Cannot set up activity zones in Essential Camera

[tmrandolph]

I have a video doorbell and a smart subscription, just added an essential cam.  When I attempt to set up activity zones for the essential cam, it will not give me a live view. All I see is a static shot of something grainy with the spinning wheel in the middle. No matter how long I wait, it will not load. Connection is fine, firmware is updated, reset and restarted the camera, battery is fully charged, everything works fine otherwise. Suggestions?

[jguerdat]

Have you tried removing and resyncing the camera?  Are you connecting to your WiFi or to a hub/base?

[tmrandolph · Accepted solution]

Thanks, I restarted and removed and resynced without any change. Left it on overnight and when I looked at it this morning it was working fine ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[MichelleB2042]

Hi! We charged our Arlo Essential on our dining room table. When we try to set the activity zone now that the camera mounted, it still had the original view from the table, not the live view. Any suggestions? Should we remove the device & reinstall? It’s connected to our homebase & we reset that with no luck. Thanks!

[dcfox1]

I have seen that before and I gave it time and came back later after a refresh and had the current view. Is it the same on web portal and app? If so you can try resetting the cam by pulling the battery  and replacing or resyncing as you said since you rebooted the base. 

[MichelleB2042]

Hi! Thanks for getting back to me so quickly! I’m only checking the app, not the web. We just charged it yesterday, I could give it another day to see if it changes & if not, try to re-set & re-sync it tomorrow....
....to be continued
Thanks again

[dcfox1]

Yea, I only gave it an hour or so and refreshed the app (by force closing) and on web. But by tomorrow it is a problem. 

[MrA2u1]

There seems to be a  bug in some of their cameras. I have two cams and one was doing the same thing. It works fine inside the house but in the sunlight, it will not update. I returned the first bad cam and the replacement did the same. I am in communication with their support and engineering team on this. They are supposed to push a trial firmware out this weekend for me to try to see if it resolves the issue. My camera will update the preview at night just a few minutes prior to sunset when there is less light outside. Very frustrating when it seems to be working inside the house and then you mount it and it does not perform. Tough to set up the angles and  zones in the dark. Hope this trial firmware works. I will let you know.

[MichelleB2042]

Update.....
We ended up having to remove the device completely & then add it back. The picture was still showing the dining room for about 4 hours then it updated to the live view so it seems to be fixed (fingers crossed). Thanks!!