Install and connect

Step 6: Install

The install stage has three parts.

Connect the dashcam. Power the camera off, take the memory card out, and plug it into this computer. Give the browser access when it asks. If you connect the camera over USB instead, pick “Computer Connection” or “Storage Connection” on the camera’s screen when it asks. Cameras without a screen never ask: use the memory card.

Update your dashcam. Download the manufacturer’s firmware with the button on the page, then move the downloaded file onto the memory card. The page watches the card and moves on by itself when the file arrives.

Some manufacturers package the firmware differently, and the page tells you when it matters. Redtiger ships firmware as a ZIP archive, so extract it first and copy the enclosed .bin file onto the card. Redtiger also notes their updater may format the card during installation, so keep nothing else you need on it. Vantrue ships plain .bin files that go straight onto the card.

Install DashKeep. The browser patches the firmware in place and writes the DashKeep agent and its configuration onto the card. This can take a few minutes, so keep the page open and don’t unplug the card.

Step 7: Connect

Put the card back in the camera and power it on, somewhere within range of one of the networks you added. The camera does the rest. DashKeep connects by itself: you never enable the camera’s Wi-Fi yourself. The page updates the moment the camera connects to the cloud for the first time.

Leave the camera powered on and close to a window if you can. The first attempt runs in the minutes after power-on. If it misses, the camera retries whenever it counts as parked inside one of your home zones, and knowing where it is takes a GPS fix. A windowsill or any spot with a clear view of the sky works. A parking garage or a drawer may never get there, and an indoor bench test without GPS won’t either. If you need a connection without GPS at all, always-on Wi-Fi is the setting for that.

Don’t format the memory card if the camera asks. Formatting wipes the DashKeep setup.

Don’t switch on the camera’s own Wi-Fi menu, even while you wait. DashKeep manages the Wi-Fi radio itself, and the camera’s own hotspot keeps it from connecting. If you turned the hotspot on at any point, turn it off in the camera’s menu: the camera remembers that setting even across reboots.

If you close this page and come back later, the setup resumes on this step. There is no need to reinstall anything: as long as the card is in the camera and power is on, the connection lands here when it arrives.

Finish with Plan and what happens next.