Archive Recorded Video Footage
Learn how Verkada Command makes it easy to archive recorded video footage
Your Verkada Command cloud software licenses include unlimited storage for archived video clips. For legal purposes, all archived footage includes a watermark in the top corner.
Permissions
You must have Site Viewer or Site Admin access to archive footage from your cameras. While Site Admins can create public and private archives, Site Viewers can only create public archives.
Public archives are viewable by anyone who can view the associated camera’s historical footage (Site Admins and Site Viewers).
Private archives are only viewable by the user who created the archive and Org Admins.
Manage access to archives
Org Admins can control how much access users have to archives, including creating private archives, sharing, and deleting them.
In Verkada Command, go to All Products > Admin.
At the top, select Org Settings > Roles & Permissions Customization.
Manage your roles and permissions:
For Camera Roles, click Edit to configure the camera permissions that you want to grant to different roles.
For Admin Roles, click Edit to configure the admin permissions that you want to grant to different roles.
Click Save when you’ve completed your settings.
You should see the current permissions that Site Viewers and Site Admins have, adjust these permissions, or click Restore Default Settings to return to the default if desired. Changes apply to all Site Admins and Site Viewers in the org.
The Archive Limited Permissions toggle disables creating, deleting, and sharing archives for all users who are not an Org Admin.
As a general rule, the longer the video clip, the longer it takes the system to archive the footage.
Set the maximum archive duration
The Maximum Archive Duration setting limits the duration of archived videos. You can set this from a minimum of 1 minute to a maximum of 24 hours.
In Verkada Command, go to All Products > Cameras.
From the menu, click Settings.
Click Maximum Archive Duration and set the amount of time to archive. Use the dropdown next to the selected time to toggle this setting between minutes and hours.
Manage archives
You can create an archive from Command, from multiple cameras, in ePTZ mode, or from a mobile app.
Archive footage from Command
In Verkada Command, go to All Products > Cameras.
Select a camera to archive.
At the bottom of the camera footage, select the Archive tab and click Add Archive.
Enter the date and time you want to archive.
(Optional) You can add Notes and uncheck Share with Organization to make it a private archive (not available to Site Viewers).
Click Next.
Select your retention period.
Click Save Archive.
Once the archive is complete, you can view it from the camera’s Archive tab or from the global Archive tab on the Home page.
Archive footage from multiple cameras
When you archive footage from multiple cameras (covering the same time interval), you have the option to create a multi-camera archive. This feature is particularly useful when you need to archive footage from multiple angles, all captured by different cameras during a single event.
When you generate a multicamera archive, Command creates separate archives for each selected camera and an additional combined archive. This archive displays a grid layout that features footage from all selected cameras.
In Verkada Command, go to All Products > Cameras.
Select a camera to view recorded footage. (You can add up to 4 cameras to view while on the player.)
In the player's right menu, click the scissor icon to create an archive.
Enter or click the start and end date and time you want to archive.
The timeframe you select is highlighted on the timeline.
On the Archive menu, toggle on Create Multi-Camera archive.
Click Next, then Save Archive to start generating the archives.
Once all the archives are complete, you can view them from the global Archive tab on the Home page.
Archive footage in ePTZ mode
If you have a camera in ePTZ mode, you can archive footage and make use of the ePTZ feature.
If the camera is not currently recording in ePTZ mode, you cannot use this feature.
In Verkada Command, go to All Products > Cameras.
Select the desired camera (already in ePTZ mode).
Choose ePTZ playback mode from the bottom left video selector.
Select the Archive tab and click Add Archive. If you’re on the history player, on the right, click the scissor icon to create an archive.
Enter the date and time you want to archive.
Click Record ePTZ Poses. You can explore the image in ePTZ mode, and once you are ready, click Start Recording.
When you are satisfied with the footage, click Stop.
(Optional) Preview the ePTZ poses or delete the poses.
(Optional) Under Advanced Settings, choose to add the footage to an incident.
Click Save. Once the archive is complete, you can view it from the camera’s Archive tab or from the global Archive tab on the Home page.
Archive footage from a mobile app
In Verkada Command, go to All Products > Cameras.
Select the feed of the camera you want to archive.
Click the menu icon and select Create Archive.
Scroll to the start time of the event you want to capture.
Set the start time (use the left bracket at the bottom).
Scroll to the end time of the event and set the end time (use the right bracket (>) at the bottom).
Click the checkmark icon to initialize the archive.
(Optional) When the archive dialog box opens, choose to Make private (only available to Org Admins) or add Notes.
Select Done to complete or Cancel to exit.
The newly started archive should show as Retrieving from camera until the footage has finished uploading to the cloud.
View archives
In Verkada Command, go to All Products > Cameras.
On the left navigation, select Archives.
Several features are available to improve your archive viewing experience:
Archives default to Newest First. In the top right, you can change the sort order:
Oldest First
Latest Footage
Earliest Footage
Hover over an archive and click the ellipsis to select:
Make the Archive Private or Public (displays the opposite of the current setting)
Download the Archive
Delete The Archive
View archive progress
You can monitor the status of your archives while they are being processed from the camera’s Archive tab or from the global Archive tab on the Home page:
Backup Progress: To view the status of footage being archived to the cloud, click the Cloud icon next to the search bar.
Download Preparation: To see if an archive is ready for local download, click X file(s) prepared next to the sorting options. This shows the progress of the MP4 file generation.
Archive retention periods
Archives offer a configurable retention period upon creation. This allows archives to be automatically deleted after a set number of years to maintain compliance. After an archive is created, you can update the retention period by following these steps:
If you do not set a retention period, the archive is retained as long as your organization remains license-compliant.
In Verkada Command, go to All Products > Cameras.
Select an archive.
On the right, next to Expires at, click Change.
From the dropdown, select a new retention period for automatic deletion, or choose Do Not Set to keep the archive as long as your organization remains license compliant.
Once an archive is automatically deleted, it cannot be recovered.
Once a historical clip has been archived, you can download it as an MP4 file for external storage, as needed. You can only download archives from Command; however, you can share the link to an archived clip from any platform.
In Verkada Command, go to All Products > Cameras.
In the left navigation, select Archives.
In the top left of the archive you want to download, click 
> Prepare for Download.
Select the position for the Timestamp Location.
Toggle on Blur Faces.
Click Next > Prepare Download.
Click Start Download to save the archive to your default Downloads folder.
If a camera is deleted from an organization, the archive is stored under All Products > Cameras > Archives. The archive is then marked as Unknown Camera and only Org Admins have the capability to download and share the unlinked archive.
Prefer to see it in action? Check out the video tutorial.
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