Arlo Pro Battery Lasting 2 Days

[Emilia_P]

Hi, I bought Arlo not long ago. And batt were fine for both camera. Then it ran out.
However, after I charged them (first time charging them after I bought couple months ago), now the batt only lasted 2-3 days.
I did check, I charged them to 100 percent, and until blue lights were on before I unplugged them.
Is that mean I bought Arlo with faulty batt? How to get replacement ? Do I go back to the store where I bought them ?
Thank you for your help. 🙏

[AncientGeek · Accepted solution]

Did you place the cameras back exactly where they were before?  Has the amount of activity or camera viewing changed?  Is the camera position relative to the base and your router the same?

Usually rapid battery drain is caused by:

1. A lot of motion events and recording time

2. Interference with the signal due to the camera position relative to the base and router.  If the Wi-Fi router (access point more precisely) is between your Arlo base and the camera, that can cause very rapid battery drain.

3. Poor signal quality as reported by the camera.  How many bars of signal show up on the devices screen for the camera? 

4. Base station offline or unreachable by the camera.

Try power cycling the base station.  Try power cycling the cameras by removing and replacing the battery.

After checking these, if nothing is obvious and there is no improvement, try removing the cameras from the base station in the Arlo app and then synchronize them again with the base station and redeploy them. 

[Emilia_P]

Hi There,

Thank you so much for your reply and help. 

I tried to power cycling it last night, and it still didnt work for both camera. 

I checked the signal, it was good (full bar), and no, I always make sure it disarmed when I'm at home. 

Yesterday, when I was writing this mail, they were at 47% batt, this morning when I woke up, it was at 17%, and not long after, I've got notification to ask me to charge the batt again. (I just charged these batt 2 days ago)

And this is the 3rd times I've charged them in 2 weeks time. 

How long should I be charging these batt? only until the blue light on and I checked the apps, as soon as it said 100%, I unplugged the charging cable or I must keep charging it for hours and hours before I unplugged it? 

Is there a phone number I can ring so I can ask the company ? Anybody know ?

Thank you so much again for helping. 

[AncientGeek]

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@Emilia_P wrote:

Hi There,

Thank you so much for your reply and help. 

I tried to power cycling it last night, and it still didnt work for both camera. 

I checked the signal, it was good (full bar), and no, I always make sure it disarmed when I'm at home. 

Yesterday, when I was writing this mail, they were at 47% batt, this morning when I woke up, it was at 17%, and not long after, I've got notification to ask me to charge the batt again. (I just charged these batt 2 days ago)

And this is the 3rd times I've charged them in 2 weeks time. 

How long should I be charging these batt? only until the blue light on and I checked the apps, as soon as it said 100%, I unplugged the charging cable or I must keep charging it for hours and hours before I unplugged it? 

Is there a phone number I can ring so I can ask the company ? Anybody know ?

Thank you so much again for helping. 

---

You are welcome.  We are a community!

You find the link to the Supoort page on the bottom of the Arlo web pages.  There is a green button part way down on the right that says “Contact Supoort”.  The phone number is at the bottom of that next page.  Grab a comfortable chair and a glass of wine....or two.  I’ll post the link at the bottom of this reply.

Before you call them.  Did you try removing the battery and replacing it?  When you said “full bar” of signal, I assume you mean all three bars, not just one bar.  I have spare batteries and a charger, but as I recall, you do charge the camera until the blue light comes on.  It doesn’t have to be longer than that.  Since I always swap my batteries, my cameras always have the battery removed at every “recharge”.  Did you try removing and replacing the battery?  If yes and you are still having the problem, I suspect you will be told to remove the cameras from the base Vic’s the app and then resync them to the base.  Since they have already been associated with the base, I understand you don’t need to move the cameras “to within 3-5 feet of the base” as I believe the instructions indicate.  If you are bringing them in to charge them anyway, try popping the battery out and replacing it.   Watch the blue light on the front as it powers up and reacquires the base.  Then remove the device and recsync it to the base.  Good diagnostic technique would be to do these separately to see which one (if either) fixes the problem, but you could just do both and if it fixes the problem, you may not care which one did it...and if it doesn’t, you will have saved some time by trying both at once.

Here is the link to the contact page from the Support page, if that doesn’t work.  You will have done a few things they will recommend already, so unless they ask you to repeat those steps, it might speed up your interaction with them.

https://www.arlo.com/en-us/support/contact.aspx

[Emilia_P]

Thank You So very much!!! 

I will all those, and hope it will work. Thank you again. 

[AncientGeek]

You are welcome!  Good luck.

[loulou3019]

Any update? I am having the same issue with the rechargeable batteries. I wasn’t having this issue before but now the batteries are dying every other day

[AncientGeek]

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@loulou3019 wrote:
Any update? I am having the same issue with the rechargeable batteries. I wasn’t having this issue before but now the batteries are dying every other day

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Have you tried tied all of the recommendations above?  I have 16 battery-only Arlo cameras (original, Pro & Pro 2).  Battery depletion rates have not changed in my experience as a result of recent software and firmware updates.  I also have four Arlo cameras on solar panels and they appear to be functioning the same as always.

[Emilia_P]

Hi there,

Is this the first time you are charging your arlo batt? 

So for mine, it was my first time charging the batt, and it didnt work. Until the fifth times I am charging it, and then all of the sudden, now the batts are both ok. 

I have no idea why! it prob need a few charge before it can work properly.

Try contact arlo as well. They will replace your batt with no charge as long as its still under warranty. 

Good luck! 

[Grayson159]

I purchased my Arlo System 7 days ago and installed it 5 days ago.  Less than 3 days passed and one camera died indicating the battery needed recharging.  I use 5 cameras outside and the sixth inside.  So I rotated the camera 6 to the position of Camera 1 and recharged it.  Now camera 2 is about to die with less than 10% charge and camera is down to 50%  of the 6 cameras, these cameras (1 & 2) see the most activity.  I was told by the Best Buy representatives that charging would be required every 3-4 months.  Is there an adjustment I must make?  Are these 2 batteries possibly defective?  The cameras are viewing over 7 motions per day with the majority on cameras 1,2 & 3.  All 3 of thes cameras are angled from our home toward the streets to watch our cars and property which has been damaged by poor drivers.  I noticed there is a clock feature which I am not able to figure out how to set....That might be part of the solution.  Please provide answers/guidance. 

[AncientGeek]

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@Grayson159 wrote:

I purchased my Arlo System 7 days ago and installed it 5 days ago.  Less than 3 days passed and one camera died indicating the battery needed recharging.  I use 5 cameras outside and the sixth inside.  So I rotated the camera 6 to the position of Camera 1 and recharged it.  Now camera 2 is about to die with less than 10% charge and camera is down to 50%  of the 6 cameras, these cameras (1 & 2) see the most activity.  I was told by the Best Buy representatives that charging would be required every 3-4 months.  Is there an adjustment I must make?  Are these 2 batteries possibly defective?  The cameras are viewing over 7 motions per day with the majority on cameras 1,2 & 3.  All 3 of thes cameras are angled from our home toward the streets to watch our cars and property which has been damaged by poor drivers.  I noticed there is a clock feature which I am not able to figure out how to set....That might be part of the solution.  Please provide answers/guidance. 

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I don’t know what a “System 7” is, but ....  Please read this entire thread.  I believe everything you need to know is here.

[michaelkenward]

Are you seeking advice on how to deal with this issue?

If so, as @AncientGeek says, there is plenty here to get you going. For example, did you read this one?

Solved: Re: Arlo Pro Battery - Arlo Communities

[Emilia_P]

Hi, 

Thank  you so much for helping everyone. 

My Arlo's Batt issue has been solved. 

After Charging it for the 5th times, the batts are now good. 

Thank you again for helping. 

[AncientGeek]

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@Emilia_P wrote:

Hi, 

Thank  you so much for helping everyone. 

My Arlo's Batt issue has been solved. 

After Charging it for the 5th times, the batts are now good. 

Thank you again for helping. 

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That was a weird one.  I wonder if it was indeed due to some odd battery problem or if some other root cause was solved coincidentally in the time it took to discharge and recharge your batteries 5 times.

Remember the good old days when we could say "Are your sure it is plugged in?" and that solved half of the problems.

[goshen14]

My one camera drains batteries within days. I have moved it and recharged at least once a week. Now we are on vacation, of course, and I got a notice that my camera had 15% battery life left. I had turned the camera off a few days ago and it seems like the camera is draining the battery even when it's not on. Is this possible? Thanks

[AncientGeek]

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@goshen14 wrote:

My one camera drains batteries within days. I have moved it and recharged at least once a week. Now we are on vacation, of course, and I got a notice that my camera had 15% battery life left. I had turned the camera off a few days ago and it seems like the camera is draining the battery even when it's not on. Is this possible? Thanks

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In my experience, if a camera is struggling to communicate with the base, even if the camera is turned off, the battery will drain quickly.  I had exactly this experience with an Arlo camera in a closet facing my WiFi router lights.  I have the Arlo connected to a NETGEAR MR1100 LTE router as a backup to my broadband connection.  I have a smart plug also connected to the LTE router WiFi SSID, so I can power cycle my cable modem and watch the lights remotely.  The closet is electronically noisy and the battery drained quickly.  I was able to plug that camera into power, so I was lucky.

I have also seen batteries drain rapidly when the WiFi router was physically between the Arlo base and Arlo cameras.   Separation both horizontally and in elevation was a quick fix.  I moved the base to a high shelf, away from the router.

[goshen14]

Thanks, I'll give those suggestions a try. Unfortunately, this camera is outside and I can't plug it in but I will try the other suggestions. Thanks.

[AncientGeek]

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@goshen14 wrote:

Thanks, I'll give those suggestions a try. Unfortunately, this camera is outside and I can't plug it in but I will try the other suggestions. Thanks.

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Yes.  I was very fortunate in this particular case.  However, I have had at least one case when direct power was not a reasonable option.  That’s when I learned about the importance of relative position and reasonable distance between the WiFi router and Arlo base.  That problem was solved immediately by moving the base three or four feet higher and slightly away from the router.

good luck!

[michaelkenward]

This might be one of those circumstances where a solar charger makes sense.

After, that is, you try getting a better signal to the camera, as @AncientGeek suggests.