Trips for Dashcam

Install Trips for Dashcam

Trips for Dashcam runs on macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple silicon and Intel Macs. After buying, download the app zip from your Polar receipt, unzip it, and drag Trips for Dashcam to your Applications folder.

The app is signed and notarized by Apple. Confirm Open at the normal first-launch prompt.

The app works without a license key. The key in your receipt turns on automatic updates: enter it in Trips for Dashcam → License…. Once a day, the app checks for a new version, shows what’s new, and installs it with Install and Relaunch. Trips for Dashcam → Check for Updates… checks right away. A key works on 3 Macs. Your receipt always has the latest version, too.

Open the card

Take the memory card out of the dashcam and put it in your Mac. The start screen says “Open your dashcam’s card” and gets a button with the card’s name, like Open NO NAME.

You can also click Choose Folder…, use File → Open Folder… (⌘O), or drop the card or a folder on the window. A folder you copied from the card works the same way.

The first time, your Mac asks whether the app may read the card. Click Allow. Nothing on the card is changed.

While it reads, the window says “Reading video 24 of 40…”.

Trips

The clips become trips, listed on the left by day, newest first. Each trip has its start time and a line like “26 min · 17.2 mi”. A trip with no GPS says “no route”, and a short one where the car didn’t move says “parked”.

How a trip is put together:

• Every clip’s time comes from its name, when the name has the date and time in it. Otherwise it’s the time the file was made.
• A rear or inside clip goes with the front clip that started within 3 seconds of it.
• The clips that follow each other make one trip. When the camera stopped for more than 5 minutes, a new trip starts.

Before you pick a trip, the middle of the window sums up the card, like “4 trips on this card, 39 min of video, 23.7 mi. Pick one on the left to watch it.”

File → Start Over goes back to the start screen.

Watch a trip

Click a trip and it opens on its first picture, paused. Press Space or the play button, and it plays as one video, from the first clip to the last, with no gaps.

• Space plays and pauses.
• The left and right arrow keys jump to the previous or the next clip. The Playback menu has the same: Play (or Pause), Next Clip and Previous Clip.
• Drag the timeline under the video to move anywhere in the trip.
• The line under the video says where you are, like “9:17 / 26:00” and “Clip 10 of 26”.

The rear camera, or the one inside the car, plays in a corner of the picture at the same moment. Pick which one with the menu at the top. It lists only the cameras the trip has: Rear or None for a trip with a rear camera, Rear, Inside or None when it has both. A trip with only a front camera has no menu.

The map

When the clips have GPS, the right side shows the trip’s route on a map, from Start to End, with a dot where the car is at that moment of the video.

Under the map:

• the speed at that moment, like “48 mph”
• Driven, like “6.0 mi of 17.2 mi”
• Time, the clock time of that moment
• Top speed for the whole trip

Switch between km and miles under the map, or in the Playback menu. The app starts with your region’s.

Click anywhere on the route and the video jumps to that place.

The map comes from Apple Maps and needs an internet connection: “The map needs an internet connection.” The videos play without one.

Where the GPS comes from

The app reads the GPS from:

• a file next to the video with the same name, ending in .nmea, .gps, .txt or .gpx
• the video’s subtitle track
• inside the video file, in the way some cameras keep it

Dashcams save their GPS in many ways. When the app can’t find it, the map says “No Route” and “There’s no route in these files. The dashcam didn’t save GPS with them, or its GPS was off.” When it found GPS it couldn’t read, it says why instead. The trip still plays, and everything else works.

Locked clips

A dashcam keeps some clips apart so they aren’t recorded over. Trips for Dashcam knows them by their folder (like RO, Event, Locked, Protected, Parking) or by a letter in their name, and shows why each was kept:

• Impact or event: the camera felt a bump
• Saved with the button: you pressed the camera’s button
• Parking mode: the camera woke up while the car was parked

They’re listed under Locked Clips in the sidebar. Click one and its trip opens at that clip. On the trip, they’re orange marks on the timeline and locks on the map, and the line under the video names the one playing. If there are none: “The camera didn’t lock any clip on this card.”

Save a stretch of video

Click the share button at the top and choose Save Video Stretch…, or choose File → Save Video Stretch…. The sheet has Route, Video and Picture at the top, to switch between the three saves.

1. Pick the Camera. The menu lists the cameras the trip has, and isn’t there when it has only one.
2. Move From and To, or click Here to use the moment on screen. The sheet starts on the minute around the playhead and says how long the stretch is, in minutes and seconds, like “From 8:42 to 9:42, 1 min”.

A video copied as the camera recorded it can only start on some of its pictures. When the nearest one is a little before the moment you picked, the sheet tells you when the video really starts and how much earlier that is. The saved video never starts after the moment you picked. 3. Click Save… and pick where.

The stretch is one .mov file, copied as the camera recorded it, with nothing lost. It has to be at least a second long. Its name has the time the stretch starts and the camera, like Trip 2026-06-12 14.38.42 front.mov (rear or cabin for the others).

Save the route

Choose Save Route… in the share menu or the File menu, then the kind of file:

• GPX, for map websites and apps
• KML, for Google Earth
• CSV, for a spreadsheet, with the time, the seconds into the trip, the latitude, the longitude, the speed in km/h and the altitude in meters on each line

Its name is the time the trip started, like Trip 2026-06-12 14.30.gpx.

Where the GPS stopped for a while, the route starts a new piece rather than drawing a straight line across.

Save a picture

Choose Save Picture… in the share menu or the File menu to save the moment on screen as a PNG file, from the camera you choose, like Trip 2026-06-12 14.39.17 front.png. If that camera has no video at that moment, the sheet says so.

What’s saved, and where

Every save goes to the folder you pick. When it’s done, the window says “Saved Trip 2026-06-12 14.38.42 front.mov” with Show in Finder, and “Nothing on the card was changed.”

A save never replaces a file. If the name is taken: “A file named Trip 2026-06-12 14.38.42 front.mov is already there, so nothing was saved. Pick another name.”

Troubleshooting

1 file can’t be played

The sidebar lists the files it couldn’t play at the bottom. Click the line to see why. The most common one: “2026_0613_091600_0040F.MP4 wasn’t finished by the camera, so it can’t be played. This happens when the power goes off while it records.”

No Dashcam Videos Here

The folder has no MP4 or MOV videos. Check that you opened the card, or the folder the camera keeps its videos in. Videos in other formats, like .TS or .AVI, are never listed. On this screen they’re counted, like “12 videos are of a type this app doesn’t play.”

No route

See Where the GPS comes from. The trip plays without it.

The map is empty

The map needs an internet connection. Connect, and it fills in.