topic Re: Arlo no longer able to record in Arlo Pro 2

Arlo no longer able to record

Cnorcal707 — Sat, 01 Nov 2025 22:57:51 GMT

I have an Arlo Ultra 2 system came with the hub and four cameras. I do not have a subscription. I don’t need it. That’s why I got a camera with a local drive.

anyways when I purchase these cameras, I had them set up to wear. All four of my cameras could record it anytime whenever they saw any motion or had any sound alert. It was recorded to the local drive when I was at work or away from home I was able to access my cameras and see what was going on which I can still do. I was also able to record to my local drive and because of how my Internet was set up with my hub I could also see recorded videos at any point in time if I need to.

recently I have noticed that whenever I try to log onto my cameras, I can still see them, but when I go to log into the videos that are recorded already, I can no longer see the videos when I am away from home. When I get home and I check the videos again, and I go to the “feed” section since for some reason they had to redo the app for some reason… I no longer can see any videos whatsoever. It is not recording videos anymore. Yes I have the correct SD card formatted buy my Arlo hub, yes, I have reset the system and I have removed every camera and reinstall them onto the hub through the app. I have looked at the settings and seen that. Yes it is set to record locally, but it is still not recording anything. When I am home, however sometimes it will decide it wants to record, but when I’m away from home and I need the most it will not. I’m beginning to get fed up because it seems like all of the threads that I have read have no answers to them other than what I’ve already tried and if I can’t record to these locally when I’m away from my home like I need to be able to then these are no longer what I need and I will have a full set up available for sale that is unless somebody can help me figure out why this is doing this. If a security system cannot protect a home and the people living in it, especially when there’s children then there’s no point in having that security system. And if this is an Arlo game to make me have to purchase a subscription then I will definitely be selling it as well because like I said this is why I bought this system in the first place because it had this availability and now suddenly it does not… And I am sure everybody can sense the frustration and what I’m writing and I’m sure others probably feel the same way. Please help

Re: Arlo no longer able to record

alex_loo — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 00:56:01 GMT

ultra 2 + smarthub VMB5000 with SD + local recording here.

Before I jump to concluding your situation, can I ask a few questions first? That way, I can help in the right direction.

1. How long have you been using the set up? When did you purchase it?

2. Do you see any "trial subscription expiring" message appearing recently?

3. When you say you have been watching locally recorded video,

what, in the app, do you click to watch these video? (you mentioned "feed". was it "feed >> cloud", or "feed >> local"? or something else?)
have you done anything to your home network, to make these local video watchable even when you are not at home?

Regards,

Alex

Re: Arlo no longer able to record

boosubscription — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 15:15:45 GMT

I had the same issue when I decided to stop using the subscription based service. I could see that things were recording if I pulled the SD card out, but couldn't see them in the app.

While every article I read showed that they should show up under >> Devices >> Base Station >> Storage Settings (which is super convoluted and feels intentionally obstructive to hide it there) I couldn't see the local files.

What I didn't know (and is not on the Arlo website from what I could see) is I had to go to the app settings in iOS (ie NOT in the arlo app itself) and under "Allow Arlo Secure to Access" I had to set "Local Network" to "On" and it FINALLY WORKED.

I found the solution on reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/arlo/comments/1qv5cii/unable_to_view_local_recordings/

Arlo, maybe update your trouble shooting infoto include this?

Re: Arlo no longer able to record

StephenB — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 17:51:39 GMT

@boosubscription wrote:

What I didn't know (and is not on the Arlo website from what I could see) is I had to go to the app settings in iOS (ie NOT in the arlo app itself) and under "Allow Arlo Secure to Access" I had to set "Local Network" to "On" and it FINALLY WORKED.

Yes, that setting isn't listed in the main article

https://kb.arlo.com/000062337/What-is-Direct-Storage-Access-and-how-do-I-use-it-for-Arlo-video-recordings

However, the fact that you needed to set it suggests that there might be something else you need to look at.

Remote access either requires port forwarding to be set up, or alternatively, a VPN that terminates on your home network. Is that something you've done?

Re: Arlo no longer able to record

boosubscription — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 20:20:33 GMT

I had port forward enabled to to the correct ports and it didn’t change anything.

also from what I’ve read it sees like those (vpn or port forwarding) shouldn’t be necessary when I’m in the same network as the base station.

Re: Arlo no longer able to record

StephenB — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 21:23:32 GMT

@boosubscription wrote:

also from what I’ve read it sees like those (vpn or port forwarding) shouldn’t be necessary when I’m in the same network as the base station.

Yes, but that advice assumes that the app is allowed to use wifi (which wasn't the case for you).

If you weren't able to access remote recordings when the app is limited to mobile data, then something isn't working with the port forwarding. So you wouldn't be able to see recordings when away from home.

Re: Arlo no longer able to record

Cnorcal707 — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 06:45:49 GMT

Hi,

Sorry, I never got the alert about your response. Here's the answers to your questions...

I have been using this set up since i believe Christmas 2020 or 2021. It was bought for me as a christmas gift.

No trial subscription expiring messages. And I never purchased the subscription, but never had a problem viewing in the past.

I had been watching it in the local feed until about a year ago when i noticed the change... I also pulled the card to look at past videos since they say that older than a week wont be visible on the local feed, but would still be on the card for at least the last 30 days. Well i pulled the card today to look for video footage from 5/23/2026 and 5/24/2026, and all i see is blank files then a couple from 6/5/2026 and 6/6/2026 that actually have footage. Not sure why my other footage isnt there...

I did change from mediacom to Starling, and i know i cant port with starlink unless i have a seperate nighthawk router or similar, but when im home as long as im on the same network i can view the footage from my local feed at times... but it only shows me so many days.

Re: Arlo no longer able to record

Cnorcal707 — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 06:53:30 GMT

So I looked in to this, and it was already set to on with my iOS...

Re: Arlo no longer able to record

StephenB — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 19:25:02 GMT

@Cnorcal707 wrote:

I did change from mediacom to Starling, and i know i cant port with starlink unless i have a seperate nighthawk router or similar

Worse than that - you can't forward ports at all with Starlink, not matter what equipment you have. The network uses carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT) which inherently doesn't support port forwarding.

There are some cloud-hosted VPNs that support remote access - they would work. I believe Asus Instant Guard is one of them (note I don't have an Asus router). It is also possible to stand up your own linux server with tailscale, though this does require some skills.

@Cnorcal707 wrote:

they say that older than a week wont be visible on the local feed, but would still be on the card for at least the last 30 days.

No idea who "they" are but this is not correct.

The Feed should show about 30 days. Currently I am seeing local videos back to 8 May in the app.

How many videos are on the card depends on the size of the card. The usual setting people use is "overwrite automatically" which will delete the oldest recordings when the hub needs to free up storage for new ones.

Re: Arlo no longer able to record

Cnorcal707 — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 01:42:38 GMT

so when I say they, I mean, Arlo support says that if you read through all their instructions… That’s what they recommend you do is to use a nighthawk or another form of modem to connect to your starling that is locked that has a port forwarding and once you connect that to your Starlink, it’s supposed to work just fine. The problem that I have is not with being able to review it from outside of my location when I’m away from home it is that it’s not recording anything on the local Dr.. I have plenty of space on my mini USB card but when I go to look at my local Dr. it’s not recording when it should be. Hence the reason of my title of my post Arlo no longer able to record not Arlo no longer able to view when not on home network… I think people are getting off track with what my original question was! I can see it just find remotely. It’s just not recording the motions or anything that is happening within my yard or my cameras views… I bought these camera cameras because you didn’t need to have a sub subscription that you could use the local storage, mini USB in order to record your videos from your security cameras for motion detection now suddenly you’re not allowed to do that for some reason!

and on top of that now when I pull my USB card and I do see maybe a camera recording or two on the local Dr. I cannot see anything past two days… You’re supposed to be able to see the last 30 days on your local storage per Arlo… It tells you if you want anything greater than a week you have to pull your card and you have to look at it manually which I have done and I cannot see anything. It is set to armed so it should be recording at all times when it sees any emotion or anything when we are not present and it is not doing that.

Re: Arlo no longer able to record

StephenB — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 11:51:27 GMT

@Cnorcal707 wrote:

so when I say they, I mean, Arlo support says that if you read through all their instructions… That’s what they recommend you do is to use a nighthawk or another form of modem to connect to your starling that is locked that has a port forwarding and once you connect that to your Starlink, it’s supposed to work just fine.

What instructions? The KB article is generic, and not specific to Starlink.

Starlink uses CGNAT for their residential accounts - a form of double-NAT. A Nighthawk router won't help, because CGNAT doesn't allow any inbound connections. If Arlo support is telling you something different, then they are confused. (Note Arlo hasn't been part of Netgear for a long time now).

Of course a subscription will work, since the recordings are stored in the Arlo Cloud servers. I believe you can also get a public IPv4 address (which will give you port forwarding) from Starlink if you purchase one of their business or global plans. That might also require different Starlink hardware.

As I said above, I believe Asus Instant Guard will work, because Asus has a cloud hosted VPN. I can't test that myself, since I do not have an Asus router. Other setups are possible, but would be more complicated to set up.

@Cnorcal707 wrote:

I can see it just fine remotely.

Yes, Livestreaming will work. That is because Arlo forwards the livestream through their cloud - which they don't do for local recordings.

@Cnorcal707 wrote:

and on top of that now when I pull my USB card and I do see maybe a camera recording or two on the local Dr. I cannot see anything past two days… You’re supposed to be able to see the last 30 days on your local storage per Arlo… It tells you if you want anything greater than a week you have to pull your card and you have to look at it manually which I have done and I cannot see anything. It is set to armed so it should be recording at all times when it sees any emotion or anything when we are not present and it is not doing that.

So this bit is mixing multiple issues - making it hard to sort out. As far as the card goes, it should be saving videos whenever the camera is armed and the camera rule tells it to record. I'd first double-check the camera rule in the mode you are using when you are away. It would also be useful to know if you are receiving motion notifications when you are away.

As far as retention goes, the app does (or at least did) have a 30 day limit. As I posted earlier, I am seeing that with my own cards on two different smarthubs. If you aren't seeing anything recent on the card when you look at it on a PC, then I suggest reformatting. If this is purely an app issue, then try uninstalling and then reinstalling the app. That will sometimes restore normal operation of local storage (and is something I've sometimes had to do myself).