Do IP cameras record continuously?

They absolutely can, but they usually give you two operational modes depending on how you want to manage your storage capacity:

• Continuous (24/7) Recording: The camera captures and saves every single second of the day, even if it’s just staring at an empty, static hallway for hours. This provides an airtight security audit trail but acts as a massive data hog, requiring large-capacity hard drives.

• Event-Based (Motion Detection) Recording: The camera stays alert but only saves a video clip when its software detects a change in pixels, like a car pulling into the driveway or a door opening. This smart approach compresses days of monitoring into just a few minutes of meaningful footage, saving massive amounts of storage space.

Discover the drawbacks of saving massive non-stop video files by reading about the disadvantages of an IP camera.