Arlo scrapping free cloud storage on older cameras

Arlo has announced that it will sunset some of its older cameras’ biggest selling-points at the start of 2024, by ending its support for some of these features.

It’s part of a new “end of life policy” and has wide-reaching implications for those with older Arlo products installed in their homes.

From 1 April 2023, there will no longer be any guarantees that Arlo will continue to support the Arlo Gen 3 or Arlo Pro.

Then, on 1 January 2023, the bigger sweep happens, with the Arlo Baby, Arlo Pro 2, Arlo Q, Arlo Q+, Arlo Lights and Audio Doorbell all losing ongoing support.

Perhaps the biggest loss will be what Arlo calls “legacy video storage”, which translates to the free cloud video storage that some of these cameras came with.

As pointed out by The Verge, this means that Arlo Q owners will, for example, lose the week of free storage that was prominently advertised on the camera’s box when it was on sale.

Users will still be able to live-stream video and store it locally if they have a compatible (i.e. newer) base station, but the change is really significant even if it doesn’t techincally leave anyone with a completely bricked camera.

If you own any of the above cameras you may want to check to see if you’ve been emailed by Arlo about the change, as that’s how the notification is going out, but you can also see the new policy on Arlo’s website here.