How to Troubleshoot Blink Local Storage

Authored by: Support.com Tech Pro Team

1. Introduction

How to Troubleshoot Blink Local Storage

2. Clip Backup

Blink Subscription
With an active Blink Subscription, your clips are saved to Cloud storage, and a once-daily Clip Backup is saved to the USB drive

Normally, once per day, the Clip Backup downloads all unsaved clips in cloud storage. If you do not have any new clips, none are available to be downloaded. If a download is interrupted or fails, any unsaved files wait until the next opportunity.

Clip Backups are not viewable in the Clip list. To view Clip Backup files, the USB drive must be safely ejected from the Sync Module 2 and moved to a computer or similar device.

If a backup (or save) does not complete, here are some of the most common causes

1. USB drive not functioning properly
2. The clip is in the most recent backup
3. USB storage device full
4. Internet is not reliable
5. Sync Module online and functioning
6. The has account logged out

3. Device

4. Local Storage

For a Sync Module 2 with an inserted USB drive, and not attached to a Blink Subscription Plan, Motion clips are stored 'locally' from Blink Outdoor, Indoor (gen 2), and Mini cameras. The new Blink Video Doorbell can save clips to Local Storage when it is added to your Sync Module 2 system.

Local Storage clips are viewable in the Blink app Clip List.

Local Storage begins automatically when your Sync Module 2 has a recognized USB drive inserted and it is not connected to a subscription.

When you connect a single device to a Blink Basic Subscription Plan, all other cameras on that Sync Module 2, and all other Sync Module 2 on the account are automatically configured for Local Storage. Simply insert an appropriate USB drive to begin using Local Storage with the other systems.

Steps to troubleshoot Local Storage

• Reboot the Sync Module: unplug and plug in the power cable.
• Safely eject the USB storage drive, and insert it again into the Sync Module 2.
• Delete the sync Module 2 from your system, and add it again

5. ExFAT Format

Reformatting the USB drive on your computer can help with some issues. Use the ExFAT format type.

6. Windows

To format a drive to exFAT on a PC

1. Insert the drive into your Windows computer and open File Explorer.
2. Find the USB drive, and Right click on it to open a contextual menu.
3. Select "Format".
4. Under the "File System" select "exFAT" and click "Start".
5. When the "Format Complete" message appears, you can eject the drive.

7. USB drive

USB drives are known for being reliable and convenient. If your clips are not being saved on USB for a system that is working, it is possible the drive has become corrupted. The most common cause is internet dropouts during clip saving

To troubleshoot your USB drive, the easiest action is to reformat the drive using exFAT, on your Mac or PC computer. However, it may be best to use a new drive, in case a manufacturing defect is the cause of drive failure

It is very important to tap the "Safe Eject" button in the Blink app before you remove the USB drive from the Sync Module 2

8. Safe Eject

Reach the "Safe Eject USB" button in the Blink app when you tap the Sync Module banner, then tap Local Storage as shown in the images.

Now, wait to receive the "USB Disconnected" message. When the USB icon changes to 'inactive' as shown below, you can remove the drive from your Sync Module 2.

9. MacOS

To format a drive to exFAT with Mac OS 

1.  Insert the drive into your Mac computer and open a Finder window to access the USB drive.
2. Use Launchpad to find the Disk Utility.
3. In the Disk Utility, click on the USB drive and click "Erase".
4. Tap the selector next to "Format" and choose "exFAT", leaving the other settings at their default.
5. Tap the "Erase" button to begin formatting.
6. When complete, click the  "Done" button to close the formatting dialog.
7. Finally, click the eject icon to the Right of the disk in the Disk Utility.

10. ChromeOS

To format a drive to exFAT on Chromebook

1. Insert USB drive into your Chromebook and open the Files App.
2. Click on the Settings icon (3 dot icon) at the top right corner to open a contextual menu.
3. Select "Format device".
4. Under "Format", click on the down-arrow button and select "exFAT".
5. Click on "Erase and Format" button.
6. Watch for the "Format Complete" prompt to display on the bottom right of the File App.

11. Networking Issues

Blocked Port or Denied AccessSome Wi-Fi or other network equipment, may be configured to only allow certain network communication. Some network settings and firewalls can block ports and servers that Blink products rely on to communicate.

Blink products use Port 443, it should always be available for these devices.

To add Blink servers to your access list, the address is:     *.immedia-semi.com

Stale Manifest

You may also receive a "Stale Manifest" notification when the Sync Module 2 was not able to check in with the main Blink servers.

• Be sure that your Wi-Fi network and equipment provides 2 MB per second or more of upload speed* at all times.
• Be sure the power to your Sync Module is always on

*Upload speed is how fast you can send data from your location to the Blink servers. Most internet providers have a big difference between download speeds (that they advertise) and upload speed (which you often have to look for)