Base station VMB4000r3 will not format flash drive or microsd; have newest firmware

[Hometheatremave]

I'm used to be a beta tester for Arlo for years, so I think I'm fairly knowledgeable regarding the hardware. I had a flash drive in one of my base stations (VMB4000r3) for years with no problem until the flash drive failed a week ago (I think it was a heat problem). Both base stations have the latest firmware (1.20.3.0_4203_8008561).

Anyway, I tried an old 2 Gb flash drive and a new microsd card (64Gb with compatible card reader) to replace the old flash drive. But now I can not get the base station to format either the flash drive nor the microsd. Arlo Secure says "Requires formatting" even though both the flash drive and the microsd have already been formatted to FAT32 with the computer (used rufus.exe to format 64 Gb card).

And the problem isn't with the base station because I have 2 base stations (both VMB4000r3 with same firmware above) and neither will format nor accept pre-formatted drives.

I can only surmise the problem is in the base station firmware but I'm certainly open to any suggestions/fixes. Thanks so much.

[StephenB]

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@Hometheatremave wrote:

I tried an old 2 Gb flash drive

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At some point Arlo decided to enforce a minimu 16 GB size - no idea why.  But that might explain why the 2 GB drive didn't work.

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@Hometheatremave wrote:

a new microsd card (64Gb with compatible card reader).

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It seems to me that should have worked.  Though the card reader+microsd card might not be advertised as a simple USB drive on the USB interface.  So that might be one avenue to explore.

[Hometheatremave]

Thanks Stephan: I also tried using a 32 GB flash drive, that I preformatted with Fat32 on the computer, with the exact same results as the other flash drive and microUSB card. But thank you for trying to help me. David 

[StephenB]

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@Hometheatremave wrote:

I also tried using a 32 GB flash drive, that I preformatted with Fat32 on the computer, with the exact same results as the other flash drive and microUSB card. 

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I'm wondering if the USB port on the base has failed.

Do any of these devices have an activity light?  If so, are you seeing it light up when you insert it?

[Hometheatremave]

Yes, the flash drives do have little power lights that light up.

And I'm having the same results with both USB ports on both of my base stations.

David 

[Hometheatremave]

I think I found the problem and it's kind of convoluted. Your idea about the flash drive needing to be larger seems to be correct, as the base station will not recognize my smaller flash drive. 

But the main problem with Arlo's programming lies in the Arlo Secure app. When I 

 log into the base station that has the 32 GB microusb card, the devices page shows that the USB card needs to be formatted. This shows on every camera as an icon at the lower right hand portion. When I click on that icon, it takes me to a page that says that the USB drive is not formatted and do I want to format it. When I say format the USB drive, it comes back and says that it can't do it and that the USB drive requires formatting. So that has been my problem. However when I go to the base station device information and go to local storage, it shows that there are two devices: one of them says USB 1 requires formatting and this is the one that will not format and is causing the icon on the main device page. But there is another device that shows as ARLO and it shows as being ready. I think that is actually my microusb in the card reader.

In other words the base station is showing that there are two devices, one in each USB port even though there is only one micro USB plugged in. I need to do more research to find out if it's actually recording on that device. 

If it is actually getting recordings, the icon on the home device page for each camera should not show and the local storage for that base station should not show two devices. And it's strange that the one device that says that it's ready is called ARLO and not USB 1.

[StephenB]

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@Hometheatremave wrote:

And it's strange that the one device that says that it's ready is called ARLO and not USB 1.

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Can you look at the USB drive with the Windows Disk Manager?  See if there are two partitions (I think the disk manager calls then "volumes").

[Hometheatremave]

 I'm attaching a screenshot of the Storage screen. I used the windows disk Management app to check the drive (microusb) and there is just one primary partition that covers the whole drive with the FAT32 format. Formatting icon on each camera is still showing, caused by the USB 1 show me that it requires formatting. It seems like the Arlo secure app thinks there are devices in each of the two USB ports, but the micro USD card is only in USB 1 and there is nothing in USB 2.

[Hometheatremave]

It looks like the screenshot did not go through. In any event, I believe I understand what is happening, and it's strange and a bug in the Arlo Secure app. The app is seeing both the card reader and the microusb as 2 different devices. It's seeing the microusb as ARLO and the card reader as USB Device 1. Arlo reads as "Ready" and USB 1 as "needs formatting". The failed USB icon (needs formatting) on each camera is caused by the USB 1 "needs formatting" failure.

However, the ARLO (the microusb card in the card reader) in Storage Settings is working. It does record movement. So I just have to ignore the USB failure icon on each camera every time I open the Arlo Secure app. It would be nice if Arlo programmers would fix this.

Finally, I did insert a 32 GB flash drive formatted in FAT32 and it worked perfectly. And now I know why the app calls the microsd "ARLO". It's because that's the name I put for the microsd card itself when I formatted it in Windows.

[ShayneS]

Thanks for the detailed info and screenshot. I'm having this investigated and I'll update you as soon as I can. 

[ShayneS]

Is it possible to try another card reader and SD card and format first using a pc? 

[Hometheatremave]

Everything is working with the flash drive. I will only try with a card reader and microusb card if the app or the base station have been updated. Let me know if they have.

David