Forced subscription?!?!

[Imogra]

Hi, i have had 4 arlo cameras for around 3 years, with no subscription, except they put me on a trial one for the last three months. That finished, and now I’m getting a message that without subscribing, I cannot use my cameras in the way that I have been using them, which is simply storing things for seven days. I’m so cross because when I bought the cameras that was not the deal. I am now not able to access support except through this community chat. Does anyone have a suggestion of what I can do, or should I just sell the cameras to someone who wants to pay for the subscription? Thanks

[Imogra]

I have been reading many posts of people who are also angry about this situation, and it looks like people have been impacted by a some new EOL policy at different times over the last couple of years. I’m so mad. The cameras are useless now and i paid quite a lot for 4 of them. i will be getting rid of them and look around for another option. This is not fair to buy something under one policy and then be forced to shell out for a subscription 3/4 years after the purchase. I can see people complaining all over the internet. I’ll join them and never recommend Arlo to anyone!

[DannyBearAgain]

The free 7days arlo cloud storage service  for legacy cameras was never removed, arlo had backtracked that EOL decision. 

You would not not need a paid subscription plan to continue using legacy cameras unless you wanted cloud AI services. Smart notifications, battery supported activity zones etc.

It gets confusing when the legacy cameras are mixed with post legacy camera models needing a subscription plan within the same account. You are only allowed a max of 5 unsubscribed cameras per account.

What I have noted from other users is that once a camera within an account that has been using a subscription that has expired, the cloud storage stops working because you were  migrated to the 30day cloud storage service and when the subscription expires you don’t get automatically migrated back to the free 7days storage service.

You need to remove any cameras from the subscription plan or remove them from the account to restore the legacy storage then re-add again.

[Imogra]

Thank you for that reply. I will definitely try to do that. I only want exactly what i had which was the 7 days of recording.

 When you say remove the cameras from the account, do you mean ‘remove device’ and just readd them? I’ll try that when i get home. Fingers crossed.

[DannyBearAgain]

To determine if your cameras have lost the arlo free 7days cloud storage, start a camera live view then tap record, then stop recording and check if the recording shows in the library. 

If it does then the cloud storage is still working for that camera, and the issue is that the camera motion detection has either stopped working or the base mode is not reflected in the camera settings. The 10sec battery removal will reset the camera, you may also require a base station power cycle first.

If the cloud storage has stopped working all you can do is to remove the device from the account and add again to reset the account’s camera settings.

[Imogra]

Thank you a million times! I did get them working again and have now resumed the recordings the way i had them.

 So relieved that I don’t have to be angry with Arlo products and service.

 Thank you again