Unreliable Live View & Feed Recording: both issues solved

[RocketmanSFCA]

Hi,

I created the post below last month to request help with two issues that I was having with my Arlo Essential Gen 1 Indoor cameras, and I'm creating this post to share that I think I've resolved my issues. (Arlo's website doesn't provide me an opportunity to comment further on the original post, so I'm pasting the original post below and using this post to explain how I resolved the issue.)

Unreliable Live View. On the first point below that I could not click the 'Open & Go Live' button on the Devices screen to reliably see what's going on in real time for cameras connected to our WiFi router through a WiFi extender, I managed to solve this issue by swapping out the WiFi extender for one with more advanced technology. Both were Netgear models, but the older version is based on Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) technology and the newer version is based on Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) technology. This newer Wi-Fi 6 technology apparently provides better performance in environments with many connected devices, and perhaps that's the reason it works. This problem is now resolved.

Feed Recording. On the second point that feeds were recorded for motion detection on only one camera that connected directly to the WiFi router and not for cameras that connected through a WiFi extender (including the newer technology extender described above), I solved this issue by changing a configuration setting in the iPhone app. Starting at the home screen, click on the Feed menu at the bottom, then click on the upper right icon (circle with three dots) for a drop down menu, then click on Feed Settings, and then click on Event Types to view the types of Events that will trigger a feed recording. From this Events screen, select/enable Motion. By doing this, all my cameras now record and save feeds when motion is detected, including those that connect to our network through WiFi extenders.

While this might seem like a user error, the HIGHLY FRUSTRATING thing about this solution is that one camera was recording feeds based on motion detection WITHOUT motion being selected on the Events screen. I would receive notifications like this: "Motion detected on XYZ Camera at 6:02 pm." Why would that camera record any feeds based on motion? Because one camera recorded feed from motion detection, that made me think the issue was related to the physical camera or differences in how they connected to our WiFi router (directly or through an extender), which caused me to waste a lot of time. If the app instead didn't record any feeds based on motion detection given motion was not selected, then I would have focused on learning more about how the software works. Argh! Regardless, this problem is now resolved.

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RocketmanSFCA 

Tutor

‎2025-01-21 01:06 PM

Hi,

I have three Essential Gen 1 indoor cameras installed in my home. For the one camera located closest to our WiFi router, the system works well. For the other two cameras that connect to our WiFi network through extenders, I'm having two issues:

1. Viewing live feeds is unreliable. When I am looking at the Devices screen in the app, and click the 'Open & Go Live' button to see what's going on in real time, the app tries to connect to the camera to show the live feed but typically fails. If the camera is in Standby mode with the lens closed, the act of clicking 'Open & Go Live' will open the camera lens; so the system is communicating...just not well enough to show the live view. This is the result most of the time (80-90%), but not always.
2. Recording of feeds is unreliable. When the system is set to Arm, and the camera lens is open, I will receive notifications when motion is detected. However, when I then go to the Feed screen in the app, I do not see a recorded clip of the detected motion. Without that, I don't really see the value of being notified of motion at all. Again, the system is communicating well enough to detect motion and notify me, but not well enough to record the event and upload it to the app. This is the result almost all the time (90%+).

Both issues have been going on for a while, and are independent of how much data traffic is traveling around our home over the WiFi network.

Neither of these issues exists for the one camera that is connected directly to the WiFi router, which is otherwise using the same rules (Routines) as the two cameras that aren't working well.

Any guidance the community can offer would be appreciated.

[StephenB]

I'm glad you were able to get your issues resolved.  I have one clarification:

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@RocketmanSFCA wrote:

Feed Recording. On the second point that feeds were recorded for motion detection on only one camera that connected directly to the WiFi router and not for cameras that connected through a WiFi extender (including the newer technology extender described above), I solved this issue by changing a configuration setting in the iPhone app. Starting at the home screen, click on the Feed menu at the bottom, then click on the upper right icon (circle with three dots) for a drop down menu, then click on Feed Settings, and then click on Event Types to view the types of Events that will trigger a feed recording. From this Events screen, select/enable Motion. By doing this, all my cameras now record and save feeds when motion is detected, including those that connect to our network through WiFi extenders.

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Actually the Feed Settings have nothing to do with what is being recorded.  Those settings configure a filter for playback (limiting what is shown in the feed, not limiting what is recorded and saved in the Arlo Cloud).   That is handy if you have a lot of cameras generating recordings.  The filter settings are sticky, so it is easy to lose track of them. 

By default all event types are enabled for viewing (so nothing is filtered).  At some point earlier in your troubleshooting you likely turned off motion in the filter and then lost track of that.   FWIW, I think it would be useful if Arlo added a status indicator of some kind that reminded people that the feed was being filtered.

[RocketmanSFCA]

Hi, thanks for responding. I didn't realize that Arlo records and saves all that content regardless of how feeds are configured. Question: if I ever need to access video that isn't captured with a feed, how would I access that content?

Regarding your comment that I likely turned off Motion events in the filter, that's easy enough to test. I turned off Motion (while leaving other events turned on), set the cameras to Arm Away, and then walked around in front of the cameras. Sure enough, I see feeds that record a Person event, but not a Motion event. It's a bit confusing because I also received a notification on the iPhone app saying 'Motion Detected,' but the feed recorded is for a Person event. Anyway, I think you're right about my turning off of the Motion setting.

Given that, then I think swapping out the WiFi extender for a newer technology also addressed the feed recording issue. Because regardless of which events were configured (e.g., motion, person), the app would record and display feed events for the camera connected directly to my WiFi router, but not record and display feed events for the cameras connected through older WiFi extenders (WiFi 5). Since the app now records and displays feed events for all my cameras, including those connected to the router through the newer WiFi extender (WiFi 6), I gather the app's ability to display these feeds is for some reason dependent on the networking setup.

[StephenB]

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@RocketmanSFCA wrote:

Question: if I ever need to access video that isn't captured with a feed, how would I access that content?

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Nothing is "captured with a feed".  Recordings are all in the Arlo Cloud, and the feed settings are just filtering out things you don't want to see right now.  

If something never makes it to the Arlo Cloud, then there is nothing to access.  Unless you happen to have a smarthub with local storage.  In that case, there can be local recordings that never made it to the cloud (for instance, if your internet went down).

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@RocketmanSFCA wrote:

Given that, then I think swapping out the WiFi extender for a newer technology also addressed the feed recording issue. 

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I suspect it wasn't specifically due to the WiFi 6 support, since the cameras don't really need that.  So maybe the new one is just a better extender.    Either way, you found it solved the problem, which is the important thing.