Customer Service challenge and Essential 3rd Gen camera issue

[ArloUserRL]

I have been a long time Arlo security camera user.  I recently purchased 3 new Essential 3rd Generation Cameras from the Arlo website to add to my current system. I checked compatibility of the cameras on the Arlo website before my purchase. The website said they were not compatible with my base station, but would work through the internet on WiFi without connecting to the base station.  They did fine until the power went out in my house which turned off the router.  When the power came back on my other 9 cameras connected to the base station came back online and reconnected to the base station like they also have done.  The 3 new Essential 3rd Generation cameras basically locked up and stayed offline.  Only a factory reset would bring them back online.  When the power went out another time the same thing happened.  I called support and after working with 1st level support i was escalated to 2nd level support. Each Arlo support person was courteous and respectful. The 2nd level person had me offload the arlo app then delete it and reinstall the app. All my original cameras were working find after that process, but the new Essential 3rd Gen cameras still were offline. We removed each camera from the app. Then we factory reset each of the new Essential 3rd Gen cameras. They came back online, but the issue was not resolved.  I unplugged the my router for 5 minutes then plugged it in a gain to simulate my house losing power. They same issue came back.  I then used the Arlo app to chat with Arlo support.  I chatted with support for @ 2 hours. We went through much of the same process. 

I was told by the Arlo support person that these cameras will not reconnect automatically to my router after a router power loss when the router power is restored.  Here is exactly what they said.  "Your other cameras reconnect automatically because they are connected to the base station, which maintains a stable connection, dedicated bridge to your network even when your router reboots."  "If your router uses a single Wi-Fi name (SSID) for both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands and automatically switches devices, temporarily disable it or create a dedicated 2.4Ghz guest network."  "Arlo Essential cameras run exclusively on 2.4Ghz, and band steering can confuse them during a router reboot as the bands come back online at different times."  The Arlo support person also said, I'm paraphrasing now, that the new cameras will need to be re-onboarded sometimes after an outage.  My interpretation is that means that if I am away (i.e. on vacation) and I lose power the 3 Essential 3rd Gen camera will not come back online until I am back home and manually perform the re-on-boarding of each camera.  That is not what I expected from these new cameras and didn't find anything that told me that on the Alro website when I was purchasing them. I stayed on the chat for 2 hours with the support person following their exact instructions.  They did not tell me about the challenge the cameras have reconnecting if the router supports 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz.  Then i asked another question and the support person just stopped responding even though the chat was still active.  I continues to type hello into the chat every minute or so for about 30 minutes and never got a response from the Arlo Support person on the chat.  I am now in the process of returning the 3 new cameras.

[jguerdat]

I can't address the reason for those cameras not reconnecting but I would strongly suggest installing a decent-sized UPS that protects your modem, router and base from power outages. The exact capacity of that UPS depends on the maximum length of any "normal" power outages. I happen to use a 750VA unit which works well for shorter outages.