Essential Spotlight wont turn off

[NZ79]

I have a 3 camera set up - all Arlo Essential Spotlights. Driveway, Front Door, Back Door. 

For the last month or so, the Back Door camera will work fine for a week or so and then out of the blue the spotlight will turn on and wont turn off, and drains the battery from 70/80% to dead flat overnight. This happened on 3 different occasions. After the second time i disconnected it, reset the camera and connected it again and it made no difference. After the 3rd time i took it back to the retailer, who "serviced it" and reloaded the firmware and reset it. Its been back in place for 3 nights and so far so good. 

Then last night, my driveway camera, which has worked flawlessly for 6 months, did the same thing out of the blue. Drained from 74% to dead flat overnight as the spotlight came on and didnt turn off.

Is this software related or hardware related? The software is buggy as at the best of times. I thought it may have been hardware related as only 1 camera out of 3 were affected. But now i have 2 of the 3 doing it.

Currently my system is not fit for purpose, going to bed every night wondering if the camera will still be working come morning. 

[JamesC]

NZ79,

Are you using the default "Armed" mode or a custom mode for these cameras? Do you have a solar panel attached?

JamesC

[NZ79]

Hi James,

Yes, using the default armed mode. No solar panel. No activity zones or anything. There was an activity zone set on the back door one but once it started playing up I removed it to make sure it wasn't that.. It wasn't.

[NZ79]

Camera has been in place since making this post so last 8 days. Going down 1-2% a day. Then tonight bang, from 80% to 0% again as the light stayed on all night again. Not what I signed up for!

[JamesC]

NZ79,

I will escalate this concern to the dev team for further investigation.

JamesC

[NZ79]

So i swapped out the camera for another one that has not given me any trouble, and again last night, after 8 days of working fine, spotlight stayed on and drained to 0% overnight again. So it appears to happen every 8 days like clockwork and it doesn't matter which camera is in place, but always and only in the back door position. So must be software related surely.

[greglynn]

I am having the same problem, spotlight gets stuck on and drains the battery has happened with two cameras and repeated with the current one. Definitely a software issue in my view Arlo when will this be fixed???

[NZ79]

Unfortunately mine are still doing it every few days I have to pull them down and recharge them. Which is not what I purchased them for. Arlo are very quiet on the issue.

[jinqianhan]

I have been having the same problem and it has happened about a month after our 6 month free video storage subscription ended. This is a nuisance and I cannot reach anyone to help address the issue.

[NZ79]

@JamesC any news on a fix for this issue that has been ongoing for months? I see you still take my money every month even though you are not providing the service i signed up for. The cameras are not fit for purpose when they have to be charged every 5-6 days instead of the advertised 3 months! 

[JamesC]

NZ79,

There was a firmware update at the end of September that fixed some bugs that may have resulted in some of the symptoms you're experiencing. If you're still experiencing this issue, try removing and resyncing the camera and test again if you still experience the same behavior.

JamesC

[al219]

my camera have same issue, i went for holiday for a week last week, i make sure 4 of them all fully recharge before i left, then only least one day, first day arvo they all appear offline. then i came home 2 days ago, i found they all flat battery. very very very dispointed about this product. i have called customer service few times, but never fix this. can someone help with this spotlight issue. i hate it to take them off and recharge every few days

[jguerdat]

Heavy battery loss is due to either signal strength/quality or the total number of minutes of recording and live viewing. Or both.

Look in your library and total up the average number of minutes per day of recording per camera. The spec battery life is for <5 minutes per day - if it's grossly more than that you have to make some decisions such as repositioning the camera, reducing the motion sensitivity or both. 

Signal issues relate to distance, house construction, other wireless devices that also use the 2.4GHz band that are nearby, interfering with the signal.

[al219]

thanks for replying, but im sure is about spotlight. nothing wrong with singnal or min of recording. i am very struggle with this spotlight sometimes never turn off and battary went flat? is there anyone from arlo can help? i really want to recommend everyone not to buy arlo, sigh….

[greglynn]

firmware update solved issue for me check your version