# Retention & Disk Quota

By the end of this page your disk will not be filled up by recordings, and recordings will not go missing for no apparent reason. SkyView behaves like an NVR by default — a ring buffer where the oldest are replaced by the newest — and all you have to do is tell it how much space it may use.

> **ℹ️ Before you start**
>
> You already have cameras recording. Every setting on this page lives under Settings → Storage & Recording, and the manual clean-up lives in File manager. It all applies to local recordings and to recordings already uploaded to 115 Cloud.

## 1. First, see how much is in use

1. **Look at the totals**

   **Where**: Settings → Storage & Recording → "Current capacity".
   **How to read it**: "Recordings" is what SkyView's own recordings take; "Used" is the whole disk, system and other apps included. A big gap between the two means there is other stuff on the disk.

2. **See which camera takes the most**

   **Where**: File manager → Storage.
   **How to read it**: "Usage by camera" lists how much space and how many clips each camera holds. Note that it only counts archived recording segments — no snapshots, exports, orphans or missing segments.

> **ℹ️ What stays on this machine when you use 115 Cloud**
>
> Once recordings are uploaded to the cloud, very little needs to stay here — but **event snapshots, camera snapshots and recordings still queued for upload remain on this machine**. The "Local disk" panel breaks SkyView's local footprint into event snapshots / camera snapshots / exports; when the disk fills, look there first.

## 2. Give recordings a total quota

This is the one number you really have to set. With it in place SkyView behaves like an NVR ring buffer: when a new recording lands and the budget is exceeded, the oldest are deleted to make room, so you always keep the most recent stretch. It is **not a scheduled clean-up** — it deletes only when it needs room.

1. **Enter the quota**

   **Where**: Settings → Storage & Recording → "Auto-delete old recordings".
   **What to do**: in "Recording quota", enter the space you are willing to give recordings. 0 = unlimited (which leaves only the disk guard below as a backstop).
   **How you know it worked**: save, refresh the page, and the number is still there.

2. **Pick a sensible number**

   **What to do**: set aside what the system and your other apps need first, and give the rest to recordings. The table below estimates a day's usage.

3. **Verify**

   **What to do**: after a few days of recording, go back to "Current capacity" and look at "Recordings".
   **How you know it worked**: it climbs to roughly the quota and then stops climbing — that is the ring buffer doing its job.

| Resolution | Bitrate | Rough usage per stream per 24 hours |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1080p H.264 | 2 Mbps | ~21 GB |
| 1080p H.265 | 1 Mbps | ~10 GB |
| 4K H.265 | 4 Mbps | ~42 GB |

> **💡 How to estimate that number**
>
> **Quota ≈ streams × daily usage per stream × days you want to keep × 1.2** (the last bit is headroom for snapshots and the database). 10 streams of 1080p H.265 kept for 30 days ≈ 3.6 TB. Switching a camera's record mode to "Motion" (record only when something moves) saves a large chunk; how large depends on how busy your home is.

## 3. The disk guard: never fill the disk

"Max disk usage (%)" is the second gate, and it is measured **across the whole disk** rather than against SkyView's own footprint — it is the backstop when other apps are writing to a shared disk. Whichever gate trips first does the cleaning; both are always on, and there is no master switch.

> **⚠️ SkyView will not destroy your recordings for someone else's data**
>
> If the disk is already over the threshold but deleting every SkyView recording and event snapshot still would not bring it back down, then what filled the disk is something other than SkyView — another app, system logs, a database. In that case SkyView deletes **not a single recording** — deleting would neither save the disk nor be worth losing your footage — and only sends you a disk alert so you can go and clear the real cause.

> **ℹ️ It tells you when it cannot free enough**
>
> When it cannot free enough space, when it enters the emergency stage, or when it concludes the disk was filled from outside, SkyView pushes a disk alert to your phone, quiet hours or not. This is the cure for "the disk filled up ages ago and nobody noticed".

## 4. Keep for N days (optional)

"Keep for N days (optional)" is folded under "Advanced" and defaults to 0 = off. It and the quota are two independent yardsticks: the quota governs how much space may be used, the day count governs that anything older than N days goes. You only need it if you have a privacy or compliance requirement — say, no footage kept beyond 7 days.

> **⚠️ Fill it in and it really does delete**
>
> Recordings, events and snapshots older than that many days are all deleted, even when the quota is nowhere near full and the disk is nearly empty. If you are not sure you want it, leave it at 0.

## 5. Set a cap for a single camera

"Max recording space per camera (GB)" limits how much each camera may take on its own, with 0 = unlimited; go over and that camera's oldest recordings are deleted. You can also override one camera individually under "Recording quota → Max space (GB)" on the camera edit page, where empty = follow global. Good for "the front door one matters most and should be kept longer, the back yard one just needs a token amount".

## 6. Clearing things out by hand

1. **Delete specific recordings**

   **Where**: File manager → Recordings.
   **What to do**: filter by From / To date, camera and storage location, tick what you want and click "Delete selected".
   **Note**: this permanently deletes the files on the local disk **and on 115 Cloud**, with no way back.

2. **Delete event snapshots**

   **Where**: File manager → Snapshots.
   **What to do**: filter by date and type, tick what you want and click "Delete selected". The matching event records and images go with them.

3. **Clean up orphan recordings**

   **Where**: Settings → Storage & Recording → "Orphan recording cleanup" → "Scan for orphans".
   **What it is**: mp4 files that exist on disk but cannot be found in the database — left behind by a lost recording callback, by a deleted camera, or by a process that exited abnormally. They never appear in playback and are not covered by the automatic clean-up, so they occupy space forever.
   **How you know it worked**: it shows how many segments and how much space were found, and after "Clean up orphans" it tells you how much was freed.

4. **Clean up missing recordings**

   **Where**: "Missing recordings" → "Scan for missing" on the same page.
   **What it is**: the opposite case — the database has a row but the file is gone (deleted from outside, a disk that was not mounted, a file removed by hand on 115). Those rows are already hidden from the timeline; all you clear here is the row, since the file was gone anyway.

> **💡 You want the cloud files checked as well**
>
> Turn on "Reconcile 115 cloud recordings" and the missing-recordings scan checks the files on 115 too. It is slower, which is why only local files are reconciled by default.

## 7. Common questions

- **"Recordings" is far smaller than my own arithmetic** — with 115 Cloud, recordings that uploaded successfully and had their local copy removed no longer count towards local usage.
- **The disk is nearly empty yet recordings are being deleted** — most likely one camera hit its own cap first. Check "Max recording space per camera (GB)" and the individual override on that camera's edit page.
- **I set a quota and usage still goes over it** — the quota only covers recordings. Event snapshots, exported files and the database are not in it; look at the breakdown in the "Local disk" panel.
- **I want one camera not to record at all** — set "Record mode" to "No recording" on the camera edit page, which is far more direct than cleaning up afterwards. Note that its events will then have snapshots only, no video clip.

## Related guides

- [Recording & Storage](/docs/recording) — how recordings are written and how to connect 115 Cloud
- [Event Center](/docs/events) — bulk deletion of event snapshots lives in File manager too
- [Troubleshooting](/docs/troubleshooting) — black screen on playback, uploads to 115 failing

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Source:https://yun-kan.com/en/docs/storage-quota