Ability to import / backfill ?

[tfindlay-au]

Hi Folks,

A question about the API endpoints - if I manually drop an MP4 file in the recordings, is there any way to register it in Frigate via the API ?

I looked at the media endpoints, lots of GET calls to pull things out of Frigate, but nothing to put stuff in. I presume this is a design constraint, where Frigate can only consume video from RTSP/ONVIF and there is no ability to "backfill" prior footage.

I think there's a heap of use cases for this sort of function, such as:

1. Backfilling existing footage into Frigate, such as migrating from other tools
2. Restoring missed footage if there was a network outage and a camera could not be reached
3. In my case dropping dashcam footage from vehicles into Frigate, footage is always backfilled when a truck returns.

The pattern is - If video is available after the fact that is not real-time, I think there should be a way to post it into Fridgate with a specific timestamp, Frigate can register it in its internal database and consumers can the access the backfilled footage via the UI.

[hawkeye217]

No, this is not possible. There is no mechanism for any of this - it would require a significant refactor of the way Frigate works in general.

[tfindlay-au]

Thanks for confirming Josh, this is what I suspected, but I was optimistic.