Always Listening Mode - Audio Disconnections

[jjcox0831]

I am having an issue on my galaxy s8+ where if I turn on the always listening mode so that my wife and I can monitor the baby while sleeping the audio randomly cuts off at some point. The only way to get it back is to launch the app go to the live feed and toggle the speaker icon (the one you use to mute not the always listening icon). Even then once the audio is back it's about 50/50 chance that when I go back to my home screen to use another app or just turn off my screen the audio will cut back out. I left the live feed up on my phone most of the night tonight and as long as the app was in the foreground and the screen didn't cut off I was ok. Not ideal as I don't want any screen burn in from having the same image on the screen all night.

[jjcox0831]

I spent a couple of hours on the phone with arlo level 2 support and was not able to get this resolved. My camera is showing full wifi strength so not sure if this is a camera or an app issue.

[jguerdat]

Did they have you try a reset on the camera?  If not:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Arlo-Knowledge-Base/How-do-I-reset-Arlo-Baby-to-factory-default-set...

[jjcox0831]

Yes I've reset the camera, completely deleted it and repaired it, I've uninstalled and reinstalled the app as well.

[jguerdat]

Hmph.  Keep updating your case so it doesn't get closed and supply any details you note.  It's also possible that you can swap the camera at the store.

[TomMac]

On the S7 ( and prob the S8 ) they have an auto power save feature in Settings.... make sure the power save feature is NOT shutting down the app due to background and no usage  ( under Battery )

Also wonder if performance level set may effect the app

[jjcox0831]

Interesting that when I went there the system recognized arlo app as one I should automatically put to sleep. But as of now it has not been impacted by the power save feature.

Also the persistent notification stays active and shows the pause button as if the audio is active but its not for whatever reason. Thanks for the suggestion! That was a good one.

[jjcox0831]

James C any ideas?

[JamesC]

jjcox0831,

You definitely don't want your device to automatically put the Arlo app to sleep, so removing it from the power saving feature is a good idea. I've escalated your support case for review. I will post an update when I have more information.

JamesC

[jjcox0831]

So last I was up every couple hours. (we have a 2 week old). My 19 Month old was in the nursery. So once I got the audio to stay on when I hit the home screen it generally stayed on. But what's weird is at random times if I heard something and went into the app to view the live feed and exit out the audio would drop. I dont think it's a power saving issue as it's turned off completely on my phone. I have to then go back into the app and toggle the speaker off then back on to get audio to resume. Sometimes I have to do it twice because the first time I toggle it get the audio back on and close the app the audio cuts again so I have to repeat the process.

[adambean]

Galaxy s8 and LG v20, same issue. Power saving and app optimizations disabled. Turns off after ~2 minutes. Going back into the app, the sound icon is still green. Have to double press to restart audio.

Any insight?

[JamesC]

adambean,

What do you mean when you say it "Turns off". Is your mobile device going to sleep?

JamesC

[adambean]

---

JamesC wrote:

adambean,

What do you mean when you say it "Turns off". Is your mobile device going to sleep?

JamesC

---

No. I will do more testing, but what I experienced last night, was odd. 

- Turn on always listening

- Power off phone screen

- Audio worked for ~2 minutes, then shut off

- If I went back into the app, it still showed a green icon, like it was playing audio. If I moved away from the app, my tray would show that it's still playing

- Regardless of going back into the phone or not, waiting another ~minute or so, the audio would then resume

Will try more tests to see if this is the same behavior (in that it resumes after a period of time), but like previous posters, there is definitely an issue with the audio simply stopping after a period of time. 

[jguerdat]

Try  using the phone settings for battery use to NOT optimize for battery life. Maybe the phone OS is shutting down the app.

[adambean]

Just purchased our second Arlo Baby, same issues. After the first minute or so, audio disconnects. The app is running in the tray and reopening shows a green icon for always listening. Wait it out for another minute or so, and it comes back. Then after another couple it disconnects and doesn't come back.

Thoughts?

[jguerdat]

I've been testing mine for maybe 30 minutes with no problems.  Arlo app is set to not be optimized for the battery. Nexus 6 with 7.1.1.

[JamesC]

adambean,

Do you happen to have a different android device you could test this on to see if you get the same behavior? It sounds like this could be a device specific issue.

JamesC

[adambean]

See earlier post, we have two different Android devices (Samsung S8 and LG V20 - both new phones) exhibiting the same behavior. 

[JamesC]

adambean,

I am seeing the same behavior when manually powering off the phone screen. This may be by design (I will seek clarification).

As jguerdat mentions above, I too have tested this for an extended period of time and did not experience any issues with audio disconnecting (when not manually putting the phone to sleep). If you leave the screen powered on, do you experience any issue with always listening?

JamesC

[jguerdat]

My screen was off but, as I recall, was turned off via the phone e settings, not manually. Maybe that's the difference.