Essential outdoor

[Mimimouse]

It shows connected to my wifi on my app, but it is not detecting or recording or alerting.

As we were mounting the device it did. Must I get a Hub?

[JamesC]

Mimimouse,

Is the camera set to Armed Home or Armed Away? If the camera is in standby or the active mode does not contain rules telling the camera to trigger, it will not record or alert. For more information on this, take a look here: https://kb.arlo.com/000062777/About-Arlo-Routines-Modes-Rules-and-Automations

JamesC

[Mimimouse]

I have the new camera armed home, but it is still not alerting or recording.  I have strong wifi but could I still need an Arlo hub? Was hoping that expense could be avoided. 

Thx!

[jguerdat]

None of the Essential Gen. 2 cameras can currently connect to a hub so buying one now would be a waste. I would start by editing Armed Home to see if there's a rule for the camera there. By default, only Armed Away gets a rule for each camera automatically so you likely have to add a rule with appropriate settings using the link above as a guide.

[Mimimouse]

I've now set up rules. It keeps showing that camera is offline. I originally only had the essential doorbell, the purchased 2 essential Gen 2 cameras for driveway and backyard. Have only mounted the driveway unit since having issues.  No issues ever with doorbell. Driveway unit is only 16 feet from the doorbell unit and my router is in front room of house next to front door.  I'm almost ready to return these new cameras. Should I  Uninstaller and reinstall?

[Mimimouse]

Also, when setting up rules it only allows recording or snapshot. I chose recording. And only allows siren, not spotlight. It's supposed to have spotlight so don't know why it won't let me activate that in the rules. 

[jguerdat]

What is the house construction? Brick, stone and stucco can all block the signal between camera and router. Other 2.4GHz devices nearby can also interfere with the signal. Bring the camera indoors for testing to see if that clears up your issue. If so, it's likely the location that's causing the problem and you'll need to do some troubleshooting to find a more suitable location.

As for the spotlight, go to the camera settings and check Light Settings to ensure the spotlight is enabled.

[Mimimouse]

Do I need to change setting on my router to 2.5 mhz if it is currently 5mhz? If so, how do I do that? I have also ordered a wifi range extender.

[jguerdat]

Virtually all home routers use both the 2.4 and 5GHz bands at the same time. It may not be obvious since they are also frequently set to use the same SSID and password for both and let the router figure out which band may be best for any particular device. Since (almost) all Arlo devices use only the 2.4GHz band, the router will use that for their connection. Your phone may be set to either one so you may need to force the phone to use the 2.4GHz band in the network settings.  However, you may not need to do that since there are reports of others being able to set up the cameras without doing that.

[StephenB]

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@jguerdat wrote:

 Your phone may be set to either one so you may need to force the phone to use the 2.4GHz band in the network settings.  However, you may not need to do that since there are reports of others being able to set up the cameras without doing that.

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There's no way to do that with my Orbi.  There's only one SSID, and my iphone doesn't have a way to select a band.

You can reduce the 5 Ghz power in the router, which does "encourage" the phone to use 2.4 ghz.  But that's about it.

Fortunately, I have been able to onboard the cameras from the phone anyway.  

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@jguerdat wrote:

It may not be obvious since they are also frequently set to use the same SSID and password for both and let the router figure out which band may be best for any particular device. 

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FWIW, the client device chooses the band, not the router.  The router can suggest to the client that it change to a different band (or a different bssid in the case of a mesh).  While generally clients act on these suggestions, they can ignore them.