Local Camera Recording

[winj]

I have stopped paying for an Arlo subscription plan, and now my cameras are no longer recording to my local storage.  I think I have figured out that if I don't pay for a subscription plan then my cameras will not record to my local storage.  I have to pay for a subscription plan to record to the cloud, and only then can I also enable recording to my local storage.  Is that true, I have to pay to get my cameras to record to my local storage?

[StephenB]

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@winj wrote:

Is that true, I have to pay to get my cameras to record to my local storage?

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No.

What hub model do you own?

Direct access to local recordings requires a VMB4540 or VMB5000 smarthub, and is only possible in the app.  There are some other limitations - one is that local recordings are only available from the primary account (not "friend" accounts).

[winj]

Hello.  I have a VMB5000r6 base station.  The local storage stopped working when my paid subscription ran out.  I've read that Arlo does not allow local storage as an alternative to cloud storage but, rather, only in addition to cloud storage.  I've poked around a lot in both the app and on the web site and, so far, have not found a way to enable only local storage.  Maybe I'm just missing something?

Thanks.

[jguerdat]

Only cameras connected to your hub can be recorded locally. Any camera connected to WiFi cannot be recorded on your hub since the recording did not pass through it.

[winj]

Hello.  Do you mean that the cameras have to be physically connected to my hub with a cable?  Neither the cameras nor the hub have connectors for that.  And, when I look at any of the camera settings, the cameras all say that they are connected to my hub.  I can turn live view on and off from the app, and I get notifications when motion is detected.  But local recording, which used to work, now doesn't work.  I'm back to thinking that my cameras won't record locally on my local storage in my hub unless I pay Arlo for a subscription.  I'm hoping that's not true and that I'm just missing something.

[StephenB]

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@winj wrote:

Do you mean that the cameras have to be physically connected to my hub with a cable?  

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No.  They just need to be paired with the base (and it sounds like they are).

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@winj wrote:

 I'm back to thinking that my cameras won't record locally on my local storage in my hub unless I pay Arlo for a subscription.  

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No, something else must be going on. 

Can you provide some more details on how it fails? 

• Are you getting an error? 
• No errors, but not seeing any recordings at all?
• Not seeing any recent recordings (but seeing old ones)?
• Something else?

Do you see "Feed" and "Dashboard" in your app menu?  Or do you see "Library" instead?

Two things you can try:

• uninstall and reinstall the app on your phone.
• Eject the storage using the app, and examine it on a PC.  That would help us sort out whether the problem is playback or recording.

[winj]

Thanks for your help.

No errors, just the message "There are no events for this day." in the local feed pane, and a prompt to get a plan in the cloud feed pane.  Unfortunately after it had stopped recording I pulled the SD card out and tried to look at it on my PC.  The PC couldn't read it so I figured it had gone bad and I threw it away, but it did have old local recordings on it prior to that.  I put a new card in and have not gotten any recordings.

I do see "Feed" and "Dashboard" in the app, and I do not see "Library".

I will report back after I try out your suggestions.

Thanks., again.

Jeff

[winj · Accepted solution]

Yahoo, it is working again.  Thank you all for your help.

I ejected the card and looked at it with my PC.  No recordings, but the file folders were there.  Then I uninstalled and reinstalled the app on my phone.  A little later I noticed that recordings are being stored locally, again.  I should have waited between the two actions because I don't know which (if it was just one of them) fixed the problem.  However, bottom line, recordings are again being stored locally.  Again, thank you for your help.

Jeff