topic Camera goes offline regularly and batteries drain in Arlo

Camera goes offline regularly and batteries drain

Arloschmarlo82 — Sat, 20 Jan 2018 12:31:02 GMT

I've had this Arlo system with 4 wireless cameras for about 18 months. 3 of the cameras work fine, one is unreliable and frequently goes offline with battery draining very quickl despite no video being taken. The frequency of failure has increased over time. Now, I get 1 day of usage, it goes offline, I reset and then 8% battery usage. This would seem to be a hardware issue that has been present with this particular camera since day 1; it has now exacerbated so it is now unusable.

The camera is not far from the base station (in fact, nearer than the others) and has no events on it - my library is empty so it is not actually doing anything, excepting eating batteries and failing.

How can I get this camera fixed or replaced? Is there a solution warranty/guarantee for cameras after 12 months or should we just expect a working life of 12 months?

Re: Camera goes offline regularly and batteries drain

brh — Sat, 20 Jan 2018 13:27:30 GMT

@Arloschmarlo82

Rapidly draining batteries is often a sign that the base is trying to constantly communicate with the camera and failing. It keeps repeating the communication attempts until the batteries finally drain down.

I am assuming that you are having to change the batteries quite often which means that every time you change the batteries you must resync the camera to the base.

It has been noted elsewhere that sometimes one of the batteries will not seat properly forcing the camera to work with two batteries instead of four which cuts the useful life to be cut in half. Try to change the batteries and drop them in letting gravity seat them. Then close the lid letting the lid exert the force to properly seat the batteries.

Secondly, try swapping the camera with one where the batteries are lasting longer and see if the problems follows or not.

I don't think the warranty lasts longer than 12 months.

Brian

Re: Camera goes offline regularly and batteries drain

JPav80 — Sat, 20 Jan 2018 19:36:37 GMT

Your issue has some similarities to my issue and it doesn't have anything to do with signal strength. What time of day does your camera go offline and when it does have you checked the IR LEDs when you go to retrieve it. Mine would be stuck on while offline which drained the battery until it died. Mine has something to do with temperature, nightfall, and connecting to a solar panel. I have swapped locations with another camera and haven't had issues since but I believe the one camera is bad. Have you tried swapping locations to see the issue follow the camera?

Re: Camera goes offline regularly and batteries drain

steve_t — Sun, 21 Jan 2018 00:15:45 GMT

Agree that the batteries are probably draining because the camera has lost communication with the base

1. Swap locations with another camera that works well

2. Move the base station a few feet further away from your wifi router as there may be interference

Re: Camera goes offline regularly and batteries drain

Liz8811 — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 22:42:09 GMT

I am having the exact same issue. The problem is not signal strength as it's the 2nd and 3rd closest cameras to the base station, out of 5. The signal strength is medium, and better than other cameras that aren't having this issue. I have gone through atleast 6 sets (48 = $68) of batteries (expensive!) so it's not the batteries as they've clearly been switched out plenty.... It's not the location as I've moved these cameras around to different posts and the same two always have this issue. They suddenly go offline, and if I don't catch it immediately (within 24 hours), they drain the batteries down from 90% to zero within a day or two.

Re: Camera goes offline regularly and batteries drain

JamesC — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 17:17:39 GMT

Liz8811,

Please contact the Arlo Support Team to further investigate this issue. You will find several options for contacting support in the provided link. If you have any additional questions/concerns feel free to private message me. I would be happy to help.

JamesC

Re: Camera goes offline regularly and batteries drain

shiftbit — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 02:46:45 GMT

Im having the exact same issue and found this thread. Im not sure of the suggestions discussed is going to solve my problem. Have 3 cameras and 2 of them seem to do the same sort of thing. They go offline and batteries dead. Replace the batteries (have done this twice now) and in a few days they are offline and batteries dead again.

Re: Camera goes offline regularly and batteries drain

kwongke — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 19:24:01 GMT

Hi there.

Was there a solution to this problem. I have the exact same problem described. I've attempted all recommendation, but still the same issue exists.

Re: Camera goes offline regularly and batteries drain

JamesC — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 15:38:53 GMT

kwongke,

If none of the troubleshooting above offered by brh and steve_t help resolve the issue, please contact the Arlo Support Team to further investigate. You will find several options for contacting support in the provided link. If you have any additional questions/concerns feel free to private message me. I would be happy to help.

JamesC