Recording schedules

These settings change what a camera or recorder writes to its own storage. Open Device Settings and choose Recording. Xiongmai also has a separate Snapshots section for pictures saved by the device. To copy existing footage to your computer or phone, use Export recordings.

The dedicated forms below are available in the Apple apps when the device supports their blocks. Android uses the advanced editor for supported recording blocks. ONVIF does not offer this recording-schedule form in Watchpost.

Choose a channel and recording mode

For Xiongmai, select the channel and, when offered, Main Stream or Sub Stream. Sub-stream recording is an additional recording using extra disk space; enabling it does not replace the main recording.

Xiongmai mode	Effect
By schedule	Uses the weekly schedule and its selected recording types
Always	Records continuously regardless of the schedule
Off	Turns off recording for that selection

The form can also offer file length, recording before an event and duplication to a redundancy disk. The displayed fields depend on the device. A setting for a redundancy disk does not create or prepare such a disk.

For Hikvision, select the recording track. Its label identifies the channel and names a sub stream or another stream where applicable. Enable Record by schedule and edit the schedule below. Depending on the track, the form can offer pre-record and post-record duration, Record sound, overwrite when full and retention in days. A retention value of 0 means keeping recordings until the disk needs space for new ones; it does not promise unlimited storage.

Draw the week

The editor uses half-hour cells in device time. Select what to draw, then drag across a day. Starting on a cell that already has that selection erases it. Use the day menu for a whole day, clearing a day, or copying it to all days or weekdays. Whole Week and Clear All affect the week.

Xiongmai lets a period contain a combination of Continuous, Motion and Alarm. Hikvision assigns one mode to a period, such as continuous, motion, alarm or a combined mode reported by the device. Unknown Hikvision modes can appear by their service names.

The number of periods per day is limited by the device. If drawing would exceed it, the editor warns and refuses that stroke. Simplify the day’s schedule before continuing.

An existing schedule can have boundaries finer than half an hour. Unedited days retain their original times. Editing or copying a day writes that day’s half-hour representation, so review the resulting boundaries if exact minute-level times matter.

Schedules remain editable while another mode is selected, but the device uses them only when scheduled recording is active. Drawing alone does not enable it.

Enable the event too

Motion or alarm recording also requires the relevant detection or alarm input on the device. For Xiongmai, the event’s actions must include recording the intended channels. For Hikvision, enable the event and check its recording actions in the device’s settings.

A colored motion lane in the schedule is not evidence of a working event. After writing, trigger a suitable test event on your test installation and check the resulting archive.

Copy, review and write

Where Copy to Other Channels… is available, choose the destination channels or tracks. Xiongmai copies the selected recording block’s channel settings, including its schedule. Hikvision copies supported recording options and the schedule while preserving the target track’s identity and source. Review every destination before writing.

Copies and schedule edits remain drafts until Apply… → Write. Discard drops the pending block edits. A block can contain several channels, so the review may include more than the currently selected channel. Canceling the review keeps the draft.

The device must have usable recording storage. Watchpost can show a no-disk warning, but the absence of that warning does not confirm a healthy, writable disk. Check device information and a new recording after applying. If a write fails, inspect the returned state before retrying; multi-item writes can have changed part of the configuration.

Device snapshots

In Xiongmai’s Snapshots section, choose the channel, mode and schedule for pictures on the device’s disk or memory card. Always requests regular snapshots regardless of the weekly schedule; scheduled mode uses timed, motion or alarm periods. Other fields appear only when the device supplies them.

These pictures are separate from the frame you save with Watchpost’s snapshot action. They do not go to the app’s Snapshots folder. The Hikvision recording form does not provide an equivalent dedicated snapshot-schedule section.

Configure the detector and its active hours with Detection and video analytics, and its recording action with Alarms and event actions.