Arlo Essential spotlight keeps factory resetting itself.

[essej818]

Ive used my arlo camera for a few months and it worked until 15 days ago when I looked on my app and the camera was not linked to my account anymore. It took me 15 days to get the time to climb my way up there to factory reset it.

It worked again for 2 hours until I got a notification on my phone that my camera received a factory reset signal.

It has been removed from my account again.

What or who is sending my camera a factory reset signal and how can I stop this. Nothing I search online is helpful or remotely relevant. Arlo support is completely useless.

[JamesC]

Many of the cases that have been reported that result in the symptoms being discussed here include damaged or improperly seated charging cables/solar panels. Third-party accessories have also been known to result in the symptoms discussed in this thread. For those experiencing these symptoms after having ruled out a third party accessory or damaged charging cable/solar panel, I encourage you to reach out to Arlo Support to further investigate the issue. You can find Arlo Support contact options within the Arlo Secure mobile app under Settings > Support.

JamesC

[StephenB]

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@essej818 wrote:

It worked again for 2 hours until I got a notification on my phone that my camera received a factory reset signal.

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AFAIK there is no "factory reset signal".  If this happens again can you grab a screenshot of the notification?

Maybe try onboarding again, but this time keep the camera down (and inside) for a while, and see if it happens again.

[essej818]

I tried to get the notification history from my iPhone but apparently it does not save them. I will onboard it again and see what happens. But might not happen until tomorrow or this weekend. The wording from the message made it pretty clear that something factory reset it. And it wasn’t me, and it’s mounted very high. 

[StephenB]

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@essej818 wrote:

The wording from the message made it pretty clear that something factory reset it. And it wasn’t me, and it’s mounted very high. 

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A factory reset requires physical access to the camera. Though removing the camera from your account might have a similar effect.  So you could change the account password, just in case that is happening.

Does anyone else in the family access the cameras (perhaps using my.arlo.com)?

[rmeredit]

I took a screenshot because this just started happening on one of my 4 cameras.  it says "Arlo received a factory reset request from (camera name)".  Then the camera is wiped from the account.  I then go and add it and it works for a period of time, most recent attempt it only stayed for about 15 minutes, then it resets again.

[rmeredit]

[StephenB]

Thanks for following up with the screenshot.

I am thinking something is wrong with the camera hardware (that it is sensing someone holding down the sync button, when that isn't actually happening). That fits the message text (which does say the reset is coming from the camera, not somewhere else).  Also, if this were firmware or a cloud software issue, we'd be seeing a lot more similar complaints.

I don't think see how this would be related to an account hack, but you could of course delete the account and create a new one if you think that has happened.

[JamesC]

rmeredit,

Have you created or removed any activity zones for this camera? Are there any settings associated with this camera that are different than your other cameras?

JamesC

[essej818]

That looks like the message I got. I can confirm nothing is touching the reset button. I can’t have the camera function more than an hour without it doing this. 

[rmeredit]

Yes, I've done nothing new and this isn't related to my account.  Since my first post the camera has not been on any account - it is sitting face down on my desk - but I hear it click when it resets periodically.

[rmeredit]

After doing a factory reset and leaving the camera sit face down for a couple days I added it back to my account and it has been stable since then.

[curious-soul]

Arlo Essential Spotlight Camera

I have exactly the same issue with my Arlo Essential Spotlight camera, exactly the same symptoms. 

Regardless of how many times I reset it and completely remove and add back to account, I received a notification that "Arlo received a factory reset request from <camera name>"

I hear the clicking noise from the hardware time to time and it is not easily going into the pairing mode easily either. 

Tried to raise it with Arlo support but received a bog standard reply to reset it, which I have done multiple times. 

Anyone has any luck with resolving it? 

[essej818]

I was asked to reset it, as you did many times. Each time it disconnects. Mine is too out of reach to listen to a click. I need to get a latter every time to reset it. I’m about to give up on it. It’s my only Arlo device. 

[Sean9]

have you found a fix for this by chance? I only had my cameras up for 8 hours and got that please help if you can 

[curious-soul]

Sadly, I haven't found a fix. 

You mentioned "cameras", how many cameras doing this for you? 

I have other Arlo cameras too but not the same type, and they are all fine. Only the spotlight essential camera developed this issue.

Have you recently bought the product? (as you said 8 hours). I'd return the product as it will be under warranty. 

[curious-soul]

@essej818 Any luck with yours? 

[Noconate]

I went month with the camera working fine and now it won't stay connected more than a day. Same exact issue.

[JamesC]

The development team is currently investigating reports of this issue. I will provide an update as soon as I have more information to share.

JamesC

[AALOGAN2]

Any more  updates on this issue?

[Sean9]

Yes I got it working just the amber light and blue lights don’t work but it is working great now 

[curious-soul]

@Sean9 How did you fix this issue?

[Dadc]

The same thing keeps happening to one of my cameras this last week. I keep climbing up, adding it again and syncing it. It last for maybe an hour and then a message pops up for a second that arlo received a message from camera to factory reset it and it goes off line and disappears from my app.  I think this is the company's way of getting rid of these cameras that they no longer want to support.  This is my 3rd camera this has happened to. The other two are stone dead. I will not be purchasing anymore arlo products and do not recommend them to anyone. The company does not ever give you an answer on how to fix problems.

[curious-soul]

@Dadc I totally agree with you. I have been up and down on the ladder due to this issue. 

And this is not the only thing that caused a dent in the trust I had in Arlo, here's the list.. 

1. The time it takes for the camera feed to load in the app has increased a lot. It's a really bad user experience! I know Arlo will try to blame the Internet speed but I've done the test on 512Mbps connection and it still takes that long for the feed to start 

2. The range of the cameras to the router is not great for the new ones, one would think they would have made it better but it's the reverse. 

3. When the feed loads, lots of times it shows "Connectin", notice the missing 'g', whatever it is, it is bad user experience 

4. I ordered a new camera where they claim to have 12 month battery time, it was delivered damaged. The mounting bit was off the camera body and I had to return it. Still waiting for the refund, it's been a week

I used to have a lot of trust in Arlo and had a feeling that I'm using a quality product, but all of that has gone down the drain. 

Another note, could be just a coincidence, that I started to notice all these issues almost at the same time when I started to see Arlo's name couple with Verisure, a brand that I'm not "very sure" about. 

I've recently noticed lot more people selling complete kits of Arlo, I'm guessing the frustration is causing people to consider other options and I'm in the same boat. 

I need something that I can rely on, is low maintenance and doesn't breakdown, after all it's about security. 

All, any ideas what other options are? Ring is one, and Eufy is another. Any more to consider? 

[Noconate]

I had this issue start after months of stability. It started right around the begging of April 2023. I finally bought another Orbi mesh satellite to move it closer, within 20 feet, of the cameras. It's more sent that error since. 

No idea why it suddenly didn't like the connection it had for months previous. 

All in all, I am done with and will not expand my Arlo footprint. Not super happy with this stuff. Even with the satellite so close the latency it's terrible. 1 to 3 seconds minimum. 

[curious-soul]

You have saved me from investing into WI-FI extenders, something I was looking to do in the hope that it might help.

To do my own homework, I unmounted the camera and placed next to router. Still the feed takes that long to load.

I hope Arlo will do something about it and recover their brand