Base station get Offline

[Sussexdude1]

Over the last two days my home station seems to change my time zone at midnight every day, this being a huge pain when scanning back over recordings. I have tried resetting on Arlo web site, iPad and iPhone but midnight strikes time zone changes again. HELP !

[ChinJing]

When i spoke to teir 2 this morning I asked about the firmware update because there doesn’t seem to be any release notes for it. Tech support said it was not for the offline issue. That is still a problem being caused potentially from usb drives being used in the base stations. Tech support said the overnight firmware update was for geofencing.

[josephgarvey17]

Hello,
I have 5 H7 cameras that continue to go offline. At least once a week (or more) for the past month or 2 all my cameras drop off the network. Restarting the base station once or twice sometimes brings the cameras back online. Signal strength is good for all 5 cameras. The base station has dropped offline as well a couple times and one time had to be removed and then added back, followed by the cameras.
This equipment is becoming useless to me if it just keeps going offline. It appears that each time there is a firmware update the more problems there are. All I want is for my system to do what it is supposed to do.
My schedule has not worked properly for more than a year now and that was caused by an update and even though there are numerous items in the forum that bring up that issue it has never been resolved either.

[Mjbeuke]

I just noticed your guys messages and looked at my base station- it has been updated to firmware _2762.

Prior to this firmware update - after I removed the USB Hard drive I was using as previous mentioned - I was having zero restarts and my doorbell, chime, and front door camera all stayed paired with one another and were working properly for a full 72 hours with zero restarts....

I really hope Arlo addresses the issue and so can use my USB drive again with this update to start locally recording once again....

Either way - I am not adding back my USB drive yet... I’m going to wait 24-48 hours and see how the system responds to the new firmware.....

God forbid I introduce any other potential issues when the track record of firmware releases lately have been nothing short of a buggy unfinished mess....

PLEASE LET THIS BE THE ONE THAT FINALLY FIXES THE vmb4000 BASES!!!

[96709]

They are pretty lame if they don't maintain thier own setup to test instead if asking us.

I use an SD card hooked up to a USB adaptor for one base station and a USB flash drive for the other.

[Js68street]

Have NO flash drive installed and it has been 5 days without a working base station and despite starting a case with Arlo trying to get a replacement base I have not heard back from them. Seems they work as well as their equipment

[Mjbeuke]

Hey guys - I thought it worth mentioning in this thread as I have in a few others that I went through a massive amount of testing of various things one at a time and seem to have discovered a *possible* workaround to the base station freezes/locks ups since 5/21 update....

If you have this issue try removing your USB storage drive completely. Only use cloud recording for a day or two to test it....

I’m nearly 48 hours without a reboot or freeze.... this also includes no freezes after this mornings base station update as well.....

Not saying this is a fix - but I and a few others have called Arlo and mentioned the issues may revolve around the USB hard drive function- and what I’ve found.

Try it out and report back!

[Js68street]

This is not a issue due to usb or router ethernet cable ect. ect. This is on Arlo's end after the last update for time zone issues my base and a hell of a lot of others went offline and won't come back! They are aware of this and sending out replacement base stations of course you have to call then and when calling instead of owning up to the problem they will still have you go through every test that we have already done countless times! I spent a hour and a half on the phone just to get a replacement base plus had to pay $17 for shipping

[ChinJing]

After the firmware update this morning I took the usb flash drive out of one base station and left it in the other one. Both had new firmware. The one with the usb went offline -frozen one time. All the lights on the base remained solid green but it was in frozen state. No WiFi or battery icons, getting status mode , no recordings. So I rebooted that one and pulled the flash drive out also. So far today it seems that without the flash drive there have not bean any frozen offline states. But will keep testing. It seems tech support is still clueless as to why the offline situation is going on - although they did mention the usb being the possible cause-

[Dearjohn012]

Yup! USB it is! REMOVE IT FOR NOW!

Working 100%!

[wellfleetion]

Well the update definitely did not help the offline issues! A geofencing update? Are you kidding me? I thought that was resolved with the 5/25 untested roll out that broke everyone’s base station causing them ever since to go offline 3 or 4 times a day for an hour or more!!! The security issue is the offline issues everyone is experiencing! Get it, Arlo/Netgear

It’s like Arlo/Netgear is totally out of touch with their customers or are just grossly incompetent.

I do have a 1tb hard drive attached and no i’m not detaching it as this is SUPPOSED TO WORK and was advertised as a feature not a bug!!!

[ksk12]

Having hte same problem for past few weeks, maybe a month,  have to reboot the base station,  then reboot each camera.....  sometimes doing this several times to get all the cameras to work for another day or two.

May have to start shopping around for a reliable system.

[Bartley]

VMB4000 - 1.12.2.3_2762 firmware update. At least it updated normally. Didn't fix any of the multiple random issues I have going on. So far didn't appear to break anything worse then it was. I guess we can find some hoe in that. I have a case number and I recieved an e-mail last night. So I called this evening.

Update from Arlo:

Hi Gary,

Good day!

Thank you for your response regarding with your concern. With this one, Its much more better to give us a call back to this number 408-638-3750 to resolve your concern.

Thank you.

Regards,

JC

Arlo Technical Support

Always at your side

Arlo is still trying to treat everything as a seperate issue. They are steering clear of acknowleding that they have an issue. Support agent did say they they are working on a new firmware to fix some issues and that it will be released in some time. Question a little further on the time since we are in the 4th week of this already and he stumbled around with an answer by the end of the month. I have never ever in my life experienced this treatment as a consumer with a legitimate problem using a companies product. This is unbelievable it is like hitting your head against a brick wall. Obviously nobody with any authority is going to respond and let us know what we can expect. 

[fractalchic]

I think I have to agree that it’s not the USB, at least not in our case. We’ve had a USB plugged in the whole time and only ever suffer issues with the base station going offline when using one of the “pre-programmed” modes. Whenever we use a custom mode (with a USB stick plugged in) the base station doesn’t go offline at all.

[wellfleetion]

Offline again from 4:20 pm to 6:30 pm!!!!!!!!!!

[Dannybear]

Just to be the odd one out, I have two USB sticks in use and suffer offline irregularly using custom, schedule, geofencing, armed modes. Have not tried disarmed yet.
If the offline bug was being triggered by the USB then I would expect that arlo would be hailing the Users USB as the cause of their firmware failure.
In my case the USB still gets recordings from the battery cameras while base is offline but due to the historical firmware bug, powered cameras never get usable recordings when the base looses the internet.

[Mrdisappointed]

I wouldn't mind losing 2 hours in the afternoon.  I'm losing 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. every night.

[Noelia]

Every day since a month ago the base station become offline at least two times a day. Arlo didn’t give us an answer. We already reset and installed all the system again. Can you help us?

[ChinJing]

You can try to search through the community for other posts recently with the time zone issue. There are hundreds of posts about the same thing. Not sure if yours has the same issue. Arlo doesn’t know the cause yet.

[RB321]

I was losing recordings on a similar time block. Are you using a schedule to control cameras on and off or status? I was and when I turned that off and only used one rule, it made a big difference to the stability

[ChinJing]

One of our base stations without a usb flash attached may have gone offline this morning around 6:30am pst. But we have removed the flash usb from both our base stations and the offline issue seems to be diminishing. We have not noticed any other times either of the 2 bases went offline without the usb since yesterday. Yesterday with the usb device plugged in the other base station went offline once. So the base stations are still going offline but there is a possibility it’s happening less without a flash drive installed.

[Js68street]

My base station was doing the same thing going offline then back until it completely stopped a week ago This is an ongoing issue that Arlo is well aware of yet has done nothing to reassure us anything is being done. What they are doing is sending out replacement bases but you have to call them. The email I sent creating a ticket aka case number asking for a replacement received absolutely no response from them. When I called I told them I have done all the tech support "fixes" for a week straight with no luck getting the base station online yet they still had me jump through all the hoops again for 45 min before they decided to send a new base then charged $16.99 to ship it. talk about adding insult to injury This is a problem on their end they created via the latest update. At this point when they still wont own up to it I've lost all confidence in this company and this equipment

[ChinJing]

We got a replacement also from arlo but the rma return shipping got messed up - it wouldn’t process the rma return on the computer. Ever time I tried to hit enter it was charging my card but wouldn’t complete the return and sent me back to the previous screen. Eventually I had to call in to get the rma processed. But my card was charged the 16.80$ 6 times. I could not get a refund. I managed to get a refund for 3 of the charges after sending my credit card statement to arlo billing. But I still cannot get the other charges removed. And the replacement still was going offline. We have tried 4 base stations. They all were going offline every day. Today was the first time they went 24 hours without going offline. Someone said to remove the usb flash drives and that seems to have helped. I was also getting emails from arlo saying my flash drive was full - even though I had automatic overwrite on and there was 51gb free space it said there was the free space on the drive in the app and on a laptop. So there is another problem with the usb.

[Dannybear]

You should never give your credit card to arlo they will use it to charge it as they wish.

The customer should not be charged for participation in their fault finding process, especially if the base station has been damaged by their faulty firmware.

Recommend customers demand that that Arlo pay for the new base delivery at no cost to you and for arlo to include the prepaid return label. To suggest otherwise is extortion.

To do otherwise sets a precedent that you are happy accepting their repair costs and so arlo is not liable going forward.

My base still goes offline running the latest firmware, I been using my USB sticks for the last five out of six months reliably.

I suggest the customer should be demanding that Arlo replace our broken USB devices at no cost.

[ChinJing]

Arlo is the only company I have ever remember dealing with that doesn’t let you talk directly to the billing department. When I call their billing department I had to explain the problem to the person who told me to wait on hold while they explain the problem to the billing department. It’s just a game of telephone. What is the point ? Worst experience with a billing department from any company. We have gone almost 2 days without the base station going offline since removing the usb flash drive. We were using a pny. It was suggested by tier 2 tech support that we should remove the usb drive until they can fix the issue. They said it’s possible there is a problem with the firmware and usb that causes the base stations to go offline. We are not sure but we are trying it because for us it’s better not to have local recordings than miss 5 or more hours of all recording and notifications each day.

[Js68street]

So far everything about this company is at the very least unprofessional let alone the run around they give you from billing to support. I wasn't so lucky with the USB drive as for me I pulled it a week before it came up as a possible problem just because I was trying anything and everything to make sure it wasn't on my end and it still went offline. It's been 7 days now without a working system now I'm just waiting on the replacement base and from what I'm reading here chances are slim it will work properly. Last check there was 9000 inquires to this issue so I'm not expecting much