topic Re: You have real bug with battery life counter. Or bad battery? in Arlo Essential Wire-Free Cameras

You have real bug with battery life counter. Or bad battery?

ROL-X — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 20:55:55 GMT

Hello.

Here is what I noticed today.

On one of my cameras Battery level dropped from 73% to 13% in last 4 hours. Start continuously receiving notifications about low battery level.

Last charged about a 2 weeks ago and as normal operation dropped to 73% within 2 weeks, looks normal.

More details if you needed. Camera is disarmed all day today. No detections, Wi-Fi in range of 15-20 ft, full bars, strong signal.

That not a first time. I have a 3-pack cameras. Had same issue on another camera before didn't noticed as a bug, just charged again. That camera still keep ~60% since last recharge over 1 month.

Maybe is a bug in firmware or any other things that calculate charge level. Or something really load a camera that discharge a battery really fast.

Re: You have real bug with battery life counter. Or bad battery?

ROL-X — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 21:18:08 GMT

While I'm create this post battery level is dropped from 13% to 8% in 30 minutes.

Look like camera will shut down in next hour.

You have to add Reboot action in your app to rebooting camera and restore normal operation in case if it's lagging or if something going wrong.

Re: You have real bug with battery life counter. Or bad battery?

StephenB — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 12:10:26 GMT

How much video streaming is the camera doing (approx minutes per day)? Note that if you have activity zones enabled, you need to disable them to see this - the cloud supresses video that is out of the zone.

Also, are there any signs of lost connections (failure to live stream for instance)? Restoring dropped connections can take a lot of power.

If those are ruled out, then it could certainly be a bad battery on this particular camera. So you could contact support (using the support link at the top right of the forum page).

@ROL-X wrote:

While I'm create this post battery level is dropped from 13% to 8% in 30 minutes.

FWIW, most devices are looking at the output voltage to estimate battery charge. When the battery is nearly full, this drops very slowly, but then drops very sharply as the battery approaches empty - so it isn't very accurate when the charge level is low. The voltage also depends on temperature, so if the ambient temp is changing, that might effect the estimate.

Re: You have real bug with battery life counter. Or bad battery?

ROL-X — Wed, 11 Aug 2021 15:53:41 GMT

Hello. The camera doing approx. 10-15 motion detections per day. (My dog on backyard) and 1 activity zone. Almost full screen coverage, just avoided neighbors activity (not many).

Signal and connection is excellent. Never noticed a lost of signal. Except that day when camera had a troubles. Since i start getting messages about low battery level I can't start live stream on camera. Once I click a play button on camera, app shows me camera is offline and then restore connection immediately.

How i said camera is completely drain battery and down within an hour.

It's already recharged and running good so far.

For me it's looks like an software bug is overload camera and drain battery.

There is suggestion to add Reboot Option to camera software.

Another thing is continuous notifications about this. All over I'm received more than 200 emails and notifications on my phone. App was updated to latest version.

Fix it. I don't think i need get a notification every second about my low battery.

Thanks.

Re: You have real bug with battery life counter. Or bad battery?

suzeo99 — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 14:20:58 GMT

Chiming in to say I have the same bug with the same behavior with two cameras that started immediately after a firmware update (I charged them and update firmware on different days and the second one was fine until I also charged and updated its firmware). Please roll back the firmware ARLO.

Re: You have real bug with battery life counter. Or bad battery?

anders1701 — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 16:18:07 GMT

I've also had this happen to me overnight. Drop from around 80% to 13%. The camera lost its connection, which I assumed was the cause of the huge battery loss, but perhaps not?

I reset the closest (~2 meters away) WiFi mesh station and then maybe an hour or two later the camera reconnected. At that point I got spammed with 50+ low battery warnings both on email and app. Only stopped after I rebooted camera.

The camera is only a couple of months old.

Re: You have real bug with battery life counter. Or bad battery?

Triumphs — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 08:32:20 GMT

Thats also happened to my camera. Also losing WiFi connection and in the middle of the night every 10 sec notifications. I charged the camera, syced it and after a day (less than 24 hours) I did get notification that the battery was 13%. Charged it again could get no more than 98% and this morning looked the app again and it was on 100%. Strange behavior. The camera was only on during the night. From 01.00 until 8.50. ANd my camera is only 1.5 moths old.

Re: You have real bug with battery life counter. Or bad battery?

JamesC — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 17:41:05 GMT

Two new firmware updates were just released for Arlo Essential and Arlo Essential Spotlight Cameras.

Please test again now that these releases are available and let me know if you're still experiencing the same issue.

JamesC

Re: You have real bug with battery life counter. Or bad battery?

Triumphs — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 20:19:11 GMT

It seems for now ok in 1 day battery from 100% to 99%. Just fingers crossed.

What is strange I looked what firmware and search for the firmaware today. And the are the same. Does the camera auto load new firmware?

Re: You have real bug with battery life counter. Or bad battery?

JamesC — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 20:36:12 GMT

Triumphs,

Yes. Firmware updates are automatic.

JamesC

Re: You have real bug with battery life counter. Or bad battery?

anders1701 — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 20:38:56 GMT

What firmware version(s) should we be looking for please? Will it install automatically if the battery is low?

Mine shows 1.090.27.0_8_620e159

Re: You have real bug with battery life counter. Or bad battery?

JamesC — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 20:46:08 GMT

anders1701,

Depending on your camera model, you can find the latest versions here: https://community.arlo.com/t5/Firmware-Release-Notes/bd-p/arlo-release-notes

If the battery is low, the update may not complete. You may need to leave your camera on the charger overnight to ensure the firmware update completes automatically.

JamesC

Re: You have real bug with battery life counter. Or bad battery?

anders1701 — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 21:42:36 GMT

Thanks, I'm still on the 2nd August version. Looks like I'm getting the ladder out.

Re: You have real bug with battery life counter. Or bad battery?

ROL-X — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 04:56:53 GMT

My Essential cameras seems ok.

Anyway. I have another 3 pack of Arlo pro 4.
Two days ago I got 2 of 3 cameras dropped to 13% almost at same time, around 2:00. Both cameras goes offline, and start sending low battery messages to app and email. More than 500 messages. In 1 hour.
I have no access to that cameras. To stop receiving messages i had to logoff from app, and wait until all cameras is dead. Of course cameras not working that time, no detections no recordings.

Main thing is not only essential cameras specific bug. Pro4 have same issue for sure. I didn’t start same topic in pro4 discussions just letting you know here.

Re: You have real bug with battery life counter. Or bad battery?

Triumphs — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 18:13:39 GMT

Again the camera is offline, 28 hours it was ok but now it is gone again.

Re: You have real bug with battery life counter. Or bad battery?

Triumphs — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 21:09:58 GMT

I am sorry it waas the Arlon wireless frontdoor/bel camera which is no offline. It is now above the other in lline in the app that was a little confusing

Re: You have real bug with battery life counter. Or bad battery?

anders1701 — Mon, 30 Aug 2021 18:01:48 GMT

Is there really no way to force the camera to check. When I tap on the firmware version it says "no updates available". Is that message just for show, or does my camera have another problem?

Re: You have real bug with battery life counter. Or bad battery?

StephenB — Mon, 30 Aug 2021 18:18:58 GMT

@anders1701 wrote:
Is there really no way to force the camera to check. When I tap on the firmware version it says "no updates available". Is that message just for show, or does my camera have another problem?

What firmware version are you seeing in device info?

Re: You have real bug with battery life counter. Or bad battery?

anders1701 — Mon, 30 Aug 2021 19:05:56 GMT

Hi, it shows 1.090.27.0_8_620e159
Thanks.

Re: You have real bug with battery life counter. Or bad battery?

StephenB — Mon, 30 Aug 2021 20:21:44 GMT

@anders1701 wrote:
it shows 1.090.27.0_8_620e159

Then you have the most recent firmware for the Essential Spotlight Camera (VMC2030). You can see the most recent firmware for every camera by looking here: https://community.arlo.com/t5/Firmware-Release-Notes/bd-p/arlo-release-notes. That post says that the firmware was released on 2 August 2021.