VMB5000 no longer recording locally as of last night.

[JeffRand]

I have a VMB5000r5 Ultra SmartHub running firmware 1.20 4.0_1367_36740e8. I also have two Arlo Ultra 2 (H10 4k) cameras and one Arlo Video Doorbell (1.2 wired). These have been working great for two years.

As of this morning, the VMB5000 base station is no longer recording any videos locally to the SD card. I reformatted the SD card through the app. It reports that storage is available and doesn't show any issues, yet when motion is detected on any of the cameras no recordings take place. I also cold booted the base and also restarted it several times. I can't figure out what has changed. The system status on Arlo's website says everything is good. I tried contacting support, but the chat bot says I can't connect to a live agent unless I have a subscription, which I do not (and have not for over a year). I just need the base to record videos locally and have no need for cloud storage.

Is anyone else having this issue? Any ideas as to what is wrong? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[JamesC]

I would like to reiterate that the issues being experienced in this discussion are not expected behavior. The development team is currently testing new firmware to address these concerns, we do not recommend any troubleshooting at this time. Once the firmware fix is available I will provide more information.

We appreciate your patience while we work to resolve this issue.

JamesC

[JamesC]

The development team is currently testing a fix for this issue that we hope to be able to release soon. I will continue providing information as it becomes available.

JamesC

[JamesC]

The issue being described here is not expected behavior. The development team is actively investigating reports of this issue and working on a resolution. As soon as I have more information to share I will provide an update.

JamesC

[Haaseb1]

Any ETA on this fix? Worst time of the year to be without recordings. Packages being delivered and possibility of being stolen of the porch. 

[Wasi]

I did, said they would email me in a day or so. got a response this morning asking for more info. App logs, sent them this morning. He said the engineers are aware of the problem and are working on a fix.

[lakerzhu]

Did Arlo do this intentionally to force their customers to subscribe their cloud solution??? unbelievable!

[lakerzhu]

same issue here. I suspect Arlo did this intentionally to force their customers to subscribe their paid service. So sad. 

[lakerzhu]

The main reason I bought Arlo is its local recording capability. It's a shame on them if they did this intentionally. 

[lakerzhu]

I believe everyone has this issue. So sad. Arlo is losing my trust. 

[GuerillaLasers]

I too have had this issue since Dec 13, when my SmartHub 4540 stopped recording to local storage. Of course, like others, I tried many troubleshooting steps, including completely resetting my entire Arlo system to factory settings and spending hours reconfiguring because that is what their support channels say to do. There is no public notice of this now 3+ day ongoing outage of services promised when I bought my devices. Arlo needs to remediate by immediately rolling back to the last STABLE firmware (this firmware is NOT stable), pushing out an update today, or providing free cloud storage until they resolve this issue.

[Shougon]

Same issue here. Already ordered Eufy from Amazon. Will replace and return my setup to Costco when it arrives.

[Wyseguy]

I experienced the exact same thing! Hoping Arlo come up with a fix!

[Arlouser121622]

I have two flood light cameras in addition to 4 ultra 2 and doorbell.  
I am having the same local recording issue but I wonder anyone has this issue with flood light as well.  This started to happen from the same day as well.  As others stated, you receive notifications if movements are detected.   But the flood light does not turn on with motion detection.   I can manually turn on the light though.    I think it is most likely related with this whole debacle.  

[Heyronwilson]

Update: Arlo did not keep their promise to roll back the release or to provide a free temporary subscription service until they resolve the issue. Because this is so similar to software ransom, and because an Arlo representative asked me to pay for a subscription to resolve this “error,” I have reported this wide-spread issue for many Arlo customers to the FBI for investigation. I honestly didn’t know a company could be this poorly managed.

[Heyronwilson]

Update 2: I just received an email from Arlo customer service agent Stephen who followed up. Seriously, this is the guy who should lead Arlo’s customer service. He provided me a promo code that gives me a free subscription while they try to resolve the issue.

SHOCKING: as soon as I had a subscription, my Arlo camera videos are now available for playback on the cloud AND from local storage. That seems to indicate this was a conscience decision by Arlo to extract additional revenue from it’s customers.

I suggest you all contact Arlo via chat and demand a promo code for a free subscription while they resolve this issue (or maybe they intend not to resolve it), but at least you’ll have coverage while you look for a replacement system.

[KartDude]

Thank for the suggestion! I have already contacted them about this and they did not offer this workaround. Arlo’s handling of this situation has been very poor.

[RonBerish]

Base station stopped recording locally stored videos on 12/12 when I updated Arlo secure app???

[Xiaokuan]

Same devices, same issues!

If Arlo cannot solve this in time, I am going to return all these crap back to Costco and ask them to deal with Arlo.

This is completedly acceptable, we buy this product for our safety and security and now it becomes a decoration on the wall!

[steveh365]

Can you share the promo code?

[MrPeaBody]

Works for only those that can reach a live agent and many of us are denied that option as support has expired. 

Here is chat response:

After reviewing your account, it appears that you are not entitled to live agent support. However, …

[Heyronwilson]

Agent made it clear that it was only good for this one use. Sorry. 

contact Arlo support and make a request. The wait was not that long.

https://www.arlo.com/en-us/support/

[HeyoSlick]

Please. I beg of you not to minimize this issue. Users that are saving footage locally need help NOW. This is a bad regression and a very big deal.

Since the last Smart Hub (Base Station) firmware update on 12/13/2022 my cameras have failed to record anything to the SD card in the base station. I have over 300gb of footage prior to 12/13/2022. 

This issue has only started since the base station firmware update on 12/13.

- I’ve updated all devices.

- I've Removed all devices, reformatted SD card and re-setup the smart hub and all 4 cameras

- I've tested the network (all bandwidth is Excellent, storage settings are "good")

- I've tried a new SD card

- I've checked app settings to ensure I am recording locally and motion events are triggering properly

- I've performed a motion test (Successful)

- I am receiving notifications to the app. 

Results: Still no events are being recording to the Local SD card in the smart hub

Please roll back this update if possible or get the QA to reproduce this.

This needs to be fixed YESTERDAY. It’s very broken. I promise you.  

[GuerillaLasers]

Yeah unfortunately for those of us who don't have a subscription because we want to record locally and not pay for cloud service, we are "not eligible for support." So only people who pay can get a fix right now.

[steveh365]

You must have had an existing subscription because I cannot get past the freaking support bot to chat with anybody that has a heartbeat

[RickC33]

It’s ridiculous that they did not test this before they shutdown everyone who record’s locally! 
Also they should have sent a email notification letting us know they have a problem so we didn’t spend all kinds of time troubleshooting our camera systems!

I purchased this system because it had the ability to use local storage and they were supposed to have decent support. Now if you don’t sign up for a monthly service you get punished with a worthless automated chat!

I would suggest every file a complaint with the BBB. You invest in a fairly expensive camera system then they try to force you into a monthly subscription while advertising a local no subscription necessary system!

This is like creating a computer virus then selling software to fix it.

Disappointing!

[hdelgado133]

After recent app upgrade to 4.02, the recordings in the local library became unavailable. Have done the following:

removed and reformatted the USB drive

reset the base station

logged off and logged back into the app

reset the associated router

all cameras are online and working

get notifications from all cameras and the thumbnail on each camera is visible

This had been working without any issues for years.

I am not interested in a storage plan, if local storage does not work, I will replace entire system.

[JeffRand]

Well, here we are. FOUR days now without recordings. No way to get this working without contacting support for $$$$. This is unbelievable. They could have made a new version of the firmware from the previous version and pushed it out. But no, we have to wait for them to test some stupid fix to this broken version of the firmware. Talk about incompetence. I am a retired software engineer and I would have been fired by now if the work I did had been down for FOUR days! Arlo, I am losing my patience.

[K_noa20]

This is beyond ridiculous, no care for the customer $$$. Can't contact support, the chat bot is the worse, maybe if you had a subscription you can get some answers, oh wait that cost $. The reason I bought this POS was to be able to manage everything myself. I have had my system for 2 years, thank you to Costco, they will be fighting the battle with them, hopefully they will pull them from their inventory after I return my system. Even after 2 years Costco agreed to allow me to return it.

16 days and counting till I return my system and go with eufy camera system.