Essential Spotlight - Spotlight not turning on when motion detected.

[Bob-A]

I have one of my Essential cameras pointing at a walkway and hardwired to charge all the time.  Everything works fine when it is set to record video - it senses motion, records, turns the spotlight on, and through my SmartThings hub turns on my porch and post lights at the two ends of the walkway.
I want the spotlight to turn on at night when motion is detected to help light the center of the walkway it is pointed to.

But I have it set to not record video when we are home as the driveway camera and doorbell camera at the ends of the walk are sufficient.

This does not happen.
I can see that motion is detected as the red lights come on on the camera face and I know motion is detected since it turns on the porch light, but the spotlight does not turn on.

Anyone have any clues as to what might be wrong or how I can fix this?
TIA

fyi - firmware: 1.090.30.4_42_f73fa53

[JamesC]

Bob-A,

The spotlight may not be coming on due to the camera sensing ambient light in the area. If the surrounding area is already well lit, the spotlight will not engage.

You can read more about this here: https://kb.arlo.com/000062172/How-does-the-spotlight-on-my-Arlo-camera-work

JamesC

[Bob-A]

No, that is not it. 

It reliably comes on when the mode is set as arm-away to detect motion and record a video. 

It does not ever come on when the mode is set as arm-home to detect motion but not to record.

I want it to record when we are not home to see people on the property but not to record when we are home.  I do not need countless videos of ourselves walking up and down the walk unloading groceries, walking the dog, and such.
But I do want the spotlight to come on to light the path better at night.

[jguerdat]

I'm not at all sure that you can set up a rule that only turns on the spotlight without recording. The purpose of the spotlight is to provide a color recording at night, not to provide only lighting.

[Bob-A]

Well. That is crazy.  Why have the two functions be tied together?  There is already a function to keep the spotlight off when it is light.  It is a simple programming thing.
Just one more inflexibility of Arlo's system.

[StephenB]

---

@Bob-A wrote:

Well. That is crazy.  Why have the two functions be tied together?  

---

Because you have to have the spotlight on if you want color recordings at night.  So there is a tie-in to the recording feature.

While I do understand your use case, the camera spotlight isn't intended to light your path.  That said, the Arlo Floodlight also has this restriction, and many do want the floodlight to turn on automatically when the camera isn't recording.  So it is possible that Arlo will change the way this works at some point.

---

@Bob-A wrote:

It is a simple programming thing.

---

IMO they have a long to-do list, and it just got a lot longer with the launch of the "Feed" experience.  So I'd be very surprised if they get to this soon.