Accessing local storage from VMB4540 - seeking assistance

[RWK]

Quick backstory for context:

• happy owner of Arlo Pro setup for many years
• lost one of the cameras to water damage so purchased Arlo Pro3 setup with VMB4540 in Dec 2020
• took advantage of introductory offer of Arlo Secure - free period plus a reduced rate period. Didn't use it much except to access the recordings of the Pro3 cameras in the cloud. The person/animal detection and activity zones were hit and miss from a value perspective
• Promotions ended and have been paying full fare for about 6 months. We came to the conclusion that the cost of the subscriptions were far more than any value provided, except access to recordings.
• Researched and inquired with Arlo Support on how to best "cut the wire" to the subscriptions and go the local storage route, which we did last week. Successfully established port forwarding and made the VMB4540 hub visible outside of the home network.

ISSUE: I can only access the VMB4540 USB local recordings from my smartphone. Any attempt using my credentials and any other device only accesses the cloud recordings of the original PRO cameras - NOTE to ARLO Product Management, a great service and don't know why you didn't extend this business model to the other Pro line cameras.

MY COMMENTS: I have spent many minutes typing with Arlo Support and basically they told me this is the way it is designed. I politely provided my feedback (many different ways) on how this didn't make sense and they cut me off - NOTE to ARLO management.....not good customer moment of truth!

MY ASK: Is there anyone in this community that has successfully setup local storage for Arlo cameras and has been successful in accessing the recordings from multiple physical devices and ideally multiple accounts, e.g. the way a second user can access the cloud recordings in the subscription or old PRO setup?

If I can't get this resolved, COSTCO will be getting a return shortly.

Any assistance and ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[dcfox1]

Support was right this time as you can only view local recordings via the App not a PC. 

With the limitations you are learning with local to me a sub is much simpler and worth the 10 bucks a month. 

I just use local as back up. The sub policy started in 2018 with models newer then Pro2. 

What is Direct Storage Access and how do I use it? (arlo.com)

[RWK]

I have no issue with the subscription model except the price, but to each their own.

The issue I am most confused about is being limited to a single smartphone. For example, my wife logs in on her smartphone with my credentials and she cannot see the local recordings. Why is that?

[dcfox1]

Friend access can not see them but not sure why she can't when logging in as you. Does she have Port forwarding enabled in her App if away?  

[RWK]

First, the base station does not have port forwarding enabled. She is able to log in with my credentials and do everything but see the local recordings. She has the selection between local and cloud, but selecting local just has wait icon visible.

She is on the same wifi mesh as the base station, as is my smartphone. She is the main beneficiary of the installation, so getting her working would be a major victory.

Thanks for your assistance.