SentryView: For Tesla Cars

I bought this, along with an iExpand drive to able to view sentry events while I was still on location. I also wanted to be able to download vids on scene if (heaven forbid) I ever needed to. I followed the instructions for formatting the drive and everything works as advertised. I had a few questions so contacted the developer through the app. Response was timely and informative. I actually bought 2 iExpand drives so that I can swap them out occasionally and reformat from my PC. This works better for me than trying to use the in-app delete function. Plus it ensures that drives are refreshed regularly.

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I saw a lot of excitement around that availability of this app. For sure there is a need for something like this until such time as Tesla builds Sentry clip reviewing into the Tesla itself, which I’m sure is coming. As the developer points out this app only works with a specific Sandisk WiFi capable usb stick, so I acquired one. The app itself is pretty primitive, it shows the looped video recordings and then shows saved clips. Since the most likely use case for the app is people reviewing video of a recent Sentry activation it would be most helpful if those clips displayed FIRST instead of having to go hunt for them. When playing back clips I frequently have them halt. The only way to get them playing again is to use the search bar, move it around and sometimes you can get the app to start playing again. This is annoying and I’m pretty sure it’s an app issue since I don’t see these problems when playing the video back from a PC. You also can’t tap or zoom to a specific recorded camera and have it go full screen, which you really need when trying to see the video better. Most of my other critiques are related to a UI that looks like it was very hastily put together. More of what I would expect out of a cheap or ad supported free app and not one that is priced similar to full blown apps with much more functionality than this has.

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I was excited to see another product by this developer so went out and got myself the right flash drive. Now I’m left with disappointment. It was priced as a premium app but lacks premium features. First the USB drive itself is not very good. It needs to disconnect your WiFi and connect to WiFi broadcasted by the USB drive. Also the USB drive can not be in use when being accessed or it will show no files. When there is no files - the app seems to crash which is annoying. (iPhone X) When it does work - it is slow to access files for playback. The UI is not very friendly - maybe some kind of full screen menu with the date and time would be better but what it has now is an overlay at the bottom half of the screen and it’s annoying to use. I didn’t read instructions and I tried to delete videos by clicking on the video itself - but looks like you have to click on the date/time on the menu list. Feels very odd and can easily delete clips you don’t intend to. Overall it is nice to have if you find yourself frequently reviewing videos but it’s more of a novelty app with a lot to be desired. Hoping it will get updated over time with better UI to justify my purchase.

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Love Stats. Don’t love this. I have an iPad Pro with USB-C, and a SanDisk drive with dual USB-C abd USB 3 “old style” male connectors. It’s perfect for this use case, as no mucking around with WiFi is needed, and plugs into anything and mounts with no adaptors. My iPad and Model 3 both love it, but this app has no idea what to do with it. I write this in hopes that a future update will allow any USB drive that is plugged into an iPad that is formatted with FAT32 and has a TeslaCam folder will be recognized and read. It seems like an easy thing, but knowing Apple, getting access to a mounted drive on an iPad is probably a Byzantine thing, if for no other reasons than to prevent security problems from cropping up. I hope you can work your magic and make it work. As for now, my investment in this app is useless.

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I love this developer. I love the Stats app. But I’m completely dumbfounded by how it’s humanly possible for this app to have more than one star, due to the constant app crashing, video playback freezing, files loading to my phone (iPhone XS) and horrible connectivity/ reliability issues between my phone and the horrible sandisk wireless usb drive. Why would such a great developer design his entire app around such a horrible flash drive? Amazon’s review of this drive is only 2.5-3.5 stars, but I had to order it if I wanted to use this app that had such fantastic reviews. I’ve had it for almost 2 weeks now, and I can absolutely say that it’s completely worthless. I want to use it sooo badly, but it never works. It would take me 1000 times less time to plug it into a computer, and it would actually play the videos too.