USB Flash Drive not recognized by Pro 3 base station

[JerryFX]

When I insert a USB flash drive into the base station nothing happens.  The drive is 32GB and doesn't show up on the Smarthub page.  Under Storage Settings I get the message to insert a USB device, even though the drive is inserted in the base station.  When I take out the drive I get the notification that the drive was ejected incorrectly.  

Any ideas?

[TomMac]

Try a different mem stick  ...

also make sure the stick is formatted as FAT32 ( by computer )

[JerryFX]

Been there, tried that.  But, these were all drives that I had formatted and written over many times.  I'm going to go out and get a new flash drive and see if that works.

[michaelkenward]

Arlo has ramped up the minimum size for the USB drive. 32GB is now minimum.

Some brands seem to play better than others. But even that can be picky,

[JerryFX]

That's useful information.  I have a 1TB flash drive coming from Amazon on Friday.  Hopefully, that will do the trick.

Thanks.

[michaelkenward]

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@JerryFX wrote:

That's useful information.  I have a 1TB flash drive coming from Amazon on Friday.  

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Hope it works.

Big enough to record an epic movie, but maybe bigger than some hubs can handle.

The sweet spot seems to be 128 to 256 GB.

[JerryFX]

They don't provide any guidance in the manual about capacity vs. amount of videos stores, so I figured I might as week go big.

Will I experience a noticeable improvement in performance with local storage, as opposed to going out to the cloud?  I am hoping that will address my slow response times.  

[K80Shooter]

@JerryFX 

If you're trying to view it from a computer you will have to eject it from the hub and hook it up to a computer. Not sure about the app as I rarely use it.

[JerryFX]

I believe that has changed with the new app.  It is my understanding that you can view the videos in the local drive just like the ones in the cloud via the Library.  There are no thumbnails, however, and you can't erase them from the app.  To erase you still have to mount the drive on a PC or Mac.  At least that's what the documentation I have seen says.  Assuming I can actually access the drive, I'll know for myself in a few days.

[dcfox1]

@JerryFX  Yea your right about viewing on the app. Not sure about erasing from the app but I just clear it out on PC like @K80Shooter said. Also there is a setting to overwrite last recordings when full. 

[JerryFX]

Does running from a local storage device improve on the sluggish performance?  That's what I am hoping for.  I am not worried about the internet going down.

Anyone out there with some experience about performance before and after adding local storage?

[JerryFX · Accepted solution]

To finish off this saga, I finally found a flash drive that will work.  128GB formatted FAT32.  I also acquired a 1TB drive, but that seems to have problems, as it was not recognized by the hub.

So, it looks like I am in business.  Everything is functioning properly.  At this point, only complaint is the too long wait times between motion sensed and notification, and between notification and the ability to view live.  Hopefully, Arlo will address these issues via firmware and software updates.

Thanks to all for their input and comments.

[michaelkenward]

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@JerryFX wrote:

To finish off this saga, I finally found a flash drive that will work.  128GB formatted FAT32.  

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Excellent. And what brand was it?

The full details might help guide later victims.

[JerryFX]

It was a Lexar 128GB USB 2.0.  I got it at Staples .  Has worked fine.

One thing I noticed is that, as expected, the local storage thumbnails in the Library only show a standardized down arrow icon.  But, once you have viewed the video, it changes to a picture view, just like the files stored in the cloud.

[michaelkenward]

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@JerryFX wrote:

It was a Lexar 128GB USB 2.0.  I got it at Staples .  Has worked fine.

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Thanks for that.

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@JerryFX wrote:

One thing I noticed is that, as expected, the local storage thumbnails in the Library only show a standardized down arrow icon.  But, once you have viewed the video, it changes to a picture view, just like the files stored in the cloud.

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Yes. That's as designed.

Every lusts after thumbnails without the download.

[dcfox1]

@michaelkenward  I second that about viewing the thumbnails without a download.