Archive

The archive plays what a recorder has written to its disks. Pick a channel, then a day. The timeline shows that day’s recordings, and the player runs them at speeds from ¼× to 8×.

Which devices have an archive

Watchpost reads the archive from recorders. A Xiongmai or Hikvision recorder gives its recordings over the device’s own protocol. A Hik-Connect account gives them through the cloud. A camera that records to its own memory card has no archive in the app. The app says This camera has no memory card and, if it knows which recorder channel records the camera, offers Open Archive of Channel N. ONVIF and Dahua devices have no archive.

Open the archive

Choose Archive (⌘2) with a recorder channel selected in the sidebar. You can also reach the archive from a camera with Show in Archive in the Camera menu, or from an event in Events.

Pick a day

The right column, Calendar and Clips (⌃⌘I), shows a month calendar. Days with recordings are marked. The Archive menu has Previous Day, Next Day and Today (⌘T). Oldest Recording and Newest Recording jump to the ends of what the device keeps. The status bar under the timeline gives the same range. Nothing is recorded after today, so Next Day is off on today.

The player

The time shows above the picture, in large figures. The label on the picture gives the channel and the clip that is playing: its time range, its length and its kind: Continuous, Motion, Alarm or Manual.

When no recording exists at the time you’re watching, the picture says No recording at this time and gives the start of the next clip. Skip Gaps Between Clips is on by default: playback jumps over the empty time between clips. Turn it off in the Archive menu to play the gaps as well.

Transport

Control	Shortcut	What it does
Previous clip	[	Jumps to the previous clip
Back 10 seconds	←	Steps back ten seconds
Play or pause	Space	Starts or stops playback
Forward 10 seconds	→	Steps forward ten seconds
Next clip	]	Jumps to the next clip
Next frame	.	Steps one frame, while paused
Speed		¼×, ½×, 1×, 2×, 4× or 8×
Sound		Turns the sound on or off. The sound is off above 2×
Save the frame	⇧⌘S	Saves the picture to Pictures/Watchpost

The timeline

The top strip shows the whole day. Drag it to move the visible window, or click it to jump. The track below it zooms: 24 h, 4 h, 1 h and 10 min. Recordings are drawn in colors by kind.

Click the track or drag across it to move the playhead. To pick part of the day for export, hold ⇧ and drag. The Export button then appears with the interval’s times.

Clips of the day

The Clips list in the right column shows Clips of the Day: how many clips there are and their total length. The clips are grouped by hour. Filter them by kind, or click a clip to play it. Save this clip as MP4 saves a single clip.

Export

Press ⌘E or choose Export… to save recordings. Review the channel, interval and destination. Xiongmai exports whole recorder clips overlapping the interval; Hikvision exports recording stretches within it. A single MP4 joins pieces with the gaps cut out. Separate MP4 clips and original Xiongmai files are also available.

See Export recordings for formats, destinations, cancellation, retry and the platform differences. Downloads (⌥⌘L on Mac) shows running jobs and their results.

The status bar

The bar under the timeline names the device, and says how the recordings are read: for example, Playback over DVRIP · main stream. The archive always plays the main stream. The bar also gives the disks of the device, with their size and free space, the range of recordings, and what the recorder does when its disks are full: it either overwrites the oldest recordings, or stops recording.

Empty states

If a day has no recordings, the app says No recordings on that day, with Show All Types and Go to the nearest day with recordings. If the list can’t load, the app shows Couldn’t load recordings with Try Again. Without a channel selected, the archive asks you to Choose a channel.

On iPhone and iPad

The Archive tab works with the same days and clips. The timeline and the clip list are two panes, Timeline and Clips. You can open the archive in full screen, and export from the toolbar. The Downloads button is in the toolbar too.

On Android

Open the Archive tab and choose a recorder channel. Android has a calendar, a timeline and clip list, playback speed controls, snapshots, export and Downloads. In portrait orientation, switch between Timeline and Clips; the player also has a landscape view.

Recordings are available from supported Xiongmai and Hikvision devices added by address. A Hik-Connect account is not yet supported on Android. ONVIF and HTTP cameras have no archive in Watchpost. Availability of playback and export also depends on the license of your build.

To change what the device records, use Recording schedules. Check the device clock when recordings appear at unexpected times.

For Mac keyboard controls and disabled commands, see Menus and shortcuts.