topic Re: No option to enable camera? in Arlo Video Doorbell

Arlo doorbell now disabled and can't toggle it back on

sdmcgeown — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 18:21:59 GMT

Hi everyone,

I woke up this morning to discover that all my Arlo devices (3 cameras and a doorbell) were missing from my mobile app dashboard and no footage had been recorded overnight.

I think there must have been a firmware update that caused this as I certainly hadn't done anything on my side.

The three cameras that had been disabled were easy to re-enable: I toggled each one to ON in their respective device settings page.

However, the doorbell cannot be re-enabled in the same way - there is no toggle button at all on its device setting page. So it seems to be effectively permanently disabled and I have no way to change it!!

I am attaching some screenshots of the app to show the message about the doorbell and the absence of any toggle with which to correct it.

FWIW, I powered off the Arlo base station and the doorbell itself and nothing changed - still not working.

If anyone has encountered this and overcome it, please let me know how you did it!

Thanks!

Stephen

Wired Video Doorbell and Wire Free Video Doorbell Constantly Disabled every 24 hours

Luv4sams — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 13:29:29 GMT

I have a wired and wire-free video doorbell and have had them for a few years. They both worked flawlessly until recently. Every morning they are disabled and I have to remove them and readd them every day!

I also can't add them to my arlo security and put them on a schedule when they were there before.

Arlo said to unplug the base station to clear that out, I did and that worked for a day. I rebooted my router and we will see what that brings about but why are they constantly becoming disabled!

I have 3 cameras and 2 security lights and have no issues with these. We hooked up our old doorbell and they work so it isn't the wiring.

HELP this is frustrating and I basically have expensive ornament by my doors.

Re: Wired Video Doorbell and Wire Free Video Doorbell Constantly Disabled every 24 hours

jguerdat — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 13:31:34 GMT

Define "disabled" - turned off, offline or what? How are the doorbells connected - to your WiFi or base/hub?

Re: Wired Video Doorbell and Wire Free Video Doorbell Constantly Disabled every 24 hours

Luv4sams — Wed, 13 Sep 2023 12:17:35 GMT

It says "this device is currently disabled and will not respond to mode changes" - it is connect to my smart hub - no issues with cameras but again this morning the doorbells are disabled. I have to remove them and add them every morning. This is ridiculous.

Re: Wired Video Doorbell and Wire Free Video Doorbell Constantly Disabled every 24 hours

jguerdat — Wed, 13 Sep 2023 13:39:02 GMT

While you're not going to like this, my best suggestion is to remove the hub and any device connected to it and start fresh.

Re: Wired Video Doorbell and Wire Free Video Doorbell Constantly Disabled every 24 hours

Luv4sams — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 12:41:38 GMT

What? Remove everything and start from scratch OMG this can't be the only solution.

Re: Wired Video Doorbell and Wire Free Video Doorbell Constantly Disabled every 24 hours

jguerdat — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 12:57:55 GMT

It may not be the only solution but it may well be the fastest one. Which would you rather have - an hour or two to rebuild or days of try this and then that?

Re: Wired Video Doorbell and Wire Free Video Doorbell Constantly Disabled every 24 hours

Luv4sams — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 13:03:33 GMT

True. What Arlo chat is telling me doesn't work for longer than 24 hours.

So do I need to reset everything or just delete and readd?

Re: Wired Video Doorbell and Wire Free Video Doorbell Constantly Disabled every 24 hours

jguerdat — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 13:06:37 GMT

Delete the base and associated cameras. A reset shouldn't be needed but it doesn't hurt.

Re: Wired Video Doorbell and Wire Free Video Doorbell Constantly Disabled every 24 hours

Luv4sams — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 13:27:28 GMT

They told me to include my internet speed. I have a speed of 300 mbps.

Re: Wired Video Doorbell and Wire Free Video Doorbell Constantly Disabled every 24 hours

jguerdat — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 16:47:06 GMT

It's the upload speed that matters most. Although you state 300Mbps, which is likely download speed, the upload speed that would usually accompany that speed should be plenty sufficient. Just to be sure, measure with speedtest.net and let us know the results, all of them.

No option to enable camera?

Scouseyb123 — Sun, 24 Sep 2023 08:53:12 GMT

Hi, yesterday I got an error message to say my Arlo doorbell camera was disabled. I have no option to re-enable! Can anyone please help?

thankyou

Re: No option to enable camera?

jguerdat — Sun, 24 Sep 2023 13:26:00 GMT

Huh. The doorbells don't have a way to turn them on and off like any other camera so I'm at a loss.

WHich doorbell is this - wired or wireless? If the latter, try reinserting the battery. For the former, try turning the transformer power off and back on. You can also try rebooting your hub or router, depending on how it's connected. It's possible you may need to remove and reconnect the doorbell from your account.

Re: Arlo doorbell now disabled and can't toggle it back on

jsaus63304 — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 19:22:33 GMT

Mine is not working either. Cameras are fine and doorbell not connected. This has been a recurring problem for years. You are probably right about an update. Every time they fix something, they break something else. Usually it starts working in a few days. In the meantime, nothing seems to be a fix. Rinse and repeat. Sorry I bought this system

Re: Arlo doorbell now disabled and can't toggle it back on

sdmcgeown — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 19:31:07 GMT

Thanks anyway, I do hope it fixes itself. Sorry you are affected, too.

It makes me unable to trust Arlo if this kind of thing happens. Reliability is a fundamental part of any home monitoring/security system and I just don't feel like they take it seriously. 😞

Re: Arlo doorbell now disabled and can't toggle it back on

jguerdat — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 13:44:35 GMT

You can always check whether new firmware has been installed by comparing what you have installed to what's published here:

https://community.arlo.com/t5/Firmware-Release-Notes/bd-p/arlo-release-notes

There's frequently suggestions that an update caused the problem when no update actually occurred so checking is a good first step.

This issue has recently been reported here but doesn't seem to be widespread (my 18 devices are working fine, FWIW). A reboot of your hub and/or router may help as well as power-cycling the doorbell (for the transformer). I'll tag mods to see if they know of an issue. @JamesC , @ShayneS @BrookeN

Re: Arlo doorbell now disabled and can't toggle it back on

sdmcgeown — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 14:34:31 GMT

Thank you for the link, I saw that the firmware has been out for a while and probably not related to my issue. I take back my previous theory that it was a FW update that caused it (unless it was a newer firmware that didn't get applied properly and it went back to this older version and left it in an undetermined state). I can't think of what else it could be as I definitely didn't reconfigure anything in Arlo or on my wifi that could have prompted something like this. Everything on my home network is working fine.

This morning, I saw that the problem re-occurred. All 3 of my cameras were disabled and I had to re-enable them in their respective device settings page. The doorbell remains disabled and with no toggle on its device settings page for me to re-enable it. It's very frustrating!! Something seems to happen overnight that sets the system to this state. I'll try once more to power cycle everything but other than that, as a user, I'm out of options.

Re: Arlo doorbell now disabled and can't toggle it back on

jsaus63304 — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 19:14:29 GMT

As a follow up. I had reset the hub but only the cameras worked. I cut the power to the doorbell for about a minute and it has decided to work again. Perhaps you can try that. Maybe the same problem on the same day was just a coincidence.

Re: Arlo doorbell now disabled and can't toggle it back on

sdmcgeown — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 20:02:34 GMT

Funny, I had tried that before without success, then just now repeated it but this time:

I removed the doorbell device via the app and went through the entire process of adding it back, including the chime, using the setup wizard.

The base station detected it and it now appears again on my app and can see the live feed as before.

The cameras appear to be fine, too.

So, a bit of a pain but at least I have got it back. I just hope that tonight it doesn't disappear again! And if the support folks are reading this, hopefully they have a root cause and fix for it planned at some point. It shouldn't have to require physically removing power and going through the set up again. If I was away from home, I would have no way to fix it.

I am reluctant to state this is a solution - more of a workaround 🙂

Thank you for helping out.

Re: No option to enable camera?

jcaledun — Sat, 30 Sep 2023 14:54:25 GMT

I've got the same issue. After a recent update, most of my cameras were in this state. Can not get the doorbell to come back on. I've tried everything I can think. Pulled the batt, removed and re-added it to my app, and rebooted my entire network.

WTF Arlo?