Arlo can do local storage with an Arlo hub. You put a USB stick in the back and the app can browse those or the cloud.
Only certain hubs. I know the vmb5000 is one model that this works on. You can do port forwarding and view clips remotely on the thumb drive that you have connected to the vmb5000, or wait until you get home and view them on your own network.
I have this hub and never used the usb local feature but I’ve plugged a usb stick in and going to try it.
How can you access them via port forwarding?
I haven’t physically done it yet, I’ve ordered a VMb5000 used on eBay. In the hopes of being able to do this. From everything I’ve read it seems to be possible. I’m hoping this will be an alternative to them getting rid of their seven day free cloud storage.
I currently have an older Arlo hub that I have to delete and transfer the cameras to the new hub when it comes in the mail. I am using 5 Arlo Pro 2’s
Local storage works fine, and you don’t need to setup port forwarding or a VPN unless you want to view the recorded videos while away from your home network. The motion sensors still notify you of events and you can start a live stream of the camera while away. The “recordings” in particular are what ends up on the usb stick.
One downside to USB over the cloud is that there isn’t an image preview in the app for local recordings. You have to click on them to see what’s in there. The cloud recordings have a thumbnail so you can find things quicker.
Do you have a vmb5000?
Yeah just realised I have the VMB4000 hub so I can’t do local storage and view it. Sucks.
I have 3 Arlo cams. 2x Arlo Pro and 1x Arlo Pro 2 so I may try and purchase a second hand VMB4540 hub.
I’m in the UK and I’ve yet to get the email from Arlo about certain cameras ending so I’m unsure on exactly what I’ll be losing out on with the set up I currently have?
Yeah but can I view them from the Arlo app or do I need to unplug the usb and throw it onto my laptop?
Edit. Realised what you meant. I thought you meant I could do local with my current hub.
You can view them in the app, but you don’t get thumbnails. It’s just a list of recordings by time. You can click on them, which downloads the recording to your phone for viewing. After that a thumbnail will also be generated for that particular recording. I suspect this is because the hub itself doesn’t have logic to process the local recording and generate a preview. That appears to be done in the phone app.
Just to confirm. Not on my VMB4000 hub?
Although I have a usb stick in there, I’d currently have to remove it from my hub and connect it to a laptop?
For VMB4000 and VMB4500 Base Stations:
To view videos saved on local storage, you must remove the USB device from the SmartHub or Base Station. Cloud recording is still enabled, but if you do not want to interrupt USB recording while you view videos, set up a second USB device for USB recording.
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Thanks. I’d be as well going for the VMB5000 hub then so I don’t have to keep removing the usb from the hub to view.
I’ll only do this after cloud recordings for free stop for me. Still haven’t even received an email from Arlo about this.
VMB4540 also works
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Yes but with my hub, I can only see the file by getting the usb stick into my computer…not super practical for safety purpose
What exactly are Arlo imposing? Is it just the free cloud storage? Can you still get motion alerts etc free?
Yes. You can still get motion as that is a local sensor in the camera. I think they are charging for the “smart” object detection like animals and packages that run on their cloud, as well as the long term video storage. Makes sense to me, since those features use their servers and are a recurring cost. I have more concerns about the companies that don’t charge for data storage. If they aren’t charging for it, then they must be finding value in the data itself. When it comes to video, I’d hate to think how they would monetize that.
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No, I don’t. My comments are for their USB feature in general.
This one can do local recording as well. I think the difference between the hubs is that the older one uses USB and the newer one uses micro-SD. The USB may actually allow you to use a USB hard drive, but I think I read somewhere that they don’t officially support that.
2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Arlo alternative
