A dash cam records continuously in a loop, overwriting old footage as new footage comes in — which is a fundamentally different workload than a typical SD card is designed for, and it's why "high endurance" cards exist as their own category.
What makes continuous loop recording different
A card in a camera or phone writes data occasionally — you take a photo, it writes once, done. A dash cam's card is being written to constantly during every drive, then that same physical memory gets overwritten again on the next loop cycle, day after day. That's a dramatically higher number of write cycles than typical consumer SD card usage.
Why a regular card fails here
Standard consumer SD cards are rated for a certain number of write cycles before individual memory cells start failing. Under dash cam-level continuous rewriting, a regular card can start producing corrupted or unreadable footage within months — often silently, meaning you don't find out until you actually need that footage after an incident.
What "high endurance" actually changes
These cards use memory rated for significantly more write cycles, specifically to handle continuous loop recording without premature failure. They typically also handle sustained write speeds better, reducing the chance of dropped frames during recording.
Format in-camera, not on a computer
Formatting through your dash cam (rather than a computer's format function) sets up the file system the way that specific camera's loop-recording software expects. A computer-formatted card can work initially but cause file corruption issues over time.
A realistic replacement schedule
Even a high-endurance card has a lifespan — checking or replacing it roughly once a year is a reasonable practice for anyone relying on dash cam footage as potential evidence, rather than waiting for it to fail first.
After buying a new card, do a quick playback test of older footage before you actually need it for an incident — confirming the card and camera are working together properly is much better done proactively than after the fact.