Use this article to understand how to view your saved clips by using a PC.
The Sync Module 2 uses your USB drive to store clips, either Local Storage clips or Backup clips. When the drive is full, clips are no longer saved until you remove them from the drive. Plug the USB drive into a computer to view and remove all of your saved clips.
Always follow the Safe Eject process in the Blink app before physically removing your USB drive from your Sync Module 2. Learn more how to safely eject the USB drive from your Sync Module 2.
Plug the USB flash drive into a PC
Insert your USB drive into a computer and access the flash drive as you normally would. Clips are viewed using any media player that supports the common MP4 format, such as VLC, Windows Media Player, or QuickTime Player.
Clip filenames with timestamps (UTC)
Clips are named according to the time that the file was saved on the Blink server. Blink servers use Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC (Formerly known as Greenwich Mean Time).
When you access the USB drive on a computer, the filenames are in UTC, so apply the time difference to find a certain clip.
- For example:
- A clip is made at 5:00 pm from a camera in US Eastern Standard Time.
- Eastern Standard time is 5 hours earlier than UTC. 5 pm EST = 10 pm UTC.
- The filename convention for hour is displayed in 24-hour format, so 10 pm UTC will appear as 22.
Note: When these same clips appear in the Blink app, you see the corrected time for your device's time zone.
Folder names on the flash drive
Your clips can be saved in two folders on your USB flash drive named blink and blink_backup. Local Storage clips are viewable through the Blink app, whereas Clip Backups are not.
Local Storage
Local Storage clips are found on the USB drive in the blink folder. The subfolders within this folder correspond to the date when the clips were saved.
blink - This folder contains clips from eligible cameras.
21-05 - This folder indicates a two digit year 21 for 2021, and two-digit month 05 for May.
21-05-02 - This folder indicates a two digit year 21 for 2021, a two-digit month 05 for May, and a two-digit date 02 for the second day of the month.
12-54-30_BlinkMini_001.mp4 - The filename shows: [Hour] - [Minutes] - [Seconds] _ [Camera Name] _ [Clip Number].mp4
Backup Clips
Backup clips are found on the USB drive in the blink_backup folder. The subfolders within this folder correspond to the date when the clips were saved.
blink_backup - This folder contains backup clips from eligible cameras.
20-09 - This folder indicates a two digit year 20 for 2020, and two-digit month 09 for September.
01-20-21-38_Outdoor_1234567.mp4 - The filename shows: [Day of month] - [Hours] - [Minutes] - [Seconds] _ [camera-name] _ [camera UID].mp4
