topic Re: Essential camera not recording to USB on VMB4000 in Arlo Essential Wire-Free Cameras

Essential camera not recording to USB on VMB4000

davem101 — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 00:03:37 GMT

I recently bought an Arlo Essential camera. I want to record locally to USB on my VMB4000 hub, and it won't. It is connected to the hub. I've pulled the USB and looked at the files, and none of the recordings are there, and nothing shows up in the app as well. It does detect motion and send alerts. Here is the screen on the rules:

All other cameras are working fine and recording locally.

It even shows that it is defaulting to recording locally. Any suggestions?

Re: Essential camera not recording to USB on VMB4000

ShayneS — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 17:23:27 GMT

Do any recordings from you other cameras show on the usb?

Re: Essential camera not recording to USB on VMB4000

davem101 — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 23:44:33 GMT

Yes, all of the others do show up.

Re: Essential camera not recording to USB on VMB4000

ShayneS — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 19:37:33 GMT

Can you try rebooting the camera?

Re: Essential camera not recording to USB on VMB4000

davem101 — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 20:18:37 GMT

I rebooted both the camera and router.

Re: Essential camera not recording to USB on VMB4000

ShayneS — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 15:44:52 GMT

May I ask which troubleshooting steps you have performed so far? I don't want to suggest anything you have previously performed.

Re: Essential camera not recording to USB on VMB4000

davem101 — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 18:52:27 GMT

I appreciate your response and help so far. I have gone through every troubleshooting step I could find, and researched all the forums. I'm fairly convinced there is a bug or something or a hardware compatibility issue. I've rebooted, deleted/reconnected, renamed, updated all firmware, etc. Formatted the USB (although it's working for all the other cameras). I have it here in front of me if you need any info.

The fact that it hard codes saving to USB seems to me like it should be working.

What additional info can I provide you to resolve this?

Storage status

Camera that won't record to usb

Base station

Re: Essential camera not recording to USB on VMB4000

spring_water — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 21:21:38 GMT

Did you find a fix for this? I have the exact same issue.

Re: Essential camera not recording to USB on VMB4000

ShayneS — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 16:39:18 GMT

@spring_water

May I ask which troubleshooting steps you have tried so far? I don't want to suggest anything you have previously performed.

Re: Essential camera not recording to USB on VMB4000

davem101 — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 14:25:26 GMT

No I have not. I would really like a solution or a refund. Arlo should publish that these cameras are not compatible.

Right now it's an expensive paperweight sitting on my desk.

If you figure anything out, please let me know as well.

Re: Essential camera not recording to USB on VMB4000

ShayneS — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 16:29:05 GMT

Hi @davem101

I have escalated this to the appropriate team and support will be reaching out to you soon as possible.

Re: Essential camera not recording to USB on VMB4000

Romulodepaula — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 11:53:55 GMT

Any solution about this?
I have a VMB400 base with 3 Pro cameras and this year I bought 3 more cameras from Essencial Spotlight because the website said they were compatible.
When I got home I installed it and the recording of the last 7 days in the cloud from all cameras worked perfectly. Reading about it, I saw that after a period of testing, Arlo no longer records ONLY the Essential Spotlight cameras in the cloud.
How can this be ? It's hard to believe that they are limiting recording to force people to sign up for the service.
I recommended ARLO to several friends and I believe I need to make up for the mistake of doing so.

I await an urgent solution to this imposed limitation.

Re: Essential camera not recording to USB on VMB4000

StephenB — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 12:52:01 GMT

@Romulodepaula wrote:

Reading about it, I saw that after a period of testing, Arlo no longer records ONLY the Essential Spotlight cameras in the cloud.

Not really.

The VMB4000 base supports recording, but it does not support playback. The ONLY way to see recordings with that base is to eject the storage using the app, and then connect the storage to a PC. Then browse the PC for the recordings.

Your older Pro cameras were sold with 7 days of free cloud storage. All the recordings you see in the app or my.arlo.com are coming from the Arlo Cloud - they are not being retrieved from your USB storage. Arlo stopped offering free cloud storage on new camera models back in 2018, and none of the cameras currently sold have that feature.

A smarthub (VMB4540 or VMB5000) would give you some playback features, but they are limited.

recordings only available from the app (not the browser)
recordings only available from the primary account (not friend accounts)
no ability to make manual recordings or snapshots
no thumbnails - recordings need to be downloaded to the phone before viewing
remote access requires router setting changes that many find difficult - and which don't work with some internet service providers

Note that if you purchased the new Gen 2 cameras, they are not compatible with any hub yet. So there is no way to get local storage for those models at the moment.

Re: Essential camera not recording to USB on VMB4000

Romulodepaula — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 15:03:54 GMT

Thank you very much for the quick response.

I understand and do not agree with the adopted policy.

Unfortunately, I will not buy other Arlo products and will look for another solution for my home.