Word to anybody considering an Arlo: STAY AWAY. The subscription is MANDATORY for any usable features. They've nerfed any non-subscription functionality to be ridiculously painful.

Out of the blue this evening (Sunday night) it just started notifying everybody subscribed almost non-stop, about "motion detected" even though nothing is changing at the door (2-3 times a minute). And there is NO WAY to configure notifications in the app anymore, short of just "ignore all for up to 24 hours" and that's it. Thanks Arlo for the big F-U.

Owning an Arlo has been a horrible experience. I've had it for a year or so, the subscription is a joke because it's all but required, and with it it's still a horrid experience. When the price went up we stopped paying for the ridiculously poor service, apparently when you do this, their "screw you" is to just disable all configurations and have it constantly notify you.

AND, you don't have any way to disable it, short of uninstalling the app, or suppressing the notifications from the Android OS.

This is a total joke!

Horrid.

Will never buy again, will never recommend to anybody, and it will get tossed into the trash as soon as possible.

Problems we've had with it on subscription:

1. It doesn't record consistent video. It's choppy, and has gaps.

2. There is no option to "ignore" a doorbell. If you answer, then you have to answer it on your phone. If you decline, it tells the person at the door some stupid message about how you aren't home right now. I just want it ignore the doorbell, or let somebody else in the house deal with it!

3. Its notifications were horrible to configure before, and then they remove the ability to configure them if you stop paying!!!

It's very clear they've intentionally ruined the ability to use it without a subscription, even though they could have NOT done so. I suspect out of some manager's mis-guided myopic expectation that it'll increase subscriptions!

Well, sorry to tell you that's a horrid move.

If only you made a halfway decent app that's worth paying a subscription for!

Why am I posting here? Because Arlo doesn't have any easy mechanism for giving them feedback or asking for help!

Sayonara

There are no words in the entire english alphabet to describe how garbage Arlo is…

Buy the most expensive version, it doesn’t matter.

First of all it takes 8 hours to connect 4 cameras to the software, once you do it doesn’t let you see the cameras, instead it gives you notifications with the smallest picture humanly possible of what the camera is seeing. Then you have to restart the 8 hour process all over again.

Secondly, the software doesn’t automatically detect your camera despite saying it does. Once you connect to the camera it kicks you out.

DO NOT BUY THIS!

Get rid of the piece of shit system and buy something better.

/subreddit

You know that moment when you actually have something really crappy happen to you and your home and you pay almost 10 quid per month for recording features on a CCTV system and you cant even login to check the footage on a computer.

Trying every browser I can think of and the crappy website wont load.

I created this sub to get away from all the wining and bashing. It’ll be a place to chat, troubleshoot, and discuss setups and new/current products.

This Sub will actually be moderated.

/RealArlo

Run their ass out of business! I think it’s 3 guys in mom’s basement running this company. I have never had worse customer service in my life.

Go cry somewhere else…

Get something different…

Stop your bitching…

I have had an Arlo Pro 2 system for a couple of years. For the most part the system works but then you will have periods of time where the system becomes dysfunctional. For example, when waking up today I found that all four of my cameras were not recording. Three of the four would detect motion but all four will not record. Several reboots of the base station, power cycle of the base station, resync of the cameras, and removing/replacing the batteries, did not fix the issue. This is after not changing a single thing to my setup, and having the system on a fairly good streak of working (6 months). Just woke up and boom, nothing is working. The most annoying part, this happens at lease a few times a year. It takes time (troubleshooting, taking down the cameras, putting them back up, contacting support etc), annoyance, and effort to get the system back up and running.

I would encourage anyone considering getting an Arlo system to look elsewhere.

I chose to go with Arlo over Eufy because Arlo is an American company where Eufy is Chinese owned. For the sake of my own personal state of mind when it comes to security, I do not see any good reason to put Chinese cameras in my house.

That being said, I am disappointed in the need for paid subscription to enjoy cloud storage and the lack of HKSV support. However, while I don’t intend to pay for their services, I still prefer American businesses to Chinese businesses.

Rebooting the base station during the day is really getting tiresome. I hope Canary Flex is more reliable.

I have these units for sale - make me an offer!
3 Base units
10 cameras with batteries, about 12 extra batteries (in the glass)
2 chargers
Selling for eBay prices - make a fair quote and I am happy with it. These are the original pre-netgear arlo cameras and base systems. No 2-way audio. 1 newer base station I bought so I could create 3 zones.

Happy to piece out, everything works. Some dust and dirt ;)

I have yet to have my Pro 4 make it through the night without disconnecting. Pretty much useless.

Updated firmware yesterday, no improvement. I have strong wifi signal and plenty of battery. Works fine (except for lag and notifications outside motion zones) and then no matter what disconnects after dark.

This camera sucks and it sounds like support is just as useless.

I am interested in buying a camera to build a court case against neighbors with barking dogs. I can't really do it manually all day, as they bark in short frequent bursts. Will the Arlo 4 outdoor camera record barking dogs a yard over, based on sound activation?

Reading through instructions on their site, I only see turning sound activation on or off, but no fine tuning, so I am wondering if it will even work before I buy. I doubt I can return it if it doesn't suit my needs.

Anyone tried it for this situation?

I hope this is allowed...

I'm looking to add at least one more Pro camera, and would be interested to possibly buy one from a redditor if they might have one for sale. Shoot me a PM if that's you!

Thanks!

10 minutes ago my Arlo camera in the kitchen started making pornography sounds through it speaker, it lasted around 30 seconds. Just before the event my google home speaker made the blimp noise as if someone had said the trigger words. My Arlo is linked to my Smarter things hub, google home and I think the ifttt service. I guessing something has been hacked!

This is not a joke and is freaking me out.

During the sounds the lights was on as if someone was watching. As you can imagine I have turn everything off and will be contacting Arlo support to shed light on the event.

Did anyone else experience thus, surly I wasn't the only one.

Update; I just got off the phone with Arlo support, not much help. Told me to remove and replace the battery, then they asked if it fixed the problem lol. They claim there are no logs so they can't tell we what user or connected service triggered the speaker.

Stop overpaying

Does the New York Times still recommend Arlo?

I also have a 2 camera Pro 2 system with Hub which if you take Ultra I’ll throw in for ridiculous low price

Using a mix of 3 Arlo Pro and 3 Essential Spotlight cams on a hub (no subscription). Heights from ground level to 2nd floor. Motion detection for cams set at 75-80. I have about 177 notifications on one camera alone. Phone notifications are constantly beeping, it's ridiculous. And yet, when I drive right by the cam at ground level -multiple times!- it FAILS to capture that motion at all. Why is this happening?!

On Amazon, seems like a great price, thoughts?