## Aqara Camera Storage Full? How to Manage Your Recordings Effectively
An "Storage Full" notification from your Aqara camera can be alarming. It suggests your camera may no longer be recording new events, potentially leaving your home vulnerable. This issue typically arises from misconfigured settings or a misunderstanding of how your camera stores video footage.
This professional guide will explain the different storage options for your Aqara camera, show you how to manage them effectively, and ensure you never miss an important moment due to a full memory card.
### Understanding Your Storage Options
Aqara cameras offer several ways to store video, and you might be using more than one at the same time.
- Local MicroSD Card: This is the most common method. A physical card inserted into the camera records footage directly. You control the data, and there's no subscription fee.
- Aqara Cloud Storage: An optional subscription-based service that securely uploads short event clips to Aqara's servers. This provides an off-site backup if the camera is stolen or the SD card fails.
- HomeKit Secure Video (HKSV): For Apple users, HKSV stores event recordings in your personal iCloud+ account. This storage does not count against your regular iCloud storage limit.
- NAS (Network Attached Storage): Some advanced Aqara camera models can record directly to a personal NAS drive on your home network.
The "Storage Full" error almost always refers to the local microSD card.
## The Most Important Setting: Loop Recording
To prevent your camera from ever stopping its recording due to a full card, you must enable a feature called Loop Recording or Overwrite.
When loop recording is active, the camera will automatically delete the oldest, unprotected video file to make space for the newest one. This creates a continuous, rolling history of footage. For 99% of users, this should always be enabled.
### How to Enable Loop Recording:
- Step 1: Open the Aqara Home app and select your camera.
- Step 2: Go to the camera's Settings (often represented by a "..." icon).
- Step 3: Find the Storage Settings or SD Card Settings menu.
- Step 4: Ensure that the toggle for Loop Recording is turned ON.
## Managing Your MicroSD Card
Proper card management will prevent errors and ensure reliable performance.
### Formatting the SD Card
When you first insert a microSD card, or if the camera reports an error, you should format it using the app. This erases the card and sets it up with the correct file structure for the camera.
- In the Storage Settings menu within the Aqara Home app, you will find a Format SD Card option.
- Important: Formatting will permanently delete all footage on the card. Before you do this, make sure to download any important video clips to your phone.
### Saving and Deleting Clips
If loop recording is off and your card is full, you'll need to manually free up space.
- From the camera's live view, go to the Playback or Timeline section.
- Review your recorded clips. Most apps allow you to select and delete individual clips or entire days' worth of footage.
- Find any clips you want to keep and use the Download or Record button to save a copy directly to your smartphone's photo album.
- Once you have saved what you need, you can proceed to delete the old footage or simply format the card to start fresh (after enabling loop recording).
By ensuring loop recording is active and using a high-quality microSD card, you can adopt a "set it and forget it" approach, confident that your Aqara camera is always capturing the latest events.