Arlo Essential Spotlight not discovered after going offline but is connected to router

[MikeArlo80s]

I have three identical cameras, took two down to charge them on the same day, everything still worked, put them both up. Then, about 4 days later, one of them went offline. No obvious reason. All three cameras are on the same network and only this one camera was "offline."

Went through the support steps I found in the documentation and the chat bot. The less aggressive ones didn't work so I tried the remove device and manually reset the camera method several times and after...probably a dozen resets and "add a new device" attempts both on the app and web browser, Arlo never discovers the camera.

It's almost like Arlo has blacklisted the camera for some reason. The camera chimes when it captures the QR code, and when I go into my router interface, it connects to the router every-single-time. But the app/website never "discovers" it.

I've tried the chat support twice now, and the bot says it'll pass my issue on to a human, and still no response. Camera's been offline for over a week now and the lack of support is disappointing. Sad I have to turn to the public to hopefully get some help - but that's a bit off topic for my main issue.

[JamesC]

MikeArlo80s,

Try plugging the camera in using a charging cable, allow it to charge for a short period of time and attempt another factory reset. After the reset is finished, attempt onboarding again. Do you still experience the same behavior?

JamesC

[MikeArlo80s · Accepted solution]

Hi JamesC,

I tried that the first time and it didn't make a difference. However, I did just try again via the web browser and got it to work.

I may have been making the mistake that I was selecting "Essential Camera" when I should've been selecting "Essential spotlight camera & Essential XL Spotlight Camera". I honestly can't remember how many combinations I tried before. But when I saw the word spotlight, I initially thought it meant that big thing with the massive lights on it.

So, maybe the pairing some days ago was my fault, but still no good reason why it went offline in the first place, and really bad that one has to remove it then re-add the device. That's obviously not possible if you're away from home and leaves a blindspot.

Hopefully this helps someone else.