Arlo app - cant share access with friends

[JCBusiness]

Would love some help if anyone could spare me a minute to hear my issues - Arlo cameras are setup correctly. I have shared access with 2 people successfully a few months back.

Tried sharing with another friend yesterday and when she logs in to the app, she can't see any of the cameras I have shared with her.

It says "Accepted" in the grant access section. 

She is now successfully getting notifications for motion detection, but cant see the cameras.

My phone is android and the friends is iphone.

Any ideas on what I am doing wrong?

[DannyBearAgain]

You’re not doing anything wrong that I ca see.

 If anything it’s a bug arlo is rolling out to new account holders. They are trying to force customers into using their new app Ui experience which is incompatible with the old UI experience for the main account.

Along with the incompatibility, the new UI is full of operational bugs which takes you back to the arlo dark ages. Recommend not going back there again, they have broken the granted user feature for older customers.

[jguerdat]

That's rather a gross overstatement. Yes, it's different and loses some features (many of which will likely be added in the future) but it generally it works well. Full of bugs? Sure, there are some but not "full". 

For the OP, the issue is that granting access to a new user requires that ALL users migrate to the new user interface. New users will automatically get the new UI (4.x) while existing users generally still have the old UI (3.x). The existing users will ultimately be migrated to the new UI at some point so not migrating now simply shoves the need down the road. WHile it will take some time and effort on your part to migrate and get things working the way you need it, you can do it now or do it later - your choice. Custom modes don't migrate so you'll need to use the 3 modes the new UI supplies to do the setup you need.

Note that ALL users would need to migrate so the shared cameras are viewable. I recommend that you rename your Home so it's obvious which one to use to see your cameras. Every user gets their own Home and can select others but, by default, all will be named Home so it can be an issue as to whose is whose.

Feel free to ask questions since many of us are already on the new UI and can help you through the migration.

[AnnB78]

My husband got a new phone and I installed the app on his new phone.  It had worked on the old phone, but after I shared the account with him, it won't show any devices or let me add any.  I still alerts to motion, but there are no devices listed to view.  The base unit isn't even showing.  I used the chat for support, but both agents I talked to kept telling to use an upgrade option that doesn't come up when I try.  They just keep repeating themselves, then try to get rid of me by sending me an email.  I've tried everything from a factory reset (a real pain!) to deleting and reinstalling the app, but it still won't work.  After upwards of 6 hours of trying to fix it, I don't have any other options to try.  Right now my system is worthless.  The tech support is very poor with this company!

[StephenB]

---

@AnnB78 wrote:

My husband got a new phone and I installed the app on his new phone.  It had worked on the old phone, but after I shared the account with him, it won't show any devices or let me add any.  I still alerts to motion, but there are no devices listed to view.  

---

Just to clarify this - 

• Is your account the main account (with your husband's account being the shared account)?
• Which account is the one that isn't showing any devices?

[AnnB78]

My account is the main account.  It is his app that can't see the devices.

[DannyBearAgain]

The email instructions they want to send you is likely to make sure you both have the same mobile app UI type since they have two apps types now running.

You can identify the app type in use by the apps menu labels, the old type shows “Library” where the new type shows “Feed”. Unless both users apps are the same the camera sharing does not work.

The problem arises when you create a new arlo account from the granted user invite they are forced to install the new app type preventing you from sharing if your app type is the older version.

Be aware that updating your app type will require a rebuild of system settings and a relearn of operation.

Additionally once updated you can’t revert back to restore the original app features that you loose.

[thejtluv]

@jguerdatI think @DannyBearAgain summed it up nicely. Everything is in an effort to move old users to buy new devices and pay services, whether their old devices are still working great or not. If devices are working great they will slowly take actions (or lack of actions) to make your old situation "less than" or completely intolerable. This is a great way to get customers to use another product when their device ultimately wears out OR they can no longer tolerate this kind of behavior around their products/features/support.

[jguerdat]

Rather like Microsoft not supporting Windows 7 anymore and Windows 10 in 2025. There's nothing new in this - it's been going on for years in pretty much any technology, whether hardware or software.

[thejtluv]

The difference is M$ has you over a barrel. Netgear does not.

[jguerdat]

MS doesn't have you over a barrel. It's your choice whether to upgrade hardware. And Arlo has nothing to do with Netgear anymore - hasn't for years after being spun off.

[thejtluv]

My product has "Netgear" on it. That's Arlo's problem, or whoever acquired them.

MS does have you over a barrel, at least in the business world, regardless of brand/hardware. In the case of camera, "OS" (firmware/app) is proprietary, and we can easily opt for change.

[StephenB]

---

@thejtluv wrote:

My product has "Netgear" on it. 

---

Then it's very old.  Netgear divested Arlo back in 2018, and it is now it's own publicly traded company.  Netgear has no ownership stake.  You might not this is relevant to your point, but many people somehow missed this, and they do attempt to contact Netgear - which does no good at all.

If you have nothing useful to say about friend access, I suggest that you stop trolling this thread.  Start your own if you want to continue complaining.

---

[thejtluv]

@StephenB  I'm done. Have only been replying after my original post. Have a good one.