Arlo Pro 2 failing to start recording on motion

[treaders]

Hello,

One of my Arlo Pro 2 cameras is failing to start recording based on motion.

I have checked the battery and the Pro 2 camera is well charged. The camera is located ~10m from the base station. This problem has happened numerous times over the last ~3 months.

Attempted fixes
I have tried resetting the camera and the base station.
I have removed the battery from the Pro 2 (provides a temporary fix)
I have checked the camera firmware.

Once this problem starts happening I cannot manually record via the iOS Arlo Secure app either. I have to remove the battery from the camera to reset the camera. Motion based recording then starts working again. But, motion based recording then stops working again after a few days.

Camera model Arlo Pro 2
Model VMC4030P
Camera serial number A2S10374A0DA7
Hardware H6
Firmware 1.125.17.1_11_de8490d

Another Pro 2 camera is located a similar distance from the base station does not suffer from this failing to start recording based on motion problem.

How can I fix this problem?

Thank you,
Ben

[DannyBearAgain]

Is the problem camera normally externally powered?

Will the camera live stream ok? If so do you get the manual recording button displayed and if so can you make a manual recording ok, and if so does it show up in the library and if so will it play ok?

[treaders]

Hi DannyBearAgain,

No, the problem camera is not normally externally powered.

When the problem camera has stopped recording based on motion, e.g. the camera is not activating and functioning as intended, no, the camera will not live stream ok UNTIL I remove the battery from the camera and reset it. Once I do this, the camera will live stream ok.

And, yes, I can then manually record and, yes, the recording appears in the library and plays fine.

[Additional information] The problem camera wifi strength signal shows 3 arcs to indicate good wifi signal strength.

Thanks,

Ben

[DannyBearAgain]

When the problem camera fails to live stream on request do you get any error messages or does the loading icon continue to spin on a black background until the play icon reappears?

if so then it’s likely the camera’s video encoder has locked up and needs a power reset either by battery reinsertion or the daily reset sent from the Base station. 

Might be worth power cycling the base station then see if the issue persists after.

[treaders]

Hi DannyBearAgain and thank you!

When the camera fails to live stream the loading icon continues to spin until the play icon reappears. I do not receive an error message.

Yes, battery reinsertion fixes the problem but this is irritating to have to do on a regular basis (plus involves climbing a ladder) particularly when sometimes I do not notice the problem for a few days. This means I do not have any recordings when the camera has stopped working.

Why would the video encoder lock up?

What is the daily reset from the base station? Is this something I can setup? Sounds potentially useful. 

I'll try power cycling the base station. Is power cycling done by clicking the "Restart" button within the base station section of the Arlo Secure app?

Ben

[DannyBearAgain]

For my pro2 cameras they are regularly reset every 24hrs by the Base station. If you observe a camera long enough you should notice that the camera blue charged led blinks for a few seconds at the same time every day similarly for when you insert the camera battery and the camera resync occurs.

This helps to reset the camera to recover it from the dead encoder issue. The dead encoder occurs for me usually every few days but because of the daily reset it gets fixed.

For me it occurs on all four cameras I have regardless of location 

or wifi signal level or interference. This has been an ongoing issue for a long time with arlo engineers.

[treaders]

Hi DannyBearAgain,

Did you have to get Arlo support to implement this automatic daily base station to camera reset?

Or, is this feature something that should already occur?

Or, is it a feature I need to turn on?

Is this an automated version of clicking the red Restart button with the Arlo Secure app under Settings > My Devices > Base Station?

Thank you,

Ben 

[DannyBearAgain]

Arlo support are usually very vague in admitting to anything, so I cannot say that you need to contact them to implement the fix, was assuming it was globally implemented as it just makes sense since they don’t know how to fix it within firmware.

Going by my own attempts at fixing it, as I run the cameras with external power I find that removing external power then apply it again daily prevented the issue from returning. Hence I installed a smart plug on the camera’s chargers.

This resolved the problem until arlo started the camera resets via the base station some years ago so have not had to use my smart plug fix very often since.

I also placed a smart plug on the base station to resolve firmware issues with the base station when they occur. Seems to be a common theme with the arlo firmware.

Having a smart plugs gives me the ability to power cycle remotely when things go offline and I’m away.

For your situation, yes try the base restart app function daily to see if it stops the camera problem from returning.

Power cycling the base station daily is another alternative. Remove power from the base for a minute and reapply.

The advantage of the smart plug is you can setup a rule to do this automatically.

It is possible that the camera daily reset feature was removed in the last base firmware update release, I will check my end if my cameras are still being reset still.

[treaders]

Thank you!

Will step through all of this and see how I go

Thank you for checking to see if your cameras are being reset

What is a smart plug? I'll do some research!

[DannyBearAgain]

Smart plug is a device that you install at the mains power outlet before the equipment.

usually with wifi capability you can control via a mobile app remotely.

[treaders]

Hi DannyBearAgain,

Ah, got it. That's sounds like a good workaround. Clearly, you shouldn't have to do that but I'll look into a smart plug too. 

I take it you've liaised with Arlo support engineers over the years to bring this issue to their attention in an effort to resolve? I'll likely raise a support ticket too to demonstrate that this problem has not gone away and is happening to others. Frustrating.

Regards,

Ben