When Arlo Smart goes away

[CuJoe]

I'm still not sure of everything that happens when my Arlo Smart trail goes away. Articles I've searched are old or do not specifically address the following:

Will my cameras still record in 2K? I plan on using local storage via my 4540 hub, so videos will be stored on my USB device in 2K, right?

I will lose the ability to distinguish what triggers the motion event (person, animal, etc), so all motion alerts will simply indicate "motion detected....."etcetc", right?

I will still receive push notifications, right? And the ability to add email notifications also, right?

Will I still be able to see and view the videos on my (android) smart phone Arlo app? I've been told I'll lose the ability to view my locally stored videos via a web interface, right?

[StephenB]

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@CuJoe wrote:

I'm still not sure of everything that happens when my Arlo Smart trail goes away. Articles I've searched are old or do not specifically address the following:

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Here's the most useful one: https://kb.arlo.com/000062312/What-options-will-I-have-when-the-Arlo-Smart-3-month-trial-plan-ends

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@CuJoe wrote:

I will still receive push notifications, right? And the ability to add email notifications also, right?

Correct.

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@CuJoe wrote:

I will lose the ability to distinguish what triggers the motion event (person, animal, etc), so all motion alerts will simply indicate "motion detected....."etcetc", right?

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Correct.   You'll also lose cloud activity zones.

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@CuJoe wrote:

Will my cameras still record in 2K? I plan on using local storage via my 4540 hub, so videos will be stored on my USB device in 2K, right?

Will I still be able to see and view the videos on my (android) smart phone Arlo app? I've been told I'll lose the ability to view my locally stored videos via a web interface, right?

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Recordings are the most complicated thing to explain.  You will be able to store 2K motion recordings on your 4540 smarthub, and view those recordings from your Android (or iOS) phone when connected to your home network.

You'll lose

• the ability to make manual recordings
• ability to access recordings from the web ui
• ability to access recordings from "friend" account 
• thumbnails

Access to your recordings when you are not connected to your home network is possible, but can be tricky with Android.  You can use a VPN to connect to your home network from an iPhone - but last I heard, this did not work with Android.  Port forwarding should work, but can be tricky to set up.

[dcfox1]

@CuJoe  Also you can read this link on Setting up local. With the limitations such as described above there are no  thumbnails and you need to download each one through the app IMO a sub is worth it but that up to you. 

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

[CuJoe]

Ok, guys, thanks so much for responding. One more item for you...

If I want to setup USB local recordings on my 4540 hub, will that screw up my cloud recordings or anything else? If I understand it, the local storage will now appear somehow under my "library"? I just want to test and see what it looks like, but don't want to mess Arlo Smart or anything else up.

[dcfox1]

No, it will record to both.  I use it as back up as I have a sub. In the library where you see cloud in the upper middle select Smart Hub in the pull down instead of cloud to view.