Arlo indoor essential library full of the same old picture over and over

[Thejesse]

I've seen other posts alluding to this from years ago and none seem to have an answer which is really scary to me.  My camera is armed to take pics with motion but my library is just filled with the same old image from weeks ago over and over again.  Live feed is fine. Resetting doesn't help. Occasionally the privacy filter is activated too (not sure if this is a separate issue, but the camera is always armed, so this shouldn't happen and didn't used to). It used to work fine, not sure what happened.  Please help, the whole darn thing is useless right now. 

[jguerdat]

Do you mean the Library thumbnails are all the same or when you click on a video a different one plays? I've seen the latter happen when clicking on a video that's over ~24 hours old.

[Thejesse]

It's not just thumbnails, it's the actual photos.  Haven't played with recorded videos as that's not what I'm going for. I am trying to restore the functionality of motion triggered photographs.  I did find that when I physically power cycle the camera, it replaces the old image with a new fresh image which it then continues to propagate over and over and over again. 

[ShayneS]

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

[Thejesse]

Power cycling. Turning on and off arming for that camera. No luck. 

[ShayneS]

Can you try and remove and re-install the device? 

[Thejesse]

Tried this. No luck. In fact now for some reason video nor images get saved to the library from this cam even when set to do so.  Also, strangely I am getting the slang phrase "connectin" instead of "connecting" 

 now, so there's that. 

[ShayneS]

The essential indoor camera requires a subscription to record and save videos/images to the library. 

Also, do you have an option to save snapshots when motion is detected?

[Thejesse]

No. I am just saving them to the USB drive on my local hub.  Until the disconnect / reconnect it was saving and videos saved fine. Still images just kept saving the same old retained still image every time motion was triggered.

 Yes have option to save snapshots. That is what is giving me the trouble. 

[ShayneS]

I believe this is because your trial subscription has recently expired. Without an Arlo subscription the ability to save and record to the library from the cloud is not possible. 

[Thejesse]

I'm not using the cloud. Base station is set to record locally. I just want to save them to the USB drive locally. This is possible as it always been with all my other arlo cameras correct? None of them save to the cloud. 

[ShayneS]

You can save local recordings, but snapshots will require a smart subscription. 

Are you having an issue with your recordings not having to your local storage/USB Drive?

[Thejesse]

Why doesn't the app say anything about that? 

Also, since removing and adding back camera even when I select "record video" nothing is showing up in library

I also noticed there are grey exclamation marks next to record video and save snapshot. Selecting them does nothing and I don't recall these being there before. 

[Thejesse]

I'm really thinking something is wrong with this camera. May try to return it.  All other cameras recording to usb fine (they are all arlo pro 2s though)

I figured out what the exclamation marks mean. Below it says that snapshots and videos will be saved to the USB drive. So this Should indeed be able to do both, but it's doing neither. 

[StephenB]

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@Thejesse wrote:

I'm really thinking something is wrong with this camera. May try to return it. 

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What base station are you using?  Only the VMB4540 and VMB5000s support direct access to local storage.  VMB4000 and VMB4500 require you to eject the USB storage from the base, and connect it to a PC to see the recordings.

[Thejesse]

I feel like I am getting misinformation.  I have a vmb4000 but like I said I can view files saved to usb remotely from other cameras just fine.  Until I followed suggestion to remove and reinstall the essential indoor camera I also was able to view videos and photos remotely from the USB drive just fine.  To reiterate, it worked perfectly at first, then it started showing a stuck old photo everytime it was motion triggered. Video library capture still worked fine at that time. After remove and reinstall, neither video or photos are being caputered to usb.  Even the video count at bottom of preview screen that shows how many videos should be saved stays at 0.

[StephenB]

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@Thejesse wrote:

I have a vmb4000 but like I said I can view files saved to usb remotely from other cameras just fine.  

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No.  Your legacy cameras have the free 7-day cloud storage, and what you are seeing in the app are the recordings stored in the Arlo Cloud.  

The VMB4000 base doesn't let you see local recordings from the app (and even the VMB4540 and VMB5000 smarthubs don't let you see local recordings in the web browser).

This is easy to test - just eject the USB storage from the base, and walk in front of one of the legacy cameras.  You'll still get a notification, and you will still see the recording, even though there is no local storage connected.

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@Thejesse wrote:

Until I followed suggestion to remove and reinstall the essential indoor camera I also was able to view videos and photos remotely from the USB drive just fine.  

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You might have lost the trial subscription when you did that.