From 0889a878127b340460acfa5acb64772133782da6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Josh Hawkins <32435876+hawkeye217@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2026 16:35:08 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] add export docs

---
 docs/docs/configuration/exports.md | 43 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 docs/docs/configuration/record.md  |  6 +++++
 docs/sidebars.ts                   |  1 +
 3 files changed, 50 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 docs/docs/configuration/exports.md

diff --git a/docs/docs/configuration/exports.md b/docs/docs/configuration/exports.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..09cadddb2b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/docs/configuration/exports.md
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+---
+id: exports
+title: Exports
+---
+
+Exports are how you keep a specific piece of footage permanently.
+
+Frigate's recordings are governed by your [retention settings](/configuration/record): once footage ages past its retention window — or, depending on your configuration, once it is only kept where motion, alerts, or detections occurred — it is deleted to free up disk space. An **export** saves a copy of a chosen time range to a separate location that is **never removed by retention**, so it stays available until you delete it yourself.
+
+This is the answer to the common question _"how do I stop Frigate from deleting an important clip?"_ Instead of increasing retention for an entire camera (which uses far more storage to protect a single moment), export just the footage you want to keep.
+
+:::tip
+
+Exports are stored under `/media/frigate/exports`, separate from your recordings, and are not counted against or removed by recording retention. They remain on disk until you delete them, so be aware that they accumulate over time.
+
+:::
+
+## Creating an export
+
+There are a few ways to create an export:
+
+- **From Review** — select (right click or long-press) an individual review item directly, and choose Export from the header menu. You can also select multiple review items and export them all at once, optionally grouping them into a [case](#cases).
+- **From History** — open the **Actions** menu and choose **Export**. You can export a preset duration (the last 1, 4, 8, 12, or 24 hours), enter a custom start and end time, or select a range directly on the timeline. A **multi-camera** option lets you export the same time range across several cameras at once.
+
+In every case you can give the export a name. Frigate then saves the footage from your recordings as a single video file. Larger ranges take time to process; the export is marked _in progress_ until it finishes, and you can keep using Frigate while it runs.
+
+## Managing exports
+
+All of your exports live on the **Exports** page, reachable from the main navigation, where you can search for one by name. Each export offers the following actions:
+
+- **Play** it in the browser,
+- **Download** it to save the footage outside of Frigate,
+- **Share** it — copies a direct link to the export (or uses your device's share sheet),
+- **Rename** it, and
+- **Delete** it — deleting is the only way an export is removed.
+
+You can also select multiple exports at once to **delete** them in bulk, or to **add them to** (or **remove them from**) a [case](#cases).
+
+## Cases
+
+A **case** groups related exports together — for example, all the clips from a single incident across multiple cameras. On the **Exports** page you can create a case with a name and description, add existing exports to it (or create a new case while exporting), and **download the entire case as a single archive** to hand off as one package.
+
+Exports that don't belong to a case appear under **Uncategorized Exports**. Deleting a case lets you either keep its exports (they move back to uncategorized) or delete them along with the case.
diff --git a/docs/docs/configuration/record.md b/docs/docs/configuration/record.md
index 3d5ef35ba1..8ef110a261 100644
--- a/docs/docs/configuration/record.md
+++ b/docs/docs/configuration/record.md
@@ -11,6 +11,12 @@ Recordings can be enabled and are stored at `/media/frigate/recordings`. The fol
 
 New recording segments are written from the camera stream to cache, they are only moved to disk if they match the setup recording retention policy.
 
+:::tip
+
+To keep a specific clip beyond your retention window, [export](/configuration/exports) it rather than increasing retention for the whole camera. Exports are saved separately and are never removed by retention.
+
+:::
+
 H265 recordings can be viewed in Chrome 108+, Edge and Safari only. All other browsers require recordings to be encoded with H264.
 
 ## Common recording configurations
diff --git a/docs/sidebars.ts b/docs/sidebars.ts
index 8886fe6561..f319f08f21 100644
--- a/docs/sidebars.ts
+++ b/docs/sidebars.ts
@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ const sidebars: SidebarsConfig = {
         "configuration/cameras",
         "configuration/review",
         "configuration/record",
+        "configuration/exports",
         "configuration/snapshots",
         "configuration/motion_detection",
         "configuration/birdseye",