Cannot watch local device recordings on cell phone went away

[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

[StephenB]

---

@Vtphotomom wrote:

Yes, it works at home, just not outside of my home wifi

---

Try using this tool to see that the port forwarding is working:

• https://canyouseeme.org/

Run this on a PC connected to your home network.

[clausenper]

Just to confirm what others have written : this issue is isolated to iPhone/iPad.

Just got hold of an Android phone and on that phone I can view locally stored videos via port forwarding remotely on the two installations I have.

@Arlo Please fix this iPhone/iPad issue!

[Sourour2]

Arlo does not care about the few using android. They want the majority (iOS) users to pay for subscription 

[StephenB]

---

@Sourour2 wrote:

Arlo does not care about the few using android.

---

Don't be silly.  Over 2/3 of active smartphones are Android.

•  ~71% of all phones are Android
• ~29% are iPhones

[Sourour2]

As of June 2024, iPhones have a larger market share in the US than Android phones, with 58.81% compared to 40.81%.

Google it. Well I guess 60-40 is not majority.

unless Arlo sells worldwide 

[StephenB]

---

@Sourour2 wrote:

As of June 2024, iPhones have a larger market share in the US than Android phones, with 58.81% compared to 40.81%.

Google it. Well I guess 60-40 is not majority.

unless Arlo sells worldwide 

---

Of course I did google it.

They do offer subscriptions in quite a few countries.

• https://kb.arlo.com/000062249/Where-is-Arlo-Secure-available

And even if they were only in the US, 40% is not a "few Android users".  It would be silly for them to walk away from smartphones with combined 40% market share.

[Sourour2]

You are right. In that case why arlo is not coming up with a fix. I wonder

[clausenper]

Still not working in the latest iPhone App v4.19 (8201)...

[EY88]

Latest Arlo app version 4.19 does not fix this 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

[EY88]

I verified my app is ver 4.19 and rebooted my hub. I still cannot access my video recordings when I’m on my home network (local access). 

[Sourour2]

You won’t be able to unless Arlo come up with a fix. It has been almost 3 month not working. If they want to fix it, they would have done it by now

[EY88]

Does anyone have recommendations on other home security camera systems to replace my Arlo Pro? 🙏

[Sourour2]

Am not sure if one exists that allows you to view recordings remotely without subscription 

[KenC]

You can check out Eufy.  Also, if you want something more cost effective you can use Wyze.  Both allow remote recorded video viewing and no subscriptions.  I am sure there are others, but I am leaning towards the Eufy integrated solutions.  

Very unhappy with Arlo....

[Sourour2]

Thanks for the info. 

[JoeMoeWilly]

Can Arlo provide a timeframe when they expect the IOS port-forwarding issue to be resolved?

Thanking you in advance!

[unhappyusr]

Why it still not work on the V5.0 released today? It has been more than 3 month, you need to fire the team!

[UT22]

Extremely ridiculous and unprofessional behaviour from Arlo. 

[ZWick]

any update on this? We shouldn't have to port forward in 2024 it should be simple to access I doubt any hackers will get much joy out of viewing my drive way!!!

[ZWick]

any updates on this??

[Pauld33]

I just got this email today to the case I opened in early July:

We want to notify you that we have identified the underlying cause of the issue reported in case 44143369, and our team is actively working on implementing a fix that will be released shortly.
There is no action required on your part at this time.
We acknowledge the inconvenience this has caused and sincerely appreciate your patience as we diligently work towards resolving the matter as soon as possible.

[reids]

I've read all the threads  on access to SmartHub local storage via port forwarding, and I'm comfortable with setting that up but I'm missing something, how does the app know the external IP of your network? none of the threads mention configuring that. So you enable port forwarding on the smarthub and set it up on the router, but then you are away from home and want to access the library, how does the app know where to connect?

As an aside, it's very disappointing that the smarthub doesn't mount it's sdcard and make it visible on the network, it would be a much cleaner solution to leave a script running to copy new files to google drive or Onedrive and let them be made externally visible that way.

[jguerdat]

I can't speak for the details as to how the system and your account know where to find the router but that's all contained in the data flowing between the hub and the servers. Someone with more networking experience than I have would have to address that.

[StephenB]

---

@reids wrote:

how does the app know the external IP of your network?

There is a persistent connection between the smarthub and the cloud.  Each packet received by the cloud has the router's external IP address in the source address field of the packet header.

So the cloud knows the current external IP address, and tells the app what that IP address is.

Basically the same way DDNS knows your external IP address.

There is a scenario where this technique fails - that is when the ISP uses carrier grade NAT (CGNAT).  If that is in use, then port forwarding (and inbound VPN connections) fail to connect.  Some broadband providers and landline ISPs use CGNAT (or something equivalent).  T-Mobile broadband is one of them.

---

@reids wrote:

none of the threads mention configuring that.

That is because you don't configure it.  In almost all cases, the external IP address is not fixed, so it would be a big problem if you had to configure it.

---

@reids wrote:

As an aside, it's very disappointing that the smarthub doesn't mount it's sdcard and make it visible on the network, it would be a much cleaner solution to leave a script running to copy new files to google drive or Onedrive and let them be made externally visible that way.

---

It would be convenient if they allowed that - and a lot of folks also would like to be able to tell the base to put the recordings on a network share - for instance a home NAS.