Odd night vision trouble, leads to camera going offline

[RegularJoe]

  About 4 days ago, I logged on to the app to see what was happening around the ponderosa here...at night...and noticed that one cam out in the alley~ which is in the dark~ seemed to be having trouble illuminating the scene. It looked like the infrared LED's were blinking on and off. 
    I walked out to look at it in person, and sure enough they were blinking off/on... and I could here the clicking sound. I had the cam set to view... it wasn't clicking on because I was standing in front of it... I turned it on.
  You could still see the area even without infrared illumination, because there is an LED streetlight not far from the camera that helps light the scene anyway.. but the on/off blinking of the IR's was noticeable. (No, the streetlight wasn't causing them to go out...it's not that bright)
  It was like the battery was too low to power the IR LED's. I clicked on the battery icon and it was at 78%... which was odd since the cam is on a solar panel... it's always in the upper 90's.
  I fooled around trying to get into the settings to turn off the IR-LED's... and with them off the scene was still visible (because of the streetlight).
  I then tried to turn on the spotlight...and all of a sudden the camera went "offline".  I walked out and disconnected it and brought it in the house. I plugged it into a charger and it wouldn't come to life (blinking blue LED on front of camera).
  Frustrated, I banged the cam on the desk 8 or 10 times, to show it who is boss... then plugged it back in. No bueno... nothing changed.
  Plugged it back in to the charger and left it set a while... looked at the phone and it was still offline.
  Went to it's setting and since it was offline, I couldn't restart it. So, I removed it from the group.

  Then, I tried adding it back. No dice. I could get it to see the QR code to link it back, but the phone would never see it.
  I called ARLO's phone number and talked to some lady from Mumbai... I couldn't quite overcome the language barrier and gave up in frustration~ trying to explain to her what was going on. They just don't get the nuances in our language, I guess. She's fixated on going down a checklist, and I've already tried all the crap she's wanting me to try first "turn off your router....". No, we ain't doing that...
  I tried it 6 or 8 times that night, then gave up. Tried it a few times the next day... no dice.
  I have 3 different WIFI  addresses here at the house... I have all the cams on an outdoor mounted wifi extender... I tried using the indoor wifi unit setting.. .it's right here on the desk by my computer... it wouldn't link off that one, either.
  So, last night... I got to thinking... long time ago (2022, when I first got these things), I remember having trouble with the phone app not being able to "see" the camera. One day I was trying to link a cam to the system with no luck and got up to go in the kitchen (with phone in hand) to get something and as soon as I left the room... 15 feet away.. it miraculously discovered the phone and linked right up!!!!
  I tried the other two of the 3 cam set and had the same results.... it wouldn't link setting right here by the wifi router... but get the phone away from the camera and it linked right up.
  So, last night I tried the regular way... set right here and worked at linking the cam to the app~ setting by the router... failure.
  3 times.. failure... walked in the other room with phone... failure, lol. Finally got mad and opened the desk drawer beside me and threw the cam in the drawer ... "CCCCHHHHIIIIIMMMMEEEEE" ....BAZINGA.... it linked right up!!!
   The thing acts like there was never a problem... the IR-LED's light up normally... the spotlight works.... everything is back to normal. That first night... leaving it connected to the charger... the blinking blue LED on the front of the unit did start blinking, indicating charging...so I have no doubt that the battery had sufficient charge in it at time of failure.
  It was just some unexplainable glitch...