Riley_S wrote

Hey  @John-Charleston,

 

this is specifically in regards to the fact that you are away from your home network. The clips from your SD card can take up quite a bit of room since they are the source files and not compressed like the live view. In order to prevent the App or your cameras from taking up your entire data plan, your camera's SD card footage can only be downloaded locally - meaning through Manual SD card removal or via a phone on your home Wi-Fi.

 

The cloud recordings option through Tapo Care should allow you to download while away from home, as this is stored on our servers, rather than your home network.

 

Thanks  @Riley_S 

That's a deal breaker for me.  I have another brand cameras and have no problem downloading stills and video when on another network.  The issue is that if someone breaks into my home when I'm not there, I can get an alert and download an image of the intruder at the time it's happening.  If the intruder takes the camera, I still have the image.  With this system I can't download an image/video and if the intruder just takes the camera, all is lost.  If that's how it is with Tapo, then it won't work for me.

It seems like it would be more user friendly to let me decide how much room I have on my phone or how much of my data plan it would use up. (none if I'm on wifi)  

This only leaves the option for a user to subscribe to the cloud service at X dollars per year. That would be more than I paid for the cameras themselves. 

If that's the only option, I'll just use these for outdoor wildlife cameras and buy another brand.