Arlo Pro 4 Foresight

[CJS8]

Hi
My Alro Pro 4 is connected to AC power, using Arlo power cable, and connected to fully meshed  WIFI network.
My understanding is that "Foresight" feature should work as long as its connected to AC power, which it is.
The Arlo Pro 4 has full WIFI strength in the Arlo app, also the Arlo App indicates the the AC power is connected
The Foresight feature does not seem to work, i did work useing my Arlo Pro2, but on the Pro4 it only starts recording when motion is in vision.
Has there been any other cases like this, or any known issues, or is there any other workarounds settings to test ?
Thanks.

[jguerdat]

Have you tested it with just the battery to see if there's a difference? Perhaps it's the exact direction of the motion that's causing this - post a screenshot of the camera view and/or a link to a video for us to see.

[CJS8]

Im 99.95 sure this is not working, as i use to have Pro 2 which use to work in the same postion.

Just checking if anyone else has had the same issue, or if its a software or hardware fault

[phzwgqw]

Did you receive a satisfactory answer to the Pro4 Foresight not working?  thanks

[Jim006]

I'm having the same issue.   My setup:

• Arlo Pro 4 Cameras
• Power connected to wall adaptor via USB to Pro4 power cable
• Battery at 100% with "green power" icon in Arlo App
• WiFi connection to home router (not using SmartHub)
• Cameras in "Armed" state in Arlo App
• Arlo Secure trial subscription

Foresight feature does not function.  Video starts from point motion is detected, instead of 3 seconds before video is detected.

Any help is appreciated.

[Jim006]

I've also tried rebooting the cameras from the phone app.  No luck, video is still captured from point of motion detection instead of 3 seconds before motion detection.

[phzwgqw]

This is what i was told today from Arlo Support about Foresight not working

This is a follow email regarding your concern with the Foresight feature of the Arlo Pro4 camera.

I got the exact information of it from the appropriate team and it indicated that the Foresight feature will only work if the camera is connected to an Arlo Base Station or Smart Hub.

I don't know if this is correct.  Only that Foresight (without a base or hub) definitely does not work for me.  I cannot find that requirement anywhere in the sales literature or the user guide.... so who knows?

[Jim006]

I suspect that is probably the case, although you are right, it is not mentioned in any of the documentation including the user's guide for the pro 4 cameras.

I ordered a VMB4000 Smart hub from eBay yesterday and hopefully it'll arrive this week. I should be able to verify after that. Unfortunately everything's out of stock for the smart hubs. So it cost a premium to get one and you'll be lucky if it's new as opposed to refurbished.

[phzwgqw]

Thanks, Please post your results.  I have spent considerable time working on the foresight issue only to learn (possibly) more equipment is needed.  I can deal with that, only that this information should be advertised so hours of time would not be wasted trying to make this work.  About 3 hours were on chats with Arlo.  

[dcfox1]

 It also requires that the cam is connected to AC power. A mod had posted here before it needs to be connected to a Hub/Base but the page does not mention that. 

How does the Foresight feature work on my Arlo camera?

[Jim006]

@dcfox1 You can see from my post above the exact setup I have which includes the cameras plugged into AC power and currently at 100% charge.

The documentation does not mention that a smart hub is required.  In addition, googling "Arlo Pro 4 Foresight" doesn't take you to any page that says a smart hub is required.  All of that is probably why this post was created in the first place :).

My ebay VMB4000 shows up on Monday.  Assuming no headaches moving my cameras from WiFi to VMB4000, I should know the answer then.

[dcfox1]

@Jim006  Yea I saw that I just posted the link for other details for others also. 

[Jim006]

My VMB4000r3 arrived today still sealed in the original plastic Arlo bag.  Was super easy to setup and move the cameras from WiFi to the Base Station (following the instructions in the Pro 4 User's Guide).

The Foresight feature worked immediately after moving the cameras to the VMB4000.

I swear the camera video is higher quality when watching "live".  There's a nifty "home" icon indicating that I'm watching the live stream over my home network.  There's also a "2K" icon indicating the video quality.  The improvement seems dramatic.

I was also able to enable "Live 2K streaming" feature for each camera.  This feature was not previously visible on the Pro 4 Video Settings when connected to my WiFi.

Lastly I connected a USB memory stick (64MB because that's all I have lying around right now).  I have local storage turned on but have yet to find a way to actually playback the stored 24/7 video.  I cannot review the "timeline" feature for the cameras (which is a new setting I can now see with the Base Station) because it says I need a CVR plan.  I'm not keen on paying $10 a camera for CVR in the cloud (although that would be nice - just too expensive).  I was hoping to get the CVR feature at least locally from the USB storage device.  More research required on my end.

[dcfox1]

With the VMB4000 base you have to eject the USB and view it in a PC. Only the Smart Hubs VMB4540 and 5000 can the Local storage be viewed in the App. And yes to view "2k Live" stream in the App the base or Hub is needed as you noticed. Also for CVR it needs the cloud to work as that is where it is stored as it is a huge file storage. Glad it set up easy. 

[kiwiant]

I'm having the exact same issue and I'm not getting anywhere with Arlo support. they keep asking for more and more detail perhaps in an attempt to baffle me with their tech jargon.

Unfortunately for them I'm a network engineer with the same issue at multiple sites, one with Arlo Ultra cameras (incl base station) and the other with Arlo Pro 4 cameras. Decent Wi-Fi (albeit 2.4Ghz), gigabit Ethernet and Gigabit fibre.

• Connected to power using power adapter that came with the cameras (not solar).
• Activity zones setup
• Decent signal strength
• Motion detection setup (and armed)
• Smart notifications setup (Arlo Smart Elite Multi Camera plan x 5)
• Tried Arlo Pro 4 cameras on Wi-Fi and connected via base station/Smart Hub (VMB4540)

[phzwgqw]

For what it is worth, after multiple chats with the Arlo techs (hours), the consensus was (in my case) that the Arlo hub was needed to enable foresight.  I have accepted that answer, but I do not plan to test their theory.   There is zero documentation for needing a hub that I can find and I pressed Arlo to make that information known in the sales literature and the owner’s manual.  Apparently for jim006 the hub was the key to foresight working.   Good luck 

[kiwiant]

I can confirm Foresight is not working with the VMB4540 Smart Hub with the Arlo 4 Pro cameras whilst connected to power (you can read the rest of my config earlier in thread).

I'm also "waiting" for support to ask me the next round of irrelevant questions that they hope I cannot answer.

[Jim006]

The base station (VMB4000) was the last piece of the puzzle.  You have to meet all the other criteria as well such as the AC power cable (a good one so the battery doesn't drop out of "fully charged" state).  I fought with power cables for roughly 2 weeks.  I ended up returning three of them back to Amazon.

The battery icon in the Arlo phone app must be a "filled" icon.  This means "fully charged".  The "hollow" icon (still green) means charging.  Note that being at 100% does not mean fully charged.  It also needs the solid/filled battery icon.  The only way to get this is with an adequate power supply.  My original power supplies would keep a camera fully charged for a few hours then it would drop to "100% charging" state at which point foresight would stop working.

Not sure if that's helpful or not.  Unfortunately I've learned everthing with Arlo the hard way.  The last example was the inability to manually record video with 2k live streaming turned on.  2k live streaming also changes what static image your cameras show in the app -- with the streaming off, the app will show a still frame from one of the last motion detected videos.  With the streaming on, it will show a still frame from the last time you watched the live stream (never updating for new motion detected videos).  All of it has led me to disable the local 2k streaming.

After a few weeks of tuning it all in (and learning some lessons), I am satisfied with the system.  It does a good job with the VMB4000 base station as long as you don't use the live streaming and you're satisfied with never watching your locally stored videos and you stick with the $10/month subscription fee.