topic Re: Arlo Pro 2 Battery Life Is Draining Fast in Arlo Pro 2

Arlo Pro 2 Battery Life Is Draining Fast

chadrosenberg — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 16:47:06 GMT

I've read a bunch of posts regarding the battery life for the Arlo Pro 2 Wireless cameras. I've tried working with Arlo Support, but who I dealt with was amzingly arrogant. I was asked to run through about 5 hours worth of removing batteries, remove the device, charging & re-syncing. I was also asked to answer over 20 questions regarding my usage. It's a pretty awful experience.

Here's my issue. I charge my cameras about 5-6 hours each. They indicae 100% when charged, but by the next day they are down below 90%. The charge doesn't last more than a month & I'm forced to recharge them regularly. Has anyone experienced this & found a way to remedy so I can enjoy a longer battery life without constant maintenance?

Re Arlo Pro 2 Battery Life Is Draining Fast

Streak2 — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 16:47:31 GMT

My quieter cameras that record only a few recording a day last many many months.

My cameras that do about 30 or so 10s recordings a day last 2 to 3 months.

My cameras that pick up every car that goes by last a few weeks as expected.

Check your video quality vs battery life setting as well as the recording length. I make sure that all of mine are set to 10 seconds unless there are areas where I want recording until movement stops.

Having said all of this, I do know that the Arlo folks are aware of certain battery drain issues are working on updated firmware to help with this.

Re: Arlo Pro 2 Battery Life Is Draining Fast

EdRobinson — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 09:44:27 GMT

I purchased the camera about 5- 6 weeks ago. it was a big problem to get all 4 cameras to connect but I got there in the end. about 1 week ago all 4 batteries drained away. I recharged them to 100% but they only last 2 days and they are drained. I checked with my daughter who has the same system settings on her cameras but hers aren't draining! most puzzling

Re: Arlo Pro 2 Battery Life Is Draining Fast

AncientGeek — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 10:52:15 GMT

@EdRobinson wrote:

I purchased the camera about 5- 6 weeks ago. it was a big problem to get all 4 cameras to connect but I got there in the end. about 1 week ago all 4 batteries drained away. I recharged them to 100% but they only last 2 days and they are drained. I checked with my daughter who has the same system settings on her cameras but hers aren't draining! most puzzling

I have three Arlo Pro 2 cameras using an MR1100 LTE router as a base unit. One of them is draining battery really fast. The others are much more “normal”. I checked my firmware versions and they all have different versions. The camera that is really draining the battery fast (two or three days) has firmware version 1.125.11.4_29092. Ironically the other two cameras are running older versions of the firmware. 1.124.0.0_14570 and 1.125.8.0_19174

The camera that is draining fast is also seeing more motion, but I don’t think it is enough to account for the difference based on my experience with my 20+ other battery powered Arlo cameras. I’m going to swap the cameras today just be sure the battery doesn’t drain follows the camera and is truly not due to location and motion.

Re: Arlo Pro 2 Battery Life Is Draining Fast

EdRobinson — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 12:25:00 GMT

Thanks for the feedback. The Firmware that is on my cameras is 1.125.11.4-29092.

My daughter has a different one and she has no problems.

All the cameras drain at about the same rate including the one in a closed locked room with nil traffic.

Cheers Ed

Re: Arlo Pro 2 Battery Life Is Draining Fast

jguerdat — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 14:10:48 GMT

You have the same firmware as mine which is the latest. Is there any 2.4GHz wireless device near the base that could be interfering with the bas-camera signal? Have you tried moving the base away from the router?

Re: Arlo Pro 2 Battery Life Is Draining Fast

AncientGeek — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 14:21:41 GMT

@jguerdat wrote:

You have the same firmware as mine which is the latest. Is there any 2.4GHz wireless device near the base that could be interfering with the bas-camera signal? Have you tried moving the base away from the router?

I’m in a rental house for a few weeks and the MR1100 is definitely close to the router. The cameras all show full signal strength to the degree of precision we can see with only three bars. But, of course, signal strength doesn’t preclude interference, so that is a possibility. I’ll do a little WiFi survey here and if I can find a longer Network cable, I’ll see how much separation I can achieve.

Re: Arlo Pro 2 Battery Life Is Draining Fast

jguerdat — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 17:52:56 GMT

I was responding to Ed's comment but it would be interesting to see what happens for you, too.

An ongoing issue is the difference in firmware between a system with a base and one using the M1 since the camera firmware version is locked to the base/M1 firmware. If the M1 is using older firmware, so is the camera. However, I don't know that the camera firmware is necessarily the same as what might have been used previously. You might wanna check the Release Notes section here to compare camera firmware to anything that might be listed there and figure out how old it may (or may not) be.

Re: Arlo Pro 2 Battery Life Is Draining Fast

EdRobinson — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 09:20:18 GMT

I have the router about 3 meters from the base station connected by a long lan cable. I will try and see if I can get it further away. The perplexing this is it was all running ok until recently so somethings changed.

I contacted tech support who told me that they had never heard of such a problem. Their solution was to re boot everything. It took me 2 long frustrating days to get the cameras all to synced so I don't want to try that unless I have to!

Re: Arlo Pro 2 Battery Life Is Draining Fast

AncientGeek — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 14:09:15 GMT

My MR1100 was much closer to the router here. I moved it up on the top of the cabinet that contains the router and I think the battery that was draining the fastest is behaving better after the first 24 hours. I’ll know for sure in three or four days.

Re: Arlo Pro 2 Battery Life Is Draining Fast

jguerdat — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 14:27:59 GMT

@EdRobinson wrote:

I have the router about 3 meters from the base station connected by a long lan cable. I will try and see if I can get it further away. The perplexing this is it was all running ok until recently so somethings changed.

I contacted tech support who told me that they had never heard of such a problem. Their solution was to re boot everything. It took me 2 long frustrating days to get the cameras all to synced so I don't want to try that unless I have to!

Given your issues with all cameras, I suspect you either have a bad base or there's other 2.4GHz interference near the base. Can you physically move to base to a totally different location using a switch or WiFi/powerline extender?

Re: Arlo Pro 2 Battery Life Is Draining Fast

EdRobinson — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 10:01:36 GMT

Its now about 6 meters away and in the next room. Ill see how this works.

Re: Arlo Pro 2 Battery Life Is Draining Fast

EdRobinson — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 03:30:23 GMT

No good, it drains the batteries in 2 days no matter what the settings. I have the base set up in the next room about 6 meters from the modem. No change. I will try and re set everything and see how I go.

Re: Arlo Pro 2 Battery Life Is Draining Fast

AncientGeek — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 12:12:30 GMT

Update on my move: My move did make a big difference. Battery life improved dramatically. I also noted that the router was located between my “base” and the camera that exhibited the poor battery performance. By elevating the base, it now has a clear line (electronically, not visually) to the cameras.

Re: Arlo Pro 2 Battery Life Is Draining Fast

EdRobinson — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 12:25:01 GMT

What firmware are you using?

Im using 1.12.01-27940.

Re: Arlo Pro 2 Battery Life Is Draining Fast

AncientGeek — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 12:40:34 GMT

My “base” is a Netgear MR1100, so my firmware revision likely is unrelated to yours. Mine is 1.9.8.0_16666. My Pro 2 cameras are at three different firmware revisions for some reason.

The MR1100 is an LTE WiFi hotspot that also can be used as an Arlo base station. I use a wired backhaul, so I’m not using the LTE portion, I’m just using the MR1100 as a smaller and more portable Arlo base station for my “travel security camera kit”.

Re: Arlo Pro 2 Battery Life Is Draining Fast

prgArlo — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 15:28:54 GMT

Same issue here. In my case, it appears to be an issue with WIFI connectivity or the lack of it. I think it happens because the camera is constantly trying to connect to base, thus it works 24/7. This is the unit further away from base and the only one draining battery very fast (few days only). I tried to move the base to a different location but too limited by home main internet conection site and unfortunately, not much improvement to WIFI signal strength and draining continues. So, check WIFI signal to that unit, if poor, then try moving base much closer and see if improve. Other option is looking into a permanent power solution. Good luck!

Re: Arlo Pro 2 Battery Life Is Draining Fast

EdRobinson — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 08:20:31 GMT

Success! ( But will it last?)

I rebooted the main base and that seems to work. It stayed charged at 100% and I thought that it wasn't working this morning so I deliberately set it off.

I moved the base station back to its original position from before the troubles so I'll see how that effects it now.