Blue Iris

Re: Storage and clips don't delete as configured

2024-06-03T19:24:42+00:00

It has been hovering there perfectly for weeks.

Statistics: Posted by scottlindner — Mon Jun 03, 2024 7:24 pm

Re: Storage and clips don't delete as configured

2024-06-03T15:38:18+00:00

Cool. Thanks for the update. And congrats. Your logic is sound.

Now show us your new graphs! LOL

Statistics: Posted by Pogo — Mon Jun 03, 2024 3:38 pm

Re: Storage and clips don't delete as configured

2024-06-03T13:56:59+00:00

I have it working perfectly now. For whatever reason, that by the time I got it working the only change to my settings was to add a second folder to move expiring clips to. Although I started with this early on and it didn't work. The only thing I can gather is that by adding an age based move rather than size based moved cleared out corrupt settings. I have seen this with other programs in the past and being a developer myself I kinda get how things like that can work as settings are stored from significantly earlier versions but applied through application upgrades.

Statistics: Posted by scottlindner — Mon Jun 03, 2024 1:56 pm

Re: Storage and clips don't delete as configured

2024-03-01T01:18:48+00:00

Looks good. As suggested, you could simply create a super miniature storage structure (by allocation sizes) that should represent the desired rotation/deletion process in a day or so instead of waiting a month for the results of the changes...., if everything works according to plan. If so, just re-adjust allocation size accordingly and check again in a month or keep an eye on the log for any errors and hopefully only see 'DBCompact:finished every morning at 2:00am (the default DB maintenance schedule) and that'll be it until actual file rotation begins..., which you could also do for the test period and have a handle on it in a couple days.

As Tim mentioned, your logs are just a click away in 'Logs' tab on the same Status page (if you haven't noticed it yet). All the recent activity will be listed there. You can also set it up to create and save text files of the active list on a monthly basis by clicking the 'Save to file' check box at the bottom of the page. This greatly reduces the potential length/size of the active drop down version and is much easier to reference for historical activity.

Statistics: Posted by Pogo — Fri Mar 01, 2024 1:18 am

Re: Storage and clips don't delete as configured

2024-03-01T00:28:26+00:00

It may also still be helpful if we could see the your actual Blue Iris storage graph(s) and log entries as have been requested several times.

They are both available via the 'Status' page which is displayed by clicking the icon circled below and located at the upper left hand corner of the Blue Iris desktop window.

Status Icon.jpg

I didn't even know those graphs came from BI. I didn't see it under settings and just assumed it was some other tool people were using. I did my manual cleaning today so we'll have to wait until a month rolls by to see what happens. I just moved all files oler than 14 days to the Stored folder on the NAS. Here is what it looks like now that I know where it is.

Statistics: Posted by scottlindner — Fri Mar 01, 2024 12:28 am

Re: Storage and clips don't delete as configured

2024-02-29T20:11:52+00:00

I'm still wondering if the files are locked by something that prevents them from being moved. Did you set up the Log to make a text file, and does it show anything about locked files ?

Statistics: Posted by TimG — Thu Feb 29, 2024 8:11 pm

Re: Storage and clips don't delete as configured

2024-02-29T18:28:47+00:00

It may also still be helpful if we could see the your actual Blue Iris storage graph(s) and log entries as have been requested several times.

They are both available via the 'Status' page which is displayed by clicking the icon circled below and located at the upper left hand corner of the Blue Iris desktop window.

Statistics: Posted by Pogo — Thu Feb 29, 2024 6:28 pm

Re: Storage and clips don't delete as configured

2024-02-29T15:20:23+00:00

The "no rhyme or reason" aspect is likely due to age limits being applied. It applies to each clip individually and can indeed seem random as a result..., at least at a glance. As previously mentioned, some folks use it and some don't for any number of reasons. And the directory structure seemed to be all over the place.

One noticeable change in your structure is now there is a direct path to 'New' which may have been a problem by its omission as a direct subdirectory of F:\BlueIris. The storage structure requirements and recommended paths are fairly specific for the db, New, and Alerts. They cannot be arbitrarily "nested" in other folders as explained in the 'Clip Folders' section of the Help Documentation. Having "New" initially nested as a subfolder of 'archive' would not fall into the 'recommended' category and could also have been part of the problem.

Try a simple back to basics experiment with the following structure:

C:\BlueIris\db
F:\BlueIris\New
F:BlueIris\Alerts
These are required. Stored is not a required folder. Omit it until seeing the results of the basics.

Set size limits with no time limit and 'delete' upon reaching the size limit. For an initial test, use vary small storage sizes to expedite the process. Eliminate any other storage settings including 'Stored'. If this works as it should, then set the desired sizes and any additional extended storage/archiving according to your needs.

The Clip Storage section of the Help file is pretty straightforward and will be directly accessed just by the 'Help' button on the Storage tab of the main Blue Iris Settings page.
I would suggest giving it a quick review.

Statistics: Posted by Pogo — Thu Feb 29, 2024 3:20 pm

Re: Storage and clips don't delete as configured

2024-02-29T11:37:25+00:00

Continued from previous response...

My F drive showing it's just BI using it and nothing else.

You can see the New folder has 5.3TB used but in BI I have it configured to use no more than 4.2TB.
If I open up the F:\BlueIris\New folder the newest files are of course dated today and the oldest are dated Jan 20th which is 40 days ago but in BI I have it set to no more than 14 days.

And just to show that my Stored folder is being used on the NAS after setting this up

What is interesting is I looked at both folders and they have files spanning all dates from the last time I updated on this and deleted all files and started with a fresh database just to make sure I wasn't confusing BI with files it didn't know about or files it thought it had but didn't. But what is interesting is that there is no apparent rhyme or reason for when a file is moved or not. At first I was thinking maybe some cameras are being moved and others aren't. Or then by file size thinking the move from one file system to another might trigger some change in performance and timeout inside of BI. But it just appears to be random.

So now I have a thought and this is hard to figure out without a ton of research. Is BI not moving files that have an alert in the history?

Statistics: Posted by scottlindner — Thu Feb 29, 2024 11:37 am

Re: Storage and clips don't delete as configured

2024-02-29T11:27:09+00:00

I made some big changes and had to let it run for a long time and the same issue is happening again. I know because the BI app on my phone no longer shows "new" alerts for any cameras. They're all obviously old.

I thought for sure this time I would have it beat because I am moving things between folders and also added clip age and am using my NAS as a spill over just so there is a target to move stuff to that has generous space available. I'm still having the same issue where BI doesn't appear to be doing anything at all based on these settings.

"New" folder settings. I reduced the "Limit size" value hoping there is some funny math going on even though the F drive isa 6TB disk. I also changed it to move to Stored which I'm assuming is the action for when either the Limit size or Limit clip age is triggered for any file.

"Stored" folder settings I didn't have before. I have a NAS with a ton of extra storage so I decided I'll use it as a spill over at least until I sort out what's going on.

The usage on my C drive which is just the OS, BI, and the BI database (based on a recommendation after my last update).

I didn't realize there was a three file attachment limit so I'll continue in another response.

Statistics: Posted by scottlindner — Thu Feb 29, 2024 11:27 am

Re: Storage and clips don't delete as configured

2024-02-29T11:17:15+00:00

I asked earlier which folder on the left you clicked to see your F:\BlueIris\archive folder.
Perhaps this is all being attempted using TreeSize and not via the Blue Iris structure, hence Blue Iris not having its own folder associations except 'New'?

TreeSize just visualizes disk usage. Only BI can control where BI is putting files or deleting them. It was requested earlier up in the discussion to see what is using my disk space to determine if other things are on this disk

Statistics: Posted by scottlindner — Thu Feb 29, 2024 11:17 am

Re: Storage and clips don't delete as configured

2024-02-29T11:09:59+00:00

Which folder on the left do you click on to see F:\BlueIris\archive ?

"New" is highlighted in the screenshot. That is the folder that is selected.

Statistics: Posted by scottlindner — Thu Feb 29, 2024 11:09 am

Re: Storage and clips don't delete as configured

2024-01-21T14:28:48+00:00

I asked earlier which folder on the left you clicked to see your F:\BlueIris\archive folder.

Perhaps this is all being attempted using TreeSize and not via the Blue Iris structure, hence Blue Iris not having its own folder associations except 'New'?

Statistics: Posted by Pogo — Sun Jan 21, 2024 2:28 pm

Re: Storage and clips don't delete as configured

2024-01-21T10:27:19+00:00

But now this has me thinking that it won't work right out of the box until you muck about with moving it from folder to folder to folder which just seems complicated to me but I'll give it a try.

You don't need to move it at all if you don't want to as you can simply use one folder. My system just grew another hard drive, so I cascaded the clip files between three drives, and moved the delete to the last drive. It's not the best way of doing things as it keeps moving files.

Pogo is correct. I am trying to prove that you have set up BI5 to use your specified folders. If this has not been done, BI5 cannot control the folders. We really need this basic info otherwise we are making assumptions.

I asked earlier which folder on the left you clicked to see your F:\BlueIris\archive folder. You have this:

BI5 will by default record to "New" which it probably puts on your C: drive. That can be verified by clicking on "New" in the folder list on the left and looking at the file path on the right. Which folder on the left do you click on to see F:\BlueIris\archive ?

Note also in the storage graphics above that it states which folders are on which drives. Once again, this is proving that BI5 knows where they are and can control them.

Statistics: Posted by TimG — Sun Jan 21, 2024 10:27 am

Re: Storage and clips don't delete as configured

2024-01-20T21:06:25+00:00

I wonder if the default settings just don't work and I need to set it up to do all of this moving business.

You at least need to tell Blue Iris where to put things and how long to store stuff before it does something with it. It doesn't know by default.

There are instructions. I suggest starting with the help file link in Tim's sig.

If visual instruction works better, go here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7veBRr6msbk&t=344s

Statistics: Posted by Pogo — Sat Jan 20, 2024 9:06 pm