After seeing the doorbell camera activate, most recordings are not in the library

[xpfmx]

I have an Essential Wireless Doorbell. It has recording quirks but that's not the main issue. I was averaging 90-100 videos a day. About two weeks ago it dropped to 10-15.

Testing the issue is easy. I get into the doorbell's range and I see it activate. The majority of videos (75-90%) don't appear in the Library.

To try to solve the issue, I reset the doorbell via the app and removed the battery for 30seconds. I also reinstalled Arlo Secure but the issue remains.

I reached out to Support. They focused on camera sensitivity but that's not the issue. The camera activates, videos are not being saved. Regardless, I tried their suggestions... I changed the sensitivity from 80 to 100 and then I was asked to reset the doorbell. The issue remains.

Side note, I was a technical support engineer/supervisor for 20+ years. This was not a great support experience. It seems resetting the doorbell changes the camera sensitivity to 80. The support agent confirmed that. If they felt this was a sensitivity issue I should have reset the doorbell and then changed the sensitivity. Also, it seemed like the agent was not familiar with the Arlo Secure icons. I asked what one referenced (it was Motion Detection) and they went off to look it up. I ended up finding the answer online before they had the answer. There were other oddities in the support process (the follow up emails I received and their content) but that's me wearing my support engineer hat.

I hope someone can help solve this. I'm paying for a subscription. It's not a lot of money but something isn't properly working. 

[jguerdat]

FWIW, I use an activity zone to eliminate street activity and use 45 as the sensitivity setting. YMMV

[StephenB]

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@xpfmx wrote:

I changed the sensitivity from 80 to 100 and then I was asked to reset the doorbell. The issue remains.

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Are you using activity zones?  If you are, try deleting them for now.

Are you seeing any signs of a network issue (particularly issues when livestreaming the doorbell)?

[xpfmx]

I'm not using activity zones... and no filters. I have a rather basic setup.

Possible network issue... I don't normally look at live video but since this started I did.  I've always been able to connect to live video. In fact, a few times I then went outside and activated the camera. The recording did not appear in the library so it doesn't seem to be a network/connectivity issue.

[StephenB]

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@xpfmx wrote:

I'm not using activity zones... and no filters. I have a rather basic setup.

Possible network issue... I don't normally look at live video but since this started I did.  I've always been able to connect to live video. In fact, a few times I then went outside and activated the camera. The recording did not appear in the library so it doesn't seem to be a network/connectivity issue.

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Have you tried making a few manual recordings, and then see if they show up in the Library?

Do you ever see artifacts or gaps in the recordings you do have?

[xpfmx]

Arlo support sent me a KB article about recording a manual video and seeing if it appeared in the Library. Last night, I recorded three manual videos and all three appeared in the Library. I then walked outside, saw the camera activate but that video did not appear in the Library (in the app or logging into my account).
I was in and out of my house six times yesterday. Only one video, of a departure, was in the Library. Before this issue, all six videos would have been in the Library. 

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean by artifacts.

I wouldn't say I have gaps in videos. Closest to a gap would be times when the recording drops off... I'll get videos of people walking by and stopping (presumably for a few seconds) but no video of when they start walking again. I'll also get random 5 minute videos (almost always 5:15) showing no activity.

[StephenB]

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@xpfmx wrote:

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean by artifacts.

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You'd know if you've seen them.  For instance here:

• https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo/Pixelated-thumbnail-Live-stream-has-green-screen/m-p/1772047

They present in different ways, but always look very wrong.

As far as gaps go, I meant in the middle of a clip.  Sometimes the video freezes for a while, and the audio continues.

[xpfmx]

Looking at the artifacts examples, yes, I've seen something similar with night-time videos. It's rare but when I see it some objects (cars, people) appear as blocks of white, pixelated images.

I haven't had gaps as you described them.

[StephenB]

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@xpfmx wrote:

Looking at the artifacts examples, yes, I've seen something similar with night-time videos. It's rare but when I see it some objects (cars, people) appear as blocks of white, pixelated images.

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One cause of the artifacts is packet loss on the path from the camera to the Arlo Cloud.  So it potentially is a signal quality issue.  Though as you say, you aren't seeing them very often.

If the doorbell is connected to your home wifi, you could try using speedtest on your phone at the doorbell location, and confirm that you get consistently good upload speeds.

[xpfmx]

Apologies for not providing more timely updates. Life got very busy and the suggestions I received from Arlo support weren't helping so there wasn't much useful info to offer to the community.

As of this week, I have a positive update but I can't offer a solid resolution.

The short story is after multiple attempts removing & reinstalling the Essential Wireless doorbell, Chime and the Arlo Secure App and rebooting my router, all recorded videos are appearing again in my Library. I don't know why this last attempt finally clicked but it did. For what it's worth, most of the removing/reinstalls did not go smoothly (firmware updates would hang, doorbell install would go smoothly but Chime install would not, etc.). Anyway, it's been five days and my Library is back to having 80+ videos a day.

Thanks to all who offered assistance and suggestions!

Paul