A G3 owner reports that 24-hour local recording still has playback problems after several SD-card formats: Local storage playback issues - #4 by 4qfw7qfv4x. When a timeline will not play, it is hard to tell whether the camera failed to write the clip, the card cannot read it back, or the app cannot find it. Could Aqara Home show the last successful local write, card read/write errors, and a non-destructive sample playback or export check? For anyone relying on local recording, what do you verify before treating it as a backup?
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I think SD card local storage is always prone to fail sooner or later. If you’re about backups, then it’s not a very reliable option - but it’s a convenient and easily available option, as you can just buy an SD card with capacity of your liking and it just works.
Just like I said in the original post - professional photographers don’t fully trust SD cards. Additionally, after the shoot is done, most photographers copy the photos to their computers/external drives as soon as possible.
NAS storage is much more reliable - and Aqara cameras support saving the recordings to a NAS drive.
So ideally, if you’re about data persistence - save your recordings to a NAS, with SD card being a fallback when your home network fails.
But I agree that Aqara app should show some statistics about the SD card, so it would help with early detection of local storage problems.
Or maybe an indoor camera with an USB-C port for external storage would be a nice idea? I don’t think I recall seeing this solution, but maybe some people would prefer that option (especially with SD cards being notoriously expensive now)
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When buying a card for video, one should pay attention to these two specs:
- High Endurance: Standard SD cards wear out from constant rewriting. High endurance models use memory built to survive continuous loop recording in dashcams or security cameras.
- Fast enough for Full HD or 4K: High resolution video creates large amounts of data. The card must be fast enough to write this data in real time, otherwise the recording will drop frames or stop.
When it comes to data security, one should use a RAID setup on the NAS to prevent data loss if a hard drive fails. An even safer option is to automatically upload the video data to encrypted cloud storage. If a burglar steals the NAS, the footage remains accessible.
To verify that the video recordings are truly running 24/7, one can write a small script to check if new video files were saved to the corresponding folder within the last hour. With a Synology NAS, this can be easily solved using the Task Scheduler along with a bash script. This will probably be possible in Home Assistant as well or a NAS from another manufacturer. An even simpler method is using the Surveillance Station, where you can just set up notifications for all available cameras.
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If we’re talking about absolute security:
Don’t forget that SD cards can be easily taken out, unlike HDDs in NAS (which may be hidden anywhere). If somebody wants to destroy evidence, they just need to locate the camera and take out the SD card.
But since we’re talking about endurance of local solutions, then I think that offering users a choice of an external drive (instead of an SD card) would be a great feature. Of course, NAS is a much better solution (and you can turn on BitLocker in Windows; new Macs are encypted by default, so you don’t need a specialized NAS for secure storage).
But I think that a casual user doesn’t want, doesn’t have money for or doesn’t know how to setup such storage. Then, I think that best solution is cloud storage for those (as long as your WiFi/internet doesn’t go down, so a local storage as a fallback should be still an option).
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With my G3 camera, taking the card out is not that easy. As long as the lens is pointing forward, the card cannot be reached. And on a G5 Pro, someone would look for the SD card in vain. Besides, I highly doubt a burglar would take the time to remove it anyway. They would probably just wear a mask or simply destroy the camera.
BitLocker is actually enabled by default on newer Windows PCs and laptops. At least, that was the case for me.
I recently saw some very affordable NAS setups at IFA that target exactly these casual users and are designed to be extremely user friendly. In terms of price, a system like this with a 12 TB hard drive costs around 500 Euros. For comparison, renting 12 TB of cloud storage might cost 59.99 Euros a month, which equals 719.88 Euros a year. So while the cloud can be cheaper depending on the storage space needed, this example clearly shows that it is not always the most cost effective option.
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It’s actually fairly easy, if you know how the G3 work, you can just manually turn the lens to “sleeping” position and take the SD card out. But if someone needs to destroy evidence, they will probably just take the whole camera.
You’re forgetting that Apple Home gives you storage for your camera recorgings as part of the iCloud service. So many people have that without additional price - because most iPhone users just have iCloud+, or Apple One and they will just be happy to discover and use that they have included video storage in their plan.
About the NAS - while it’s really easy to set up a NAS, and it’s more affordable long-term, many non-technical people just won’t think so 
It’s the same as with many subscriptions - people just prefer smaller monthly payments than one big one (which will be more affordable long term). Especially when a subscription gives you a complete solution that doesn’t need any technical knowledge from you (and no additional space in your home - many people just don’t want any “ugly looking tech”, I think that’s also the point of cute looking G3).
So the whole point is - it IS actually a better solution, it’s just you need to convince every person that is considering buying an Aqara camera (or is considering buying any camera) that NAS is a better solution and they also need to invest in one… Good luck with that.
If you have a wife/girlfriend which is very pendantic about home aesthetics and new tech in your home, you will know what I’m talking about.
Usually people just look for affordable camera first, and then, when they see for themselves that the camera is good, they start looking for new ways how to utilize/improve their experience. So a puppy camera becomes a home surveillance camera. Or a puppy camera becomes your new smart home hub
And if a pro tries to setup a home security system with NAS and everything, they will probably also look for professional, much more expensive cameras. So a camera like G3 needs to be beginner-friendly while being extensible - for when a more advanced user needs an affordable home solution, and the additional features will be a selling point.
I personally don’t use a NAS recording, because I don’t need that and I don’t care that much about archiving my home recordings. So if one SD card dies, it dies. I use it for live preview of my home (and sometimes for notifications about some activity) and that’s all. But if I could just plug an old thumb drive or external drive, it would be great.
So while you’re right, I think you should consider that most of the new users in Aqara ecosystem are not people like you (or me), but just people that want to buy an affordable camera and “it just works”. Any issue - it will be the camera’s fault (even if it’s the fault if their WiFi, their power supply, the SD card). Any additional cost - blame Aqara for being anti-consumer and unnecessarily complicated.
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How can one automate the cloud storage option?
I have a Synology NAS. I stsrted to save video to the NAS, but soon realised that my NAS set-up was fraught with problems. The cameras would write to the NAS until it was full.
This seemed to me to be imprudent.
I tried - without success - to limit the number of files saved, and had to abandon the NAS storage.
Any guidance in how to limit the NAS or Cloud storage?
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I highly doubt an intruder would go through the trouble of hacking into my Aqara account just to put the camera into sleep mode 
Very true. Or they could just jam the WiFi signal, and then there wouldn’t be any recordings anyway.
Without additional costs? My calculation of 719.88 Euros a year was based on the largest iCloud+ subscription for 59.99 Euros a month.
I am not trying to convince anyone. I just wanted to point out that companies like Ugreen or even Aqara themselves seem to have identified local video storage as a customer need. Why else would Ugreen heavily advertise easy to use NAS systems? Or why else would Aqara develop a camera with a local storage station? Did the market research of both companies get it wrong?
My girlfriend appreciates and uses the benefits of a NAS, especially for her laptop backups and her MP3 collection. I can understand the aesthetic concerns, which is why our Synology NAS is hidden inside a cabinet. On the other hand, the new Ugreen NAS models look quite nice. They do not look any worse than a PlayStation.
I am afraid that could easily backfire. Inexperienced users in particular might just plug in ancient USB devices thinking they will work just fine. I know this from the FritzBox routers that are quite popular in Germany, where you can plug USB sticks or hard drives into the USB port and use them as a NAS. People usually do not realize that standard USB sticks are not suitable for camera recordings or backups until it is too late.
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There is an app called Cloud Sync in the Package Center. Setting it up is actually quite easy and it supports a wide range of cloud providers. However, iCloud is not supported.
If you change the settings of your Aqara camera from “7x24 Direct Storage” to “Storage Card Transfer”, you can then choose a “Video storage duration” of 7, 30, 90, 180, or 365 days. That alone should significantly limit the required storage space. However, this restricts the recordings to event based recording.
Continuous 24/7 recordings do require a significant amount of storage space. If you assign a quota for your “Video” Shared Folder in Synology DSM, you will receive a warning when the quota is almost reached, and a critical alert is triggered when it is completely full. Furthermore, no more files can be written once it is full. I would assume the system detects when the camera can no longer write data and will probably delete older files automatically. I am not completely sure if the Aqara camera handles it exactly this way, though, as I have never reached my storage limit.
Finally, in the Cloud Sync settings, you can enable the option “Locally deleted files will be removed from your public cloud” to keep the cloud storage from filling up permanently.
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Package Center? Does Aqara have a package center?
As for the Synology NAS storage, I have found a way to limit the storage bloat by a task schedule that daily deletes files that are older than x days.
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No, the Synology NAS has a Package Center.
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Your quota warning is useful, but I’d treat rollover as unverified until someone tests 7x24 Direct Storage at the limit. A full quota might stop new writes rather than cause the camera to prune old files. With disposable test footage, I’d check whether a newer clip appears and can actually be played or exported after the limit is reached, then alert if the newest playable clip stops advancing. Has anyone tested that exact behavior?