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wtf is teslacam-recovery?

bmaltais/teslacam-recovery — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-07-18 · repo last pushed 2021-02-11

Audience · developerComplexity · 3/5DormantSetup · moderate

TL;DR

A Python script that recovers deleted TeslaCam dashcam videos from a USB drive by scanning for leftover MP4 data.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((teslacam-recovery))
    What it does
      Scans USB drive
      Finds deleted MP4s
      Recovers old footage
    Tech stack
      Python
      Low level disk read
    Use cases
      Recover deleted dashcam clips
      Investigate past incidents
      Retrieve footage past one hour
    Audience
      Developers
      Tesla owners
    Setup
      Needs Python comfort
      Requires free disk space
      Tested macOS and Linux

Code map

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Why would anyone build with this?

REASON 1

Recover TeslaCam video clips that were deleted from the USB drive's file index.

REASON 2

Retrieve dashcam footage from further back than Tesla's default one-hour retention.

REASON 3

Narrow a recovery scan to a specific section of the drive to save time and disk space.

REASON 4

Investigate an incident by pulling deleted footage from a specific time window.

What's in the stack?

Python

How it stacks up

bmaltais/teslacam-recovery0verflowme/alarm-clock0verflowme/seclists
Language—CSS—
Last pushed2021-02-112022-10-032020-05-03
MaintenanceDormantDormantDormant
Setup difficultymoderateeasyeasy
Complexity3/52/51/5
Audiencedevelopervibe coderops devops

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you spin it up?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 1h+

Requires comfort with Python and filesystems, plus free disk space up to double the USB drive size.

Yoink these prompts

Prompt 1
Walk me through running teslacam-recovery on my TeslaCam USB drive to recover deleted videos.
Prompt 2
Help me find my USB drive's device name so I can use it with teslacam-recovery.
Prompt 3
Modify teslacam-recovery to scan only a specific section of the drive instead of the whole thing.
Prompt 4
Explain why some MP4s recovered by teslacam-recovery might not play, and how to work around fragmented files.

Frequently asked questions

wtf is teslacam-recovery?

A Python script that recovers deleted TeslaCam dashcam videos from a USB drive by scanning for leftover MP4 data.

Is teslacam-recovery actively maintained?

Dormant — no commits in 2+ years (last push 2021-02-11).

How hard is teslacam-recovery to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 1h+ to a first successful run.

Who is teslacam-recovery for?

Mainly developer.

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