[Config Support]: Keeping records for 30 days but detection events forever

[420BlazeItBrah]

Describe the problem you are having

I'm trying to to keep all snapshots that occur and all detection events (the brief recordings). And only 30 days of 24/7 footage.
the 30 days of footage looks like it is working and rotating properly - I've been observing it for 2 months now. But, my events and snapshots are also rotating. I would like to keep those two (snapshots/events) forever.

Version

0.16-0

Frigate config file

mqtt:
  host: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  port: 1883
  topic_prefix: frigate
  user: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  password: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

go2rtc:
  streams:
    front_doorbell:
      - rtsp://xxxx:xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx:xxxxx/Preview_01_main
      - ffmpeg:front_doorbell#audio=opus
    front_doorbell_sub:
      - rtsp://xxxx:xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx:xxxxx/Preview_01_sub
      - ffmpeg:front_doorbell_sub#audio=opus
    front_walkway:
      - rtsp://xxxx:xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx:xxxxx/Preview_02_main
      - ffmpeg:front_walkway#audio=opus
    front_garage:
      - rtsp://xxxx:xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx:xxxxx/Preview_03_main
      - ffmpeg:front_garage#audio=opus
    indoor_storage:
      - rtsp://xxxx:xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx:xxxxx/Preview_05_main
      - ffmpeg:indoor_storage#audio=opus

  webrtc:
    listen: :8555
    candidates:
      - xxxxxxxxxxxx:8555
      - stun:8555

cameras:
#  front_garage:
#    ffmpeg:
#      inputs:
#        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/front_garage
#          roles:
#            - detect
#            - record
#    detect:
#      width: 3840
#      height: 2160
#      fps: 5
#      max_disappeared: 15
#      enabled: true
#    objects:
#      track:
#        - person
#        - dog
#        - cat
#        - car
#    motion:
#      threshold: 20
#    record:
#      enabled: true
#      retain:
#        days: 7
#        mode: all
#    snapshots:
#       enabled: true
#       timestamp: true
#       bounding_box: true
#       retain:
#         default: 7



  indoor_storage:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/indoor_storage
          roles:
            - detect
            - record
    detect:
      width: 4096 #7680
      height: 1152 #2160
      fps: 5
      max_disappeared: 15
      enabled: true
    objects:
      track:
        - person
    motion:
      threshold: 20
    record:
      enabled: true
      retain:
        days: 30
        mode: motion
    snapshots:
      enabled: true
      timestamp: true
      bounding_box: true
      retain:
        default: 0

  front_doorbell:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/front_doorbell
          roles:
            - detect
            - record
    detect:
      width: 1280
      height: 960
      fps: 5
      max_disappeared: 15
      enabled: true
    objects:
      track:
        - person
        - dog
        - cat
        - car
      filters:
        person:
          mask:
            - 0.821,0.532,0.907,0.551,0.888,0.558,0.887,0.582,0.859,0.583,0.855,0.633,0.841,0.632,0.847,0.598,0.843,0.577,0.827,0.566
            - 0.436,0.771,0.436,0.724,0.512,0.685,0.553,0.715,0.552,0.786,0.441,0.871,0.436,0.816
            - 0.436,0.771,0.436,0.749,0.552,0.686,0.556,0.713,0.55,0.848,0.449,0.942,0.428,0.809
            - 0.675,0.639,0.606,0.618,0.595,0.777,0.713,0.893,0.723,0.863,0.685,0.835,0.713,0.784,0.715,0.691
            - 0.995,0.641,0.588,0.571,0.588,0.518,0.802,0.442,0.921,0.437,0.929,0.53,0.997,0.551
        dog:
          mask:
            - 0.436,0.771,0.436,0.749,0.552,0.686,0.556,0.713,0.55,0.848,0.449,0.942,0.428,0.809
            - 0.675,0.639,0.606,0.618,0.595,0.777,0.713,0.893,0.723,0.863,0.685,0.835,0.713,0.784,0.715,0.691
            - 0.381,0.384,0.395,0.995,0.899,0.997,0.78,0.901,0.742,0.875,0.773,0.657,0.747,0.651,0.73,0.863,0.598,0.757,0.604,0.36,0.397,0.157
        cat:
          mask:
            - 0.436,0.771,0.436,0.749,0.552,0.686,0.556,0.713,0.55,0.848,0.449,0.942,0.428,0.809
            - 0.675,0.639,0.606,0.618,0.595,0.777,0.713,0.893,0.723,0.863,0.685,0.835,0.713,0.784,0.715,0.691
            - 0.362,0.158,0.426,0.161,0.581,0.353,0.606,0.364,0.591,0.786,0.716,0.919,0.753,0.606,0.781,0.611,0.744,0.878,0.892,0.989,0.296,0.994
      mask:
        - 0.436,0.771,0.436,0.749,0.552,0.686,0.556,0.713,0.55,0.848,0.449,0.942,0.428,0.809
        - 0.675,0.639,0.606,0.618,0.595,0.777,0.713,0.893,0.723,0.863,0.685,0.835,0.713,0.784,0.715,0.691
    motion:
      threshold: 30
      contour_area: 10
      improve_contrast: true
    record:
      enabled: true
      retain:
        days: 30
        mode: motion
    snapshots:
      enabled: true
      timestamp: true
      bounding_box: true
      retain:
        default: 0
    zones:
      Inside_Mudroom:
        coordinates: 0.414,0.94,0.568,0.786,0.583,0.783,0.774,0.998,0.426,0.996
        loitering_time: 0
      Walkway_Mudroom:
        coordinates: 1,0.741,1,0.836,0.907,1,0.842,0.947,0.82,0.925,0.961,0.779
        loitering_time: 0
        inertia: 3
        objects:
          - cat
          - dog
          - person
      Frontlawn_Mudroom:
        coordinates: 
          0.694,0.835,0.786,0.896,0.839,0.893,0.862,0.866,0.943,0.79,0.961,0.709,0.797,0.659,0.686,0.645,0.723,0.69,0.72,0.784
        loitering_time: 0
        inertia: 3
        objects:
          - cat
          - dog
          - person
    review:
      alerts:
        required_zones:
          - Inside_Mudroom
          - Walkway_Mudroom
          - Frontlawn_Mudroom
detect:
  enabled: true
version: 0.16-0
semantic_search:
  enabled: false
  model_size: small
face_recognition:
  enabled: true
  model_size: small
lpr:
  enabled: true
classification:
  bird:
    enabled: true

Relevant Frigate log output

N/A

Relevant go2rtc log output

N/A

Frigate stats

No response

Operating system

Other Linux

Install method

Docker Compose

docker-compose file or Docker CLI command

version: "3.9"
services:
  frigate:
    container_name: frigate
    image: ghcr.io/blakeblackshear/frigate:stable
    privileged: true
    restart: unless-stopped
    shm_size: "1gb"
    ports:
      - "5000:5000"   # Web UI
      - "1935:1935"   # RTMP
      - "8554:8554/tcp"   # webrtc?
      - "8555:8555/tcp"   # webrtc?
      - "8554:8554/udp"   # webrtc?
      - "8555:8555/udp"   # webrtc?
    environment:
      FRIGATE_RTSP_PASSWORD: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
    volumes:
      - ./config:/config
#      - ./media:/media/frigate
      - /mnt/frigate:/media/frigate

      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      - type: tmpfs
        target: /tmp/cache
        tmpfs:
          size: 100000000

Object Detector

CPU (no coral)

Screenshots of the Frigate UI's System metrics pages

No response

Any other information that may be helpful

No response

[inkeep-ai-assistant[bot]]

To keep detection events indefinitely while maintaining 30 days of continuous recordings, you need to configure the retain settings under record.alerts and record.detections separately from the main record.retain setting. (1)

For your use case, modify your camera's record configuration like this:

record:
  enabled: true
  retain:
    days: 30
    mode: motion
  alerts:
    retain:
      days: 0
  detections:
    retain:
      days: 0

(1)

Setting days: 0 for alerts and detections means those recordings will be retained indefinitely. (1)

For snapshots, setting retain.default: 0 (which you already have) should retain them indefinitely as well. (1)

Additionally, there's an API endpoint to manually set specific events to retain indefinitely:

POST https://demo.frigate.video/api/events/:event_id/retain

(2)

This is a legacy endpoint that sets an individual event to retain indefinitely. (2)

If your snapshots and events are still being deleted despite these settings, verify that:

• The configuration is applied at the camera level (not just globally)
• You've restarted Frigate after making changes
• Your storage isn't running out of space (which could trigger emergency cleanup)

📚 Sources:

1. Full Reference Config
2. Set event retain indefinitely

---

Have another question? Just tag @inkeep.

[hawkeye217]

The AI is incorrect here.

You should set days to a very large number rather than 0. Setting it at 0 will not cause them to be retained at all. For example:

record:
  enabled: true
  retain:
    days: 30
    mode: motion
  alerts:
    retain:
      days: 99999
  detections:
    retain:
      days: 99999

snapshots:
  enabled: true
  retain:
    default: 99999

Frigate's emergency clean up will run to remove retained footage when there is only an hour of recording storage left. But snapshots are not part of that emergency cleanup, so with this particular config above, your drive may eventually run out of space.

[420BlazeItBrah]

Awesome man. I'll try that. Thank you.