topic Re: Conflicting status updates in Arlo Secure

Conflicting status updates

Edinburgh_lad1 — Sat, 01 Mar 2025 16:32:43 GMT

Re: Conflicting status updates

StephenB — Sat, 01 Mar 2025 17:32:24 GMT

@Edinburgh_lad1 wrote:

This doesn't look conflicting to me. I think they are trying to make the distinction between "off" and "offline" very clear.

Re: Conflicting status updates

alex_loo — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 07:14:58 GMT

@StephenB wrote:
@Edinburgh_lad1 wrote:

This doesn't look conflicting to me. I think they are trying to make the distinction between "off" and "offline" very clear.

I don't understand. Why can you see the pic (since you replied), while I still can't here?

Alex

Re: Conflicting status updates

Edinburgh_lad1 — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 09:29:44 GMT

So, it's nothing to do whether it's armed or not, since that message is always there. Idle implies 'not working' and so 'not armed', 'not detecting motion' - how very confusing, hence my post.

Re: Conflicting status updates

StephenB — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 12:50:58 GMT

@alex_loo wrote: I don't understand. Why can you see the pic (since you replied), while I still can't here?

Superusers see images that that are still pending mod approval. We can also approve them. (This is the only forum privilege we have btw). That does off-load the mods (particularly on weekends). But the challenge is that we can't easily tell that an image is pending approval.

Thx for replying - I just approved this image (and several others).

Re: Conflicting status updates

StephenB — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 12:52:01 GMT

@Edinburgh_lad1 wrote:

So, it's nothing to do whether it's armed or not, since that message is always there. Idle implies 'not working' and so 'not armed', 'not detecting motion' - how very confusing, hence my post.

The message should only be shown when the camera is turned off in the device settings.

Re: Conflicting status updates

alex_loo — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 21:58:32 GMT

@Edinburgh_lad1 wrote:

the battery status showing a plug is new to me. Is this the latest 5.5.4? Does this mean the ultra 2 being charged?

Alex (still with 5.4.2)

Re: Conflicting status updates

Edinburgh_lad1 — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 21:38:05 GMT

Camera attached to a power supply.

Re: Conflicting status updates

alex_loo — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 22:26:01 GMT

So this is what my ultra 2 is showing, when it's attached to power supply (wall charger + arlo USB magnetic cable)

is your plug the same as my battery icon with a flash? (ie the different icons due to your different app version number?)

Alex

Re: Conflicting status updates

Edinburgh_lad1 — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 07:59:41 GMT

Mine doesn't have the battery in. Just the power supply. There is no point having the battery in in this case, for if there is no power to the smart hub as a result of a power cut, videos won't upload.

Re: Conflicting status updates

alex_loo — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 12:16:51 GMT

@Edinburgh_lad1 wrote:
Mine doesn't have the battery in. Just the power supply. There is no point having the battery in in this case, for if there is no power to the smart hub as a result of a power cut, videos won't upload.

I see. I just never thought about running ultra 2 without battery. That's a good point.

Alex

Re: Conflicting status updates

StephenB — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 12:34:41 GMT

@Edinburgh_lad1 wrote:

Mine doesn't have the battery in. Just the power supply. There is no point having the battery in in this case, for if there is no power to the smart hub as a result of a power cut, videos won't upload.

FWIW, your camera does appear to be turned off in your screenshot.

It is interesting that Arlo shows the plug icon when the battery isn't installed. I leave the batteries in myself (though I also have UPS protection on some bases and my router).

Re: Conflicting status updates

Edinburgh_lad1 — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 14:02:01 GMT

That's the whole point of my post, @StephenB it's switched off, i.e. disabled, yet it shows as idle. Idle to me suggests not picking up motion, i.e. not armed, but switched on and available for picking up motion.

Re: Conflicting status updates

StephenB — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 14:41:30 GMT

@Edinburgh_lad1 wrote:

That's the whole point of my post, @StephenB it's switched off, i.e. disabled, yet it shows as idle. Idle to me suggests not picking up motion, i.e. not armed, but switched on and available for picking up motion.

They are distinguishing "offline" from "off". What text do you think would make that difference clear?

Re: Conflicting status updates

Edinburgh_lad1 — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 01:04:17 GMT

That's precisely for Arlo to work out! It's not clear to me, that's for sure.

I ain't doing the job for them in this area, too. I'm already providing enough feedback for them to fix their wretched app, which, according to CEO in his last quarterly statement, is award winning.

Re: Conflicting status updates

alex_loo — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 02:00:17 GMT

I agree that the use of wording "idle but available", together with turned ON/OFF and enabled/disabled ---- is simply super confusing.

Alex

Re: Conflicting status updates

StephenB — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 13:06:23 GMT

@alex_loo wrote:

I agree that the use of wording "idle but available", together with turned ON/OFF and enabled/disabled ---- is simply super confusing.

Yes, but proposing better text could be helpful to them.

Going with "enabled/disabled" instead of "on/off" wouldn't help, since the difference between "enabled" and "armed" (and "disabled" and "disarmed") would IMO be even more confusing.

I think "idle/active" has a similar problem, as a lot of people would think "active" and "armed" are the same thing.

I am wondering if the best solution is to just change "offline" to something else. They could maybe change that to "inaccessible"???

Re: Conflicting status updates

alex_loo — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 13:24:40 GMT

@StephenB wrote:
@alex_loo wrote:
I agree that the use of wording "idle but available", together with turned ON/OFF and enabled/disabled ---- is simply super confusing.

Yes, but proposing better text could be helpful to them.

Going with "enabled/disabled" instead of "on/off" wouldn't help, since the difference between "enabled" and "armed" (and "disabled" and "disarmed") would IMO be even more confusing.

I think "idle/active" has a similar problem, as a lot of people would think "active" and "armed" are the same thing.

I am wondering if the best solution is to just change "offline" to something else. They could maybe change that to "inaccessible"???

to be honest, "inaccessible" is even worse haha.

I'd expect layman wordings used. Consistently used with no other "similar" wordings to add confusion.

I'd suggest using ONLY the following:

(camera is) network online/offine
(camera is) powered on/off (dunno if the use case can even happen, in case cloud/hub dunno if a camera is dead without power)
(camera is) ARMing/Standing-by

Alex

Re: Conflicting status updates

StephenB — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 13:42:33 GMT

@alex_loo wrote:

I'd expect layman wordings used. Consistently used with no other "similar" wordings to add confusion.

I'd suggest using ONLY the following:

(camera is) network online/offine

(camera is) powered on/off (dunno if the use case can even happen, in case cloud/hub dunno if a camera is dead without power)

(camera is) ARMing/Standing-by

Doesn't quite work for me.

IMO using "network offline" is a problem because the network often isn't the problem. Changing "on/off" to "powered on/powered off" is also problematic, as a camera that is actually without power shows up as "offline".

I get the challenge with the word salad, but if we can't think of anything better, then Arlo won't either.

Maybe use "unreachable" instead of "inaccessible"? Since in general the cause isn't known (camera could be out of power, network could be down, camera could be stolen,...), I think you'd need a word that doesn't imply a particular cause.