Setting zones requires AC power

[mharps]

Why on earth does my Arlo Pro 3 system require my camera to be connected to an AC power supply to set an activity zone? 

that requires me to remove my camera from the housing and bring it inside which defeats the purpose as I can no longer see the area in view. 

Never used to be like this so a firmware update must have caused this to occur. 

Absolutely stupid and unnecessary requirement.

[Dannybear]

Agree that it’s weird since they allow you to have activity zones applied when you have the camera on a subscription, but then you need to power the camera if you don’t have a subscription but you can’t use it unless you have internet cloud access. Not sure why they bother with the distinction.

[mharps]

It’s all about money. Trying  to force people onto subscriptions. Anther reason to move away from Arlo products.

[Dannybear]

I already have 7days free cloud storage without subscription but if I want activity zones on my battery only cameras I need a subscription which gives me 14days cloud storage, and smart notifications so it can ignore swinging branches. 

[StephenB]

---

@mharps wrote:

Why on earth does my Arlo Pro 3 system require my camera to be connected to an AC power supply to set an activity zone? 

that requires me to remove my camera from the housing and bring it inside which defeats the purpose as I can no longer see the area in view. 

---

You are misunderstanding.  You need the camera to be AC powered to use the activity zone.  Bringing the camera indoors to set them up accomplishes nothing, as they will be disabled as soon as you remove power.

There are two ways that activity zones are implemented by Arlo. 

1. Most of the time they are implemented in the Arlo cloud.  Every time motion is detected, the video is streamed to the cloud for analysis.  If the cloud determines that motion is outside the zone, then the video is discarded and no notification is sent.  This method doesn't affect battery life at all, but it does require a subscription.
2. Many Arlo cameras (but not all) also have hardware that can implement the zones.  This is available w/o a subscription.  But it takes more power - which hurts battery life.  So Arlo requires AC power to be connected.

---

@mharps wrote:

Never used to be like this

---

Actually it has always been this way with the Pro 3.  If you are seeing a recent change, then check your subscription status.

[mharps]

I think you misunderstood, all 4 of my cameras are battery powered - none are hard wired with power so if that is required with Pro 3 cameras then it will never be possible for me to setup zones with the current requirement.

Re point 2 saying it has always been this way with Arlo Pro 3 cameras.

I have never held a subscription but early on I was able to set zones. 
Maybe that may have been during a trial period which may have given cloud access. If that is the case, it proves AC power is not required, just cloud access.

Sure it may drain battery power more rapidly but that should be my choice, I can fit larger batteries to compensate.

Your statement that other cameras have the ability to set zones, means it is possible to set up zones without AC power and without cloud access. 

[Dannybear]

@mharps 

What Base station model are you using, the VMB4000/4500 had recent firmware update.

Not sure why you would have lost your activity zone setup because of it.

Yes you can’t set your activity zones unless you have Ac power initially applied, once applied you can adjust them when you position your camera at the final location.

Why your not allowed to setup the zones without power initially applied is weird.

[mharps]

I’m required to have a subscription to access this functionality. As I don’t have said subscription, this functionality is not available.

This is a problem I have with Arlo. They don’t make it obvious before you purchase their products that certain functionality will not be available unless you have a subscription. 

I purchased the Pro 3 system after checking out a friends Pro2 system. Installed it then found out that at that point in time you couldn’t record video clips unless you had a subscription. Previous versions had a 7 day cloud storage with them that remains today. It was some time before they provided the facility to store video clips on a usb hard drive plugged into your base unit.

As soon as that functionality was available I added in my usb drive. I’m still unable to access the recoded videos when away from home even though I can access the cameras to live view. This means I must be accessing the base station to get to the cameras, then why can I not access the usb drive attached to the base station.

As I mentioned earlier, Arlo wants everyone to go onto a subscription and I am not prepared to do that.

it would have been cheaper to have a professional system installed with better cameras and access to camera live view, zones and stored video.

[StephenB]

---

@mharps wrote:

Maybe that may have been during a trial period which may have given cloud access. If that is the case, it proves AC power is not required, just cloud access.

---

As I said above.  When you have a subscription (paid or trial), then the activity zones are processed in the cloud.

When your trial expired, you lost the cloud-processed activity zones, and you'd need to connect to AC power to get them back.

---

@mharps wrote:

Sure it may drain battery power more rapidly but that should be my choice, I can fit larger batteries to compensate.

---

I don't disagree - but was explaining how it actually worked, not how I might want it to work.

[mharps]

Thanks. Don’t mean to take my frustration out on others, just annoyed at Arlo. Appreciate your feedback.

[Dannybear]

@mharps 

You will need to have a VMB4540 or a VMB5000 Base station to have viewer access to to the local storage.

That said even if you have Ac powered cameras with activity zones applied, you still need cloud access to the base station for them to record to the backup storage. Hence cloud activity zones are always functionally in use.

[mharps]

I am able to access the locally stored videos when I am at home. Just not able to access them when I am not directly connected to our home wifi.

[mharps]

I would need to set up a VPN to access while away from home

[Dannybear]

In case you have not already read the article below,

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