What is this....

[DayDay92]

Arlo cameras won't sync through the arlo app, tried to link account through Samsung smart things and have been completely locked out of my account. When I try to troubleshoot it tells me it sent my phone a push notification but I never get one, when I try to verify through email it gives me a code but the app says it's wrong. 

Pretty sure there's a Google sponsored scam support phone # that I ran into. 

I have the arlo essential spotlight cameras, 4 of them. 

I've never been so stressed out from something so expensive what are yall doing with all that cheddar. 

Not expecting much from support here but maybe there's a regular person who can help me out? 

I've tried holding down power button to reset, charged them up with the most powerful usb charger I could find, and reset my phone/Uninstalled app multiple times. VPN not running. 

Thanks. 

[DayDay92]

Update: I turned on my routers WPA setting and now all of the cameras show up with connectivity bars going up and down according to the distance of the router, the thing is the app will only find a camera if I factory reset, and try to sync two or more at a time. Once the app locates a camera it tries to update the firmware and that always fails and the camera is never fully connected to the app, not ever sending a second of video. 

Do I need a hub? I bought these off someone I know and he swears they were working and you don't need a hub. 

Ports to forward? Something to disable? I feel like it has to be so simple whatever it is I'm missing. 

Thanks, in advance. 👍

[StephenB]

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@DayDay92 wrote:

Do I need a hub? I bought these off someone I know and he swears they were working and you don't need a hub. 

Ports to forward? Something to disable? I feel like it has to be so simple whatever it is I'm missing. 

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Essentials don't need a hub, and there are no ports that need to be forwarded.

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@DayDay92 wrote:

Once the app locates a camera it tries to update the firmware and that always fails and the camera is never fully connected to the app, not ever sending a second of video. 

You might try waiting a day or so with one camera, and see if the firmware updates on its own.

1. Are you able to get past that (not seeing "firmware update available" over the image on the main screen)?
2. Are you able to live stream video?
3. Video recording requires a subscription - no trial is available to you since the cameras are used.  Did you subscribe?

[DayDay92]

I can get past the screen but the camera is offline and stays offline. I'm getting a subscription Friday or as soon as my new card shows up in the mail. 

It seems like the only way to get them to connect too is a factory reset by holding the power button for 15 seconds. 

I know its possible they're faulty cameras but I've worked with electronics my whole life and this seems like a firmware problem? All the lights and buttons work fine, my router can see all 4 cameras and their names. 

Thanks for the reply, I was salty last night after those scammers almost got me, I apologize for dissing tech support. 

[DayDay92]

Update #2 

I managed to get one camera working and updated, I don't know exactly what I did or if what I was doing did anything I basically just kept un installing and reinstalling the app, factory resetting the same camera, and turning off more and more features on my phone. The only things I can think of are cellular data, Bluetooth, and the biggest change was making the Mac address static? Or assigning it to my phone or something like that. Things have changed  a lot since I was into computers but even with one working none of the others will sync still. I have them charging up now because I think the one that worked may have been the only one that made it to full charge do far. 

Just documenting this for anyone else who may run into this kind of problem, obviously the forum is pretty much at a loss too. 

✌️👍

[DayDay92]

Thank you btw for the questions you answered it helped me narrow down what could be causing the problem. 

[DayDay92]

Final update : after charging two cameras to full charge they  connected with no problems and are active now. 

Solution : Charge them to full battery before attempting to sync. 

That seems like it should be on tech support list right? Please have some respect for yourselves too and get that Google ad of scammers taken down. They're using your name to steal from people. 

Thanks!