VMB4540 Base Station Videos Playback Freezing

[Retired_Member]

For about a month Arlo techs have been trying to find a solution for non-subscription videos freezing when played back on the app. I have Essential Spot light cameras, half of them are on the subscription plan, and half are on the base station only. I do this because I am only willing to pay $9.99 a month. They replaced the base station, I replaced the thumb drive and still have the issue. The system was not doing this before the March 1st 2021 app update. I keep updating the app hoping it will go away but it has not. It is not consistent, sometimes only 10% of the videos freeze, other times 50%. If you remove the thumb drive and put it in a computer the videos are not frozen. If you "clear downloaded videos" on the app and re-download it to your phone any previously frozen video will remain frozen.  You can't check it on a computer because non-subscription videos are not available on the web page. It freezes about 2 seconds into the video. There are other "SOLVED" similar issues that suggest uninstalling all the cameras and re-installing will solve it. It did not in this case. I am posting this because all the other video freezing post are solved or closed and want some feedback on if others are experiencing this.

[jguerdat]

Just out of curiosity, what phone and OS? Have you rebooted the phone and reinstalled the app (I assume support would have had you do this)? Have you tried a different device?

[Retired_Member]

My phone is an iPhone 7. And the software version is 14.4.2.

I have rebooted and re-installed the app many times.

I don't have another device other than a computer. And you can't view non-subscription videos on the computer.

[StephenB]

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@Retired_Member wrote:

I don't have another device other than a computer. And you can't view non-subscription videos on the computer.

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That's true of course.  But it would be helpful to sort out if the problem is with the recordings or if it is with the playback.

Are you seeing a lot of artifacts or timeouts when you livestream?

Though there are several steps involved, you could potentially connect the USB drive to a PC and copy off some videos.  Then put them on your phone, and see if they play ok there. 

[Retired_Member]

live stream is always fine. If you take the USB from the base station the videos are fine. I can then from the usb, send them to my phone and they are fine. If you save the frozen video from the app to my phone sometimes it will play on the phone as a frozen video, sometimes it will say the file is corrupt. If you email the saved video, the file size is almost zero and the file is corrupt. Arlo is still working on it. I am wondering if anyone else is experiencing the issue.