Cams work but dont record

[danwriter]

I have a pair of H4s and the base station. All was fine s]and the cams still work — I can see video in real time —  but suddenly they stopped recording. Any idea why this happened? And I already cycled the router. Thanks.

(Firm: 1.125.17.1_11_)

[StephenB]

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@danwriter wrote:

I have a pair of H4s and the base station.

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Do you have Pro 4s?  "H4" is a hardware revision of a camera, and not the model. Many camera models share the same "H" revision codes.  You can see the model by going into the support area of the app, and then selecting the camera.  Scroll down to the bottom of that screen (past the article links), and look at the Product field.  The Pro 4 would show VMC4050P.  If you don't recognize the VMC field, you can just reply and we can tell you what it is.

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@danwriter wrote:

 I can see video in real time —  but suddenly they stopped recording.

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Most often this is because the trial subscription expired.  So check your subscription status.

[danwriter]

The product designator is VMC4030P.

The cams are nearly 4 years old so I guess I finally ran into the end-of-life subscription issue.

I did put a 4-GB thumb drive into the base station (VMB4000r3) but the switch to "Record Locally" remains greyed out. 

Is the best solution to buy a subscription? Thanks.

[StephenB]

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@danwriter wrote:

The product designator is VMC4030P.

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So Pro 2 cameras.  You should be getting free 7-day cloud storage (which Arlo is saying will continue indefinitely). Camera EOL date is 1 January 2025, with security updates provided 12 months after that.

Have you tried making a manual recording while live-streaming?

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@danwriter wrote:

I did put a 4-GB thumb drive into the base station (VMB4000r3) but the switch to "Record Locally" remains greyed out. 

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It needs to be formatted as FAT32, and minimum size is 16 GB (no idea why it is so big). 

Note that with the VMB4000 base you cannot see local recordings from the app or the browser.  The only way to see them is to eject the thumb drive and connect it to a PC.

[danwriter]

Have you tried making a manual recording while live-streaming?

Yes. Both still frame and motion recording work. But I need the cams to be motion activated, as they had been for four years.

RE Thumb drive:

It needs to be formatted as FAT32, and minimum size is 16 GB (no idea why it is so big). 

Note that with the VMB4000 base you cannot see local recordings from the app or the browser.  The only way to see them is to eject the thumb drive and connect it to a PC.

The message on screen was minimum 1 GB drive.  16 GB is a big drive and I don't have one handy. this base was never a problem for seeing recorded video before. Is the only solution to but a subscription? Will that get me back to where I was?

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

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@danwriter wrote:

Have you tried making a manual recording while live-streaming?

Yes. Both still frame and motion recording work. But I need the cams to be motion activated, as they had been for four years.

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So you have cloud storage - no need for the thumb drive or the subscription.

Have you checked that the cameras are armed?

[danwriter]

Stephen: Your question: Have you checked that the cameras are armed?

How do I check that? I've looked under devices and settings. Thx,

[danwriter]

That fixed it. Thank you. All three devices — 2 cams and the base — were disarmed. Any idea why that would happen on its own? Thanks again.

Dan

[Tonymo07]

How did you fix this step by step?

[danwriter]

Got to mode and make sure Arm All Devices is checked.