CCTV footage usually lasts between 1 and 4 weeks before the recorder overwrites it, automatically recording over the oldest files to make room for new ones. The exact length depends on four things: hard drive size, how many cameras are recording, the resolution they record at, and whether recording runs continuously or only on motion.
A typical 3 to 4 camera system recording around the clock in 4K holds roughly 10 to 17 days on a 4 TB drive. Switching to motion-only recording stretches that considerably, often to a month or more, because the recorder only writes to disk when something moves. You can size it for your own setup with our CCTV storage calculator, which works out the days of retention from drive size and camera count.
The system that Doberman installs uses a local Network Video Recorder (NVR) with built-in storage. It manages retention automatically and shows you exactly how many days of footage you have available at any time through the app. When the drive fills up, the oldest footage is overwritten first - you do not need to manually delete anything.
If you need to keep specific footage - for example, after an incident - you can export clips directly from the monitoring app to your phone or computer before they are overwritten. Doberman walks you through this during the handover so you know how to save important recordings.
Does CCTV footage get deleted automatically?
Yes. A network video recorder runs on a rolling loop: it records continuously until the drive is full, then begins overwriting the oldest footage first, frame by frame, so there is always room for the newest recording. Nothing is deleted by hand and the recorder never simply stops once it is full. The only footage you keep beyond the retention window is whatever you have exported and saved somewhere else.
How long is CCTV footage kept in the UK?
There is no fixed legal retention period for CCTV in the UK. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) sets a principle rather than a number: footage should be kept no longer than necessary for the purpose it was recorded for, and the operator has to be able to justify the period they choose. In practice around 30 days is the common documented window across a lot of organisations:
- Supermarkets, shops and other retailers - commonly about 30 days, with higher-risk sites holding more
- Pubs, bars and licensed venues - often around a month, sometimes set by their licence conditions
- Schools and councils - typically a documented period in the region of 30 days for general areas
- Hospitals and other care settings - usually a defined window, again often around 30 days
These are the kinds of periods operators tend to document and justify, not legal minimums - each site has to set its own based on why it is recording. A home system is a different matter: most are sized for one to four weeks simply because that is what a typical drive holds.
Can police recover deleted or overwritten CCTV footage?
Once a domestic recorder has overwritten footage it is gone, and the police cannot recover it. A network video recorder is not like a computer's recycle bin - the rolling loop writes new video directly over the oldest frames, so after a full overwrite cycle there is nothing left underneath to retrieve. If footage has already rolled past your retention window, there is no realistic way to get it back. The only reliable way to preserve evidence is to export the clip from the app before it rolls, then hand that file to the police. If you think an incident may have been captured, save the relevant clip as soon as you can rather than waiting.
Can I get CCTV footage from months ago?
Usually not from a standard home system. Once footage has rolled past the retention window - a week or two on most domestic setups - it has been overwritten and cannot be recovered. If you know in advance that you need a particular clip, export it from the app before it rolls. Keeping months of history as standard has to be designed in from the start with a larger drive or motion-only recording.
For properties that need longer retention - some businesses require 30 days or more - Doberman can spec a larger hard drive or adjust recording settings to hit the target. Want footage to last a set number of days? Book a free CCTV site survey and we will size the right drive and recording settings for your property, then give you a detailed, fixed-price quote - the price we quote is the price you pay. You can also work out the rough figure yourself first with our CCTV storage calculator.