Doorbell does not ring; does not Chime

[RoamingNick]

I have a solid WiFi signal from a Base Station itself attached to a router that typically clocks ~600Mbps.  I have reinstalled the Doorbell and Chime from scratch (twice).  And yet still the Doorbell no longer calls my iOS phone (it did, for a few weeks).  Nor does it regularly/reliably call out to the associated Chime (which itself shows up as paired just fine to the Base Station).  Firmware & app all updated, regular reboots done, settings all correct.  Thoughts?  Thanks in advance.

[ShayneS]

Hi @RoamingNick

What version IOS are you running in your phone? does this occur on any other phones you may have? 

[RoamingNick]

iOS 12.4.

It does not ring on my wife's phone either (the other associated devicve).  And now the Chime has totally stopped working (it is syncronised with the Base Station, which itself is connected & has been rebooted).  

Given I disconnected my original doorbell in favour of this high-tech solution, now I have no doorbell.  Not ideal.

[ShayneS]

I tested my personal Arlo Doorbell with my Iphone 6s running IOS 12.4 & received a call. Does this occur over wifi & mobile data?

[RoamingNick]

Yes, the issue persists over both WiFi (>300Gbs so plenty fast enough, with strong signal from Base Station to Doorbell & Chime) and LTE.

[ShayneS]

Have you tried contacting customer support regarding this issue? I have attached the link here for you - Arlo Tech Support

[RoamingNick]

Yes - case ID 41013683.  No response from them as yet (though I logged it a week ago).

[ShayneS]

Hi @RoamingNick

I escalated your case & you will be contacted as soon as possible. I apologize for the inconvenience.

[RoamingNick]

Noted with thanks on this.

[RoamingNick]

So the latest update on this is... I spent an hour of my working day walking through with a helpful support agent all the steps I'd already taken (hard reset & repair) with the same result (worked OK for a while then both Doorbell & Chime stopped).  So how I have several hundred dollars of useless HW and no doorbell (as I removed my physical one).  I live in Singapore but purchased the item from Amazon so am being told I need to ship it back to the US for warranty support (despite there being a local agent).  Overall a rather unsatisfactory state of affairs, esp. given I have five Arlo cameras too thus can be considered a strong supporter of the brand.  But right now I wouldn't suggest anyone buy/use a Doorbell - just too buggy.

[brh]

@RoamingNick,

Have you tried doing a factory reset of the doorbell and chime? In the past when I have had various wierd problems with them doing that solved the problem.

Brian

[RoamingNick]

Thanks @brh, yes I have tried that twice now.   And in any case I'd not expect that I'd need to keep hard-resetting a product to make it work.  Additionally, unlike (say) a router where it's pretty obvious when it's not working OK, with these things you just don't know that it's stopped working... which is annoying.  You can't keep pressing your own doorbell daily to ensure its working, that's nuts.  Inside the app everything shows fine BTW.

[brh]

@RoamingNick,

A few weeks ago I had the same problems that you are having, I am in the Southeast USA), and it was driving me crazy as the doorbell had worked flawlessly for several months. Then suddenly it started working well although I had changed nothing. I would give it a little time and let the engineers work on it, (I believe they are working on a solution).

My main problem is that every time I get a firmware update I have to re-pair the doorbell and chime. Sometimes when the doorbell shows offline, simply pressing the button will clear that and sometimes when the chime shows offline simply unplugging it from the power outlet and plugging it back in clears that situation. 

Last week I purchased a new doorbell and it works great with my Pro2 camera but will not work well with any of my Ultra cameras, (doorbell and cameras are all on the Ultra Smart Hub).

So, it looks to me like the engineers still have a lot of work to do, especially if they want the soon to be released video doorbell to work out of the gate.

I feel your pain.

Brian

[arloisgarabage]

I also have wicked fast stable wifi and service and very familiar with technology and connectivity of it. Was really really really hoping the new app version would solve some of the connectivity problems but again disappointed in Arlo products. The hardware seems solid but have had connectivity issues of all nature since day one. Was hoping increased sales would allow them to possibly license or develop better connectivity hardware and software but my recent purchase of the doorbell two chimes and four security lights leaves me having wasted more time on this and a very bad taste in my mouth. Connecting them is dodgy, they remain dodgy when i do finally get them connected and going back to Best Buy as I'm lucky enough to still be in the 30 days. Not sure who i feel more sorry for myself for holding out they will get their issues sorted or the poor support guys that know the products are garbage and can't admit this when likely getting yelled at often and vigorously.

[Reallyconfused]

I agree about the support guys feelings. That's probably why we keep seeing the "reach out to you with private message" response from the online team. Maybe that's when they can vent.