Can't access recordings remotely on VBM4540r3

[maharrm]

I recently started to experience the error, “Videos stored on Base Station are not available. Please check connection settings.” when trying to access locally stored videos in the Library (I have a VMB5000r5 base station recording to a microSD card). 

I have previously been able to access videos with Port Forwarding enabled and also without Port Forwarding when connected to my home network. 

I have again disabled Port Forwarding and am connected on my home network, but still receive the same error.

i can see from the storage setting info that my microSD card appears to be saving videos as the amount of space used is increasing.

Anyone else experiencing this error recently? Thanks. 

[ShayneS]

If you are still experiencing this symptom, please make sure that the forwarded ports have been setup on the router.

To check if the forwarded ports from the app are open, you can utilize the below port checkers:

https://portchecker.co
https://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/
https://canyouseeme.org/

If the ports are still closed, the router's firewall or ISP can still be blocking the ports. Please reach out to your ISP or router manufacturer for further assistance. 

[vtmad]

No, my problem is solved. I had already updated to 5.01 but that did not solve things. I then did an IOS update and that took care of the problem.

[ShayneS]

The development team is working on the fix for the issue with the remote access. I will provide another update as soon as I have more information related to the release. 

Thank you for your patience

[UT22]

You seem to be lucky 😊 It hasn’t worked a single time for me since it stopped working. 

[StephenB]

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@lopez88 wrote:

looks like arlo has disabled port forwarding so we will purchase their service fro remote acces that's sucks

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No.  Port forwarding is only broken for iPhones, not Android.  So just a bug.

[Kensob]

It’s a bug they’ve known about for almost Three months and haven’t done anything about. 

[MrMolok]

I think you should all do what I have just done.

Today I reported Arlo to the local consumer protection authorities - my report focussed on the following:

1. Very unclear information during the purchase process, not at all clearly informing the customer that most of the functionality is depending on a paid subscription. The cameras are close to being useless as a survailance camera system, unless you pay for a subscription. This part is not at all clearly visible to the consumer during the purchase process.
2. Arlo has over time degraded the usability of my cameras by hiding more and more functionality behind a paid subscription. So, the product that I paid for no longer have the same usability (unless I pay).
3. Arlo updates repeatedly breaks key functionality and is not solved in due time. It was in May the port forwarding stopped working, and it hasn't worked since. I am living abroad, and my cameras are installed in my summer residence which is located in a different country than where I reside. As a result, I have not been able to use my camera surveillance system for almost 3 months now - it is completely useless as I cannot access the videos stored on my base station due to the bug Arlo caused at the end of May update.

[MrMolok]

I just recieved a phone call from an employee with the Danish consumer protection. They are very interested in following up on this, as it seems that I am not the only one who has contacted them concerning Arlo's busines model.

She also asked about the subscription fees, as this is a topic many others have complained about.

She told me that when a company like Arlo sells you an expensive camera system, which basically only functions if you have a paid subscription, then Arlo cannot raise the price for the subscription more than what the general price devopment is and if they do so, they must document the reason for their increased price.

From their point of view a picture is beeing drawn that Arlo sells you an expensive hardware, which only function as intended with a subscription, and then they charge a high price for this subscription, something they can get away with as people paid a lot of money for the cameras in the first place, and they would like to use them as intended.

I could very much recognise this issue, as I have paid more than 1000 Euro for my Arlo system (4x Arlo Pro 4 cameras, 1x Essential doorbell, 1x VMB5000 base station, 2x extra batteries for the cameras, 1x dual battery charger and 2x pro mounts for the cameras). When I purchased the system the Arlo subscripition that suited my needs (unlimited cameras, 2k recording and 30 days cloud storage) costed DKK 79,- per month (10,59 Euro), shortly after the price was raised to DKK 89,- per month (11,93 Euro), and then again a few months later raised to DKK 99,- per month (13,27 Euro). Now Arlo have limited the number of cameras to 4 on the multi camera subscription (and I have 5), which is forcing me to pay DKK 135,- per month (18,09 Euro), if I want to use my Arlo system as intended and as the time of purchase.

In other words, during a little over a year, the subscription price for me, to be able to use my 4 cameras and the doorbell has increased 71%...!!!

According to the person I spoke with from the consumer protection authority, this is clearly illegal behavior from Arlo. They are using the fact that people paid a lot of money purchasing the cameras to force them into an expensive subscription model, one where they are even increasing the prices many times more than what is fair compared to the general price development in the market.

Personally, I cancelled my subscription when the price was increased for the second time in one year, to 99DKK per month. But the problem is, that doing so, left me with a hopeless system lacking even the most basic functionallity.

And since May this year, Arlo broke the port forwarding for IOS users, meaning that I haven't been able to use my system for almost 3 months now.

Although I cannot use my 1000 Euro plus camerasystem any longer, I do find some comfort knowing that the consumer protection authority is planning to take legal steps towards Arlo...

[Vnkstr]

Has anything been done to fix this. Port forwarding stopped working a few months ago. Port check from outside the firewall indicates that ports have been forwarded and setup right. Looks like it is an app issue.

Please help or give us free subscription until the issue is resolved. Thank you!

[UT22]

@MrMolok That’s a great thing you did. I have a similar issue where I have 4 cameras and a door bell. I bought the SD card for a while ago to insert it into my VMB5000 so I could store  my recordings locally, as I too, will have to pay 135 DKK per month to be able to view my recordings from in the cloud for all my devices. It’d have been great if there was some kind of petition signing thing so the issue could be reported to the consumer protection authority so they can see how many people are affected by it.

[MagicMokey]

I have the same problem that everyone has outlined on multiple threads at this point.

Accessing local video content form the Base Station is broken for IOS. The only things that work are using an Android device or rolling back Arlo App to before April 2024 or only use the cloud (which has it own issues).  Neither are great options.

Given the 4+ months and multiple releases since April appears not be a priority for Arlo. The support rep I spoke too could not provide state if Arlo Engineering even recognized the bug or had it in the queue to fix. This is the absolute lowest bar for any company. 

I echo the sentiment of everyone else in the Arlo community If Arlo cannot comment to fixing regressed features that the publicly advertise as working at the time of purchase we have no hope, but to give up on Arlo and move to another platform.

[Angussprings]

I am suddenly having the same issue. I can’t see recorded videos from outside of my network, only when connected to my home network. Port forwarding setup is correct. Port is opened. IP address is reserved. I can see my cameras live from outside my network but can’t get to my recordings. Any help would be appreciated. 

[Peñaflor]

I did the same while ago

[StephenB]

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@Angussprings wrote:

I am suddenly having the same issue. I can’t see recorded videos from outside of my network, only when connected to my home network. Port forwarding setup is correct. Port is opened. IP address is reserved. I can see my cameras live from outside my network but can’t get to my recordings. Any help would be appreciated. 

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If you are using an iPhone, then this is a known issue/bug in the iOS app. It should be working on Android.

The only workarounds for iPhone are to

• switch to using the VPN method for remote access
• get a subscription until they fix the problem.

Unfortunately the bug has been in issue for over 2 months, and Arlo hasn't said anything about when they will fix it.

[MagicMokey]

I been experiencing this issue for 4-5 months. Has anyone heard when Arlo might fix this?  I am about to give up and switch to another solution.  I tried the Cloud Service for a month.  It was not a great experience and working with support was even worse.

I am just at a loss. The original set up of Arlo ~2 years ago was easy and straightforward.  However this years has been a train wreck trying to keep the system up and running with all the bugs in each release.

[audiboy808]

Having issues getting my hub to come back online light still orange, tried unplugging/reinstalling both cat5 cable and power supply and it still doesn't go blue. Tried a factory reset and that too didn't work. Did a chat with Arlo tech and he suggested that I remove the hub and now I have nothing. Tech said I'm missing ports 443 and 80 which isn't allowing my iMac to communicate with the hub. I managed to get port 80 back but can't seem to get port 443 back. Has anyone else encountered this. Getting to the point I just want to throw away my whole system. Very frustrated. 😡

[StephenB]

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@audiboy808 wrote:

 Did a chat with Arlo tech and he suggested that I remove the hub and now I have nothing. Tech said I'm missing ports 443 and 80 which isn't allowing my iMac to communicate with the hub. 

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Very unlikely.  Personally I think they throw out this theory when they run out of other ideas.

Ports 80 and 443 are used for normal web traffic (http and https).  The ports are almost always open if you have a normal home router setup.  Companies sometimes have web proxies in place that can interfere with the traffic.  It's conceivable that some parental controls (implemented in your home router) might also. 

So if you do have parental controls or a web proxy enabled in your router, you could try disabling them temporarily.  Otherwise, if you can browse the web, you are ok.

What exactly did you do to "get port 80 back"?  It likely wasn't a good change, so it would be useful to know.

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@audiboy808 wrote:

Having issues getting my hub to come back online

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Some others have recently seen this same issue, particularly with VMB4000s.  I'm tagging the mods - @JamesC , @BrookeN , @ShayneS - to call their attention to your post.

Also, if you use a VPN, you do need to turn that off before you install the base.
 

[Peñaflor]

I got clients complaining to me about this issue.

Some of them are looking or asking for another solution.

Personally, already changing to another brand.

[Hummingbird24]

Arlo Update several days ago has rendered our Arlo feed useless. Can’t view and playback on videos.  Frustrated and furious 

[StephenB]

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@Hummingbird24 wrote:

Arlo Update several days ago has rendered our Arlo feed useless. Can’t view and playback on videos.  Frustrated and furious 

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I'm tagging the mods - @BrookeN , @ShayneS , @JamesC - as they can do a back-end resync which will solve this.

Another path is to remove one camera from your account and then add it back.  Many users have reported that also resolves the issue.  The risk there is that you might have challenges when adding the camera back.

[Hummingbird24]

Thank you so much!  Removing a camera immediately kicked our feed back in. 

[ZWick]

Trying to enable port forwarding, I have followed all the instructions to the last letter but port forwarding is still not working.

I have attached the step-by-step procedure followed for port forwarding. Where am I going wrong!?!?!

I have Arlo Pro 3 cameras and smart hub. 

https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Broadband-Talk/How-to-set-up-port-forwarding/ba-p/2662260

[StephenB]

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@ZWick wrote:

Trying to enable port forwarding, I have followed all the instructions to the last letter but port forwarding is still not working.

Are you using an iPhone for remote access?

There is a bug in the iOS app - port forwarding doesn't currently work on it.

This has been the case for about 3 months now - unfortunately Arlo hasn't said when they will fix it.

[ZWick]

Hello Stephen 

yes that’s correct it’s an iPhone 11

so I’m not going crazy!?!?

is there any way of @ and getting some kind of ‘why’ they cba. Maybe they should state it doesn’t work on iOS as otherwise this is false advertising. 

I will complain to advertising standards for misleading information. 

pretty pathetic to say it’s been 3 months. 

Thanks for reaching out. 

[StephenB]

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@ZWick wrote:

pretty pathetic to say it’s been 3 months. 

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Agreed.

The VPN method for remote access works.  No idea if any of the sky routers have a built-in VPN server though, and it can be hard to set up your own server.

[ZWick]

Thanks Stephen, VPN stuff is too complicated for me.

I bought this on the premise you can view footage on your iOS device without the need for subscription. 

If I knew there's been a bug and they cannot be bothered to look at for 3 months I would've gone with Eufy if I hadn't screwed them in already.

Has there been an official statement? Also does Arlo monitor these boards so they can share their reasoning as to why they have not bothered to release a fix.

I will expect my trail to be extended as I will not be forced into a subscription. 

[StephenB]

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@ZWick wrote:

Has there been an official statement? Also does Arlo monitor these boards so they can share their reasoning as to why they have not bothered to release a fix.

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No official statement.  Arlo does monitor the boards, but I doubt that they will explain the delay.

[clausenper]

Hi there,

Many months since this was reported and still not working on at least iOS.

I there a way do downgrade the Arlo app so that remote viewing will work again?

Obviously even better that the development team would take this blocking issue serious!

Best regards

Per