topic Cameras do not indicate they are turned off in Chrome in Arlo Pro 4

Cameras do not indicate they are turned off in Chrome

ScotCamera — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 04:18:22 GMT

If I turn a camera off through the Arlo app on my iPhone 8, it doesn't show that its off in Chrome on my iMac. In fact, when I try to play the camera in Chrome, I get a "The privacy settings do not allow streaming" message. If I go back to my iPhone and turn the camera on, it seems to work as expected in Chrome.

Why is this behavior happing when everything was working fine a couple of weeks ago?

I have the latest OS updates and Arlo app updates.

Re: Cameras do not indicate they are turned off in Chrome

Dannybear — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 06:35:26 GMT

There is a issue with the arlo web portal not updating the local storage cookies in your browser so you will get incorrect status until you delete the browser cookies. You will need to do this each time you want to login to arlo.

To prove this open a incognito window mode in chrome, go to the arlo web portal.

The error message your getting when your trying to live view with a camera turned off is expected. If the portal was working correctly you would see the camera turned off and so would not be allowed to live view it.

Re: Cameras do not indicate they are turned off in Chrome

ScotCamera — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 19:21:06 GMT

The same behavior occurs in incognito mode as well so it seems to be more than just a storage cookie issue. This behavior also occurs in Private Window mode in Safari too.

Re: Cameras do not indicate they are turned off in Chrome

StephenB — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 19:37:00 GMT

@ScotCamera wrote:

The same behavior occurs in incognito mode as well so it seems to be more than just a storage cookie issue. This behavior also occurs in Private Window mode in Safari too.

Yeah, I agree.

Do you have another PC or Mac that you can check this with?

Re: Cameras do not indicate they are turned off in Chrome

ScotCamera — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 21:33:42 GMT

Same behavior with Windows 10 Home edition using Edge. First time I used the web portal on this Windows machine so I can say almost with certainty that this is not a browser cookie or caching issue.

Re: Cameras do not indicate they are turned off in Chrome

Dannybear — Sat, 03 Sep 2022 00:40:12 GMT

I can duplicate the issue on three browsers,

turn off camera, logout, login again and camera shows normal. Live stream camera says privacy mode error, go to camera settings camera says on, toggle off then back on, return to device page and can now live stream ok. Logout and login again and can live stream again ok. Repeatable.

Of note is that the camera did die once during the testing requiring a battery reset.

Re: Cameras do not indicate they are turned off in Chrome

StephenB — Sat, 03 Sep 2022 00:55:38 GMT

@Dannybear wrote:

I can duplicate the issue on three browsers,

turn off camera, logout, login again and camera shows normal. Live stream camera says privacy mode error, go to camera settings camera says on, toggle off then back on, return to device page and can now live stream ok. Logout and login again and can live stream again ok. Repeatable.

Of note is that the camera did die once during the testing requiring a battery reset.

Interesting - tagging @JamesC and @ShayneS so they can pass this info onto to development.

I guess the workaround would be just to toggle the camera off/on from the browser when the privacy mode error occurs.

Re: Cameras do not indicate they are turned off in Chrome

ScotCamera — Sat, 03 Sep 2022 03:43:36 GMT

Now all of sudden two of my Arlo 4 cameras will not stream live from my iPhone 8 but stream from Chrome. I feel like Arlo is doing some testing on their end with their production site and not their development site (maybe they don't have a development site and this is why all these bugs keep occurring). I'm glad I don't rely on these for my business!

Re: Cameras do not indicate they are turned off in Chrome

Dannybear — Sat, 03 Sep 2022 04:07:20 GMT

Yeah. Noticed the web browser workarounds no longer get around the issue. Incognito/private and clearing cookies etc no longer working anymore.

maybe it is the end of the website.

Re: Cameras do not indicate they are turned off in Chrome

ScotCamera — Sat, 03 Sep 2022 04:37:54 GMT

Killing the web portal probably wouldn't be the worst thing. It would be the final straw for me with Arlo and force me stop my subscription. I keeping saying I'm going to do this but find it hard since I've invested so much money in the equipment so far.

I should have listened to my friend's advice and invested in a wired security camera that has better capabilities in the beginning.

Re: Cameras do not indicate they are turned off in Chrome

ralfyguy1 — Sun, 04 Sep 2022 17:41:18 GMT

What would be the point of killing the web portal? That would be as stupid as it gets! Not everyone is glued to the cell phone 24/7!

Re: Cameras do not indicate they are turned off in Chrome

Dannybear — Sun, 04 Sep 2022 21:19:40 GMT

The comment about the web portal is based on the difficulty arlo is having getting it sorted.

I imagine it is managed by a third party service agreement which may default thus risking continuing operations.