Ver Disappointed
I purchased the Arlo Essential Outdoor camera (package of three) in hopes for a great security options for home monitoring. Little did I know, as it wasn’t advertised, that the fully functioning monitoring discontinued after “trial” period was over. I could find nothing that said there was a trial period. To keep all functions, I would have had to subscribe to a plan, which in my opinion was very over-priced. After about 60 days, I started experiencing other issues. One camera stopped working. Couldn’t charge or get any responses after a lot of trouble shooting. It was replaced by support. The other issue is that this bundle included the solar charging. As it is designed to be a “trickle” charge, it really doesn’t work if you’re checking the camera very often. Then you need to manually charge through usb/adapter. Which if you have mounted outside is not the most convenient to be taking down the camera every other week. Next thing I noticed is that two of the solar panel chargers stopped charging the camera. Arlo is replacing that also, but I really think these cameras are not nearly as good as they advertise. The picture quality is very good and the functionality is great also, especially if you subscribe to a plan. Of it’s the battery life/solar charging, and loss of functionality when you don’t subscribe that is a turn off. Overall, I would not recommend and would suggest looking for better options.
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Response from developer
Hi, Thank you for taking the time to write your experience. Your feedback helps us improve our services. We'll share your feedback to the relevant team. We appreciate your understanding. Best regards, Arlo Team
No longer getting videos
When we first brought the camera it worked great! Then after the free trial was over, we purchased the app but there’s several seconds delay when opening the app to view any activity immediately happening on the camera. It also only records 10-14 seconds of movement before turning off again. After updating to the latest app version, now we receive no notifications for activity outside, there’s no recordings being taken, and our phones no longer ring when someone’s at the door. We can hear the doorbell camera being rung from outside, but it doesn’t trigger a phone call anymore. Seems the latest app version has caused the lack of recording and calling.
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Response from developer
Hi Thank you for taking the time to share your review about the Arlo app. If you're not receiving notifications, read this article to learn how to troubleshoot: https://kb.arlo.com/1099161. For further assistance, please navigate to Settings > Support in the Arlo App for service options available to you. We appreciate your patience and understanding. Best regards, Arlo Team
New app version is horrible
Why change something if it’s not broken? The old version of the app was simple to use, automations worked, schedules worked, you could create custom modes, and it was easy to understand.
The new version is terrible. Only 3 modes with no custom modes, geofencing seems to fail intermittently (becoming more common lately), the “enabled” thing to a while to work out but to poor language used, there is less functionality compared to the old version but somehow it’s more complicated to use. Tell me how I can have a schedule only run when I’m home so when I return home after the schedule start time, it will still activate. It seems to only turn on at a specific time unlike the old version where it could be programmed for a time range. It’s a backwards step and after spending over $1500 on devices, we now have to deal with this poorly developed app, or spend more money on a competitors product. Please fix the issues Arlo, you have a lot of fans but losing them with this development.
The new version is terrible. Only 3 modes with no custom modes, geofencing seems to fail intermittently (becoming more common lately), the “enabled” thing to a while to work out but to poor language used, there is less functionality compared to the old version but somehow it’s more complicated to use. Tell me how I can have a schedule only run when I’m home so when I return home after the schedule start time, it will still activate. It seems to only turn on at a specific time unlike the old version where it could be programmed for a time range. It’s a backwards step and after spending over $1500 on devices, we now have to deal with this poorly developed app, or spend more money on a competitors product. Please fix the issues Arlo, you have a lot of fans but losing them with this development.
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Response from developer
Hi Thanks for sharing your feedback about the Arlo app. You can create one or more Schedule Automation to take different actions for your Arlo system based on the time and day of the week. To learn how, please visit https://kb.arlo.com/000062942/. For further assistance, please navigate to Settings > Support in the Arlo App for service options available to you. We appreciate your patience and understanding. Best regards, Arlo Team
New App is Total Rubbish
Everything was working fine until latest app ‘upgrade’. Now Ultra cameras only record and stream in 2K (despite being 4K capable). Forget about using sunrise and sunset settings for arming schedules as there is no recognition of daylight savings based on location nor ability to change UTC settings. If a camera feed is lost, the app must be closed and re-opened to refresh the feed. Goodbye to custom arming modes, you now only have 3 available. And lastly, the ability to see the WiFi signal strength based on camera position has been taken away from device settings, so you can only determine that when initially setting up a camera.
Yet again another poorly tested and executed app ‘upgrade’. If you are considering security cameras DO NOT purchase Arlo; the hardware is good quality but the app is total rubbish (and gets progressively worse with every app ‘upgrade’) and you need to subscribe to an overpriced subscription plan in order for your costly hardware to be functional, e.g. to set activity zones. It is clear that their business model is to gradually remove all functionality such that most features of already expensive hardware will not be useable without a costly subscription, and from repeated app ‘upgrades’ you will waste countless hours of your life troubleshooting or on hold to Support that are still working on info from the last app. This is a company that clearly don’t listen to their customers. Spend your money elsewhere.
Yet again another poorly tested and executed app ‘upgrade’. If you are considering security cameras DO NOT purchase Arlo; the hardware is good quality but the app is total rubbish (and gets progressively worse with every app ‘upgrade’) and you need to subscribe to an overpriced subscription plan in order for your costly hardware to be functional, e.g. to set activity zones. It is clear that their business model is to gradually remove all functionality such that most features of already expensive hardware will not be useable without a costly subscription, and from repeated app ‘upgrades’ you will waste countless hours of your life troubleshooting or on hold to Support that are still working on info from the last app. This is a company that clearly don’t listen to their customers. Spend your money elsewhere.
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Response from developer
Hello Thank you for taking the time to write your experience. Your feedback helps us to improve our services. We'll share your feedback to the relevant team. We appreciate your understanding. Best regards, Arlo Team
Arlo doorbell
Plus side the image quality is good with decent nighttime resolution in that you can make out faces & good audio.
Option if needed to tailor smart notifications to eliminate pets such as my neighbours cats, or any birds, vehicles etc to avoid unnecessary notifications & just have people detection.
When doorbell is rung you get prompt notification to your phone.
Downside is that movement notifications can be slow to push to your phone. Sometimes your phone tells you it’s detected people movement but doesn’t show it in the live view or history library so you can’t see what caused the notification. You need to close app & reopen it to check the notification in the library. Kind of defeats the purpose especially in the night when you want to see what’s triggered the detection. My doorbell is only a few clear meters away from my router so distance isn’t an issue. I’ve had this hard wired to mains power & added an extra indoor chime. I’ve also added it to my Alexa echo show in the kitchen which helps me know when the doorbell is rung especially if I’ve got my noisy extractor fan running. Overall happy with it letting me know the bell is rung apart from the notification issues mentioned above.
Option if needed to tailor smart notifications to eliminate pets such as my neighbours cats, or any birds, vehicles etc to avoid unnecessary notifications & just have people detection.
When doorbell is rung you get prompt notification to your phone.
Downside is that movement notifications can be slow to push to your phone. Sometimes your phone tells you it’s detected people movement but doesn’t show it in the live view or history library so you can’t see what caused the notification. You need to close app & reopen it to check the notification in the library. Kind of defeats the purpose especially in the night when you want to see what’s triggered the detection. My doorbell is only a few clear meters away from my router so distance isn’t an issue. I’ve had this hard wired to mains power & added an extra indoor chime. I’ve also added it to my Alexa echo show in the kitchen which helps me know when the doorbell is rung especially if I’ve got my noisy extractor fan running. Overall happy with it letting me know the bell is rung apart from the notification issues mentioned above.
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Response from developer
Hi, Thank you for your review. Please read the following article for details on troubleshooting long delays: https://kb.arlo.com/000062742. If you're having problems viewing your live feed properly, refer to this article to learn how to troubleshoot: https://kb.arlo.com/000062226. For further assistance, please navigate to Settings > Support in the Arlo App for service options available to you. We appreciate your patience and understanding. Best regards, Arlo Team
New App is Total Rubbish
Everything was working fine until latest app ‘upgrade’. Now Ultra cameras only record and stream in 2K (despite being 4K capable). Forget about using sunrise and sunset settings for arming schedules as there is no recognition of daylight savings based on location nor ability to change UTC settings. If a camera feed is lost, the app must be closed and re-opened to refresh the feed. Goodbye to custom arming modes, you now only have 3 available. And lastly, the ability to see the WiFi signal strength based on camera position has been taken away from device settings, so you can only determine that when initially setting up a camera.
Yet again another poorly tested and executed app ‘upgrade’. If you are considering security cameras DO NOT purchase Arlo; the hardware is good quality but the app is total rubbish (and gets progressively worse with every app ‘upgrade’) and you need to subscribe to an overpriced subscription plan in order for your costly hardware to be functional, e.g. to set activity zones. It is clear that their business model is to gradually remove all functionality such that most features of already expensive hardware will not be useable without a costly subscription, and from repeated app ‘upgrades’ you will waste countless hours of your life troubleshooting or on hold to Support that are still working on info from the last app. This is a company that clearly don’t listen to their customers. Spend your money elsewhere.
Yet again another poorly tested and executed app ‘upgrade’. If you are considering security cameras DO NOT purchase Arlo; the hardware is good quality but the app is total rubbish (and gets progressively worse with every app ‘upgrade’) and you need to subscribe to an overpriced subscription plan in order for your costly hardware to be functional, e.g. to set activity zones. It is clear that their business model is to gradually remove all functionality such that most features of already expensive hardware will not be useable without a costly subscription, and from repeated app ‘upgrades’ you will waste countless hours of your life troubleshooting or on hold to Support that are still working on info from the last app. This is a company that clearly don’t listen to their customers. Spend your money elsewhere.
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Ease of use decreased
The new application is much less user friendly than the previous app. The old app allowed the user to select a bach of videos for deletion where as the new app only allows one at a time. The old app allowed the user to view videos in full screen and delete a video and it would then automatically load the next video in full screen mode. The new app exits out of the full screen mode after a video is deleted and returns the user to the list of thumbnail videos which then must be individually opened for viewing and determination of whether to keep or delete. Very user unfriendly.
The new app also moved the location for silencing alerts making it harder to find. And there was no instructions or explanation of changes. The user was simply forced to experiment and punch buttons to try to figure out what changed and where things were located. Not very user friendly.
The new app also moved the location for silencing alerts making it harder to find. And there was no instructions or explanation of changes. The user was simply forced to experiment and punch buttons to try to figure out what changed and where things were located. Not very user friendly.
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Response from developer
Hi, Thanks for sharing your review of the Arlo app. To delete multiple videos, go to Feed, tap the 3 dots at the top right corner, and then tap the manage events. If your app keeps crashing or freezing, try to uninstall the app, reboot your iOS device and reinstall the app to see if that helps. If you still have problems, please navigate to https://www.arlo.com/en-us/support/contact for service options available to you. We appreciate your patience and understanding Best regards, Arlo Team
Great but could be better
Great app! But could definitely have more functions to be able to change settings on seperate cameras. Hoping the camera isn’t drained when my dog is running around the house all day? I want to only capture and send video to the cloud of a person entering, seeing 100 videos of our dog running round the yard is semi annoying. Scheduling also doesn’t understand if I want them working overnight, figured it out but didn’t make it easy!
Other than that, they work great and capture decent footage and in enjoying using them.
Other than that, they work great and capture decent footage and in enjoying using them.
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Recording paywall
I bought two cameras and was doing the subscription for a while when that ran out I purchased a Arlo hub so that I could record with out the subscription which was $139. I set it all up but instead of viewing the log like normal you need to go into settings to review the recordings in a weird place. The app is not well put together it is only set up for you to have a subscription even if you buy the extra equipment to record. Not just that but you actually have to be connected to the same wifi network to view your recordings which is completely worthless when you are away unless you keep an eye on the live feed constantly. Nothing works like it should you can’t even my change the recording field of view because that is behind a pay wall. They really need to fix this app so you can use the cameras and the recording device in a useful manner. I need two more cameras but I won’t be buying any Arlo ones best to just avoid these and go with a different company that has a better app.
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Response from developer
Hi, Thanks for taking the time to write a review. We will share your feedback to the development team. We also want to let you know some features are still available without an Arlo Subscription. You can read more about it here: https://kb.arlo.com/000062312. For further assistance, please navigate to Settings > Support in the Arlo App for service options available to you. We appreciate your patience and understanding. Best regards, Arlo Team
Mr Steven Forster
It works perfect, we actually got to see someone crossing over from next doors garden into ours to steal a wood pallet, don’t know why a fully grown man would need an empty wooden pallet but he did us a favour as it saved us money to get rid of it, this could be better if the back of my home also had a Verisure Sign letting them know they’re actually being watched and recorded like the sign at the front, either on our gate or on our back door, Warning them we do intend to have more cameras and hopefully more vibration sensors on all windows like the front door if someone knocks at front door or window the slightest vibration sets alarm off and we need that for the patio doors at back and back door also another indoor camera for kitchen and at bottom of staircase where back door is and a doorbell camera in the near future as we’re in process of completely redecorating every room in our home, new carpets, flooring, new kitchen, so a lot more we need from Arlo & Verisure in the near future as it’s perfection the camera is amazing you see and record everything thank you Arlo for absolute peace of mind so when garden is done with new decking and garden furniture I know if stolen it’s caught on camera I recommend this to everyone
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