Arlo Smart HomeReviews of us.arlo.com

Arlo has quietly removed core functionality from products I purchased in good faith, provides no meaningful support, and has failed to honour an agreed remedy. After a mandatory update in May 2026, one of my Arlo Go cameras stopped recording motion events entirely. This turned out not to be a fault, but a backend change that silently removed multi‑camera cloud recording from my account — a feature that existed at purchase and was part of the advertised free plan. Arlo has eliminated all human support channels. There is no phone number, no published email, and the chatbot cannot escalate anything. I had to contact the CEO directly just to get a response. Arlo Europe eventually opened a support case and offered to replace both cameras with Arlo Go 2 units. There was no clarity on how or why that would resolve the issue, but I accepted immediately and provided my details. Since then: complete silence. No dispatch, no tracking, no explanation, no follow‑up. Arlo removed functionality without notice, offered a remedy, then failed to deliver it. This is not how a responsible company behaves, especially one selling security products. I have now escalated the matter to the UK Competition & Markets Authority. I would strongly advise avoiding Arlo products.

I purchased 3 Arlo cameras for my home. If…and BROTHER I DO MEAN IF…I had the reviewed prior & current customers experiences, I would not have WASTED my money! As an example, with each camera indicating an excellent WiFi connection, a person is able to drive into my driveway, get out of their vehicle and physically walk to my front door or my carport door WITHOUT being caught by ARLO! In fact, when I’m outside with my dog, the cameras won’t pick up and record that I’m there until I’m either right up on the camera…IF AT ALL! So what I have are 3 expensive items that might…just might…cause a half hearted thief or murderer to second guess whether to continue with their intentions. So….Should you purchase an Arlo product? If you’re wanting to waste your hard earned money…Then go for it!

I have had nothing but issues with the App and with the doorbell. I can rarely see feed and difficult to get to live feed. I have had to trouble shoot using the ARLO App chat and it is unhelpful. The phone customer service is not much better. They basically pretended they couldn't hear me when I was having issues following their directions and hung up on me. The release for the device is on the bottom and impossible to see when your camera is connected to the wall of your home. Because I cannot get the camera to release from the wall bracket, I cannot reset it. It seems there should be a better way of resetting your device than taking the entire camera system apart.

This is the worst home security camera and doorbell system we have ever owned. There is nothing intuitive about it. Initial setup is easy but God forbid you perform an update to your internet or wifi network because Arlo then requires you to deauthorize the systems one by one and perform the initial setup steps again which leads to hours of troubleshooting with incompetent customer support or a horrible AI. It completely lacks in amenities you’d want or hides them behind multi-step processes. Don’t want to be notified every single time your doorbell picks up motion? Too bad, you can only mute it for a maximum of 24 hours. Need customer or technical support? Welcome to Punjab-central where a chat conversation takes 5 minutes for each response, an hour just to get to the solutions side of things before you even start actually trouble shooting. Absolute trash.

I bought my first arlos and base station almost a decade ago (in 2018). When I first purchased my original Arlo cameras (which were more expensive than other cameras on the market), the company promised and advertised heavily on the fact that they had no subscriptions (and insinuated that that meant for the foreseeable future as well). I told all my family and friends to buy Arlo. They did. The cameras and base station cost way more than I had budgeted, but the capabilities etc at the time were great - for having no subscription. I continued buying updated Arlo cameras and base stations. Then a few years ago, Arlo’s sales tactics and camera systems completely changed - if I didn’t pay for their new subscription, the most important capabilities of I bought my first arlos and base station almost a decade ago (in 2018). When I first purchased my original Arlo cameras (which were more expensive than other cameras on the market that had subscriptions), the company promised and advertised heavily on the fact that they had no subscriptions (and insinuated that that meant for the foreseeable future as well). I told all my family and friends to buy Arlo. The cameras and system cost way more than I had budgeted, but the capabilities etc at the time were great - for having no subscription. Then a few years ago, the whole company, Arlo’s sales tactics and camera systems changed - if I didn’t pay for their new subscription, the most important capabilities in my Arlo cameras were taken away. By the time Arlo introduced subscriptions to get features that used to be free, I had already invested several thousand dollars into their products. They could have offered original (longtime) customers like myself (still using original cameras sold to me without necessary subscriptions for them to be useful) some kind of benefit, longer free trial period, or maybe even camera replacements or discounts of some kind regarding the subscription. But instead, Arlo essentially just took away my most useful and essential security camera capabilities overnight (no recordings, no local storage options, limited number of cameras etc). Without the subscription, I had only notifications and live view camera capabilities. I justified the higher camera prices when I first bought my Arlo cameras in 2018 because of their “no subscription advertising.” It was an extremely unethical business practice. My cameras became pretty much useless overnight - live recordings (no subscription) is not why anyone buys security camera systems. I’ll never buy anything from Arlo again. Your company bait and switched me. ducts. They could have offered original (longtime) customers like myself (still using original cameras sold to me without necessary subscriptions for them to be useful) some kind of benefit, longer free trial period, or maybe even camera replacements or discounts of some kind regarding the subscription. But instead, Arlo essentially just took away the features that made me invest in their security cameras in the first place. Without the subscription, I only got notifications of motion detections and live view camera capabilities - they were in my opinion useless. I justified the higher camera prices when I first bought my Arlo cameras in 2018 because of their “no subscription advertising.” I’ll never buy anything from Arlo again and I don’t think anyone should trust a company that does a bait and switch on its longtime customers.

Sincerely regret buying this brand. Cameras are stated having 4K recording but they only record in 1080p. Customer service is non existent, the only reason I get for the issue is "sorry". Steer clear!

They used to be quite good, but have got steadily worse over the years. My neighbour was burgled and asked if my cameras caught anyone on my property, when I checked I found I had NO footage from the last month - Arlo had remotely removed my own routines and also remotely set my cameras to NOT record. Basically they remotely switched off EVERYTHING the cameras are there to do, and still billed me for my subscription. If it happens again I will bite the bullet and replace them with ANYONE but Arlo. Absolutely terrible solution, I’m staggered that they think they can do this. Also the motion detection is terribly inconsistent - it’s great at recording things you don’t care about but misses important events. Avoid wasting your money on these - I’ve had mine 7 years or so and the service is getting steadily worse; I was forced to pay for a subscription although the promise at the time was that none would be needed (and wasn’t for the first few years). As others point out you can’t view local recordings via the app - appalling solution. At this rate I predict they’ll be out of business soon when they have no customers left.

Customer service reps dont know their products. I asked from week 2 to return cameras and they kept having me try the same troubleshooting methods. Finally escalated to engineering where I was supposed to be contacted within 48 hours. Still waiting-2 months. Then told at 31 days it was too late to return. Filed an appeal for the doorbell camera as that is the one that wouldn’t stay connected despite updating router and adding WiFi extender.. was told I would be refunded for that camera but still haven’t been-waiting 2 months. Monthly plan very expensive so I didn’t take that. I replaced the doorbell with a tplink camera and it functions perfectly. So I replaced another camera with a tplink and working perfectly. The whole experience with Arlo was very dissatisfying and I spent hours on the phone with support with no resolution. Stay away from this company!