Question

Can somebody please explain the subscription services to me- We bought Arlo Ultra this month. Very happy with it. But was reading last night that we have 1 year free subscription. Tell me what happens after that first year? And what are the pros/cons of not subscribing again. Is it in relation to using the app or has it something to do with saved recordings. We are in Australia. Thankyou

Answer 1

After the subscription ends, if you do not pay, you will no longer get recordings to the cloud. You also won't get smart features like activity zones or smart notifications. You would need to set up remote storage access to be able to see any recordings saved locally on the micro SD card you inserted

Comments

@terrie Thanksng thankyou. I had a feeling that's where the SD card comes into play. so basically the only thing I can do with the app is watch live but for recordings I would need to pull the SD cars out and view it on a computer- is that correct?  

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@credulous no. There's access to the SD card for your VMB5000 smart hub but you have to enable the features. You can even access the SD card when you're not at home if you set up port forwarding on your router

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@terrie Thanksng I'm sorry. It's a little too complicated to understand.  

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Pop a micro SD card into the smarthub and have a play with the function while you still have cloud recording. Then you'll be able to decide if you can do away with the subscription. IMO the subscription is worth doing but everyone's different

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@terrie Thanksng does the app still work without the subscription? Is that how I view footage on the card?  

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To view storage on the cord one would have to remove and then view on a computer?  

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@credulous yes. You can view what's on the Micro SD card (or USB drive for vmb4540) via the app if you have a SmartHub but not if you have a base station

Answer 2

I’ve had Arlo cameras for two years. The first year I had Arlo Pro 2 i had no plan and had cloud access for 7 days. A year ago I added Arlo Ultra and received the 12 month subscription included. The difference I can see is that I now have 30 day cloud access, can create activity zones and get notifications stating whether it’s a person, animal, vehicle etc.  

Comments

@rely16389 did you buy a subscription after the free period?  

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@credulous no, it says it expired early April this year but I can still see cloud recording as far back as 21 April so I still seem to have a subscription. I don’t look back that far anyway. If there is footage that I want to keep I just download it.  

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@rely16389 ok so since your free trial ended, you can still access everything on the app but the only difference is how long the recordings last for? If there was footage I wanted to keep, I would also download it within hours so for me cloud storage up to 30 days is too much

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@credulous I think so. If I could only access 7 days worth tomorrow then I’d be ok with that. The smart notifications are handy but not always accurate so that’s not a big loss either. I did see on the web that it doesn’t say you get 7 days cloud access for no subscription, so not sure if they’ve changed that in the last year.  

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Ok thanks. You've been a big help!  

Answer 3

Don’t believe anything from Arlo. I have the original 6 camera free storage system from years ago and when Netgear spun them off to a stand alone company, they cut off one of my Q cameras without any notification.  

Comments

@lauritz25 my Q works just fine

Answer 4

Have ultra found i had 12month free subscription then when that finished the other week cameras wouldn't record and couldn't put zones on as soon as i signed up started working again but not recording in 4k

Comments

@ketchan8674 when you say they wouldn’t record, do you mean there was no recordings in the cloud at all?  

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You might have to select which cameras do 4K

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@rely16389 couldn't find any

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@terrie Thanksng i did only set up for it and its not

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Have you adjusted the FOV at all?  

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@terrie Thanksng the what sorry

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Field Of View. If I shrink mine down, the videos don't say 4K

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@terrie Thanksng ok will have a look