Arlo ultra local viewing and no rolling cloud access

[dragonbait]

I thought I had done plenty of research, but it appears it was not enough! I had been researching camera systems that provide local storage and access to that footage remotely. Arlo seemed to be the best choice out of all options currently available on the market as everything I read suggested they offer 7 days of free cloud storage on top of storing the footage locally. Apparently this is not the case for Arlo pro 3 and Ultra. I was quite disappointed to learn this after purchasing the system less than 12 hours ago. While it is nice to have the 1 year subscription, I have no desire to pay an ongoing fee to use cameras I paid for which is why I wanted access to local storage remotely. I realize we are to get this promised access to locally stored footage in the next 4 days, but I somehow feel that will not be happening.

I was under the impression I was upgrading my several year old camera system which I already CAN access remotely, get notifications, and view locally stored footage remotely! The main downfall of my existing setup is that it did not integrate with my smart home setup and I had to exclusively use the separate app to access the cameras. I liked the upgraded video quality and simpler integration with Google with Arlo (I won't even touch the lack of Smartthings support). I really want to love my new Arlo system, but I am really starting to reconsider my over $1000 purchase. On top of the few downgrades of features to Pro 3 and Ultra (Pro 3 is what I initially was going to get, but boxing day sale pricing made me go with Ultra) compared to Pro and Pro 2, just due to the fact that Arlo cannot keep a promise they made at the beginning of 2019, I fear this system will be going back to Best Buy if at bear minimum I have no access to local storage before my return window is up.

[StephenB]

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@dragonbait wrote:
I have no desire to pay an ongoing fee to use cameras I paid for which is why I wanted access to local storage remotely. I realize we are to get this promised access to locally stored footage in the next 4 days, but I somehow feel that will not be happening.

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It is already available wth the Android app, so it should be available in the web client and IOS shortly.  https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Ultra/Local-and-Remote-Access-to-Local-Storage-for-Arlo-Ultra-via...

[RT5]

I have experience the same thing. I was told at Best Buy it came with 7 days of storage in 4k, and this is incorrect for the Ultra. I got a “free” smart premium recording plan, but now that essentially needs to be upgraded for an additional $4.99 per camera to get 4K recordings. Bait and switch if you ask me, and these aren’t cheap. I lmagine buying a V8 and being told after you buy it that it only runs on 4 cylinders unless you pay a monthly upgrade fee.