Arlo Essentials Spotlight, orange dot, not recording.

[digitalman161]

Since Arlo removed the free 7 day storage my Essential Spotlight camera that I only purchased a month ago has a Orange Dot next to the settings icon, and it appears to not be recording anything to my local storage device.  When I navigate to the RULES of the Armed section, this camera shows a (!) next to Record Video.  Then below, it states "Video clips or snapshots with be stored in the USB device".  My other cameras are recording without issue.  

[StephenB]

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@digitalman161 wrote:

Since Arlo removed the free 7 day storage my Essential Spotlight camera that I only purchased a month ago;

The essential never had free 7-day storage.  You had a trial subscription for 30 days (which gave you cloud storage with 30 day retention).  Once that expires, you need a paid subscription to get cloud storage and other subscription features.

Legacy cameras (pro, pro 2, and some others) were sold with free 7-day storage (and still have it).

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@digitalman161 wrote:

 it appears to not be recording anything to my local storage device.   

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What base station/smarthub model do you own?  Look for a VMBxxxx label on the base.

Also, please confirm that the camera is connected via the base, and not connected to your home wifi.

[digitalman161]

Base Station is a VMB4000r3

What is odd...when the "trial" ended none of my cameras were recording anything.  Then I added a USB drive, and then my original cameras started recording again.  The newest camera does not.

[StephenB]

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@digitalman161 wrote:

Base Station is a VMB4000r3

What is odd...when the "trial" ended none of my cameras were recording anything.  Then I added a USB drive, and then my original cameras started recording again.  The newest camera does not.

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There have been some service disruptions, so I am thinking that the addition of USB storage was a coincidence.

All the legacy cameras (pro, pro 2 and others on the EOL list) have free 7-day cloud storage.  None of the current cameras (including the Essential) have that.

[digitalman161]

Ok...then why is the Essential camera not recording anything???? I need a subscription to record to USB too?

[StephenB]

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@digitalman161 wrote:

Ok...then why is the Essential camera not recording anything???? I need a subscription to record to USB too?

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If it is connected through your base, then you should be getting local recordings on the drive.  But not if is connected to your home wifi.  

Have you confirmed that your other cameras are recording to local storage?  (again, ejecting the drive and browsing the contents on a PC),

[digitalman161]

Yes, the other cameras are recording to the USB drive.  When I look at the files (organized only by date not camera, dumb) I see only recordings from the working cameras.  Actually, only the front camera so far, but haven't gone through all of them.  It has to be connected to the Base station, I never configured it to my home wifi, which also has MAC security enabled.

[StephenB]

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@digitalman161 wrote:

Yes, the other cameras are recording to the USB drive.  When I look at the files (organized only by date not camera, dumb) I see only recordings from the working cameras.  

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If you haven't restarted the base, then do that next.

Maybe also try the motion detection test.

• https://kb.arlo.com/41/How-do-I-change-the-motion-sensitivity-on-my-Arlo-camera