- Guides
- Room camera and recording
Use a phone as a room camera, and record it
Put Camlane in Camera mode on the spare phone, connect it to a computer in Watch mode, and choose Motion only recording. The computer stores small encrypted recordings for a week by default, and the phone shows that it's being recorded.
Steps
- Put the phone in Camera mode
Open Camlane on the spare phone and choose Camera. It turns battery saver on, so the phone runs at 5 fps while the room is still.
- Put the computer in Watch mode
In the desktop app, switch to Watch. The computer becomes the recorder, and the camera wall opens.
- Connect the phone
On the phone, tap the computer and type the PIN once.
- Choose what to record
In Settings, Recording on the computer, choose Motion only (the default), Continuous or Off, for all cameras or per camera.
- Choose how long to keep it
Keep 1 day, 1 week (default), 1 month or 1 year, and optionally a size limit. Settings suggest a period that fits your free space.
- Mount and power the phone
Plug it in, set its battery settings so Android doesn't stop Camlane, and point it at your own space only.
Before you point it at anyone
Recording people can need their consent, and audio is treated more strictly than video in many places. Camlane records video only, never sound. Point cameras at your own space, never record bathrooms or rooms where guests sleep, and tell the people who live or work there. Recording people summarises the rules in the US, EU, UK and India. It isn’t legal advice.
Battery and heat
| Feature | What it does |
|---|---|
| Battery saver | Full frame rate while something moves or a face is in view, 5 fps after 3 seconds of stillness |
| Rest when unwatched | One picture a second while no tile, preview or app is showing the camera |
| Thermal steps | Lowers frame rate, then resolution, before Android throttles; back to normal after a cool minute |
| Battery report | Battery, charging, draw and time left, on the computer; a warning when a camera in battery saver runs on battery |
Plug the phone in if you can. Apply the battery settings for your brand so Android doesn’t stop Camlane with the screen off.
Recording settings
| Setting | Choices | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Record | Off, Motion only, Continuous; per camera too | Motion only |
| Quality | Small (360p, 10 fps), Standard (480p, 15 fps), High (the live stream) | Standard |
| Keep | 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year | 1 week |
| Size limit | Off, or a total for all cameras | Off |
| Encrypt recordings | On or off | On |
At Standard, one camera records about 3.2 MB per minute of video kept. Motion only keeps the minutes with motion plus one minute before and after, so a quiet room uses much less.
Where recordings go
On the recording computer, in its recordings folder (Settings → Recording shows it):
| System | Default folder |
|---|---|
| Linux | ~/.local/share/camlane/recordings |
| Windows | %APPDATA%\camlane\Camlane\data\recordings |
| macOS | ~/Library/Application Support/app.camlane.Camlane/recordings |
Each minute is encrypted with AES-256-GCM; the key is in your OS keyring. Use Back up key in Settings → Recording to save a copy: without the key, recordings can’t be opened.
If the computer is off
A phone in Camera mode records on itself while none of its computers answers, encrypted with a key that never leaves the phone, up to 5 GB and 1 week by default. When a computer is back, it uploads those minutes, oldest first, and deletes each only after the computer stored it. Settings → Recordings on the phone lists the computers it may store on, best first.
A computer without a screen
camlane-cli watch is the recorder without the desktop app:
camlane-cli watch --record motion --keep week --max-size 200GB
camlane-cli recordings list
camlane-cli recordings export --camera "Pixel 8" --from 14:05 --for 5m -o clip.mp4
On a headless Linux machine without a keyring, the key is kept in a file readable only by your user, or derived from CAMLANE_RECORDINGS_PASSPHRASE if you set it.
Next
Watch the cameras live, play recordings back and add more viewers: Watch mode and the camera wall.
Related guides
- Watch mode and camera wallSee every camera live on the camera wall, go full screen or pop cameras out, play recordings back at up to 100× and let other computers watch.
- Android setupInstall Camlane on an Android phone or tablet, allow its permissions, pair it with your computer and keep it streaming with the screen off.
- Private AITurn on Camlane's offline Private AI, install its models, opt cameras in, name people with their consent and read what happened each day.
Something not covered here? Email hello@camlane.live.