Camera are offline and needing to reset system all the time but goes back offline

[dannyb2100]

So, back in March one of the cameras went offline for no reason and I had to get a roof ladder out to check it, only to remove the battery and put it back in (nothing was seemingly wrong with it) 

It has however gone offline again, none of the standard troubleshooting has sprung it back to life, so I guess I have to get the ladder out and repeat the previous steps. 

Has anyone else had this happen? Do you suspect something is wrong with the camera?

The previous topic for reference

[publicjgc]

All cameras work perfectly during daylight. Geofence and calendar are set. Failure is not in synch with calendar.
All cameras are AC powered. I tried battery power with the same behavior.
I have removed cameras and base station and reinstalled from scratch. Pain in the butt since 2 cameras are 10 feet off the ground behind bushes.
I believe the IR lights are maybe 4-5 LED. THIS IS JUST 2 flashing at 1 per second. Multiple cameras do this so it must be a diagnostic feature or an out and out failure. The app report the cameras being offline. Sometimes it reports AC power failure. They are tightly plugged in.

[StephenB]

I'm not seeing a clear cause here.  But I am wondering if it's worth testing with the scheduling turned off.  Much less painful than pulling out the ladder, and it might provide more clues.

AC power failure could of course be caused by a charger or cable issue.  But the main problem happens on battery-only, so that sounds like something you should ignore for now.

How far are the cameras from the base station?

[publicjgc]

Base stations are less than 20feet from cameras. Closest is about 6 feet. One outside stucco wall but I have experimented with base station 10 feet away with good line of sight.
If AC power was the cause, why do they all work in the daytime. 3 almost simultaneous AC failures would mean I should take a trip to Las Vegas and try my luck.
I have already tried turning off calendar and geofencing.
What main problem are you referring to on battery only.?

[StephenB]

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@publicjgc wrote:

What main problem are you referring to on battery only.?

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Cameras going off line is the main problem I heard, and you said that was also happening on battery power. 

You've tried all the variables I can think of:

• battery vs ac
• scheduled vs not
• geofencing on vs off
• Multiple cameras on multiple base stations
• reset the base and set up from scratch

And I agree the distance shouldn't be a problem. 

Hopefully some else here will see something we're missing and chime in with a constructive suggestion.

[publicjgc]

Thanks Guru Stephen for trying to help. Sorry for all of the “already tried that” responses but I have been fighting with this for 6 weeks. Arlo phone and chat support has not been fruitful. When it gets tricky they close the case and start a new one. Been the same problem foe somewhere around 6-7 case #s. The promised to replace both base stations but since it didn’t ship ontome, they cancelled the RMA and started a new on with thenpromise that the replacements would be here in 2 days. Still waiting 5 days later. Have not shipped yet. It is not the base station anyway. Already replaced one with no change in behavior. Got to be the cameras or the firmware in base or camera. I feel better after saying all of that. 🤔

[entilza]

Hi - Just an update.

My "original" Arlo fleet (batt powered original models x3) have been fairly stable for over a month now.

There was a firmware update during the height of offline problems, but it did not seem to fix it. But within a few weeks, everything settled down.

The one action I did take was to purge all cameras from the system and start again. Maybe a combination of the firmware update and a purge AFTER the update fixed it?

 I was having all cameras go offline independently (different times) requiring the battery compartment to be opened to reset, and the base station would also go offline requiring a power cycle. I suspect these were different problems. Also during the height of problems, I have the cameras chew through fresh batteries within 5 days, a couple of times.

But for over a month (maybe a month and a half) it's been stable. Only one camera went offline requiring battery compartment opening, and the base station also needed power cycling once. Not exactly reliable, but waaaay better than before.

[Capss22]

My camera goes off line for about a week comes back for a week then goes off line again. I would not recommend this camera to anyone very in reliable. Please help find permanent fix for

[Micagrima]

Same here in France. Ive tried everything, can only be product defect or arlo cloud issue. Having a case on going, this is a nightmare, the worst buy of my life

[publicjgc]

Stephen (Guru). Since you seem to know a lot and are very helpful i thought I would pass along my latest finding. A non working camera at night was flashing two LEDs strong and six more not so strong. I am powering these cameras with AC only which Arlo support said should work fine. I am an electronics engineer and know the LEDs take somewhere in the range of 3mA each so I thought I would put the battery in. I had to resynch to the base and it now seems to work. We will see if it continues to work. Then I will put batteries in the rest. Maybe the USB wall wart is not strong enough to run the LEDs at night. Really hard to believe since they put out Ampere kind of currents.

[StephenB]

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@publicjgc wrote:
 so I thought I would put the battery in. I had to resynch to the base and it now seems to work. 

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Interesting development.  Please let us know if it continues to work.

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@publicjgc wrote:
 Maybe the USB wall wart is not strong enough to run the LEDs at night. Really hard to believe since they put out Ampere kind of currents.

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It certainly should be.  Possibly it is defective.

I do have one Pro-2 running on AC power, but it also has the battery installed.  My internet and base stations are protected with a UPS, so my infrastructure stays up through power outages.  So I want the camera to continue working then also.

[publicjgc]

Both cameras with battery reinstalled made it thru the night and still operational 6am in the dark. At least I now know the problem. Some cameras including one that failed are using arlo wall wart but 25 foot cable. I see some discussion about 9V/1.1A 5V 2.5A switching in the wart. Not all of my warts are arlo so i don’t know their specs. Also some mention of special fast charge cables. I will be gone for a week and then get back to it. At least I know have an engineering challenge I can understand. Thanks for all of your help.

[tck_]

Any changes?  I'm dealing with the very same thing, and I am removing the batteries, restarting the base station, etc.  I'm thinking that it's a software issue as we had to update the software about a week ago.  

[publicjgc]

I will not be able to. Do anything this week. I have a plan for next week
I will start with wall plugs that are fast charge. I think that will not solve everything. I will then make sure i have fast charge USB cables. Then i think there is a good chance all five cameras will work without batteries. My goal is to be AC powered so I don’t have to climb a ladder. Check back next week. I will post here.

[tck_]

Ok...amazing how much time dealing with these cameras!

[warcalling]

I have Arlo Pro 2 in my home for a couple of months, now 1 of my Arlo Pro 2 keeps going offline in a couple of days.  This can be fixed by taking out and putting back the battery. Is that any way to fix this permanently? or anyone has any idea of the root cause?

I got 2 Arlo Pro 2, and one base station. they all up to date. Cameras are less than 3 meters away from the base station, no wall between.

[TomMac]

Unknown as to why, but suggest swapping the two cameras to eliminate location/interference/etc

[publicjgc]

I think I have solved my major problem, cameras losing sync after dark. I have 5 cameras on two base stations. I want to power from a wall charger so I don't have to climb a ladder to charge batteries. Therefore I am running without batteries installed.
Here is some information that might be helpful.
I started with 2 arlo chargers and 3 non arlo chargers. 2 20 foot cables and 3 30 foot cables because electric outlets are far from the cameras.
1 arlo charger on 20 foot cable worked well. 1 arlo charger on 30 foot cable failed after dark. Non arlo charger on 20 foot worked most of the time. 1 non arlo charger on 30 foot failed at night. 1 non arlo charger on 30 foot worked worked day and night with the porch light on but failed at night if i turned the porch light off. Sometimes when they failed I caught a notification of AC failure. Pretty clear that at night the LEDs are taking more current and the combination of wall wort and cable length are an issue.
SOLUTION: I bought new wall worts (Quick Charge 3.0 2 Port USB Charger by Wasserstein) which uses Qualcomm 3.0 USB. These devices adapt to the load current and seem superior to even the arlo charger. All 5 cameras now work day and night. So far, I think cables can be fast charge or regular.
CONCLUSION: if you are AC powering, pay attention to the wall wort and make sure it is USB 3.0 Qualcomm inside.

[publicjgc]

Check out my comments in message 117 in this string, especially “SOLUTION: I bought new wall worts (Quick Charge 3.0 2 Port USB Charger by Wasserstein) which uses Qualcomm 3.0 USB.”

[ali-hariki]

Exactly the same problem. I am 7000 miles away from my home and now one camera went offline with not reason. The second camera is working fine. I have restarted my base station remotely several time same pb. My cameras are both connected to power  with their batteries  removed to avoid overheating. ??????

[Erilekn]

One day all devices was offline and they would not connect. 2 cameras and basestation was offline. I had to uninnstall all devices and start from start to get this fixt. I had no problem with internet but it wont work. When i reinnstal and sync cameras again it was working at once. What has happend and is this normal? I have had it for two months now and no problem befor that. Can anyone help me to solve this problem pleease?

[ShayneS]

Hi @Erilekn

Are you still experiencing this issue with your system?

[Erilekn]

Cant connect too server, but it has the latest firmware. In a way solved.

[Ali2083]

My system has been offline for 2-3 days. I have unplugged for 10seconds, pushed reset for 10 seconds, held sync for 10seconds, unplugged internet and restarted it too. Nothing is working. What do I do?

[Erilekn]

Remove cameras and basestation and reinstall everything. Maybe that will solve your problem. Check internet connection.

[jgillum]

My base station is showing amber color on the right side! I have did everything that it states to do & it still won’t come up! The other two lights on front are both green