Should I format a Tesla USB drive as exFAT or FAT32?

Either is accepted — Tesla's manual lists exFAT, MS-DOS FAT (FAT32), ext3 and ext4, and rules out NTFS. Use exFAT: it is what the car chooses when it formats a drive itself, and it has no 4 GB single-file limit.

Does formatting a Tesla USB drive delete my Sentry Mode clips?

It removes them from the file system's index, so they no longer show up — but the video data stays on the drive until the car records over it. If the drive held footage you need, stop using it in the car and recover from it before formatting or reinserting it.

Which USB port do I use for the dashcam drive?

A front USB port, or the glovebox USB port on cars that have one. The rear ports only charge devices and cannot record video.

How to Format a USB Drive for Tesla Dashcam and Sentry Mode (Car, Mac or Windows)

Formatting erases the drive's index — not necessarily the footage

If the drive already holds Sentry or Dashcam clips you may need, don't format it yet. A format only rewrites the file system's table of contents; the video stays on the flash until the car records over it, which is why it can still be recovered. Read what formatting does to Tesla dashcam data first, or go straight to the recovery guide.

What Tesla requires of the drive

Tesla's owner's manual lists four requirements for a drive used to record video. A drive that misses any of them will either not be recognised or will drop recordings:

At least 64 GB of storage. Bigger is fine — the car uses the extra space to keep more footage before it starts overwriting the oldest clips.
A sustained write speed of at least 4 MB/s. "Sustained" is the word that matters: many cheap sticks advertise a high peak speed but cannot hold 4 MB/s for the hours the car needs.
USB 2.0 compatibility. A USB 3.x drive is fine as long as it also works over USB 2.0 (almost all do).
One of these file systems: exFAT, MS-DOS FAT (what Disk Utility calls FAT32), ext3 or ext4. NTFS is not supported. When the car formats a drive itself it chooses exFAT.

Plus one folder: a directory named exactly TeslaCam at the root of the drive. The car formats and creates it for you with the in-car option; if you format on a computer, you create it yourself.

Option 1 — format it in the car (recommended)

Plug the drive into a front USB port or the glovebox USB port if your car has one. Rear ports only charge devices and cannot record.
On the touchscreen open Controls › Safety and tap Format USB Drive. (The menu label can vary slightly between software versions — it lives under Safety, sometimes shown as Safety & Security.)
Confirm. The car erases the drive, formats it as exFAT and creates the TeslaCam folder — and a TeslaTrackMode folder on cars that have Track Mode.
A camera icon appears at the top of the screen once the drive is ready. Tap it to save a clip and check that the save succeeds.

This is the option to use whenever you can. It matches whatever the car expects from its own recordings, and there is nothing to get wrong on a computer afterwards.

Option 2 — format it on a Mac

Plug the drive in and open Disk Utility (Applications › Utilities, or search for it with Spotlight).
In the menu bar choose View › Show All Devices, then select the drive itself in the sidebar — the top-level entry, not the volume nested under it.
Click Erase. Give it a name (for example TESLACAM) and set Format to ExFAT. Leave the other options at their defaults and click Erase again.
Open the drive in Finder and create a new folder at its root named exactly TeslaCam (capital T, capital C, no space).
Eject the drive from Finder before unplugging it.

Disk Utility also offers MS-DOS (FAT), which Tesla accepts, but exFAT is what the car uses for its own formatting and has no 4 GB single-file limit, so there is no reason to choose FAT32 today.

Option 3 — format it on Windows

Plug the drive in and open File Explorer › This PC.
Right-click the drive and choose Format…. Set File system to exFAT, leave Allocation unit size at its default, keep Quick Format ticked and click Start.
Open the drive and create a new folder at its root named exactly TeslaCam.
Use Safely Remove Hardware (the tray icon) before unplugging it.

If Windows only offers NTFS and FAT32 for the drive, it is usually because a card reader or an old partition table is in the way — try a different port or reader; the car cannot use NTFS.

After formatting: check it records

Insert the drive into a front or glovebox port and wait a few seconds for the camera icon.
Tap the icon to save a clip, then confirm on a computer that TeslaCam/SavedClips/ now contains a folder with MP4 files in it.
If the icon never appears, the usual causes are: the folder is missing or misspelt, the drive is NTFS, the drive is in a rear port, or the drive is too slow to sustain 4 MB/s.

If the drive had footage on it

A format — in the car or on a computer — replaces the file system's index and leaves the clip data in place until new recordings overwrite it. So if you formatted a drive that held an event you need, stop using it in the car and recover from it before it records again. What formatting does to the data explains why the footage survives; the recovery guide walks through getting it back; and how long footage stays recoverable covers the timing.

Sources & references

Tesla owner's manual — USB Drive Requirements for Recording Videos (capacity, sustained write speed, USB 2.0, supported file systems, in-car formatting)
Tesla owner's manual — Dashcam & Sentry Mode (TeslaCam folder, ports)
Apple — Erase and reformat a storage device in Disk Utility
Microsoft exFAT file system specification

How do I format a USB drive for Tesla Dashcam and Sentry Mode?