topic Re: Why does autoscan not work except in live view? Is this a future fix? in Arlo Essential Pan Tilt Indoor Camera

Why does autoscan not work except in live view? Is this a future fix?

BagmanAU — Sun, 26 Oct 2025 06:40:58 GMT

I purchased three internal tilt and pan cameras as they could scan my whole house while I was away. Only after installing them did I find that the cameras only work when being viewed live. This makes the cameras only slightly better than fixed cameras.

I also set up zones but that did not help any.

I did some researh on the web and it looks like this is by design. Have I missed something? If not will Arlo look at fixing the camera software to autoscan when I am away?

Many thanks.

Re: Why does autoscan not work except in live view? Is this a future fix?

jguerdat — Sun, 26 Oct 2025 14:20:23 GMT

Autoscan isn't always used, perhaps to prevent the camera/motor from overheating. I could also think scanning could impact motion detection.

Re: Why does autoscan not work except in live view? Is this a future fix?

StephenB — Sun, 26 Oct 2025 19:07:07 GMT

@jguerdat wrote:

Autoscan isn't always used, perhaps to prevent the camera/motor from overheating.

FWIW, I'd like the ability to schedule an autoscan recording periodically (perhaps once a day). I think it'd be a nice feature when I'm away.

I doubt that overheating is an issue here. But I do think that frequent camera motion would also require more frequent calibration - otherwise the preset positions will drift over time.

Re: Why does autoscan not work except in live view? Is this a future fix?

JamesC — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 18:01:21 GMT

Thank you for the suggestion. I will pass this feedback on to the development team for future consideration.

JamesC

Re: Why does autoscan not work except in live view? Is this a future fix?

BagmanAU — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 02:47:31 GMT

I was looking at this. A possible solution would be to add this to Automations. Using 'Customise Device' and 'Motion Detection', an option could be added for Pan and Tilt cameras that allows a position to be selected first and then for motion detection to be started. This would also allow for motion detection to be stopped while changing positions, and then to start Motion detection again.

Just a thought

Re: Why does autoscan not work except in live view? Is this a future fix?

StephenB — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 12:44:57 GMT

@BagmanAU wrote:

I was looking at this. A possible solution would be to add this to Automations. Using 'Customise Device' and 'Motion Detection', an option could be added for Pan and Tilt cameras that allows a position to be selected first and then for motion detection to be started. This would also allow for motion detection to be stopped while changing positions, and then to start Motion detection again.

Selecting the camera position on schedule might be useful for other reasons, but I don't see how it creates an autoscan recording.

I guess if you could set the position, you could create a routine that selected one of the presets and then made a recording. Then repeat that at different times for each preset. That would have a similar effect, but the setup would have a lot of friction.

Sort of related - one thing I wish Arlo supported was automatically making a recording (video or snapshot) at a regular cadence (for example, every hour). You can easily do once a day, but more frequently requires a lot of routines.