The ethoscopes save tracking data locally as SQL databases. As of late 2025, the default format for saving data is sqlite3, a fully contained file-based format that saves the results in a single database file with .db extension. These files are saved locally on the SD card or SSD drive of the ethoscope, in the /ethoscope_data/results/ path.

There are multiple advantage of using sqlite3 rather than the old mariadb:

• Multiple experiments can be run immediately after one other and the data are no longer lost. The older format was overwriting the previous experiment’s data.
• db file can be extracted from the ethoscope by simply inserting the SD card in the node or in a linux computer and the data will be accessible via the regular file browser
• data transfer from the ethoscopes to the node now relies on

Saving data

When starting a new tracking experiment, you will be prompted with the following choice

SQLite is now the default option and you should not change that unless you know what you are doing. By default, the db also contains a periodic snapshot of the camera stream (one frame every 5 minutes). This takes considerable space on the disk but it is useful for debug purposes. The snapshots can also later be used to create a little timelapse video of the recording using this script.

Transfer data

Tracking data will be saved locally on the ethoscope and can be collected manually (power off the ethoscope, remove the SD card, insert the SD card in a linux machine able to read the ext4 fs) or automatically through the appropriate ethoscope backup daemon.

In most cases, you will want to have ethoscope_backup_unifiedactive. This will automatically sync both the tracking data and any video recording you have from the ethoscopes to the node. Sometimes, however, you may want to switch off video transfer because large video files can congest the local WiFi. In that case, you will want to switch unified off and turn only sqlite on. Both sqlite and video use rync .