Droid Dashcam FAQ (answers to frequent questions):

Q: Video Stabilization (EIS, Electronic stabilization) is not available in the app.

A: It's not supported by your current selected camera in the app settings (not all cameras support stabilization) or it's restricted by your device manufacture (which is very common). Manufacturers often restrict its use and it's available only for standard Camera app. You can read more about limitations for other apps here https://stackoverflow.com/a/66234509/7767664 It's known that Samsung S23 Ultra supports it for all apps now. So there mb some other newest phones which allow it as well. So for most older phones it won't be available.

Q: Multiple cameras / Ultra Wide Lens camera not available in the app.

A: Access to all cameras can be restricted by your device manufacture, they may not have exposed all cameras to be used by other apps. In such case it will be available only for standard Camera app. Usually all cameras available for any apps on Samsung and Pixel devices. For Pixel please use zoom out on the main screen to switch to ultra wide lens camera, for Samsung you can also change the camera in the settings. Most brand Chinese devices hides ultra wide lens camera for third party apps (from Google Play), though app still tries to find hidden cameras you may not be able to use it (there will be an error, so in this case you can only use default back or front cameras)

Q: Battery usage is high, battery drains fast, device becomes hot (Over heat).

A: Well.. let's figure it out. First it's not just another social app which usually just needs only Internet from your device, it's a dashcam app which needs quite a lot of modules of your device:

• GPS module (to get speed and coordinates to draw them all as labels on video frames)
• Network cellular module (GPS module can use it and app needs it to get the current address from GPS coordinates)
• Camera (video recording)
• Microphone (audio recording)
• Android native media recorder module (which uses CPU and GPU of device to encode video and to draw subtitles on each camera frame)

Looks much difficult than a social app, doesn't? :)

So basically it's not issue of the app, all these modules will may drain your battery.

But to save battery you can lower values of some settings or disable them, for example:

• set lower video resolution at "Settings/Video Settings/Video resolution" (usually it's 1920x1080 by default, set it 1280x720 or lower)
• set lower values of FPS range at "Settings/Video Settings/Max frames per second", it's not recommended to set it 60 FPS, it's better to use 24
• RECOMMENDED: disable address subtitles at "Settings/Subtitles Settings/Subtitles Address Overlay" and "Settings/Interface/Select elements to be shown on screen". Because app uses your cellular data to fetch the current address from Google service on each location update. Or make updates less frequent, you can do it at "Settings/Subtitles Settings/Update Address Frequency"
• disable audio recording at "Settings/Audio Settings/Audio recording" (uses your device microphone)
• record videos with screen (display) turned off or lower brightness of your device's display at the system settings
• use only GPS satellites for updating your location and disable cellular data (to disable Google location network service), you can do it by opening "Settings/Other settings", for "Location provider method" option select "Location Manager" and then enable "Update location using GPS only" option. It also may improve GPS coordinates and speed accuracy when using only GPS satellites.

And you have to use a good charger for your device in the car. You should no use the app without charger.

There is also an option “Keep the CPU on (Wake Lock)” at the "Settings / AutoStart Recording" screen, which can be disabled to save the battery power while app waits for events (BT, AUX, Charging) to autostart recording.

Q: Recording from two cameras (back and front) at the same time.

A: Not all phones support capture from two cameras at the same time (there are seem to be very few devices which support it). Only in Android 11+ was added the ability to check if a device supports the use of two cameras at the same time or not. The performance will be greatly affected (and battery), because frames need to be processed from two cameras, drawing subtitles on each frame from two cameras and video encoding into two video files. So for now low priority, when there will be many devices on Android 11+, more powerfull and which supports the use of two cameras then it such feature may be implemented. You can try our other app "Dual Camera Video Recorder" which supports dual camera recording, though it doesn't have dashcam features (GPS, subtitles and autostart recording options). Also your device may not support dual camera recording (Samsung A series), it works for Android 12+ on Samsung S series, Pixel and some other devices - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.helge.dualcameravideorecorder

Q: Problems with the memory card (microSD) - does not delete files / there are no files on the card, but the memory is full

A: Some smartphones can work bad with continuous recording and files deleting (loop recording) on SD cards. You can try a different SD card (much less capacity, a better class, different manufacture) or record to built-in phone storage instead which is more stable. For the app it doesn't matter where to write video files - the logic is the same for both phone storage and SD card, so there something wrong can be with Android OS or SD card itself. Solutions: try to format it, limit the maximum volume for video recording on the card (Settings/Other settings/Max. volume of all videos), do not allow it to fill all the space of the card, otherwise there will be glitches, buy another card, of a higher quality class, a desirable small volume, record to the phone memory instead of an external microSD card. Also some users reported that if you connect a corrupted SD card to PC to access files and then you can fix it for Android device without formatting by deleting some failed recent recordings.

Q: 4K/8K resolutions, 60 FPS (frames per second) not available in the app.

A: Many phone manufactures don't allow high resolutions (4k/8K) for third-party apps (installed from Goodge Play), so it will be available only for their native camera app, also 60 FPS is usually available only to for native camera app. So developers don't restrict anything, the system (phone manufacture) may restrict. For example 4K resolution and 60 FPS are available on modern devices like Samsung S24 Ultra in any apps.

Q: The App, Camera or GPS does not work in the background, after a while the camera/app in the background turns off, error happens.

A: It only depends on user's phone, because it's a system error and the application cannot control it in any way. Often such problems happen with Huawei and also with other Chinese devices. On Samsung (at least with S series) and Pixel it should work without problems in the background. Possible solutions: it's important to exclude the app from battery optimization - make it unrestricted (energy battery saving) and other background restrictions (if available on your phone) so that the app can run in the background without interruption. Also please read about your phone at https://dontkillmyapp.com/ For the GPS there is also background location permission, please grant it for the app if you didn't do it before.

Q: GPS - bad speed values, GPS accuracy

A: First: Please test GPS and Speed detection only outside! The app only takes speed values ​​from the GPS module of your device. You need to make sure that a phone has a good signal to satellites, do not test in closed buildings, there are cases that when a phone is connected to the car outlet (charger) the GPS error increases or other interference in the car can cause it. You can check GPS accuracy (error in meters) using the following application https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eclipsim.gpsstatus2 (test it in a car with a charger and just on the street - on foot, without charger, and compare GPS error/accuracy). There are also two methods for getting location in Android. In Droid Dashcam, you can change the method in "Settings/Other settings". If the speed values ​​are bad, then try the old "Location Manager" method. If the values ​​are zero or are rarely updated, then try the new "Fused Location Provider API" method. To get the most accurate speed you can go to "Settings/Other Settings/Location (GPS) provider method" and set it to "Location Manager", also enable "Update location using GPS only".

Q: HEAD UNIT, CAR RADIO (it works/doesn't work?)

A: This app was made for smartphones and should be stable only for them. It may not work for most car head units because usually all of them are brand-Chinese and made differently, not following official Android specifications. Some users report that it works on their head unit device and some report it doesn't, so it's 50/50. If you already have such device then you can just try it. But if are just going to buy it then it may not work with this app (taking a risk)

Q: BACKUP / RESTORE A DELETED VIDEO FILE

A: Videos are saved locally but please use Google Drive / OneDrive apps to backup your videos or any other cloud apps. If you had them installed before, please check those apps (they may haved sync your videos already, if not then add the folder of DroidDashcam videos folder to the cloud app)

Q: CAN'T PLAY VIDEO, BROKEN VIDEO FILE, UNPLAYABLE, RESTORE VIDEO FILE

A: You can try to play them on PC, also you can try to restore broken files using some recover video apps (available for Android and Windows), such apps need any other non-broken (playable) video with similar quality (just copy a non-broken video from DroidDashcam) to fix a broken one.

For example you try https://fix.video/ website to fix your corrupted records.

Q: Start/stop recording from another application (Tasker, Automate), and it works for Android 14 as well

A: You can start/stop recording from another application by starting an Activity of Droid Dashcam using the Intent:

Package - com.helge.droiddashcam

Activity class - com.helge.droiddashcam.ui.ActivityStartRecording

Action - com.helge.droiddashcam.START_RECORDING or com.helge.droiddashcam.STOP_RECORDING

An example of starting recording with Automate:

An example of starting recording with Tasker:

For both Automate and Tasker apps you need to grant "Appear on top" permission:

Q: NIGHT RECORDING

A: To improve recording in the dark, select the correct FPS range - the first value should be minimal, the second higher, for example 8-30, 8-24, 5-24, 10-24. Lower value is usually set for night mode because it improves visibility. Also select infinity focus for night mode. Then it all depends on the phone, the app can't change camera hardware to make it recording better or worse in the dark.

Q: PHONE CALL - AUDIO RECORDING NOT WORKING DURING A PHONE CALL (also some devices may not allow camera to be running at this time as well)

A: So during a call most phones in many countries do not allow you to use the microphone in other apps. It's known that in countries like India it's allowed to record your phone calls, so it may work only in such countries but it also depends on phone limitations itself.