions come from the mount options. Then select a folder on the mount, such as /mnt/recordings/evernvr, and verify recording after a reboot.

Two cases still refuse a folder the recorder can see. A read-only mount is reported as such. An NFS export with the default root_squash maps the recorder to nobody: export it with no_root_squash, or add the share as SMB under NAS storage, which mounts with explicit credentials.

Missing and replaced drives​

Registered locations are checked against their mount identity and hidden .evernvr-storage marker. A missing or replaced mount blocks recording there instead of silently writing to the system disk. Do not fabricate a marker to clear an alarm. Restore the expected mount and follow storage recovery.

Retention and recording policy​

Set Keep footage for (days), the disk watermark, and Keep event history for (days). Event history is the list of detections and their images. It can follow footage retention; kept longer, an event can still be found after its recording is gone, and kept shorter, it saves space on a busy site. A camera can override the footage window from its own Recording tab.

Retention runs every five minutes. Remove expired footage now runs the same pass at once. Preserved incident footage is never removed by either.

Full storage​

A volume with less than 100 MB free, or less than half a percent of its size, whichever is larger, counts as full. The recorder stops writing to it rather than opening camera connections for files it cannot write: every camera recording there reads Recording paused: storage full, the problem banner says the same and names the folder and the free space, and a retention pass starts at once instead of waiting for the next scheduled one. Recording resumes by itself as soon as the storage check sees room again, normally within a few seconds of retention freeing it. Footage already on the volume stays playable throughout; a full disk is not a missing one. If a volume fills repeatedly, shorten Keep footage for or add storage; incident holds and a long protected-footage window are the usual causes.

A write that fails for another reason, such as a failing disk, pauses that camera's recording until the storage check has looked at the folder again. If writes keep failing, the camera waits a minute between tries and its tile says so; live view carries on either way.

Deleted files​

The index is rebuilt from the recording folders, so footage deleted outside the recorder — a wiped or reformatted drive, a restore from an older backup, a folder cleaned by hand — is noticed and forgotten within a bounded time: every index pass checks a few hundred indexed files, so a large index is reconciled over a few hours, faster where many files are gone at once. Until a deleted file is forgotten the timeline still draws it and playback reports it missing. Files on storage that is unavailable or not responding are not judged.

A camera's Recording tab chooses what is kept: Everything, Only around detected activity (the minute an object is seen, plus the minute either side), or Anything that moves (as above, and movement the detector could not identify). The last two write far less, but only while the detector is watching — when it is not, footage is kept rather than guessed about. A camera set to Watch only keeps no EverNVR footage at all.

The projected storage duration uses the observed recording rate and available space. It is an estimate, and a warning appears if it falls below the requested retention. Incident holds bypass normal retention and can fill the disk.

NAS storage​

The NAS controls support SMB 3 and NFS 4. The recorder writes the mount units itself; the host only needs cifs-utils and nfs-common, which Settings can install. Connections are saved and reconnect after a reboot. The share needs an empty evernvr folder, or one this recorder used before. For NFS, allow this recorder in the export settings with write access; with root squashing, the mapped NAS account needs write permission. Follow the NAS installation steps before selecting the mounted location for recording.

A share that stops responding is marked unavailable while other locations keep working. Recording resumes when it returns, but the missing interval is not buffered or backfilled. Test network loss, playback, and reboot with the actual NAS; real-hardware NAS qualification is still outstanding.

Remove a location​

Choose Remove… and explicitly select what happens to the recordings and event images there. Removing the active location first switches new recording to the location you choose, which briefly restarts camera streams.

  • Move to another location copies and verifies every file before removing the originals. Playback and search links are preserved; playback from the old location is unavailable while the move runs.
  • Keep files on disk leaves the files in place. Indexed footage stays playable while the folder is reachable, but indexing and retention stop. Enter the same folder again to reconnect it.
  • Permanently delete files deletes everything in the folder. Event history stays, without its footage and images. Release preserved incident footage first.

Wait for the operation to finish. Remove a NAS connection only after removing its recording location; a connection with registered or preserved footage cannot be removed.

Configuration backups include storage settings, not the recordings, host mounts, or NAS credentials. Follow backup and recovery to protect all of them.