Beyond deleted folders
File carving reads raw disk sectors and finds MP4 data even after formatting, corruption, or file-system damage — no functioning filesystem required.
Tesla Dashcam & Sentry Recovery · v2.20.1
Find out what you can get back.
ClipSalvage scans your Tesla USB drive and shows every recoverable clip — thumbnail, camera angle, and confidence score — before you pay. It recovers deleted, formatted, and corrupted footage — including Tesla’s encrypted (2026.20+) clips, which have to be carved off the drive and decrypted before they will play.*
Free: recover 3 clips + decrypt 30 encrypted · No account required
Also for Windows x64 & Arm64 — all downloads
100% on-device Notarized by Apple macOS 14+ · Windows 10/11
- 1. ConnectYour Tesla USB drive or a disk image
- 2. PreviewInspect recoverable footage and confidence
- 3. RecoverExport organised, playable MP4 files
≈131,000×
Faster than byte-by-byte
6
Tesla cameras identified
0–100
Confidence score per clip
From $9.99
One-time · no subscription
What You Get
Recovered clips, organised
the way Tesla wrote them.
- Preview
Every clip shows a real thumbnail and a 0–100 confidence score, so you know what will play back before you export anything.
- Events
Clips are grouped into Sentry events by date and time — the same structure Tesla writes on the drive.
- Cameras
Each clip carries its camera position. When a filename didn’t survive, an on-device AI model identifies the camera and badges it distinctly.
- Encrypted & repaired
Encrypted (2026.20+) clips preview for free, and partially-overwritten clips are rebuilt into playable video with a Repaired badge.
Capabilities
A clear answer for every clip.
No command line, no separate media tools, and no uploading private footage to a recovery service.
Know before you export
Thumbnails and 0–100 confidence scores show exactly what is worth recovering — the free trial previews every clip before you pay.
Every camera, every event
Recovered clips are identified by camera position and grouped into Tesla Sentry events, ready for any dashcam viewer.
Ready for 2026.20+
Sign in to Tesla once to fetch your clips’ keys, then decrypt, repair, and export encrypted footage fully offline.
In Depth
Built only for Tesla footage.
Encrypted Clip Recovery & Decryption (2026.20+)
Tesla software 2026.20 encrypts every new Sentry and Dashcam clip on the USB drive. ClipSalvage finds those encrypted containers, fetches your decryption keys with a one-time in-app Tesla sign-in, and exports playable MP4s — fully offline from then on.
This matters most once a clip is deleted or the drive has been formatted. A decryption tool needs the file to still be listed on the drive, and a general-purpose recovery tool carves by looking for the MP4 header that marks the start of a video — which an encrypted clip does not have, because the header is encrypted along with the video. Recovering an encrypted clip takes both steps in one pass.
- Reads Tesla's per-file encrypted clip containers
- Free in-memory preview with true recoverability per clip
- One-time Tesla sign-in — keys stored locally, no repeat logins
- Decrypt 30 clips free; unlimited with Pro
Automatic Clip Repair
Clips whose data was partially overwritten on the drive are automatically rebuilt into playable video — and every clip is labelled with how much of it was recovered, so you know what you're getting before you export.
- Partially-overwritten clips rebuilt into playable video
- Every clip shows its true recoverability
- Repaired clips badged in the results grid
- Works during the free preview — before you pay
Cluster-Aligned Scanning
Scans only at filesystem cluster boundaries — ~131,000x fewer comparisons than byte-by-byte scanning on typical 128KB-cluster exFAT drives. A 128 GB drive scans in minutes, not hours.
- ~131,000x faster than byte-by-byte
- Recovers from formatted drives
- Works with corrupted file systems
- exFAT + FAT32 support
Confidence Scoring
Every recovered clip gets a 0-100 confidence score based on 7 integrity factors — so you know upfront which clips will play back perfectly.
- MP4 header and structure validation
- Video data and metadata integrity
- Timestamp plausibility check
- Tesla-specific dimension bonus
Every Camera Position — AI-Identified
Identifies all Tesla camera angles on both hardware generations: AI4/HW4 cars (2023+) record 6 — front, back, left repeater, right repeater, left pillar, and right pillar; AI3/HW3 cars (pre-2023) record 4, with no pillar cameras. When the original filename survives on the drive, it's recovered byte-for-byte. When the filename has been overwritten, an on-device AI model looks at the clip itself and identifies the camera.
- Original filename recovery from directory entries
- AI fallback: MobileNet vision model for overwritten entries
- Process-of-elimination resolves close calls per Sentry minute
- AI-labelled clips badged distinctly in the preview
7-Phase Pipeline
Automated processing from scan to results: scanning, database prep, filename recovery, thumbnail generation, confidence scoring, saving, and completion.
- Real-time progress with ETA
- Native in-process thumbnail previews
- Scan resume from interruption
- Memory-efficient streaming mode
Disk Image Safety
Create a bit-for-bit image of your USB drive first. Scan the image, reformat the original drive, and recover at your own pace.
- One-click disk imaging
- Supports .img, .raw, .dd, .dmg
- Faster scanning from internal drive
- Read-only — nothing written to source
Batch Recovery
Select individual clips or entire events, then export in batch. Byte-for-byte copies — no re-encoding, no quality loss.
- Select by clip or by event group
- Original quality preservation
- Per-clip progress tracking
- Original filenames when available
Your Data
Your footage stays on your computer.
The ClipSalvage desktop app processes everything locally. The source drive is opened read-only — nothing is ever written to it.
All video processing happens on-device. No footage, thumbnails, or disk contents are uploaded to any server.
The source drive is read-only. For extra safety, the built-in disk-image workflow lets you scan a copy instead of the drive itself.
No account required for the trial. Download, scan, and preview without signing up for anything.- Encrypted clips need one Tesla sign-in — through Tesla's own login window — to fetch your clips' decryption keys. The keys are stored locally, so everything afterwards runs offline.
License activation needs a brief online check. Scanning and recovery themselves never need the internet.
Recovery Disclaimer
Data recovery is inherently uncertain. Success depends on factors outside our control: whether deleted sectors have been overwritten, physical drive health, file system corruption extent, and how the drive was used after data loss. ClipSalvage uses best-effort file carving technology and provides confidence scores to indicate expected file integrity, but cannot guarantee recovery of any specific file. We strongly recommend using the free trial to assess recoverability before purchasing a license.
Contact: info@clipsalvage.com · Qloud LTD, United Kingdom
When You Need It
Common recovery situations.
For insurance claims, police reports, and hit-and-run incidents: the sooner the drive stops being written to, the more comes back.
Accidental Deletion
Deleted clips from your dashcam folder that you still need.
Formatted Drive
Accidentally formatted your Tesla USB drive and lost everything.
Corrupted File System
Drive showing errors, not recognised, or clips not visible.
Insurance Claims
Need to recover footage for an incident report or legal matter.
Important: stop using the drive as soon as you notice footage is missing. Continued use may overwrite recoverable data.
Urgent recovery questions
Almost certainly yes, if the drive has not been reused since formatting. Quick format only erases the file system index — your video data is physically still on the drive. Do NOT put the drive back in your Tesla or write anything to it. Download ClipSalvage, create a disk image of the drive first (preserves the evidence), then scan the image. Recovered clips retain their timestamps and camera positions, which insurance companies accept as evidence.
The clip may have been overwritten by newer recordings if your drive was full, or it may still be in a deleted state. Remove the USB drive from the car immediately to prevent further overwrites. Scan it with ClipSalvage — deleted clips that have not been overwritten appear with confidence scores showing their integrity. Even partially recovered footage (lower confidence) may contain enough visual data to identify a license plate.
Tesla stores Sentry events in the SentryClips folder, but if the drive runs low on space, older clips are automatically deleted to make room. The deleted data is still on the drive until those sectors are overwritten. ClipSalvage's file carving scans the raw disk sectors — not the file system — so it finds these deleted clips even though they do not show up in the file browser.
Recovered files are byte-for-byte identical to the originals — they are the same MP4 files Tesla created, not reconstructions. The confidence score indicates file integrity. Clips scoring 85-100 will play back perfectly. Provide the original files along with the confidence scores as documentation.
There is no time limit — what matters is whether the sectors have been overwritten, not how long ago the files were deleted. A formatted drive sitting in a drawer for a year is fully recoverable. A formatted drive put back in the Tesla for one day of driving may have significant overwrites. The rule: stop using the drive the moment you realize footage is missing.
Simple Process
Simple, safe, powerful.
Four steps from drive-plugged-in to clips-on-your-desktop. No command line, no recovery jargon.
Step 01
Connect your drive
Plug your TeslaCam USB drive straight in — or, if it's failing, unreadable or asking to be formatted, capture a byte-level disk image first and scan that copy instead. ClipSalvage only ever reads the drive, never writes to it: the deleted clips are still physically on it until Tesla records over them, so the sooner you stop using the drive, the more comes back.
Step 02
Scan
ClipSalvage reads the raw drive and carves out Tesla clips — plain MP4s and, since v2.20.0, Tesla's encrypted (2026.20+) clip containers too — so it finds footage even after the filenames are gone or the drive was reformatted, exactly when your file browser and the dashcam viewer show nothing. Clips stream in as they're found (a 128 GB drive is typically 2–5 minutes), with live progress and flat memory use no matter how large the drive.
Step 03
Preview
Each recovered clip lands in a grid with a thumbnail, a 0–100 confidence score and its camera position, grouped by Sentry event. Encrypted clips are decrypted in memory for the preview — free — so you see a real thumbnail and each clip's true recoverability before paying anything. Where the original Tesla filename didn't survive, an on-device AI model works out which camera filmed it and flags it.
Step 04
Recover
Pick individual clips or whole events and save them wherever you like. Plain clips come out byte-for-byte — the exact original files, no re-encoding, no quality loss. Encrypted clips are decrypted to playable MP4s — sign in to Tesla once to fetch your keys, and everything after that runs offline — while partially-overwritten clips are automatically rebuilt into playable video. It's all laid back into Tesla's own SavedClips / SentryClips / RecentClips folders, so the output drops straight into any Tesla dashcam viewer.
See it in action
If you can plug in a USB drive, you can use it.
Four minutes from drive-plugged-in to clips-on-your-desktop. No command line, no recovery jargon, no waiting hours for a scan to finish.
Simple Pricing
How much does ClipSalvage cost?
ClipSalvage is a one-time purchase — no subscription, at either tier. Decrypt ($9.99) unlocks batch decrypting and exporting of encrypted (2026.20+) Sentry and Dashcam clips; Pro ($29) adds unlimited recovery of deleted and formatted clips on top. The free trial scans your entire drive, previews every clip with recoverability scores, recovers up to 3 clips and decrypts up to 30 — so you can confirm your footage is there before paying, which is why all sales are final.
Free Trial
Free
Free download — no time limit
- Scan your entire drive
- Preview every clip — encrypted included
- 0–100 recoverability score per clip
- Recover up to 3 clips
- Decrypt up to 30 encrypted clips
- macOS & Windows (x64 & Arm64)
ClipSalvage Decrypt
$9.99
One-time purchase — no subscription
- Batch decrypt & export encrypted (2026.20+) clips
- One-time payment — own it forever
- Deleted-clip recovery stays at the free tier's 3 clips
- Works on macOS and Windows
- Upgrade to Pro anytime for $19.99 — same activation code
- Try free before you buy — all sales final
ClipSalvage Pro
$29
One-time purchase — everything included
- Unlimited recovery of deleted & formatted clips
- Batch decrypt & export encrypted clips
- One-time payment — own it forever
- All future updates included
- Priority email support
- Try free before you buy — all sales final
- Works on macOS and Windows
- Activate on one device, transfer anytime
Your footage never leaves your computer
Secure payments by Stripe. Automatic tax calculation included.
EU & UK customers: The free trial lets you verify recovery before purchase. By completing your purchase you give express consent to immediate delivery of the digital content and acknowledge that you thereby lose your statutory 14-day withdrawal or cancellation right (Art. 16(m), Directive 2011/83/EU; reg. 37, Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013). All sales are final, except for rights that cannot be excluded where you live.
On encrypted clips: decryption applies to clips recorded after Tesla enables software 2026.20 USB encryption in your region. Tesla rolls this out by market, and it is not enabled everywhere — notably not in mainland China. Where it has not been enabled, your clips are ordinary MP4 files and ClipSalvage recovers them as normal; the decryption features simply do not apply. Check what your car is running if you are unsure. ClipSalvage decrypts only clips recorded by a vehicle on your own Tesla account: the keys are held by Tesla and released solely to an authenticated sign-in, so footage from someone else’s car cannot be decrypted by this or any other tool. Recovery of deleted or formatted clips also depends on the sectors not having been overwritten — a drive that kept recording may have nothing left to recover, which is why the free scan shows you what survives before you pay.
Already have Decrypt?
Upgrade to Pro for a one-time $19.99 and unlock unlimited recovery of deleted and formatted clips. The upgrade runs through a verified upgrade page — you confirm your purchase email and activation code, and that same code simply becomes a Pro code.
Upgrade to Pro — $19.99Licensing
How does the ClipSalvage license work?
One $29 payment licenses ClipSalvage permanently — no subscription, no expiry. After purchase you receive an activation code (SR-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX); enter it with your purchase email inside the app to unlock unlimited recovery and unlimited encrypted-clip decryption. The license runs on one device at a time and transfers to a new device whenever you need, and every future update is included.
Trial Mode
Download and use ClipSalvage for free. Full scanning, preview, thumbnails, and confidence scoring available — encrypted clips included — no payment required, no time limit.
- Scan your entire drive for recoverable videos
- Preview all clips with thumbnails and confidence scores
- Recover up to 3 video clips for free
- Decrypt up to 30 encrypted clips for free
- No time limit — the trial only limits how many clips you can save
Activating Your License
After purchasing, you receive an activation code by email (format: SR-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX). Activate inside the app:
- Click "Activate License" in the app
- Enter the email address used for purchase
- Enter your activation code (SR-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX)
- Your license is validated automatically
- Enjoy unlimited recoveries — permanently
License Details
- Payment: One-time purchase of $29 — no subscription, no recurring charges
- Activation: Email + activation code (SR-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX format)
- Devices: Activate on one device at a time
- Transfer: Re-activate on a new device anytime — previous device is deactivated automatically
- Updates: All future updates included at no extra cost
- Permanent: One-time purchase, no expiry
Compatibility
What are the system requirements?
ClipSalvage runs on macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later — Apple Silicon — and on 64-bit Windows 10 or 11, with a native build for both x64 (Intel/AMD) and Arm (Arm64) PCs. It needs Full Disk Access on macOS, or administrator privileges on Windows, to read the USB drive directly, plus enough free space to hold the clips you recover.
macOS
- macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later
- Apple Silicon (M-series)
- Full Disk Access permission required
- Sufficient storage for recovered videos
Windows
- Windows 10 or Windows 11
- 64-bit processor — x64 (Intel/AMD) or Arm64
- Administrator privileges for raw disk access
- Sufficient storage for recovered videos
Under the Hood
Technical details.
Cluster-Aligned File Carving
Built with Flutter (UI) and Rust (core engine) connected via FFI. The Rust carving engine scans at cluster boundaries for MP4 signatures:
- Cluster-Aligned Scanning: Checks 1 position per 131,072 bytes (128KB clusters) — ~131,000x fewer comparisons than byte-by-byte
- MP4 Validation: Parses ftyp, mdat, and moov atoms to verify file integrity and extract metadata
- Filesystem Parsing: Reads exFAT and FAT32 directory entries (including deleted entries) for original filename recovery
- Confidence Scoring: 7-factor integrity assessment (0-100) — ftyp validation, mdat presence, moov integrity, timestamp, file size, cluster alignment, Tesla dimensions
- Streaming Mode: Clips saved to SQLite immediately — constant memory usage regardless of drive size
Recovery Limitations
Data recovery is inherently uncertain. Success depends on factors outside the software's control:
- Overwritten data cannot be recovered — if new files occupy the same physical sectors, the original data is permanently destroyed
- Files under 1 MB or over 100 MB are rejected as outside Tesla's typical clip range
- Fragmented files may be incomplete (uncommon — Tesla typically writes sequentially)
- Original filenames may be lost if directory entries were reused by new files
- Physical drive failure requires professional lab recovery — software cannot access dead flash controllers
We strongly recommend using the free trial to assess recoverability before purchasing a license. The confidence scoring system provides the best available estimate of file integrity, but cannot guarantee recovery of any specific file.
Knowledge base
Tesla USB, explained.
Background reading on how Tesla actually stores dashcam footage, what really happens when you format a USB drive, and why Sentry events disappear. Written for owners trying to understand what's recoverable before they panic.
- Deleted & encryptedCan you recover a deleted Tesla clip that was encrypted?
- FormattingWhat happens to Tesla dashcam data when you format the USB drive?
- StorageHow Tesla stores video files on USB drives
- RecoveryFile carving explained for Tesla owners
- TimingHow long is Tesla dashcam footage recoverable after formatting?
- SentryWhy Tesla Sentry Mode events go missing from the USB drive
- ComparisonTesla dashcam recovery software compared
- Free toolsCan TestDisk or PhotoRec recover encrypted Tesla clips?
- DecryptionHow to batch decrypt Tesla Dashcam & Sentry clips (2026.20+)
- EncryptionTesla 2026.20 USB encryption: what it means for dashcam recovery
FAQ
Questions.
For urgent recovery questions (insurance, hit-and-run, police reports) see the common recovery situations above.
Yes. File carving works at the raw data level — it scans for MP4 file signatures directly on the disk, bypassing the file system entirely. Formatting only erases the directory structure, not the underlying data (unless you did a secure erase). ClipSalvage's cluster-aligned scanning checks only at filesystem boundaries, making it ~131,000x faster than byte-by-byte scanning on typical exFAT drives.
The free trial includes full scanning, thumbnail generation, confidence scoring, and preview of every clip — encrypted or not — with no payment required. You can see everything that is salvageable before deciding to purchase. The trial limits only what you can save: recover up to 3 clips and decrypt up to 30 encrypted clips to a folder, free, with no time limit.
One-time fee. Pay once, own it forever. No subscription, no annual renewal. All future updates are included. The license works permanently on one device at a time.
A 0-100 score based on the structural integrity of each recovered file. It checks seven factors including MP4 header validity, video data presence, metadata integrity, timestamp plausibility, file size range, cluster alignment, and Tesla-specific dimensions. High confidence (85-100) means the file should play perfectly. Low confidence means the file may have gaps or artifacts.
Every Tesla camera position, on both hardware generations. AI4/HW4 cars (2023+) record 6 — front, back, left repeater, right repeater, left pillar, and right pillar; AI3/HW3 cars (pre-2023) record 4 — front, back, left repeater, and right repeater (no pillar cameras). When the original filename survives on the drive, the camera is read from that directly. When the filename has been overwritten, an on-device AI vision model looks at the clip itself and identifies which camera recorded it — AI-labelled clips are badged distinctly in the preview so you can tell filesystem-recovered from AI-identified.
exFAT (Tesla's default) and FAT32. The scanner also works on drives with unrecognized or corrupted file systems by falling back to default 128KB cluster settings. The engine does not require a functioning filesystem — it works by scanning raw disk sectors for MP4 signatures.
Completely. ClipSalvage is read-only — it never writes anything to your drive. For extra safety, use the built-in disk image feature to work from a copy of the drive, leaving the original untouched.
Yes. ClipSalvage works with all Tesla vehicles that use USB-based dashcam and Sentry Mode storage — it understands Tesla's file naming and folder structure across all models. Note: vehicle software 2026.20 (rolling out from May 2026) introduced encryption on newly recorded clips. ClipSalvage recovers and decrypts these too — sign in to Tesla once inside the app to fetch your clips' decryption keys, then everything runs fully offline. Clips recorded before the update remain standard MP4 files and are recovered exactly as before.
Yes — Tesla vehicle software 2026.20 enables USB clip encryption by default: every clip recorded after the update installs is a per-file encrypted container rather than a plain MP4, and the decryption keys are held by Tesla, released only to an authenticated Tesla sign-in. ClipSalvage v2.20.0+ recovers and decrypts them. It finds encrypted clips on the drive, previews every one for free (decryption runs in memory, so you see a real thumbnail and each clip's true recoverability before paying), and after a one-time in-app Tesla sign-in to fetch your keys it decrypts, repairs, and exports them as playable MP4s — fully offline from then on. Clips recorded before the update remain standard MP4 files and are fully recoverable as always.
Only once — and only for encrypted (2026.20+) clips. The one-time in-app Tesla sign-in fetches the decryption keys for your own clips from Tesla. The keys are stored locally, so re-scans and future exports need no internet and no repeat logins. Unencrypted clips never need a sign-in at all.
Point ClipSalvage at the drive and batch-decrypt everything in one pass. ClipSalvage Decrypt ($9.99, one-time) unlocks batch decrypting and export of encrypted (2026.20+) Sentry and Dashcam clips: pick the mounted Tesla USB drive (or its TeslaCam folder) and an output folder, select individual clips or entire events, and every encrypted clip is decrypted and exported as a playable MP4 — every camera angle of every selected event in the same pass. After the one-time in-app Tesla sign-in fetches your clips' keys, batch decryption runs fully offline — re-scans and future exports need no internet and no repeat logins. The free trial decrypts up to 30 encrypted clips so you can verify your footage first; Pro ($29) adds unlimited recovery of deleted and formatted clips on top.
You never give ClipSalvage your Tesla password. The sign-in window is Tesla's own page on tesla.com, behind Tesla's own captcha — your credentials go straight to Tesla and are never seen by, typed into, or stored by ClipSalvage. The sign-in is used for exactly one thing: fetching the decryption keys for your own clips, and Tesla never releases a master key — only one-shot keys for the individual files you are recovering. All recovery and decryption run entirely on your machine — no footage, thumbnails, or disk contents are ever uploaded. ClipSalvage receives only the resulting access token — the same one Tesla's own dashcam viewer runs on, so Tesla issues us nothing broader. That token is issued to Tesla's own dashcam sign-in client and carries identity permissions only. It does not include
vehicle_device_data or vehicle_cmds — the permissions Tesla's Fleet API requires to read from or send commands to a car — so it cannot unlock, drive, locate or otherwise control your vehicle. It is spent on a single request: asking Tesla to unseal the keys for the clips you selected. It expires on its own in about eight hours and is kept in your operating system's credential vault (macOS Keychain / Windows Credential Manager), encrypted by your OS — never in a plain file, never in a log. Signing out deletes it from your machine. If you'd like to verify any of this before you trust the app with a sign-in, email support@clipsalvage.com — we'll walk you through exactly what to check. You don't have to take our word for it either: run any network monitor while you recover a clip and you'll see your Tesla token go to one place — Tesla's own dashcam endpoint — and nowhere else.Yes. Scanning, recovery, decryption, and repair all run entirely on your computer. Encrypted clips need a single online Tesla sign-in to fetch their keys; the keys are then stored locally, so everything afterwards — re-scans, decryption, exports — works with no internet connection. License activation still needs a brief online check, as before.
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