Arlo - purchased a 3 camera system by I need to pay a monthly fee?

[Yanman]

Purchased a 3-camera system and was quite happy with it, but now I need to pay a monthly fee if I want access to the recorded videos, for $12 per camera.  Doesn't make much sense to me to purchase cameras at that price and then having to pay a monthly fee to view my videos.  I had expected to pay this up-front costs with nil recurring costs, but the free service is not very useful.  What's the point of the cameras without access to this library?  Is my only 'security' through live camera feeds?

If I wanted to pay a high monthly fee, I'd get my cameras for free through a monitored service, which also reduces insurance costs.  

May be I am missing something?   

[dcfox1 · Accepted solution]

It is on the box and on the product page that it comes with a "3 month trial" of smart subscription for 30 day cloud and smart features. The research I did said the same before buying. The Pro2 and older still have free 7 day cloud storage. You can use local storage on the hub via USB if you have not yet. 

https://kb.arlo.com/000062337/What-is-Direct-Storage-Access-and-how-do-I-use-it

[Yanman]

So I was missing something.  thanks!  Turns out I hadn't completed the install with the direct storage access enabled.  Extra costs for cloud hosting services make sense.  

The instructions on VPN are a little daunting for me, and I still have to figure out how to access my recordings, but I know it's possible now. 

Looks like I need a second router for a VPN, but I am just starting to look at that issue.

[dcfox1]

Yea with the limitations of local storage to me the subscription is worth it. I use local storage as a back up. But that is a matter of preference. The is a lot of information in the FAQ section here.