topic Re: Your Arlo device appears offline in Arlo

Your Arlo device appears offline

cengle — Wed, 12 Oct 2016 16:22:33 GMT

Your Arlo device appears offline. Please make sure it is powered on and connected to the Internet. Well it is and this keeps happening. i can reboot the station and a camera may come back, but not all. UI have removed the cameras and re-synced them and they work for a few hours and then i am stuck with the same message.

Your Arlo device appears offline

Please make sure it is powered on and connected to the Internet.

I noticed that i cannot find a way to chat with anyone from netgear customer support also.

Re: Your Arlo device appears offline

kimbers4 — Wed, 12 Oct 2016 18:59:49 GMT

This is my issue as well. three of my cameras are now offline and they will not sync with the base.

How do I get them back online.

Thanks.

Re: Your Arlo device appears offline

mercorelli — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 17:25:57 GMT

I am experiencing the same issue.

Re: Your Arlo device appears offline

jguerdat — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 21:55:22 GMT

Restart the base using the power button. Check the LEDs on the base - should be 3 green ones. Make sure batteries are good. Try syncing by pressing the sync button on the base briefly (<1 second). If no go, you may need to reset the base, remove all devices from Settings, My Devices and use the Add Device button on the Devices tab to add the base and sync the cameras.

Re: Your Arlo device appears offline

cengle — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 23:41:33 GMT

Yes, thats exactly what i have been doing. the cameras work for a little bit after that, but eventually return with the same error message. somthing with the Arlo system or a firmware update has caused this.

Re: Your Arlo device appears offline

defygravity — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 01:52:59 GMT

Same issue here. Just left for a trip and the base no longer connects to the iOS app. Had a friend reset the base for me and the cameras will not maintain a connection.

Re: Your Arlo device appears offline

stratos — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 11:38:26 GMT

Same problem. Had two offline, rebooted the base and one came back. Today rebooted the base to fix one and after the reboot the one offline came online and another camera went offline.

Re: Your Arlo device appears offline

jguerdat — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 12:39:00 GMT

If the reset isn't helping, open a case with support using the Contact Support link at the bottom of these pages.

Re: Your Arlo device appears offline

cengle — Sat, 15 Oct 2016 01:26:05 GMT

I have a case open and so far I have not recieved any support that i have not already tried. My cameras have been working okay for the last 48 hours, but not as good as they once did.

Re: Your Arlo device appears offline

jguerdat — Sat, 15 Oct 2016 13:21:04 GMT

What kind of WiFi signal level is being shown in Settings, My Devices, your cameras? Weak signal or interference from othe 2.4GHz wireless devices may be a factor. Is the battery life about the same as others? If it's worse, that can also point to the WiFi issues.

Re: Your Arlo device appears offline

akebkake — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 13:37:00 GMT

I have experienced same problem with both my cameras.

Fresh batteries, restarted base several times, strong wifi signal on both. Made sure I have latest firmware as well.

Works for some time, then keep falling out. Is it something with the latest firmware updates?

Re: Your Arlo device appears offline

jguerdat — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 13:42:44 GMT

PITA, but it may be worth resetting the base, removing all devices in Settings, My Devices and starting over again using the Add Device button on the Devices tab. Support would have you do this anyways.

Re: Your Arlo device appears offline

akebkake — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 13:46:02 GMT

Thanks jguerdat,

I tried that too, two times - just keep falling out after a couple of days.

Re: Your Arlo device appears offline

jguerdat — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 13:49:14 GMT

You're left with one option that I see - contact support. You may have bad hardware.

Re: Your Arlo device appears offline

kimbers4 — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 16:11:16 GMT

I have six cameras, three are now offline. Took a few months for each but the other three are still working perfectly. The three offline will not reconnect to the base.

is it possible for a camera to just go bad and not work.

Re: Your Arlo device appears offline

jguerdat — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 19:20:03 GMT

Certainly can be bad hardware but try removing those cameras from Settings, My Devices followed by opening and closing the battery doors, finishing with a resync. Be sure to only press the base sync button briefly - don't hold it. It could also be that the base nneds to be power cycled so do that first. There's always a possibility that resetting the base, removing all devices and starting fresh may be necessary.

Re: Your Arlo device appears offline

Berit — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 18:17:53 GMT

Same thing here but mine happened after I changed batteries. Also my batteries that had been lasting 4 months drained within 4 weeks. Is all of this related to the firmware update?

Re: Your Arlo device appears offline

Target_Acquired — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 18:31:30 GMT

I am having the same problem. I have 11 cameras, and only two of them are working. I am not happy at all. I have reset the base and I have resynchronize the cameras.

Re: Your Arlo device appears offline

Target_Acquired — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 22:01:18 GMT

Hah, I figured it out and it's SO simple!

The cameras that are offline are simply hosed up and can't work because they need a firmware update.

So here's what you do:

First rule. Don't panic.

Second rule. DO NOT "delete" or "remove" any cameras from your base station. That'll just screw things up.

Here are the steps to follow:

1. Open the Arlo app. Make sure your adobe flash plugin isn't dodgy in your browser, because the web app uses flash. Yeah, I know; the product is obsolete out of the box. Take that up with Netgear, willya?

2. Pick a camera that won't come online. Ensure the following:

-- 2a. It has fresh batteries. Really, these things won't sync if the batteries are low.

-- 2b. Keep the camera within 3 feet (1 meter) of the base station.

-- 2c. Perform the normal sync process (3 below).

3. Again, do NOT delete the camera from your system; that's just not necessary! Instead, follow the normal sync procedure:

-- 3a. Press and hold sync on the base station. Get flashing green light.

-- 3b. Press and hold sync button on the stubborn camera. Get flashing blue light.

-- 3c. They'll sync. Should be fairly fast.

4. You're probably not done yet. Log on to your account in the Arlo app in your desktop web browser (I have no idea if the mobile app works the same; maybe somebody can test it and report here).

5. In the Arlo App, go to Settings/My Devices.

6. Your stubborn camera should be connected now and if it needs a firmware update, it will probably have a red triangle ! icon next to it. Click it.

7. Next to the "Device Info" row near the bottom of the screen, you'll probably see "Update available". Note the firmware release (that's the camera's currently-loaded firmware) and click it.

8. Now you'll see an indicator saying the new version of firmwar that's available. At this writing, the new version is 1.2.7730. Click it and confirm the firmware update. Note: You must do this. There is NO other way to get your camera working again.

9. The camera will take about 2-3 minutes and there'll be a lot of excited light-flashing on the camera. Let it run. Don't move the camera out of range from the base station. Don't try doing more than one camera at a time. Don't do ANYTHING while the firmware update runs, or you'll brick your camera.

10. When the firmware update is done, the camera may need a little cajoling to rejoin the family inside of the Arlo application. Or it may come right back online without any complaints. You can try a "live view" from the devices tab. If that doesn't work, or if the camera takes excessively long to show a live view, you might try going into the settings for that camera and try using the zoom or video test settings. I've had a couple of cameras that seemed to jump right back into the family after I played around with them in the settings.

Root Cause:

Here are the possible root causes for cameras going offline like this.

* Camera's batterys were dead when a camera firmware update came through. 4 of my cameras had the most current updates, but 7 did not. 2 of the cameras needing firmware had dead batteries, but some needed firmware and did not have dead batteries. One little outlier had dead batteries but it looks like that little guy had been able to get the firmware update without trouble, probably a few days before the batteries died.

* Some other problem prevented the camera firmware update from coming through to all cameras in a timely fashion. Too far from the base station, Halloween spirits blocking the transmission path, they smelled somebody cooking steak and went on strike out of jealousy, who knows. Then a later base-station firmware update came along and broke the backleveled cameras. Ouch.

It's all conjecture at this point, but so far my cameras seem to be online. I'll keep an eye on them in the coming days, but in the meantime I guess this technology needs more hand-holding and technical understanding than originally expected.

I hope this helps at least some of you.

Re: Your Arlo device appears offline

Target_Acquired — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 23:31:45 GMT

Okay, an update:

I've had a couple of cameras decide to go offline again, but I was able to re-sync them with the base station. Not sure why they're doing that. Maybe one of these firmware updates messed up with the communications.

I've moved my base unit a bit farther from my wall. We'll see how it goes. If necessary, I'll get a really long LAN cable and set the unit about 8 feet up in the air and even further away from the exterior wall (all concrete in my part of the country).