recording and viewing videos from USB

[Waymon]

Hello, I hope I can get some of you learned people to help me out. I have Arlo hub VMB 4540r3 and 3 Arlo pro 4 cameras. 

I am trying to record to USB and be able to view videos from my Arlo app. I have followed every instruction I have been given and cannot get it to work. I have worked with comcast to open the ports suggested by Arlo support. I can open and view live feed from cameras, but no recordings can I find. I installed a 256mb USB, formatted, can view, and see USB in local storage settings. I believe the issue may be with the external and internal ports. When I go to the Port Forwarding page the status says Not Available and a red exclamation circle. The external and internal port is listed as 19191.

any ideas?

[StephenB]

---

@Waymon wrote:

Hello, I hope I can get some of you learned people to help me out. I have Arlo hub VMB 4540r3 and 3 Arlo pro 4 cameras. 

I am trying to record to USB and be able to view videos from my Arlo app. I have followed every instruction I have been given and cannot get it to work.

---

First piece of advice is to ignore the port forwarding for now.  That is only needed for remote access.  So first get it working when your phone connected to your home network.  After that, escalate to the port forwarding (getting there step by step).

Does your app show you "Library" as a menu option?  Or does it show you "Feed" and "Dashboard" instead.

[Waymon]

it shows only Feed, dashboard, emergency, devices and routines

[StephenB]

---

@Waymon wrote:

it shows only Feed, dashboard, emergency, devices and routines

---

Ok.

The local recordings aren't shown in "Feed".  In order to see them, you need to 

1. go to the devices page
2. select the base station
3. select storage settings

You won't see any thumbnails, so you will need to touch one of the download icons in order to see the video.  The app will then download the video and play it.

Have you tried this?

[Waymon]

Hi. I went to storage settings. The page opens, the wheel spins and it says "there are no events today. Just before that, I armed the cameras and took a stroll past all 3 of them. All notified me as they were supposed to but got n o recordings that I know of

[StephenB]

---

@Waymon wrote:

Hi. I went to storage settings. The page opens, the wheel spins and it says "there are no events today. Just before that, I armed the cameras and took a stroll past all 3 of them. All notified me as they were supposed to but got n o recordings that I know of

---

I think the next step it so eject the USB drive via the app and connect it to a PC.  Then look to see what recordings (if any) are on the drive.

How is the drive formatted?

[Waymon]

Good morning. I pulled the USB and there are no recordings on it. USB is blank

[Waymon]

Drive was formatted on the hub

[jguerdat]

And the format question? Can you format the drive while it's installed in the hub? It has to be FAT 32, not any other format.

[StephenB]

---

@Waymon wrote:

Drive was formatted on the hub

---

Ok.  Can you copy files to the drive?  (delete them afterwards).

[Waymon]

I pulled the USB and there were no files on it. Empty. I did format it on the Arlo hub but I just plugged into my computer to make sure it is formatted. I don't know what the hub formatted it at, it doesn't say, but the only options on my computer for formatting are exFat and ntfs

[StephenB]

---

@Waymon wrote:

I don't know what the hub formatted it at, it doesn't say, but the only options on my computer for formatting are exFat and ntfs

---

It needs to be formatted as FAT32 (and partitioned as MBR).  Windows doesn't offer FAT32 for 256 GB drives in the GUI, though you can format it as FAT32 from the command line (and using various third-party packages).

But it should be possible for you copy a file manually to the drive.

Other options are 

• try another thumb drive (at least 16 GB)
• remove the cameras and smarthub from the account, do a hardware reset of both, and then add them back

[Waymon]

I will by and try another USB and make sure it is formatted correctly. I will remove and reinstall hardware only at a last resort as that is always such a hassle and I don't think that would be the problem (says the non-expert)

I did try moving the cameras to another location from the hub. I put the cameras in outside room and the hub on inside room. Location seems to be a problem sometimes. Hasn't seemed to make a difference. If this is a mistake, I can remove them and place back.

Thank you. Ant other ideas please pass along. I'm going out of town next weekend and would like to have this wrapped up.

[StephenB]

---

@Waymon wrote:

I will by and try another USB and make sure it is formatted correctly.

Anything you purchase will be pre-formatted as exfat, so you will need to format it in the smarthub. Or get use a third-party package that lets you re-initialize the USB drive using MBR (as opposed to GPT), and then format it as FAT32.

---

@Waymon wrote:

I will remove and reinstall hardware only at a last resort as that is always such a hassle and I don't think that would be the problem (says the non-expert)

---

It is a hassle.  There have been several cases where a reset was needed (I needed to do that myself once to get local storage to work on a VMB5000).

[Waymon]

Good morning. I managed to format the USB to fat32. I re-installed the USB and now my Arlo apps says the USB requires formatting.....

I have had the app format the usb before, but I still get no recordings.

[StephenB]

---

@Waymon wrote:

Good morning. I managed to format the USB to fat32. I re-installed the USB and now my Arlo apps says the USB requires formatting.....

---

Perhaps it was partitioned as GPT instead if MBR.

I'd try having the base format the drive again. 

[MarcoKaa]

I have same problem. First it worked perfect. Did not change anything. Now no library. Tried every thing I found on arlo site.

They say they are working on it....

Grrr.... frustrating. 

[ShayneS]

Hi @MarcoKaa 

Can you provide more detail regarding the symptoms you are experiencing?

Thanks