Allow Frigate to run even if recordings directory is not available

[felipecrs]

Describe what you are trying to accomplish and why in non technical terms My Frigate recordings directory is mounted to a hard disk in a SATA USB enclosure.

This enclosure specifically has an issue: it does not start powered on. When the power is cut, someone needs to press its button to make it turn back on.

When that happens, I lose access to my entire Frigate instance because it won't start, even though 90% of the time I only use Frigate for streaming the cameras in real time.

Describe the solution you'd like I would like Frigate to start and keep running even though the recordings directory is unavailable, so that I can still view my cameras in case my hard disk failed.

A warning could be issued in the Frigate UI to indicate that the recordings directory is unavailable and therefore nothing is being recorded.

Describe alternatives you've considered N/A

Additional context In my case specifically I use this solution to mount the recordings directory:

• https://github.com/blakeblackshear/frigate/issues/4644#issuecomment-2558251984

This is what is printed in Frigate logs when the disk is unavailable:

2025-08-14 16:09:31.343405756  [2025-08-14 13:09:31] frigate.app                    INFO    : Starting Frigate (0.16.0-c2f8de9)
2025-08-14 16:09:31.343758299  Traceback (most recent call last):
2025-08-14 16:09:31.343866062    File "<frozen runpy>", line 198, in _run_module_as_main
2025-08-14 16:09:31.343886310    File "<frozen runpy>", line 88, in _run_code
2025-08-14 16:09:31.343925471    File "/opt/frigate/frigate/__main__.py", line 108, in <module>
2025-08-14 16:09:31.344434543  [2025-08-14 13:09:31] frigate.app                    INFO    : Creating directory: /media/frigate/recordings
2025-08-14 16:09:31.344558676      main()
2025-08-14 16:09:31.344650273    File "/opt/frigate/frigate/__main__.py", line 104, in main
2025-08-14 16:09:31.344933794      FrigateApp(config).start()
2025-08-14 16:09:31.345025984    File "/opt/frigate/frigate/app.py", line 634, in start
2025-08-14 16:09:31.345326527      self.ensure_dirs()
2025-08-14 16:09:31.345383501    File "/opt/frigate/frigate/app.py", line 127, in ensure_dirs
2025-08-14 16:09:31.345502080      os.makedirs(d)
2025-08-14 16:09:31.345542756    File "<frozen os>", line 225, in makedirs
2025-08-14 16:09:31.345564016  PermissionError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted: '/media/frigate/recordings'
2025-08-14 16:09:31.626660196  [INFO] Service Frigate exited with code 1 (by signal 0)

This situation can be easily reproduced with chattr +i /media/frigate.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[felipecrs]

Not stale.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[felipecrs]

Not stale.

[felipecrs]

Maybe Frigate could even include availability data in storage details, so that I can easily keep track of my storage availability in Home Assistant, for example.

Another potential use case would be when using network storage, which could go out if they are down or there is some network issue.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[felipecrs]

This is not stale. I tried implementing this, but I was not familiar enough with the codebase to get a comfortable result.

[JPMakesStuff]

I'd like to second there should be a option for email, sms, or popup alert about storage problem(s) - not everyone running Frigate is the person viewing it day-to-day. I need more fingers and toes to count how many business owners with a DVR have gone to find a recording for something bad/interesting happen only to find, the disk died months ago, and nothing was being recorded.

[marchershey]

Third