Understanding Storage on Your August Smart Lock and Doorbell
If you've recently purchased an August smart lock or doorbell camera, you might be looking for an SD card slot or settings for local storage. It's a common question for new users who want to know how their video clips and activity logs are saved. This guide clarifies how August devices handle storage, explaining why you won't find a local storage option.
Understanding this is key to getting the most out of your August home security products.
### August's Cloud-First Storage Model
The primary and exclusive method for storing video from devices like the August View Doorbell Camera is through August's secure cloud storage. This is a deliberate design choice made for several important reasons.
- Security and Reliability: If a burglar were to damage or steal your doorbell, any footage stored on a local microSD card would be lost with it. By instantly uploading footage to the cloud, the evidence is preserved securely off-site, accessible only through your account.
- Accessibility: Cloud storage allows you to access your video clips and activity history from anywhere in the world via the August app on your smartphone. You don't need to be on your home Wi-Fi network to see what's happening.
- Smart Features: Storing data in the cloud enables August to offer advanced features like smart alerts that can differentiate between people, packages, and general motion. These computational features are processed on their servers.
## What This Means For You
Because August devices are designed this way, there is no physical microSD card slot on the hardware. All recorded events are sent directly to the cloud.
### Subscription Requirements
To access a history of your recorded video clips, an August subscription plan is required. Without a subscription, you can typically still receive real-time notifications and use the live view function, but the videos of events will not be stored for you to review later. These subscription plans provide a certain number of days of video history (e.g., 30 days), allowing you to look back at past events.
### How to Save Your Important Video Clips
While you cannot store videos directly on the device, you can save important clips permanently.
- Open the August App: Navigate to your activity feed where recorded events are listed.
- Select the Clip: Find and play the video clip you wish to save.
- Download to Your Phone: While viewing the clip, there will be a 'Download' or 'Share' icon. Tapping this will save the video file directly to your smartphone's internal storage or photo gallery.
Once downloaded to your phone, you can then back it up to your personal computer, a separate cloud service like Google Drive or Dropbox, or an external hard drive. This is the recommended method for permanently archiving any critical footage from your August device.
While the lack of local storage may be different from other brands, August's cloud-centric approach is designed to provide a secure and accessible experience for its users.