About 1/3 of recordings, play about 10 seconds and video freezes but audio keeps playing

[Regarlo]

About 1/3 of the recordings Play for about 10 seconds and then the video freezes but the audio keeps playing. I have tried downloading the recording but the saved file is no different. I have two arlo pro 2 cameras both having the same problem. They are both hard wired. I use the arlo app on an iPhone8. The audio does not seem to be in sink with the picture either.
Not what you would expect for the price you pay for them.

[Kktracy3]

I just bought a noise filtering surge protector and plugged my camera into it to see if that solves anything. I still have my doubts because this was never an isssue in the same outlet until the firmware update but I will try this for a few days and report my findings.

[StephenB]

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@Beef wrote:

Still freezing on powered camera

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But never on battery?  

Can you run an extension cord to a different power circuit?

[Beef]

No never on battery,I can plug it into a different outlet hardly worth it as it’s the only thing plugged in.

[StephenB]

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@Beef wrote:

No never on battery,I can plug it into a different outlet hardly worth it as it’s the only thing plugged in.

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I am thinking there might be something quirky about the power.  Possibly noise on the power line, or maybe a misbehaving charger.

[Beef]

I will give the extension cord a go over the next day or so and see what happens.

[Eric182]

What if you try taking the battery out and just run it on AC power?

[Beef]

Ok tried different camera different power supply different location and different circuit with the same result.seems to glitch around 14 seconds sometimes freezing other times distorting image slightly.going to try removing battery and running power alone.The time I have spent on these things is getting ridiculous can you imagine purchasing anything else that needs so much consumer diagnosis.

[Beef]

It’s still glitchy running ac only,looks like it’s battery only from now on.

Its a shame as it worked pretty good when I upgraded from the 1st gen arlo in April,I won’t be upgrading again I will go for a wired system.

[StephenB]

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@Beef wrote:

It’s still glitchy running ac only,looks like it’s battery only from now on.

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How old is the camera?  If it's still covered by the warranty you could ask for an RMA from Arlo Support.  https://www.arlo.com/en-us/support/contact.aspx

[Beef]

They are around 5 month old but not just one camera it appears to be them all.

[StephenB]

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@Beef wrote:

They are around 5 month old but not just one camera it appears to be them all.

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Then I do suggest trying support. 

It could be that we were chasing a red herring - the issue might actually be in the base station.  How far away is the closest camera from the base?

[Beef]

The nearest is around 20ft, 2nd is around 25ft away,3rd around 30ft away,4th around 40ft away and 5th around 50ft away.

[StephenB]

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@Beef wrote:

The nearest is around 20ft, 2nd is around 25ft away,3rd around 30ft away,4th around 40ft away and 5th around 50ft away.

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20 feet should certainly work reliably.

Do you have CVR enabled on any camera? 

Are there multiple cameras triggering when the problem happens?

[Beef]

No cvr and it the nearest camera to the base station that is powered up,sometimes two cameras trigger at similar times but still happens if only one is triggered,strange I think it’s only been happening for around 4 weeks.

[StephenB]

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@Beef wrote:

No cvr and it the nearest camera to the base station that is powered up,sometimes two cameras trigger at similar times but still happens if only one is triggered,strange I think it’s only been happening for around 4 weeks.

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Worth contacting support I think.

[Kktracy3]

So I ran an extension cord and plugged my camera into a different outlet and also used a noise filtering surge protector on it. It’s been about 3 days and I haven’t had a frozen recording since. I guess there was some kind of noise interference in the line for me with it being plugged in along with my garage fridge. I have my camera set to record for 45 seconds after it sees motion too. I haven’t tried any other ways yet. Hope this helps others

[alchemist50]

I have the same problem with the video freezing on a powered Pro 2 camera at around 11 seconds.  If I view the recording on a web browser, the video freezes but the audio continues for a full 120 seconds (defined recording time).  If I view it on the Andriod app, the video accelerates at 11 seconds and the full video record finishes in about another 10-15 seconds.  The video then freezes, but audio continues to play normally for the full 120 seconds.  USB recording looks fine.

Once in a while, the Pro 2 recording will just completely stop at some random time.  Normally it's shorter than 120 seconds, but it's also been longer than 120.

I also have a three original Pro cameras on the system, one AC powered.  These all work normally.  I've contacted Support.

[Kktracy3]

Alchemist50

Let me know what support says. My 4 other regular Arlo pros work fine as well.

[Tony21]

I’m still having the same issue it been going on for a month now, camera did it this morning  I hope Arlo fix this issue soon what good is the camera if you can’t see what’s going on. 

[Dannybear]

While I have not had these issues constantly I do see them from time to time. Trying to track them down can be very difficult especially across multiple base firmware updates.

I have spent many hours personally trying to understand how it is possible for the arlo system to present such a variety of faults to different users across their customer base and eventually gave up.

Why is it that the fault only occurs on ac powered cameras?
A. Because when ac powered the camera electronics is running constantly to enable the three second look back.

Why does the fault start occurring after 5 days?
A. Because it is constantly running and the cameras internal data buffers over flow and over writes itself.

Can you try to prevent it from occurring? Try reseating the battery in the camera daily.

Other things to try,

Reset the camera video display size to full, eg. Remove any pinch and zoom.

Delete any activity zones on the camera.

Put a smart ac power switch on the camera and schedule a daily reset of the power daily, same as we do on the base station to recover from the offline issue.

Hope this helps.

[Mjbeuke]

Hey guys - I just found this thread and had a similar thread up from some time ago indicating this exact annoying issue with 11-14 second video clips that freeze in the cloud viewing and continue sound for the full designated 2 minute recording.... USB also works fine and the videos are normal there.

I thought it was the VMB4000 base station - but when I added my Pro 2’s to the SmartHub after buying a 2 Ultra Camera kit - the same issue occurs. I do not believe the problem is the base station - but rather the pro 2 Cameras.

I’d never thought about the AC power being at play - so after seeing this thread I unplugged the Pro 2’s and ran on batteries for a day. Sure enough - yesterday was the first day in months that this issue didn’t happen, and I had tree trimmers all around my yard and had tons of recordings yesterday.

I plugged them back in this morning and stepped outside - and the very first recorded videos went for 14 seconds and froze. Same issue.

A few additional notes:

- this happens when the Pro 2s are connected to the VMB4000 or VMB5000 base stations

-recordings on the USB drive, or microSD are completely fine in either case - the issue is only with cloud recordings

-this does not happen with Ultra cameras that are also plugged into AC power

-my 2x Pro 2’s that only run on battery and are not plugged in do not ever exhibit the issue

-I don’t believe it’s wifi interference of any sort - the SmartHub is located about 20’ away from the router in a different room - and it is on the same WiFi channels for 2.4G and 5G as my router (as it should be)

-the issue is exhibited no matter what power USB charging brick I am using - Arlo or offbrand/Samsung

@JamesC - maybe you could chime in on this one? This is one of the issues we were messaging back and forth about that I took video clips of and saved of my computer for an example of the problem.

[alchemist50]

Great info everyone.  Do you also see the Pro 2 recordings stop at random times?  For example, this morning I had two recordings, one at 5 seconds and the other at 124 seconds.  There were five recordings overnight at the correct 120 seconds (give or take a few seconds - they rarely seem to be exactly 120).

[Mjbeuke]

@alchemist50 yes I have this same issue occasionally - although not nearly as frequently as the frozen recordings issue we are outlining here.

Like you, I will occasionally have a random clip of 37 seconds or sometimes over 120 seconds (just as examples). My A/C powered Pro 2’s are set to record for the full 120 seconds I will see variance occasionally in clips.

Normally it’s not a big deal - but there are instances where it will stop recording literally in the middle of something happening and produce a shortened clip.....

Once again - I do not see this behavior with my Ultra cameras - only the Pro 2’s whether they are connected to the SmartHub VMB5000 or the Base Station VMB4000 they still do this so it doesn’t appear to be a base station issue.

One thing that comes to mind is my Pro 2 cameras have never had a firmware update since purchasing and installing them in April this year.... perhaps with all of these different base station and SmartHub firmware updates - dare I say the Pro 2 cameras are due up for a firmware refresher by the Arlo engineering team? More may be broke than fixed... lol

[Mjbeuke]

After a full 48 hours of testing and several hundred recorded clips I can confirm that the issue with the 15 second clips that freeze and continue audio have ceased when the cameras have been running solely on batteries not plugged in.....

I may try what the other person suggested and plug them into a noise filtering power strip and see if that has any impact on my ability to plug them in without having the clip recording issue to the cloud.

Anyone else have any further observations on this?

[Eric182]

No other observations except so what’s already been documented here. Same issue for me. Recordings freeze around the 15 second mark if the cameras are connected to AC power.

Battery power does not have any issues. Let us know if the noise filtering surge protectors do anything for you. After you plug them into the noise filtering surge protectors, test them for a few days and report back. @JamesC