Question: How long are video recordings available?

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Hello everyone,

I do not own any Arlo devices myself, but I do live in a space in which these are used.

I am posting here because I can’t find an actual support email, the “chat” refused to help, and the “support” page just links back to itself…
Which is unfortunate because, this is a privacy issue, and the owner could be active in this community for all I know. I’ll try to keep details vague but here goes.

But it seems the only option for help IS the community, so thank you in advance.
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Location: California, USA

Background: I had my vehicle street parked directly in front of the home with an arlo doorbell camera. Distance from Arlo to vehicle approximately 7-10 feet (3 meters) or less. I had a break-in and theft incident one evening when my vehicle was broken-into and items were stolen. There was no forced entry. My keys were accessible at the time by the same person who owns and operates the Arlo camera.

At first I thought it was great news I could just ask the owner what he caught on his Arlo doorbell, but when I actually had a chance about 24hrs later, to my disappointment and surprise, without even “checking” , he just quickly responded it’s been more than 12 hrs he wouldn’t be able to check footage or it doesn’t save recordings for more than 12 hrs. (Something along those lines)

This seems very suspect to me. I just need to know if this 12hr recording limit is true in the operation of this Arlo product before I investigate further. Thank you.

**I do not know if doorbell is wired or not but I do see a VMB4500 on the home network which I presume is a Base station.

[StephenB]

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@-__- wrote:

At first I thought it was great news I could just ask the owner what he caught on his Arlo doorbell, but when I actually had a chance about 24hrs later, to my disappointment and surprise, without even “checking” , he just quickly responded it’s been more than 12 hrs he wouldn’t be able to check footage or it doesn’t save recordings for more than 12 hrs. (Something along those lines)

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If the owner has a subscription, then the cloud recording retention for motion recordings is 30 days for a US account.  However, the owner can delete recordings, and it is possible they has a policy of doing that every day.

The system also supports local storage on USB drives connected to the base station. Retention for those depends on the size of the drive.

If the police are engaged, then they could ask for the recordings (or even get a warrant for them).

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Thank you for the response.

What if he doesn’t have a cloud account? Is anything recorded?

My question is if his response makes sense to all you who actually use this product. Would there ever be a scenario you would say to someone looking for help from your Arlo camera:
“Ahh, you know what I’m sorry mate! If only you’d ask me earlier maybe I’d have something for you! But since you wait more than 12 hrs. I got nothing for you” — which is essentially what he’s saying.

Him regularly deleting recordings doesn’t make sense in that context.

More reluctant details:
Total losses for me were around $400 worth of stuff.. The police were not engaged as for anyone living in the US knows is pointless for vehicle break-ins. Especially with damages less than $500 in most cases), no forced entry, even pointless to notify the insurance company.

So contacting the police just so they can demand recordings would make things uncomfortable after an accusation with no proof. Plus he can just deny he has any recordings at all, and police would be in the same situation as me warrant or not.

For context, I rent a room and this is the homeowner.

One of my concerns is if this person has installed some sort of eves-dropping or tracking device, or whatever. Since I often find the IR lights in the cameras inside the home are on until I look at them and then they turn off (pretty creepy). He has weird justifications on why invading someone’s privacy is righteous if it’s to “help” the person,  other persons consent not required! Possible narcissist I’m dealing with..

[StephenB]

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@-__- wrote:

What if he doesn’t have a cloud account? Is anything recorded?

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Some older cameras offered free 7-day cloud recording as part of the terms of sale.  Those don't require a subscription, though newer cameras (anything introduced in 2018 or later) do.

USB recordings are made whether there is a subscription or not.

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@-__- wrote:

 Would there ever be a scenario you would say to someone looking for help from your Arlo camera:
“Ahh, you know what I’m sorry mate! If only you’d ask me earlier maybe I’d have something for you! But since you wait more than 12 hrs. I got nothing for you” — which is essentially what he’s saying.

Him regularly deleting recordings doesn’t make sense in that context.

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I agree this is likely false.  Though there are people who regularly delete old recordings, and it is possible  (though unlikely) that he deleted them w/o noticing the break-in.

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@-__- wrote:

One of my concerns is if this person has installed some sort of eves-dropping or tracking device, or whatever. Since I often find the IR lights in the cameras inside the home are on until I look at them and then they turn off (pretty creepy). He has weird justifications on why invading someone’s privacy is righteous if it’s to “help” the person,  other persons consent not required! 

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Obviously the cameras are enabled, and recording videos.  Recordings are usually timed, so they will turn off (and the IR lights will turn off in the middle of the recording if there is enough light).

Laws on consent vary from place to place, and I have no idea what they are in California (and since I am not a lawyer, can't offer legal advice anyway).  There are places where privacy for video-only and audio+video are different.  You obviously are on notice for video, since you can see the cameras.  But maybe not for audio.

Practically speaking, you might consider moving.  Clearly he's not that interested in "helping" you.

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I really appreciate your feedback as it’s helping me to understand what is going on and feel “less crazy” (for anyone unfortunate to know what gaslighting feels like).

You are right about moving, and SPOT ON about the “helping” part.

There was another time, when I sought his help to see if his camera in the garage saw if I stupidly left my work tablet on top of my car before driving off. Because I was in big effin trouble that morning, and couldn’t find it. He said sorry, they’re (cameras) are not on when I am home, only when I am away. So I had to report to my boss who had to report it to basically it was a huge deal, involving multiple departments and people at work. I didn’t even know where to start looking. Long story short, I ended up finding it in the middle of the road later in the day when a lot of time could have been saved had he just helped to confirm “yep” you left it on the roof. Then I could have focused on searching my driving path VS searching EVERYWHERE and making nervous phone calls.

I should add more context into why IR lights is creepy too.

He’s stated multiple times, the cameras in the home are inactive when he is home and only active when he is not home. So, if he were upstairs, and you were seated downstairs at the dining table eating and minding your own business watching YouTube or whatever on your phone. Then happen to look up at one of the cameras about 10 feet away in your line of sight…. And the IR lights suddenly turn off (as if he had an “oh sh*t” moment, panicked and turned off the viewer or whatever real quick).

Happened a couple of times, then I guess he learned that seemed suspicious, so they don’t turn off anymore. (So I guess he’s just watching me?) pretty creepy I would say.

Also: Ambient lighting is consistent during these events. and they may be timed.. although that doesn’t make any sense for when he is home. Which is when it happened. Motion detection could be enabled but irrelevant to discussion.

I still think Arlo forcing me to seek support in this community instead of having a private channel open to communicate (like email) is a serious barrier to the safety and security of the public. Because it’s highly possible this person is on here. He voluntarily offered more information about his cameras during a casual conversation saying the doorbell camera ISNT on cloud service but the ones inside the home are… how convenient, the two cameras that could have helped me just so happened are not on cloud service.

Domestic abusers are often highly controlling. Making escape of victims difficult due to the level of surveillance employed. Thank you Arlo, for offering no avenue of safe communication for the potential victims of domestic abuse. Because they wouldn't even take the risk like I am in fear of their life and retaliation.

[StephenB]

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@-__- wrote:
I really appreciate your feedback as it’s helping me to understand what is going on and feel “less crazy” (for anyone unfortunate to know what gaslighting feels like).


He’s stated multiple times, the cameras in the home are inactive when he is home and only active when he is not home. So, if he were upstairs, and you were seated downstairs at the dining table eating and minding your own business watching YouTube or whatever on your phone. Then happen to look up at one of the cameras about 10 feet away in your line of sight…. And the IR lights suddenly turn off (as if he had an “oh sh*t” moment, panicked and turned off the viewer or whatever real quick).

Also: Ambient lighting is consistent during these events. and they may be timed.. although that doesn’t make any sense for when he is home. Which is when it happened. Motion detection could be enabled but irrelevant to discussion.

The system does have a geofencing feature that could be set to disarm the cameras when he is home (and the system also lets you arm/disarm on a schedule).  So he might well have the system set up that way.  Geofencing does sometimes misbehave, so it is still possible that there would be some recordings when he is home.  

But that really only applies to the motion detection.  He can livestream any of the cameras at any time (and make manual recordings if he likes).

That said, I agree with you that he is being very controlling, and that is I think a big warning sign (no matter how the system is set up).

FWIW, there is a feature called "friend access" that would allow you to see all the videos (but not reconfigure the cameras or delete them).  One of the warning signs for me is that he hasn't offered to set that up for you.  

I do want to make it clear that I do not work for Arlo - people who do (for instance the two mods) have an Arlo logo next to their user name.

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Thank you for responding. No offense to the mods, but non-affiliated user responses are gold. It’s the nuances, that get through. Very very helpful.

Just an update, his narcissism gaslighting has gotten to the point this has severely affected my mental health, so much so I just lost my job because im doubting everything and can’t trust anyone (im normally agreeable) not being able to tell what’s true and what isn’t.

This is driving me insane!!

I know the answer is to move…

But it’s not that simple.

[StephenB]

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@-__- wrote:
Thank you for responding. No offense to the mods, but non-affiliated user responses are gold. It’s the nuances, that get through. Very very helpful.

Just an update, his narcissism gaslighting has gotten to the point this has severely affected my mental health, so much so I just lost my job because im doubting everything and can’t trust anyone (im normally agreeable) not being able to tell what’s true and what isn’t.

This is driving me insane!!

I know the answer is to move…

But it’s not that simple.

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@-__- wrote:
Thank you for responding. No offense to the mods, but non-affiliated user responses are gold. It’s the nuances, that get through. Very very helpful.

Just an update, his narcissism gaslighting has gotten to the point this has severely affected my mental health, so much so I just lost my job because im doubting everything and can’t trust anyone (im normally agreeable) not being able to tell what’s true and what isn’t.

This is driving me insane!!

I know the answer is to move…

But it’s not that simple.

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I hope you can find the help that you need.