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* docs: Add frame selection and clean copy details to snapshots docs Document how Frigate selects the best frame for snapshots, explain the difference between regular snapshots and clean copies, fix internal links to use absolute paths, and highlight Frigate+ as the primary reason to keep clean_copy enabled if regular snapshot is configured clean. * revert - do not use the word event * rm clean copy is only saved when `clean_copy` is enabled * Simplified the Frame Selection section down to a single paragraph. * rm note about snapshot file ext change from png to webp --------- Co-authored-by: Kai Curry <kai@wjerk.com>
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| id | title |
|---|---|
| snapshots | Snapshots |
Frigate can save a snapshot image to /media/frigate/clips for each object that is detected named as <camera>-<id>.jpg. They are also accessible via the api
Snapshots are accessible in the UI in the Explore pane. This allows for quick submission to the Frigate+ service.
To only save snapshots for objects that enter a specific zone, see the zone docs
Snapshots sent via MQTT are configured in the config file under cameras -> your_camera -> mqtt
Frame Selection
Frigate does not save every frame — it picks a single "best" frame for each tracked object and uses it for both the snapshot and clean copy. As the object is tracked across frames, Frigate continuously evaluates whether the current frame is better than the previous best based on detection confidence, object size, and the presence of key attributes like faces or license plates. Frames where the object touches the edge of the frame are deprioritized. The snapshot is written to disk once tracking ends using whichever frame was determined to be the best.
MQTT snapshots are published more frequently — each time a better thumbnail frame is found during tracking, or when the current best image is older than best_image_timeout (default: 60s). These use their own annotation settings configured under cameras -> your_camera -> mqtt.
Clean Copy
Frigate can produce up to two snapshot files per event, each used in different places:
| Version | File | Annotations | Used by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular snapshot | <camera>-<id>.jpg |
Respects your timestamp, bounding_box, crop, and height settings |
API (/api/events/<id>/snapshot.jpg), MQTT (<camera>/<label>/snapshot), Explore pane in the UI |
| Clean copy | <camera>-<id>-clean.webp |
Always unannotated — no bounding box, no timestamp, no crop, full resolution | API (/api/events/<id>/snapshot-clean.webp), Frigate+ submissions, "Download Clean Snapshot" in the UI |
MQTT snapshots are configured separately under cameras -> your_camera -> mqtt and are unrelated to the clean copy.
The clean copy is required for submitting events to Frigate+ — if you plan to use Frigate+, keep clean_copy enabled regardless of your other snapshot settings.
If you are not using Frigate+ and timestamp, bounding_box, and crop are all disabled, the regular snapshot is already effectively clean, so clean_copy provides no benefit and only uses additional disk space. You can safely set clean_copy: False in this case.