Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

Most install problems fall into a few buckets. If your issue isn't here, ping Discord — answers come fast and we'll add common ones to this page over time.

Can't reach http://sentryusb.local

The Pi is up but its hostname isn't resolving on your network.

Try:

1. Open your router's admin page and confirm the Pi shows up as sentryusb. Use the IP directly in your browser instead (e.g., http://192.168.1.47).
2. On Windows, install Bonjour Print Services — Windows doesn't ship with mDNS by default.
3. Some corporate / mesh / guest WiFi networks block mDNS broadcasts. Try a different network or use the IP.

Tesla dashcam icon never appears

The car isn't seeing the Pi as a USB drive.

Try:

1. Check the cable — make sure it's a USB data cable, not charge-only. The cheap ones bundled with most USB chargers are charge-only.
2. Plug the Pi into a different USB port on the Tesla. Newer cars: glovebox port. Older cars: front console ports.
3. Power-cycle the Pi (unplug, wait 5 seconds, plug back in).
4. SSH into the Pi and check the USB gadget service: systemctl status sentryusb-gadget.

CIFS/SMB connection fails

Try:

1. Re-run the Setup Wizard → Archive step → fill in CIFS Version as 2.0 or 1.0 (some older NAS devices reject SMB3 negotiation).
2. Check your password — special characters sometimes need escaping; try a simpler password as a test.
3. From the Pi, try mounting manually:

   sudo mount -t cifs //<server>/<share> /mnt -o username=<user>

   If that errors, the error message tells you exactly what's wrong.

"Reinstall required" banner in Settings

Your Pi is running the old Go version of Sentry USB and the auto-updater has been disabled because it can't safely upgrade in place. See Rusty Migration for the re-image steps. sentryusb.conf survives.

Still stuck?

• Discord — fastest help, real humans
• Open an issue — for reproducible bugs
• Include: Pi model, what step you're stuck on, exact error message, and the output of journalctl -u sentryusb -n 100 if relevant.