Arlo Pro 2 detects motions but doesn't record...sometimes

[SAub]

Occassionally a camera detects motion, but doesn't record. camera Firmware 1.125.16.0_36_49c31dd. base station Firmware 1.16.5.6_3666_3913242. This problem has been occurring for the past 2 weeks. Anyone else having this problem and if so have you found a solution? I've opened up 3 separate cases with Arlo over the past 2 weeks, but so for no solution.

I know that the camera is detecting motion because my iPhone got a notification stating motion detected for the camera, and because that camera has a Rule to trigger two other cameras to record when it detects motion and the other two cameras recorded as the rule specified. I know that the rule triggered them because the rule specifies for one of them to record for 35 seconds and the other for 120 seconds and that is exactly how long they recorded. Also, the camera that didn't record when motion was detected, did record correctly an hour later when motion was detected and I made no change to the system's configuration. 

[jguerdat]

Try removing the cross-triggering in the rule, perhaps one camera at a time. ALso, you do have an action for the problem camera to record, right?

[SAub]

If I understand your suggestion of "try removing the cross-triggering in the rule" correctly, I don't want to do that. I specifically want the cross-triggering. 

Yes, I have an action for the camera to record. The camera has only failed to record 2 times in the past 2 weeks (that I have noticed). 100's of other times it has recorded correctly and also correctly triggered the other cameras to record

[jguerdat · Accepted solution]

I understand that the cross-triggering is there for a reason. My suggestion to remove it is a troubleshooting step. If you don't do that, I don't have any more suggestions. 

You can alsways use the Contact Support link at the bottom here but they may want you to do the same thing.

[SAub]

I appreciate your help. I assumed it was a troubleshooting suggestion but didn't think it useful given the additional information that I didn't put in the my original post and my terse response didn't help.  I already sent Arlo support log files. Hopefully from the logs they'll be able to determine the bug and fix it. 

A little more information in my original post would have helped...The issue is random and very infrequent. It has occurred only twice in two weeks with 100's of recordings before and after the issue correctly recording. Once with a camera that has Rules that trigger other cameras (as mentioned in my original post) and once with a different  camera that doesn't have any Rules. With the camera that doesn't have any rules, I don't know if it was detecting motion and just not recording because at the time I didn't think to test for it detecting motion. 

Since my original post I've been reading similar posts from others over the past year and from them I now realize that it is possible that both cameras were correctly detecting motion and recording, but for some reason the recording didn't get correctly transferred onto the Arlo cloud server, so when I attempted to view the recording in my Library it wasn't there. 

[jguerdat]

Do you have a Smart subscription? "Missing" videos can be due to Smart deciding they weren't of a selected subject. Use of local storage can be useful to debug this since all videos are stored there, regardless of Smart.

[SAub]

I don't have a smart subscription. But I do have local recordings. I will now check them. Thanks for the suggestion. Do you know if local recordings get stored locally independently of being uploaded to cloud storage?  

[SAub]

The missing recording from my cloud Library for the 2nd occurrence *is* stored locally on my USB. I didn't have local storage at the time of the 1st occurrence so can't check that.  I will update the Arlo support case with this new information. Again, thanks for the suggestion

[SAub]

I have had 2 more missing recordings  from My Library today. The most recent did not involve Rules. The camera detected motion, my iPhone sent me a notification that motion was detected, but the recording does not show in My Library on my iPhone app or the Web Portal. The recording does correctly show in local storage, so this is yet another motion event that was correctly recorded but not uploaded to Arlo's cloud server and My Library.  This is a serious issue as there could be many missing recordings from My Library that I have not noticed. I have sent to Arlo tech support the arlologx file and screen shots showing the iPhone notification and missing recording from My Library. 

Of course many motion/audio events do get correctly recorded and do correctly show in My Library, from this camera and my other 3 as well. I have not been able to detect a pattern that may be causing this issue.  Is it faulty hardware? or software bug?  

[atphotos]

Yes, I am having the same issue.  Getting push notifications but not having the video show up at all or is intermittent or takes hours.    I have all setting set correctly.   This has been going on for weeks now.    Exact same issue SAub is having.

[SAub]

Arlo tech support is the most frustrating, inept, and useless I've encountered in  a long time. I now believe their support model is to ask one inane question per day until the customer gives up. To be fair I've interacted with 2 intelligent Arlo  tech support persons...not recently and not on this issue.   I have interacted with 9 others that are not.

I am submitting this long winded message to the community forum partly to relieve my frustration, partly to inform others, and mostly in hopes that an Arlo developer will take an interest in my case # 42366270

I'm one week into this issue; have submitted 3 separate arlologx files, numerous screen shots,   provided many useful details and  answered all the inane questions with minimal snarkyness. No progress has been made to resolve this.  I've had no status feedback on Arlo's progress.  I continue to get one silly/useless request/suggestion per day. Here are the most recent:

Request: Check that Library Filtering is not filtering the recordings.

Reply: This was suggested by a different tech support agent 2 days prior and I answered it. And I already sent a screen shot of my library clearly showing that filtering is not on and there are  recordings that are showing from all my cameras including the one in question…however the recoding that should be present is not

Request: Send us a screen shot of your Rules.

Reply: Rules and triggering other cameras were eliminated as the possible cause a few days prior to this request as a missing recording from my library occurred when no triggering rules were in effect.  None the less, I sent  all the Modes, Rules and Schedule

Request: Please ensure that Armed mode and recordings are on

Reply: I'm not using Armed mode and specified this days before and re-verified recording is on. I am using customized Modes and a Schedule that I created and already said this. Recordings are confirmed to be on because the recording that is missing from My Library is correctly stored on my local USB storage. If recording wasn't on, it would not be in my local USB storage

Request: When did the issue occur?

Reply: I specified  the exact day/time when I opened the case days ago. Since opening the case I had 2 additional instances of recordings not showing in my Library. I have already submitted arlologx files and given details for all 3 instances.

Request: After resetting the Library filter is the missing recording still not present.

Reply:  Correct, it is not present as already mentioned when I stated previously that other recordings from the camera are present in my library so filtering is not on and I sent a screen shot of the Library page showing that filtering is not on.

Request: One probable cause of a missing recording from the library is a network issue.

Reply: The missing recording is correctly stored on local USB storage. It is just not present in my library. Since the recording was correctly sent by the camera to the Arlo base station as the base station stored it on local storage, any network glitch that may have occurred, occurred when the Arlo base station was uploading the recording to cloud storage (i.e. my library). The base station should have retry logic to ensure recordings are correctly uploaded to the cloud. Arlo's main purpose as a security device is to record motion/audio events. If it can't reliably record them and make them available for playback then it isn't useful as a security system. I asked support if the Arlo Base station has upload retry logic, but so far tech support has not answered.

Request: Missing recordings from library could be due to slow/saturated WiFi.

Reply:  The recording missing from my library is on local storage…even if WiFi between camera and Arlo base station is slow/saturated, this particular recording got to the base station because the base station stored it on local storage. I assume, slow/saturated WiFi should only cause the camera to slow (temporarily) the transmission of data to the Arlo base station, not cause it to get lost. The camera should have retry logic. I have not yet asked for confirmation of camera retry logic, as Arlo tech support is winning the war of attrition with me. In addition the base station is connected to my router with an Ethernet cable. Slow/saturated WiFi cannot occur between base station and router because it is Ethernet.

[SAub]

Incompetent is the word to use for Arlo Tech Support and possibly the developers. I write this out of frustration of dealing with Arlo tech support so others know of their incompetence and the buggyness of the Arlo system. 

After 3 weeks of waiting for a response from Arlo on this issue they say there is no available data so they can't investigate further and I should observe my cameras and if the issue occurs again take screen shots and contact them. However, there is data and possibly if they didn't take 3 weeks to investigate there would have been more data to investigate.

It took 3 weeks for this issue to be escalated to a person to investigate. During those 3 weeks I did everything tech support said to do: I submitted arlologx files for each occurrence of a missing video--3 in total. I took screenshots of the iPhone notification of motion. I took screen shots of my library with the video missing. I verified that the video exists in my local storage.  And now it seems that the person investigating ignored all that or worse doesn't know how to use that information. 

[ShayneS]

@SAub

Can I have the case number you are currently communicating to support with?

[SAub]

 case # 42366270

[ShayneS]

Hi @SAub

I reviewed your case & it appears the team is waiting for you to report when the issue occurs again so they can investigate that data. Please contact your support agent when/if the issue presents itself and they will gather that data to investigate the issue. 

[SAub]

ShaynS thanks for attempting to help, but you didn't tell me anything that I didn't already know. The frustrating part of your and Arlo's response is that I already did the suggestion of waiting until it occurs again and contacting support. I did it 3 times already over the previous 3 weeks, plus answered all the inane questions and suggestions proposed by tech support over the previous 3 weeks and provided all the requested details...only to be told now to wait until it occurs again.