6-12 month cloud storage?

[cruiserandmax2]

We currently subscribe for our doorbell @ $2.99/month. I could care less about 24/7 recording. However I would be willing to pay more if I could get 6-12months more recording history for my doorbell.

We had a package from a purchase during of November of last year that never arrived. In January we complained to the merchant and they pointed out that the tracking indicated it had been delivered. I tried to use my camera recordings to support my observation that it never actually showed up, but by that time it was too late and I could not go that far back in the recording history because of the 30 day limit. 

[StephenB]

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@cruiserandmax2 wrote:

We currently subscribe for our doorbell @ $2.99/month. I could care less about 24/7 recording. However I would be willing to pay more if I could get 6-12months more recording history for my doorbell.

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You selected the VMB4540 smarthub as the model number.

If you are connecting the doorbell to a base, then you can attach local storage to the base.  With the VMB4540 you can see those recordings in the app, with older bases you can only see them by ejecting the storage, and connecting it to a PC.  Either way, it would give you added retention.

[cruiserandmax2]

Holy cow! Thank you for suggesting this- I even had a 32GB usb flash drive sitting in a drawer I wasn’t using! I plugged it in and the app now shows it will record to local storage- yesss!! Thanks again

[cruiserandmax2]

I got excited too soon- it seems with USB plugged in it will only record to the local storage and not the cloud. And since I cannot access the local storage through the app from outside my network it's kind of a no go (not willing to setup a VPN or open a port on my router).

Is there any way to configure it so it will store the videos to the local USB and the cloud at the same time? 

[StephenB]

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@cruiserandmax2 wrote:

Is there any way to configure it so it will store the videos to the local USB and the cloud at the same time? 

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If you have a subscription, then the videos are stored in both places.

But there are scenarios where videos only end up in local storage.  For instance, if you use activity zones.  The processing there is done in the cloud, so out-of-zone recordings still show up in local storage. Also, when internet is down, the recordings will show up only in local storage (assuming the base is powered).  Another aspect is that you can't delete files in local storage, but you can delete them from the cloud library.

BTW, I haven't done extensive tests on how far back the app will show you.  You might need to eject the card, and look at it in a PC to see files more than 30 days old.

[cruiserandmax2]

So with a USB stick attached and local storage enabled it appears the camera just continuously records to the USB. I mean continuous in the sense of an endless number of movie clips back to back. It seems to completely ignore the zone activity settings for the camera. I assume it’s just using any motion and there is ALWAYS motion because there is continuous traffic in view. It also seems like the recordings that would normally go to the cloud (from our tiny activity zone and/or pressing the doorbell button) only happen abou 5 percent of the time when local recording is enabled. Presumably this is because it is in the middle of making a local recording when it would normally have triggered a cloud recording? Either way- local recording is completely useless in this case because it defeats cloud recording. Unless there is anything else anyone can think of?

[StephenB]

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@cruiserandmax2 wrote:
 It seems to completely ignore the zone activity settings for the camera.

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Correct.  Activity Zone processing is done in the cloud and only supresses cloud recordings and notifications.

You can perhaps reduce the amount of local recording by reducing the motion sensitivity in the mode.  That's about all you can do with the doorbell since it cannot be repositioned.