Did you ever figure this out?

I have a 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ and, while it’s referenced in the manual, I can’t see any mention of it in the infotainment menus or anywhere else. My dealership had no idea either. i love the IQ (and the ‘25 Escalade in general) but it certainly feels like they took a lot of features away from us: ice box, surround video recorder, power step board, Android/CarPlay… Not cool. I hope the Surround Video Recorder feature is there or will be added via an OTA update soon!

 

The app is there it just doesnt show up if it does not have a usb drive to record to. You can use car voice command by clicking voice button then saying "open recorder" app should open but then you will run into the issue of finding a drive to connect. I have tried many drives and so far not found one it recognizes. I will get it working but just waiting to here back from GM from my notes I sent in. I think the issue might be new droid os adds folders to drive and app is expecting it to be empty

 

Need to be usb formatted fat32 minimum 64g so not easy to format. You can use a app like easeus to do it. Or i think a droid phone will format it using fat32. I have my dealer tech manager looking into it. I have tried many combos 32 64 128 and even different sector sizes like 32k. So far no dice.

 

Have you tried both fat32 and exFAT? I know it says fat32 on the display but I’m just curious… Additionally, are you saying the USBs were totally empty when you plugged them in but the car’s android automotive OS is putting files or folders on there?

 

Update. This is just crazy heard back from gm tech that because zpo or whatever the old order option was removed which was just the sd card adapter which is no longer needed that the surround video recorder is no longer available. Even though it was advertised as a stabdard package now. The program was rewrote for android os because it now says it need 64gb minimum usb3 fat32 drive so this is just crazy. Attaching screen shots of app. You can open app by using voice cmd "open recorder"......

 

This is VERY disappointing... Can you find anywhere on the website where it says that it is a standard option? I could've sworn I saw it as well but now I can't seem to find it anywhere... Like I said earlier, man, they are really taking away a lot of nice features in the IQ... What a load of BS! This one really pisses me off. I sincerely hope they make this feature available again with an OTA update. Did you ask the GM tech if that's a possibility...?

 

Could you please put instructions how to format in detail? There are options in fat 32 again. Did you format on Windows or MAC? What is voice CMD?

 

I would tell you but its a waste of time. Been trying for a week with 6 different usb sticks and many different format options none work. Its a bug in the app or it might be trully deactivated. Will post more when i get more info or get ot working.

 

They are still going back and fourth with gm engineers on it. I tgink they are all confused as to what and if its in the syatem or not. Because it ise to be if vehicle had it or not was based on the buy code but that was because vehicle had to have a sd card adapter but now its usb based so it was supposed to become atandard and they decommisioned remive that code as a option and gm guy is us8ng that decommisiin as aaying its no linger available.

 

Mine is not detecting at all or says needs to be reformated

 

Here is a doc on how to do it. Needs to be fat32 64gb minimum usb 3.0 assuming 3.1 or 3.2 will work

How to Format 64 GB USB to FAT32 in Windows 10/11

Why can't you format 64 GB USB to FAT32 on Windows? This post will explain why and offer proven solutions to help you fix it.

www.easeus.com

 

But to be clear… This still doesn’t work, right?

 

2025 Escalade here, same problem, I can open using google cmd, but it will not recognized the USB. Note that the USB is formatter to FAT32, 128GB. Also, if you put the USB in the center console port, then remove it and insert to a computer, you'll see it is not empty anymore, it has a few folders (Android, Movies, Music, Pictures etc). So the car os definitely recognized the USB drive and writes its default folder structure to it.

Also note that the recorder app says the USB needs to be "empty" - maybe those folder that Android automatically writes prevent the recorder from running???

Lastly, if you go to Setting/Apps you can find the Surround Vision Recorder, see its permissions etc. However, I cannot enable/disable it (it is grayed out option). Also, the app size is a few KB (4KB in my case) which seems very small for any app these days. So maybe the recorder is just an app that shows two screens saying USB not found but it does not really have any functionality... ???

It is very frustrating that such a simple feature (how hard is it to record video.... it worked perfectly on 2023 model I had before) is not working on a car we pay so much for. We should not be reverse engineering how to use it, GM needs to just make it work.

 

The center console port is for the Map and Nav. The recording SD card port for video is in the back in the cargo area by the fuse box on the driver side.

 

So frustrating I realized it didn’t have the SD card option anymore so I called in to ask about how to record and they said USB flash drive so I went and bought one, and it’s still not working. i live in Alaska so already not getting features (super cruise and my automatic door feature isn’t available either 🥲) I love the new ride but seems like they’re cutting corners and not thinking about customers. mine came fresh out factory with issues - screen wouldn’t turn on the whole front dash was black had to be replaced before sale 🫣

 

Sorry to hear, similar experience with issues right before I even got delivery. Automatic doors feature you mean the power open/close? It is not working for us too and I believe it is not working for anyone, I do not think it is available yet (future software release).

I did not realize super cruise was not available in AK, looking at their map now and it is not, it is widely available in Canada... that is cutting corners!

I hope the recorder would be fixed in a future software update thought I doubt it is up on their list.... it is a real shame as it is taking features that were available before away.

 

Yes the power open and close doors, I didn’t realize it was all the 25’s that’s crazy other models have it already I’m not sure why the Cadillac doesn’t.
yes I have submitted requests to add super cruise here several times since I built and bought the 22 Escalade, told them I’ve likely driven enough through out Alaska to map it myself 💀 now with the new one hopefully they’ll listen but who knows. I got the first ‘25 in the state so I have been in the dealers ear about submitting this information/ request.
but it’s a big problem here crashing while sliding, and I’ve had too many near misses with other cars almost hitting me I need my dash cam footage I’m so irritated about this particular feature being gone 😭

 

On my 24 I was able to get the recorder working using a 256GB SD card that was formatted with a smaller volume (64GB). You can create a smaller volume with diskpart on a windows machine and format a larger than 32GB partition with 3rd party formatting tools. It's not super straightforward, but possible. Prior to using a smaller partition/volume size I tried different filesystems and volume sizes without any luck. I think the system is limited to 64GB of capacity and as others have said requires a fat32 formatted volume.

 

We’re talking about the new 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ in this thread… It doesn’t use an SD card. There are no SD card slots in this vehicle. It supposedly uses USB. Except it doesn’t. It doesn’t work at all despite being listed as a standard option.

 

I had a 2023 Escalade and it used an sd card. We purchesed the exact card the manual said but it would not work. Took it to the dealer and they said it had to be formated by them to work. Once they did that we had no issues.

 

I did the same thing. I went back after reading old post and bought a 32g. The first sd card was the top of the line at Walmart. At the time I only had one choice for 32g,the cheaper O

 

Sorry about last post. Just buy a 32g sd card and it should work. Most are already 32 FAT just put it in. My only option at the time was the cheaper Walmart brand and it still work. So the solution is not to use what the book tells you.

 

Not sure if anyone has answered already but what you are waiting for is the new version of surround vision recording called connected cameras. It will come via software update Q2

 

Finally... Some good news! How do you know?

 

called

Good news! How did you find out? I asked my dealer to send a query to GM but they have said GM has not get back to them with any info. Where did you get that insight from?

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2024/05/updated-2025-cadillac-escalade-to-feature-camera-to-phone-streaming/

Found this article on GM Authority from last year that talked about the "Connected Camera" feature. First time I have ever heard of it. Would be nice to hear something more recent from Cadillac about this feature and when we might actually see it.

 

Watch this youtube video for a good overview of connected cameras. Shows the option under controls tab in the app on your phone. I checked my app but the option was not there like it is in this video.

 

Any idea when the update will land for the 2025 Escalade?

 

I sure hope they are not trying to work out the live and record to cloud features before releasing the app to record to usb. I would be happy with just record to usb for now. I do not see how record to cloud will work out that is alot of data and tbh i would most likely disable it if possible to reserve bandwidth. Or maybe leave on for security when not driving but then whats the battery drain going to be like. I know they have a bigger battery now but they also took the dual battery option away which seams dumb tey had it when we didnt need 2 batteries but now that we do they dont have the space to add a second one now.