Introducing Arlo Secure - FAQ

[JamesC]

Arlo is excited to announce our latest app release that paves the way for brand-new Arlo Intelligence features available in the new Arlo Secure plans.

Maximize your security by getting the most out of your Arlo devices. Each Arlo Secure plan has proprietary features that give you personalized control over your safety. Detailed AI powered alerts like Person and Vehicle Recognition that tell you who's at your door and which car is parked in your driveway. Plus, Custom Detection enables you to teach your camera to recognize certain objects or changes in view, like “dog on couch.” 

Arlo also offers three different plans to fit your needs. The Basic plan enables you to protect your home and family with 30-Day Video History and Filtered Alerts. The Plus plan gives you even more control, adding advanced Arlo Intelligence features like Object Detection, including Person and Vehicle Recognition. And for the ultimate security, the Premium plan adds 24/7 Professional Monitoring, 24/7 Emergency Response, and the Arlo Safe App Family Subscription for personal and family safety on the go.

All plans include 30 days of video history so you can view, share, save, and delete your videos from anywhere, right from your phone.

Want to learn how you can protect what matters most with the latest Arlo Secure plans and features? Take a look here: https://www.arlo.com/en-us/arlosecure.html

*Person Recognition is unavailable on Arlo devices in certain regions. Learn more here. You are responsible for complying with any local laws or regulations that relate to your use of the Person Recognition feature. This may include you providing notice and obtaining consent from people who may be recognized by your camera.

[jguerdat]

In the web UI, click on Settings at the bottom of the list on the left side. In there, click on Privacy Center and then Account, followed by selecting Available Geofence Devices.

[alibaba47]

After login, I get a half page, which I cannot get rid of.  This blocks out half the page, so I cannot see everything on the page.

[JamesC]

alibaba47,

If you clear your browser cache and try again, do you still see the same behavior? Are you able to provide a screenshot of what you're describing?

JamesC

[alibaba47]

When I login, I get a page which is blank for the top third and the line just about "Secure and Home" is a third of the way down the page which does not allow me to see all my cameras.  I am sending a pic of the page in this position.  This happens almost all the time.

Also, I have 2 cameras that will not connect to the old drive (not wifi).  Also have a new camera which I cannot connect to the wifi because it will not charge at all.  I tried sending a jpeg and a gif, none would go through.  Normally the top space is only about 1 inch, but it is 3 or 4 inches when this happens.

[JD1000000]

I have an Arlo secure subscription. I agreed to it with "unlimited cameras". In the new portal, you can designate locations. Once I separated cameras into multiple locations, I now need to buy a new subscription to get the exact same features I had when they were all in a single portal window for the new location. This feels disingenuous, misleading, and wrong. I am paying for UNLIMITED CAMERAS as part of the subscription. Nowhere does it say, unlimited cameras for a single location. So now if I want to stay in the Arlo ecosystem, I need to buy new subscriptions for each place I want to use your product? This seems wildly unfair, and not true to what is advertised.

[StephenB]

Actually it does say it here:

• https://kb.arlo.com/000063083/What-Arlo-subscription-plans-and-cloud-recording-options-are-available

Note: Unlimited camera support plans apply only to Arlo cameras at a single residential location and on the same Arlo account.

But it's not listed on https://www.arlo.com/en-us/arlosecure.html and personally I think it should be.

FWIW, I personally think the basic subscription should include 2 locations, to accomodate people with vacation homes.

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@JD1000000 wrote:

I now need to buy a new subscription to get the exact same features I had when they were all in a single portal window for the new location. 

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Are the cameras actually at different addresses?  Or did you set up multiple locations to get more modes?

[JD1000000]

The cameras are now at 2 separate addresses. But even as such, until the new portal, all cameras from both locations were under a single "unlimited" plan on a single account. Kinda bait and switchy. 

[StephenB]

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@JD1000000 wrote:

The cameras are now at 2 separate addresses. But even as such, until the new portal, all cameras from both locations were under a single "unlimited" plan on a single account. Kinda bait and switchy. 

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I do get it.

FWIW, the "single location" was always in the subscription terms, but was never enforced in the app.

Of course with unlimited cameras at unlimited locations, several people could share one subscription plan.  Which wouldn't be fair to Arlo.  But as I said above, I think including two locations is a reasonable middle ground.

[ARAxe]

I signed up when I bought new cameras, but the promised free trial never happened. I was charged from day one. One of my cameras now taunts me with the message that the free trial is soon to end! Anyone else had this problem? Arlo provide no address for complaints about accounts ...

[StephenB]

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@ARAxe wrote:

I signed up when I bought new cameras, but the promised free trial never happened. I was charged from day one. One of my cameras now taunts me with the message that the free trial is soon to end! Anyone else had this problem? Arlo provide no address for complaints about accounts ...

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FWIW, It sounds like you did get the trial.  It was a mistake to purchase the paid subscription when you installed the cameras.  The paid subscription isn't actually used during the trial, but they will bill you for it.   The cameras automatically shift to the paid account when the trial expires.  The right approach is to purchase the subscription right before the trial ends. 

You can access paid phone support through the app, and ask for refund.  No idea how they will respond though.

It would be good if Arlo added a note to the subscription page explaining this.

[ARAxe]

Thanks I think that is correct. My mistake. 

[CheatedCustomer]

Does a plan allow you to log into the same base station, cameras etc  from 2 different logins?  Does this company realize adults may not use the same account and may want to review footage together from 2 different devices?  

I think many of us went to Arlo because we felt we were adult enough to not be babysit by a corporation, but now that's exactly what has happened?  

Also, we never received any warning on these cameras that we had to purchase a plan - it just stopped showing cloud data this morning.  We have had our cameras for over a year.  

[StephenB]

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@CheatedCustomer wrote:

Does a plan allow you to log into the same base station, cameras etc  from 2 different logins? 

Yes, there is a "friend account" feature that lets you share the cameras with another account.

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@CheatedCustomer wrote:

Also, we never received any warning on these cameras that we had to purchase a plan - it just stopped showing cloud data this morning.  We have had our cameras for over a year.  

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What camera models do you own?

Arlo stopped offering free cloud storage on new camera models back in 2018.  Pro 3, Pro 4, Pro 5, Ultra and Essential cameras all require a subscription to get cloud storage.  

[CheatedCustomer]

I've owned their cameras going back to 2018 or earlier (sorry, I don't consider ownership years an achievement I need to document) and have always used their free one week cloud storage until today. 

I have literally had my current cameras for over a year with one week of cloud storage.   The fact that they need customers to do their CS for them pretty much tells me what I need to know.

[StephenB]

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@CheatedCustomer wrote:

I have literally had my current cameras for over a year with one week of cloud storage. 

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The relevant question was "what cameras do you own?" Which you didn't answer.

If they are old inventory (Arlo Pro, Pro 2, some other models), then you should have cloud recording.  But there are some Pro and Pro 2 owners who are reporting a recent loss of cloud recording (which Arlo acknowledges is a bug).  There is a work-around:

• remove the cameras and base from the account
• reset the base with a paper-clip
• add everything back to the account

The original Ultras came with a twelve month trial subscription.  If you happened to purchase one of those, that would explain what you are seeing.  Though the trial includes 30 days of cloud storage, not 7.

In any event, the models I listed above have always required a subscription for cloud storage.  

[LandJS]

and even if they are pro2 they will reach EOL on Jan 1, 2025 and will no longer have the 7 days, local only.

[StephenB]

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@LandJS wrote:

and even if they are pro2 they will reach EOL on Jan 1, 2025 and will no longer have the 7 days, local only.

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Arlo originally wanted to remove the 7-day recording, but community feedback resulted in reversing that decision.

So 7-day storage has not been removed for EOL cameras (including the VMC3030 and VMB4030 which are already EOL).

[gdz]

I am trying to decide whether to return the camera I ordered for my system which will force an update to the new Arlo Secure. I didn't realize when I bought the camera that it was going to make me go through a process of attempting to migrate current camera configuration to meet the use model of Arlo Secure which is a real bummer. I get that with the addition of a Security System that Arlo wants to change the use model, but they got to realize that most existing users are using it as cameras and have created modes for being successful at doing that. So what I need to know is how hard the hoops to jump through are to achieve a simple configuration I have now:

2 Cameras which are armed according to a specific calendar schedule (Schedule-A)

1 Camera armed according to a specific calendar schedule (Schedule-B)

3 Cameras which are always armed

If I am going to be gone for any period of time, I just set the modes to Armed. 

There are a few automations - but those are of low importance. The most important thing is to have a set of cameras arm on Schedule-A, a set of cameras arm on Schedule-B and the remained which are always armed.

If Arlo would be so kind as to clearly explain the steps to set this up with the new Experience - I will keep the new camera. Else, I will just add YI cameras instead.

[JamesC]

gdz,

Take a look at the tips in the following article for instructions on how to set up schedules with the new user experience: https://kb.arlo.com/000062942/How-do-I-add-a-Schedule-Automation-to-my-Arlo-system

JamesC

[Max2023]

Absolutely the most garbage cameras

belong to the trash 

[JamesC]

Max2023,

What issue are you experiencing? If you're able to provide details we may be able to help here on the community.

JamesC

[gdz]

@JamesC thank you for that. Unfortunately nothing shows how to enable/disable a camera on a schedule. I have been beating my head on this but no luck. I need to enable and disable recording and notification at various times for each individual camera and would like some help doing that.

[StephenB]

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@gdz wrote:

@JamesC thank you for that. Unfortunately nothing shows how to enable/disable a camera on a schedule. I have been beating my head on this but no luck. I need to enable and disable recording and notification at various times for each individual camera and would like some help doing that.

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This is a problem with "Feed" - I think the controls are buggy, and even if they weren't they are too complicated.  Another thing that doesn't work right now is combining scheduling with geofencing.

What does work is using the automations to change the system mode between Armed Home, Armed Away, and Standby.  Those modes are all fully customizable, so that gives you the ability to select three combinations of cameras that you can arm at various times of the day (any camera not listed in a given mode is automatically disarmed).  So you could (for example) set up a schedule to arm outdoor cameras 24x7, arm indoor cameras during your work day, and still be able to manually disable all cameras if you want to.

[gdz]

Thank you @StephenB 

What was once easy is now impossible. 

I use All Armed (Arm away) and All but 3 armed (Arm Home) and I need All but 1 armed based on a time schedule (say 8pm-7am) and All armed Temporarily based on a time schedule (say Midnight - 6 am). I can't use the schedule automation to switch mode out of Armed Away for that last one because it would always take me out of Armed Away. Otherwise maybe I would sacrifice Standby to get the  the third of the 4 modes I need.

I did try setting motion sensitivity between 1 and 80 as a means of turning it on and off - but even at a setting of 1 motion triggers. 

It is disturbing that Arlo would take away a capability that used to be extremely easy to setup and exchange it for a use model that makes it incredibly difficult and confusing to setup anything. I really wish Arlo never added the alarm sensors 'cause they changed the entire use model around that and forgot about everyone else who used the cameras (which used to be darn good, but that's another story) in a flexible manner.

And yeah I also tried to use GeoFencing to automate switching between Home and Away, but ultimately it is much more trouble than it is worth - half the time my wife leaves she leaves her phone - so not practical to use. And it doesn't remove my need for 4 camera arming modes (plus I would like to keep the Standby mode as a quick disable all). 

[StephenB]

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@gdz wrote:

I use All Armed (Arm away) and All but 3 armed (Arm Home) and I need All but 1 armed based on a time schedule (say 8pm-7am) and All armed Temporarily based on a time schedule (say Midnight - 6 am).

 So you need 4 modes to do that (away, home, standby and a custom all-but-one).  And right now you only have three modes.

The best you can do right now is manually edit Armed Away every night to remove the "but 1" camera.  Or just turn it off every night.  Either way, you need to undo it in the morning.

It's pretty clear that Arlo will need to add custom modes back in some form, there are too many users who need it.