VMC2030 flashing blue/amber

[crashley409]

VMC2030 flashing blue/amber. Will not reset using reset button. Battery is fully charged. 

[jguerdat]

Did you hold the reset button for >15 seconds? Just pressing it won't work.

[RegularJoe]

  I've had that happen in the past... lots of odd behavior.  Seems like it happened with some cameras that I bought second hand.
  Was hard to get them to link up with my system....perseverance is key. 
A few of them I was ready to give up on... coming on here looking for ideas was no help.
I probably tried the reset procedure 10 times.... they wouldn't link, or would give the odd combinations of lights on and flashing.... nothing made any sense.
 Then, one by one, one would come back to life like it had finally got all it's ducks in a row... and it'd link up and behave just fine.
  Just keep plugging away.... hold that button in for a minute or so.... try all kinds of things. 

[Gblahnik327]

I have reset it by hold the button for 15 seconds, then try to add the camera again and it fails... It times out.  When I press the button for 2 seconds,  it will flash amber before it goes to blue, but it will scan and recognize the QE code and ding but searching for it doesn't work either.

[crashley409]

I ended up taking the camera apart and disconnecting then reconnecting the battery. Had to buy some special tools to do that. After a few more attempts to reset it and rejoin it to my app it finally worked. These cameras can be very temperamental. 

[Gblahnik327]

I haven't gotten to taking them apart but would like to to reseat the battery,   I have let them just die before to get them to reset and connect.  we had a wifi blip at the house and three of them were connected to the Ext Network,  I got that working again but they still won't connect to it even though nothing changed,  now I get to the Blinking blue and tone and then searching and the camera quits playing along then its not found.. 

[Gblahnik327]

I've run out of patience but yeah I will have to stick with it,  I have the batteries disconnected currently,  sitting on the shelf.. I will try them again some day, as I have 4 of them not working or connecting.   
I got some 3rd gen outdoor wireless ones that I am having a bugger of the time joining too no,  ( in another thread.)

[crashley409]

I have one VCM2030 that will not join my 2.4G wifi. I’ve disconnected the battery several times to give it a total reset. It chimes but never joins my 2.4G wifi. I wish there were a way to hardwire into these devices so you could see what’s really going on. 

[jguerdat]

Since the camera you listed is an Essential camera, you can't "disconnect" the battery. You can unplug it from a charger but that's it. Have you tried resetting it?

https://kb.arlo.com/000062880/How-do-I-factory-reset-and-re-sync-my-Arlo-camera-Arlo-Secure-4-0

Do you have other cameras that are connected? Are you using a VPN? If so, disable it. Make sure the router is set to use WPA2 (AES) encryption or a mode that is compatible.

[Gblahnik327]

I lost track of how many time I reset it..  inside the camera you can unplug the battery from the camera.  let that sit for days too, reconnect it,   Reset it,  try to connect again,  times out... flashing blue to amber after a bit..

[Gblahnik327]

Do you have other cameras that are connected?   Just 2 anymore. 
 Are you using a VPN?  No VPN If so, disable it.

Make sure the router is set to use WPA2 (AES) encryption or a mode that is compatible. Haven't messed with that but I will check it again.,  we had a Internet blip,  4 cameras went offline but two stayed working,  it was weird...

[crashley409]

I have three other VMC2030 cameras that are on my wifi and working. I think I joined them before I started using a VPN. I will try disabling VPN. That makes sense as some other apps don't like VPN either. I'm not sure if my router is using WPA2 as I have a Google Fiber Webpass router and it offers no ability to check it's settings that I can see. The only way I can access the router is using an app on my iPhone and I can't tell what kind of protcall it's using. I also can't access it from a computer which I think sucks. I have a ASUS router at my other home and I can access it from a browser and it has several menus and good visibilty into all of the settings. Thanks for the advice.

[crashley409]

BTW, you can disconnect the battery if you disassemble the camera, but it takes some special tools.

[crashley409]

Update: I reconnected the battery on my VMC2030 after a few days and it went into some kind of mode (flashing blue and amber). I attempted to add it to my wifi (no VPN this time) but the search did not find it. However, if I go to my router homepage it shows it is connected to the wifi. How does this happen? Anyway, there's no way to "find" it other than knowing it's connected to my wifi. Also, the LED is solid amber. I guess I should see what that means in the manual.

[crashley409]

Update: I managed to get this camera back online but the LED is a solid amber all the time. I reset the camera from the APP but the LED remains amber.

[RegularJoe]

Well that's wild, I don't understand why that Amber lights staying on... But I think I wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, lol. The only bad thing about it is the amber light might attract unwanted attention and cause the camera to be noticed by an undesirable, who may steal it..

  It's a long story, but a long time ago when I was having trouble with these cameras I have bought second hand.. I would be sitting right by the Wi-Fi modem and the system wouldn't link up to those cameras.

  One day I was trying to get them to link and got up and walked in the other room, holding the camera.

  Laid it down on the counter to pick something else up and when I picked it back up and looked, it had linked.. !!!

  Seems like at the time I had two of them that would not work.. they wouldn't link up.. I took the other one into another room while trying to connect with the system and it too started working... Wouldn't work worth a darn sitting right by the modem, but as soon as I got it away from the modem it linked right up.. 

  Could have just been a coincidence but I think it had some bearing on its success.

[RegularJoe]

Also, since you've got it going again.. I would get on the app and turn the camera off and then turn it back on again... That might jog it enough to where that amber light will extinguish.

[StephenB]

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@crashley409 wrote:

VMC2030 flashing blue/amber. 

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FYI, that normally means the firmware is updating.  Best not to interrupt that process.

• https://kb.arlo.com/642/What-do-the-different-LED-behaviors-on-my-Arlo-camera-mean

[crashley409]

The amber LED stayed on for days. I did a reset and a rejoin but the LED remained amber.

[crashley409]

Also, the amber LED being on all the time drains the battery. I will charge it up and give it another try. 

[jguerdat]

Probably not the LED itself but what's causing it to be on. My guess is a poor connection, causing the camera to keep retrying which depletes the battery quickly. Of course, it could be a faulty camera.