Arlo Android app connection issues.

[cmackOTI]

Hi Arlo reps,

I bought an Arlo Baby (ABC1000) in April this year, and have been having constant problems with the device and service since then. I have persevered through the issues, and have tried to convince my partner that it'll all be fixed with the next Arlo update, the next version of IOS, the next whatever. However, after 6 months the time has come where both she and I are furious that a baby monitor, whose sole job is to allow us to monitor the most precious thing in both our worlds, is so unreliable that it fails to perform that one task often multiple times a day, including at night when we're asleep.

In my opinion, the Arlo Baby device and service are substantially unfit for purpose, and contain a number of major problems which have not been rectified by either NETGEAR or the Arlo product team in a timely manner. As such, I'm seeking a full refund of the purchase price for the Arlo Baby camera and Arlo Baby stand, per my consumer rights under Australian Consumer Law.

I've done all the basic troubleshooting, and some more advanced troubleshooting, and nothing has helped.

• Arlo Baby on the latest version at the time (currently 1.8.5.3, to fix the latest audio and streaming bugs)
• All Apple iOS devices (2 x iPhone 7 Plus, 1 x iPad Pro 1st Gen, 1 x iPad Pro 2nd Gen) on the latest version at the time (currently iOS 12.1)
• Arlo app uninstalled and reinstalled from Apple App Store
• Arlo Baby camera removed and re-added to Arlo app
• Arlo Baby camera removed and re-added to Apple HomeKit
• Arlo Baby power cycled (often multiple times per day to resolve issues - this infuriates my partner, especially when she has to walk into the room when our baby is sleeping)
• Arlo Baby reset to factory and set up from scratch

On the home network side:

• All Ubiquiti network gear (USG 3P, UniFi Switch 24, 3 x AP AC Pro) on the latest firmware at the time (with perhaps a week or so lag from release to install)
• Internet connection is Telstra NBN 50 fiber to the premises (FTTP). Speedtest.net regularly hits around 45 Mbps down, 18 Mbps up, including during the evening. Ping to local Telstra test server is 3ms. I have the Ubiquiti gear running periodic speed tests every 30 minutes, and the results are consistently similar.
• The room containing the Arlo Baby has a ceiling-mounted wireless access point, and the Arlo Baby has direct line of sight.
• The wireless AP controller shows the Arlo Baby connection with a signal strength of -44dBm, which is superb, and expected with approx. 2 metres line of sight between it and the AP.
• The 3 wireless APs are on 2.4GHz channels 1, 6, 11, and a site survey shows low channel utilisation for all 3 (~9% at idle), including interference. The 5GHz channels all show very low utilisation (~2% at idle).
• I've tried forcing the Arlo Baby to join either the 2.4GHz or 5GHz wifi bands - no difference.
• I've tried each of the 3 APs separately by taking the Arlo Baby around the house - no difference
• I've tried force associating the Arlo Baby with different APs from a fixed location - no difference

The problem is not my home network.

All the while my partner and I have experienced:

• Numerous 'The streaming service is reporting that the device is not streaming' errors (solution: keep closing the error message on the Arlo app and hope the stream starts up after the 5th/10th/20th error message is displayed)
• Numerous 'Your device is not connected' errors (solution: power cycle the Arlo Baby, and hope it starts working)
• Numerous silent failures of the audio/video stream (Arlo app sits on 'Connecting...' message continuously), until we realised the stream is broken or hear our baby crying when we are nearby (solution: calm the baby if crying, then power cycle the Arlo Baby and hope)
• Recently, live video working on both our iPhones, but not working (frozen image) on both our iPad Pros
• Stuttering audio and pixellated video when connected locally (which the latest firmware improves on)
• Consistently awful performance when outside the home over 4G (badly stuttering and laggy audio, and sub-1 frame per second video, if the video works at all), despite being able to consistently pull data at full speed (~18 Mbps) from other devices inside the home at the time (I strongly suspect Arlo's relay servers or data centre WAN links are badly under-specced)
• Missed recordings, and truncated manual recordings (e.g. 7 seconds recorded out of 60 seconds)

And the list goes on.

The sole purpose of the Arlo Baby Monitor System, and the reason I bought one, is to monitor a baby. Specifically, my baby. It has consistently failed to do this over the past 6 months in a substantially reliable manner, which is mandatory for product in this category. I would be irresponsible and negligent as a parent if I continued to accepted the product's inherent unreliability.

I've given the Arlo Baby time, effort, and patience - it's got great potential, and I've really wanted it to work. But it just doesn't.

Please let me know the next steps required to process a refund.

Sincerely,

Callum Mackintosh

[AverageJoe76]

We are having the exact same issue.  The Arlo iOS app rarely has connectivity issues; however, the Arlo Anroid app rarely connects.  Both the iOS device and the Android device are connected to the same Wi-Fi network.  Did you have any luck with Arlo support?

Thanks,

Joe

[ShayneS]

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

[PatrickLantz]

I’m having the same problem, I created a similar thread. Seems like no one has a good answer, it’s just a poorly constructed device when it comes to WiFi. Drives me crazy because it’s the one device we need to be reliable and it’s the worst product Arlo makes. 🤦‍♂️

[HAGO73]

We have exactly same issue, apple app connects fine, android driving us insane, tech help is useless, must be a widespread issue, they should be proactive, no doubt a software update has done this , pissed off

[ShayneS]

Hi @HAGO73

Do you mind providing a little more detail regarding the issue you are experiencing?

[HAGO73]

Our iphone logs in on the wifi but our Samsung's android app doesnt, sometimes it will, it says connecting but no video will connect. Its connected to the arlo as we can see the battery and temp etc, turn the light on and off but no video feed.

[ShayneS]

@HAGO73

Have you tried removing & re-installing the Arlo App? you can also try & remove the camera from Settings > My Devices > Re-add it

[HAGO73]

Thanks Shane, why would we need to? We have. It was a pain. Something has changed and it wasn't our end. Why does the iphone app work?

[ShayneS]

@HAGO73

What version of the Arlo App are you using? Do you have another Android device you can test this issue with?

What Device/Model/OS are you using?

If you have not already, you can download the new migrated Arlo App on the Google Play Store. You can find more info here: Arlo is migrating to a new Arlo app this month

[HAGO73]

Reloaded the new app and it worked. From your link, I reinstalled it 4 days ago and no change so guessing this app has been updated , thanks Shane

[ShayneS]

@HAGO73

You are welcome!

Let me know if you have any further questions & I will be here to assist you.

[HAGO73]

Hi Shane, went. Ack to it's old tricks, which was worse as we had it running as were relying on it and not hearing anything you think it's still working. Not good.

[ShayneS]

Hi @HAGO73

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

[marsh240sx]

Been away for a while but just wanted to follow up. Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to sit on chat or a call with support. Would be nice if there was an email option so we could go back and forth that way. -EDIT: Nevermind, I see there is an email option. But it disappears from the page once the Live Chat part loads if Live Chat is available at the time.

Things I've tried with the Android app:
- Stopping the app, clearing the local data and cache for the app, uninstalling it and then reinstalling. Doesn't seem to help, at least not as a long term solution. 

- Powering off the Arlo Baby, my phone and my wifi router, even though the iOS is connecting locally just fine before doing so, and then powering everything back on. Router 1st, wait for it to finish booting, Camera 2nd and wait for it to connect all the way(confirmed by using the iOS app to connect to it), Android phone 3rd.

Sometimes the Android app won't stream the video at all, just shows connecting, even though it's showing everything else like battery level, air quality info, etc.. When this happens, I can go into the Device Settings in the Android app and toggle the device off and back on.

Doing this usually allows the Android app to see the video stream again without having to actually restart anything, though it still doesn't show it's connected locally. Another thing that has worked when this happens is simply loading the iOS app, it connects locally right away, re-opening the Android app and then the video stream will connect, still not locally. It's very rare that the Android app actually connects locally, and when it does I've done absolutely nothing beforehand to try to get it too. 

One feature I noticed that the iOS app has that the Android app does not, is "Auto Livestreaming" under Video Settings. Not sure if maybe having this, even if it's set to "On Mobile Data & WiFi", causes the iOS app to actually check what network you're on before trying to stream the video. Just a wild guess but maybe this is what makes the iOS app more reliable and always able to stream the video locally. 

[karltnz]

Someone posted this link in this thread but looks like its been deleted so am reposting!!! Someone is taking Arlo to court over this shambles of a product.

[Retired_Member]

There's clearly an issue and Arlo doesn't care to support their product.  It started in June and since it's been contstant basic bull**bleep** from support blaming my wifi, bandwidth, or the best is 'the reset didn't take' even though it's been reset 20 times.  If you can return it and buy something else.  

[HAGO73]

Of course I tried support, no reply, nothing, why do support if you dont do testing on your app before releasing it. Sack the Andriod app manager. I think I might channel my energy into warning others about this product. 10 reviews per week, 1 hour, 520 reviews per year, 52 hours, this is less than current effort and returns the same output to me. Maybe different to arlo sales though.

[Haribo1987]

Mine is also unfit for purpose! It is completely unreliable. It crashes, it fails it stops working. This is monitoring my child?! And it’s completely unreliable.

[marsh240sx]

@ShayneS opened a support ticket for me, thank you very much! Support's response was to install the Arlo Technologies branded app from the Play Store and no other information. I responded back saying I already had it installed and the issue that I'm seeing is still the same. I also suggested they reference this post to see if it would help at all. Unfortunately, the next email I received a day later was a "How did we do" type email, which normally happens when a ticket is closed. It seems they either didn't see the response or the webform I was directed to didn't actually update the ticket. I have no way of knowing because there is no actual ticketing system we can log in to. 

The new app doesn't appear or function any differently than the Netgear branded one. Maybe a copy/paste with a name change? I still do not get a local/LAN connection to Arlo Baby on my Andriod devices. Yet, the iOS app still connects via LAN every time, both are on the latest "Arlo Technologies" branded versions now. 

Just the be clear, the reason for the LAN vs non-LAN concern is because of the delay and the fact that this is being used as a baby monitor. The delay between LAN and non-LAN is huge when it comes to having a baby that you're using something called "Arlo Baby" to monitor while they're sleeping. I have other options, an iOS device, which for whatever reason works fine. Not every one that may have this product have two platforms to work with. To me, it's a safety concern. 

[HAGO73]

Lol, mine still just says connecting, so you have to turn the device off and on and then it connects for a while then randomly turns off so you dont know you arent monitoring your baby. This product is dangerous. Should not be used for baby monitoring, terrible. Terrible stupid support also. Your app is broken for android and needs bugs fixed, these are bugs you have fixed before.

[Eva23]

The new app has a few glitches which I really hope can be sorted soon.
1. The sound cuts out. Before when you put it on to always listening it stayed on indefinitely until you turned it off. Now it cuts out randomly which is worrying as it’s supposed to able me to listen to my baby.
2. The feed doesn’t continue to play. You have to press play everytime I look at the app which never happened before and often the video is frozen when you go back to it so I have to refresh the app to get it working again. Again not great if you’re trying to monitor a sleeping baby.
I’m sure you’re aware of these glitches because they’re quite obvious to me as someone who was quite familiar with the old app.
These need fixing fast. We were really happy with this baby monitor until now would hate to be disappointed further

[tlong2848]

Ive had the same issues, it just won’t consistently stay connected to my network. All my other arlo cams stay connected just fine, just not the arlo baby

[chefslim99]

So recently my two arlo baby camera aren’t connecting often. It always happens at night time, I think something wrong with Alro servers. My 5 new Arlo 4k always connect, day or night. Nothing has changed except their new app. We had issues before the new app as well. I also have a Linksys velop mesh WiFi system and FIOS. I force close app and reset WiFi but nothing fixes it. I haven’t rebooted it since that causes noise(dumb idea arlo to have noise during rebooting) and wakes up my boys. Thoughts?

[Kateshryock]

I am also having similar issues and so disappointed with this product. It is so unsafe and should be discontinued. The new app has not helped at all. Often the temp data is missing and I can’t log in to watch my precious baby. I want a refund!!!

[ShayneS]

Hi @Kateshryock

Can you provide a bit more detail regarding the issues you are experiencing?

Also, which Device/Phone/Model/OS are you experiencing the issue with?