Dash Cam Showing the Wrong Date and Time? How to Fix It for Good
Charles Alexis
A dash cam with the wrong date or time can make good footage much harder to use when you actually need it.
Why the timestamp matters
Insurers, the police and TfL licensing all want to know exactly when something happened. If your footage says the collision happened at 3am in 2019 when it was 5pm last Tuesday, the other side has an easy way to question it.
You can usually still use the footage, but it is extra hassle and doubt you do not need.
Why dash cams lose the time
The internal battery or supercapacitor is worn
Dash cams keep time with a small clock that needs a tiny bit of power while the car is off. Older cameras use a small battery for this. Many newer ones use a supercapacitor, which handles heat better but only holds charge for a short time.
If the camera is unplugged for a while, or the battery has worn out from years of heat in the windscreen, the clock resets. That is why the date often jumps back to a default like 1 January 2020.
No GPS time sync
Most cameras with GPS set the clock automatically from satellites. If GPS is not working, or time sync is turned off in settings, the clock can drift or reset. See our guide to dash cam GPS not working if that sounds familiar.
Wrong time zone or summer time setting
If the time is exactly one hour out, it is a time zone or daylight saving issue. The UK is GMT in winter and BST in summer. Some cameras need you to set GMT+0 and turn on daylight saving. Others need you to change it manually twice a year.
Phone app sync
Some cameras take the time from the app when you connect your phone. If nobody has connected since a reset, the time stays wrong.
How to fix it
- Set the time zone correctly. Choose GMT or London and switch on automatic daylight saving if the camera has it.
- Turn on GPS time sync. Check the setting is on and the camera is getting a GPS fix.
- Set it manually or via the app. If there is no GPS, set the time by hand or connect the app to sync it.
- Test with the power off. Leave the car for a few hours, then check the time on start up. If it has reset, the backup battery or capacitor is likely worn.
- Update the firmware. Clock and daylight saving bugs are commonly fixed in updates.
- Replace ageing cameras. A camera that has spent years baking on a windscreen may simply need replacing.
If you already have footage with the wrong time
Do not edit or re-export the file to change the time. That can look like tampering. Instead, note the correct date and time and the size of the offset in writing, and keep anything that backs it up, like a receipt, a job log or a tracker record. Our guide to using dash cam evidence in insurance claims goes into this in more detail.
Why fleets need time they can trust
When footage is pulled from a camera days after an incident, a wrong timestamp is a headache. When footage goes straight to a server, the platform stamps it with network time on arrival.
Connected 4G dash cams sync their time over the network, so every camera in the fleet stays on the correct time without anyone touching them. You can see how that works on our connected dash cameras page.
Summary
Fix the time zone, turn on GPS sync and check the camera holds the time when powered off. If it does not, the backup power is worn. And for fleets, cameras that sync over the network save a lot of awkward conversations with insurers.