Arlo region locking

[jamaicantechy]

I found out today that Arlo region locks to the US and so I cannot upgrade to 6 or more cameras because I moved to Jamaica.  Nothing in the pre-purchase agreements makes this abundantly clear and there isn't even a warning or reason when you try to upgrade.

Nonetheless I will report and keep on reporting Arlo for this antiquated practice, switch to a "modernized" product and ensure that I never purchase their product ever again - especially after they spinoof from Netgear!!!

[brh]

@jamaicantechy

Two things here:

Have you contacted Customer Support to see if there is a way to get around their Subscription plan not being available in your country?

Are you able to use the system with 5 cameras? If so, with the purchase of another base unit for the 6th camera, you could set that one up using a different email account and share the two systems with each other.

Brian

[jguerdat]

The system is not locked to a country - it is locked according to the location where it was set up. If you were initially using the system in the US and simply moved it to another country, it would still be noted as if it were in the US and the additional subscriptions would work as long as you used a credit card that was set up in the US.  If you reset the system, it will be noted as in a new country which then causes the subscription restrictions to be according to that country.

The countries that have access to additional subscriptions have long been noted in this FAQ:

https://kb.arlo.com/88/What-are-the-available-Arlo-subscription-plans-and-how-much-cloud-storage-is-...

[jamaicantechy]

Yeah, I contacted customer care who were of no help and pretty much agreed that I should switch to Nest which doesn't region lock.

I actually have 3 base stations plus two Netgear Nighthawks as I really liked the product and started deploying it at all my properties.  However, the challenge with using multiple accounts is that I have to configure the different apps just to get a "single pane" view on all my properties. 

I will admit that switching now means walking away from over $1000 in in equipment. Can the app support multiple accounts?

[brh]

@jamaicantechy

As far as I know all the shared cameras can be seen in one app.

Brian

[jamaicantechy]

OK, tried and failed.  That didn't work as it still limits it to 5 cameras.

[jamaicantechy]

Note that I had already done a reset on the base station so the US registration would have been lost.  I did it as a troubleshooting step when attempting to do the setup on the new network.  Also, I was not impacted by this until I decided to upgrade by subscription, so there was no credit card information with Arlo.

Thanks for the link, and it's a pity that this isn't made clear at purchase.  That's a very limited list of countries which excludes the entire Caribbean, but that's your perogative.  

Are there no other options here?

[brh]

@jamaicantechy

From how I think this works:

Set up each base station with a different email account. 

Grant access to share the accounts. So, you would share the first base with base 2. You invite base 2 to join base 1. Base 2 accepts.

Base 1 asks base 3 to join. Base 3 accepts.

Here is an article on how to share accounts.

https://kb.arlo.com/000039122/How-do-I-add-friends-to-my-Arlo-account

Brian

[jamaicantechy]

Yeah, I tried but it dumps me to a message showing that I've hit my 5 device limit.

[jguerdat · Accepted solution]

Along with the base you also need to sync cameras to that base so each account not only has at least one base but also no more than 5 cameras. You can then use Settings, Grant Access from the additional account(s) to the primary one so all cameras show in that one login. That will work regardless of location.  The key is no more than 5 cameras per account.

[jamaicantechy]

It worked!

I had to use two different PCs to accept the invite, but it works great.  Thanks so much, you're the boss!!!