Local recordings are missing basic application features

[robbyj]

First and foremost, I understand that Arlo as a company is trying to push for everyone to buy their subscription service Arlo Secure. I get it. With this in mind, I think there are some fair points to raise to Arlo as they still offer products that support offline, or local recording features. In December 2022 I purchased Three Pro 4 cameras, an Essential doorbell and most importantly an Arlo Pro Smart Hub. 

I went through the steps to set up the Arlo Pro Smart Hub for local recording, attaching an external hard drive, port forwarding my router, assigning a static IP to the Smart Hub and using a VPN for remote access. After finishing the process I waited for the 'Arlo Secure' trial that you are basically forced to enable when you buy a new camera to end. I knew things like 'activity zones' would be disabled and 'thumbnails' for recordings and 'motion alert types' would not work with local recordings, but what I did not expect was basic features of the application to simply be disabled for seemingly no other reason but to bother users into buying a subscription to Arlo Secure.

1. Only the account owner can see local recordings.

  I can't think of a logical reason for this besides purposely trying to inconvenience people who use local recordings. Arlo has a well defined user permission section in the application that allows you to add other 'Administrator' users, however there is no permission that would grant a user access to local recordings. 

2. Local recordings do not show up in your 'device section' like cloud recordings do. 

  No matter what you do, after you open the Arlo Secure app, select devices and click on a camera to see the most recent events, no local recordings will display.

3. Local recordings do not show up in the 'feed' like cloud recordings do.

  The 'feed' section of your application will always remain empty even in local recordings are perfectly operational. 

4. You can not access your local recordings from a web browser, only through the phone app. 

  Again, I can't think of a logical reason for this besides purposely trying to inconvenience people who use local recordings. 

5. The only way to access your local recordings is to be the account owner, open your Arlo Secure application, navigate to 'Smart Hub' from the devices section, select 'Storage settings' (why would recordings be under 'storage settings'?) And then from here you can see a list of most recent events. 

I would like to hear from Arlo on if and how they plan on addressing any of these items or if any are being worked on currently. Thank you

[JamesC]

robbyj,

While improvements for this feature are being considered, I do not have any information to share at this time. Stay tuned for announcements and keep an eye on releases notes for the Arlo Secure mobile app for any changes or improvements.

JamesC

[robbyj]

bumping thread as I haven't received any meaningful update or detailed information on any of my points above.

[ItsEarl]

Hi James,

I share the same sentiment posted here. Could we please get an update on the issues brought up?

[robbyj]

bumping thread as I haven't received any meaningful update or detailed information on any of my points above.

[Rdrdoc]

I am a long time user of Arlo products. I suggested  your cameras and hub to a client and helped him with the installation and system setup. All were working until recently, with the same problem listed in this post. All we get is a reply from JamesC. I’m not impressed. If this is all you have I’m going to start suggesting other systems.

[robbyj]

bumping thread as I haven't received any meaningful update or detailed information on any of my points above.

[EripEri]

Same issues here and I can add that this purposely annoying of customers has been introduced with the Pro4. 

I had a fully working non-subscription setup with some older ARLO Pro 3's. When I added one Pro4 I had to reject the "trial subscription" every time I opened the app until I got so annoyed that I did not reject it one single time. After that I got the extra features I dit not want. And when the trial ended I lost those features and the also the only feature I needed and which was working before. (Recording events locally). No way of getting that advertised free feature back after the trial. Even removing  and ritually destroying the Pro4 did not help.

This is  customer misleading on purpose. Arlo is an unethical company in my mind, and I will avoid them and related companies as much as possible in the future 

[StephenB]

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@EripEri wrote:

And when the trial ended I lost those features and the also the only feature I needed and which was working before. (Recording events locally).

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Are you getting local recordings on the other Pro 4 cameras?

Also, can you confirm that this Pro 4 is connected to the smarthub, and not to your home wifi?

Are you getting an error when you try to access the local storage?

Note there have been some bugs reported recently with local storage, though if those were affecting you then you wouldn't be getting recordings on the Pro 3 cameras either.

[robbyj]

Hi @StephenB, thank you for your reply and for trying to assist. However, this is off topic from the original post and a specific user's problem can be handled in its own thread. 

[StephenB]

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@robbyj wrote:

Hi @StephenB, thank you for your reply and for trying to assist. However, this is off topic from the original post and a specific user's problem can be handled in its own thread. 

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While I agree it's better for them to post their issue on their own thread, it's not uncommon for other posters to pop up with problems they think are related.   I'll answer their questions as I wish.  Note mods will sometimes (not always) reorganize/split threads.

FWIW, I agree with your feedback - Direct Access to Local Storage offers a poor user experience, and IMO customers deserve better.   But I don't expect Arlo to make any substantial comments until they (hopefully) roll out improvements.  They generally don't pre-announce things like that.

[ItsEarl]

Bumping this thread. Someone in Arlo, please put this on your next sprint 

[robbyj]

bumping thread

[robbyj]

bumping thread

[skippy2]

Point 1-4 of the OP's post are echoed by me.

However, even Point 5 doesn't work for me.  I am using the latest iOS app.  Despite months of correspondence with Arlo support, there is NO way to view local recordings in the app

[StephenB]

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@skippy2 wrote:

Despite months of correspondence with Arlo support, there is NO way to view local recordings in the app

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What model smarthub are you using?

What errors are you seeing?

[skippy2]

VMB 5000.

No errors seen.  Just no way to view local recordings in the iOS app.

[jguerdat]

Which user interface are you using - the old one that uses Library to view videos or the new one that uses Feed? For the latter, local recordings are found inn Settings, Home, Devices, your hub, Storage Settings.

[skippy2]

I have the new app with Feed.

Local recordings are not present where you suggest.  Only a list of downloadable videos.

Screenshot attached.

[jguerdat]

What you show ARE the local recordings. While in a different place compared to the old UI, the same thing is required to view them - you have to download them. It's always been that way since Arlo provides local recordings as a backup, not as a primary method of viewing recordings.

[StephenB]

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@jguerdat wrote:

What you show ARE the local recordings. 

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Agreed.  If they were cloud recordings, you'd see the thumbnail.

[robbyj]

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@jguerdat wrote:

What you show ARE the local recordings. While in a different place compared to the old UI, the same thing is required to view them - you have to download them. It's always been that way since Arlo provides local recordings as a backup, not as a primary method of viewing recordings.

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Both cloud recordings and local recordings must be downloaded before you view them. The difference is that Arlo conveniently streams videos if you pay for a subscription. Local recordings use a much more primitive method of transferring the entire file to your device before starting playback. Of course, there's no technical reason as to why Arlo doesn't stream local recordings. Arlo just doesn't want to. Again, why offer local recordings in the first place just to turn around and to make the feature that was voluntarily added as hard to use and limited as possible. The best example I give of this is the fact that only the account owner can view local recordings. Arlo has a permission system in place to add users, but they choose not to allow anyone else to view local recordings. 

[jguerdat]

Cloud recordings must be downloaded only if they are 2k or 4k and your browser/hardware don't support in-browser viewing. @StephenB can describe what's needed better than I.

It's not the subscription that's needed to view your videos other than it's needed to have cloud recordings in the first place. As noted before, Arlo views local recordings as a backup, not a primary method, for recordings. I use them primarily to verify that something was recorded but discarded due to my Smart notifications settings (the discarding is done at the server level). Could Arlo make local recordings more friendly? Perhaps but we don't know the business and technical issues behind that decision.

[kenv996]

I agree.  Bait and switch .  They are trying to squeeze their installed base.   The new buyers of Arlo are following the same path that Quicken did.  They bought a company that had lots of satisfied users.  No they are turning that company into one with lots of disgruntled users.  Looking elsewhere for my next security devices. 

[StephenB]

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@robbyj wrote:

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@jguerdat wrote:

What you show ARE the local recordings. While in a different place compared to the old UI, the same thing is required to view them - you have to download them. It's always been that way since Arlo provides local recordings as a backup, not as a primary method of viewing recordings.

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Both cloud recordings and local recordings must be downloaded before you view them. The difference is that Arlo conveniently streams videos if you pay for a subscription. 

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Cloud recordings have thumbnails.  That makes it much easier - often you can tell from the thumbnail that you don't need to actually watch the video.

Also, cloud recordings are streamed, and not downloaded (unless you specifically chose to download them).  So they don't take up any space on the phone, so they don't require any storage management.

There are other limitations in using direct access to local recordings instead of a subscription.

• Recordings only available from the app (not the browser)
• Recordings only available from the primary account (not friend accounts)
• No ability to save manual recordings or snapshots
• No thumbnails (as noted above)
• Remote access requires router settings changes that some find difficult, and which won't work with some internet service providers.

While I understand why Arlo wants/needs subscriptions, I think they do need to provide a better free experience with local recordings.