Arlo Smart still detecting animals when turned off.

[fritzKU]

Just upgraded subscription to use smart features, but cameras are still detecting and recording animals, even though I went in and turned off that option. What gives? Not worth it if it doesn't keep notifications you don't want away!

[Retired_Member]

You can enable or disable notifications, camera by camera, for each category - person, animal, vehicle etc. - but every time something moves in front of the camera it will be recorded.  You just won't get a notification from the app for animals if you disable that category of Smart notification on a camera.

You wouldn't want a security system that would fail to record a burglar if they could send a trained dog ahead of them to 'distract' the camera, resulting in the recording getting dumped.  Any large moving object in front of the camera, inside an Activity Zone, will be recorded, but you can specify what you want kinds of notifications you want.

*EDIT - corrected typo*

[Dannybear]

Smart notifications, the camera still needs to detect and upload recordings to the cloud so the arlo servers can decide when to notify you.

[dcfox1]

To add you will still get recordings as they do not get disgarded like Activity Zone recordings.  But no Notification for those turned off.  

[fritzKU]

So why is my ring doorbell so much smarter than arlo?  It doesn't record any animals. I'm pretty sure I know why I'm still getting alerts. It's because I have Arlo security lights attached to cams. Is there any way to create a custom mode to remedy this, other than not using the lights? I swear I get more motion alerts on my lights now than when I hadn't unchecked any of the motion options? Frustrated because old batteries are having to be charged every other week. Can't find any official Arlo replacement batteries for pro2 at a reasonable price either.

[Dannybear]

The pro2 cameras use a infrared sensor located below the camera lens.
When it senses the motion of an object it triggers the camera to start streaming. The stream then goes back to the arlo server to determine what caused the event.
If the lights are triggered by the camera or other then this could confuse the arlo AI to default to notifications.
You can adjust the sensitivity of the camera motion sensor via the camera rules for the active mode that is set.
Reducing the sensitivity should help reduce the camera recordings and notifications.

[Retired_Member]

That's not what people are trying to say.

I have a 4 camera Pro3 system.

Activity zones set

Different modes set up for different scenarios

Package detection OFF

Animal detection OFF

But even then although my cameras will still record my cats I should NOT receive a notification about that event.

Last night I received TWELVE notifications, all of them 30 second clips of my cats wandering about at my front door.

It seems to be totally random whether this happens one day or the next.

Also, when I do get a trigger that piques my interest it shouldn't take upwards of 30 seconds to see the action live.

If my mobile phone can stream 4K video via a satellite in OUTER SPACE from Youtube or send a video call across the world in real time (apple facetime) then why do the Arlo servers take so long to react?

I watch back event clips and I'm hearing the audio 4 seconds before the video, like my garden gate slamming before the person has went through.

For a system that has cost me upwards of £1200 not including monthly subscription the service for any of it is atrocious.

[Retired_Member]

Something else that rubs me the wrong way, without cloud, you can us the USB local record feature, but to view these recordings you need to remove the USB device and plug into a PC?

If my network can detect the USB device is there then why can't the mobile app access it to view clips?

Why?

because then no one would pay for the cloud service, which is atrociously bad, and therefore this must be a deliberate action on the part of Arlo to prevent USB access via mobile.

A thorough review of the system is needed, better software engineers are also needed, the smart notifications system is fundamentally flawed, the ability to differentiate needs to be built into the cameras and not the servers.

[StephenB]

---

@Retired_Member wrote:

Last night I received TWELVE notifications, all of them 30 second clips of my cats wandering about at my front door.

---

Are these labeled as "animal"  Or "all other motion"?

[StephenB]

---

@Retired_Member wrote:

Something else that rubs me the wrong way, without cloud, you can us the USB local record feature, but to view these recordings you need to remove the USB device and plug into a PC?

---

If you have a VMB4540 smarthub, there is a way to see the recordings in the app (w/o removing the USB drive).

• https://kb.arlo.com/000062337/What-is-Direct-Storage-Access-and-how-do-I-use-it-for-Arlo-video-recordings

[Retired_Member]

Doesn't work on pc, so when at my desk I can't use my pc to view usb recordings, if I could use the app I would but it couldn't do it either so possibly only a US feature.

I did say that in my comment.

I have the 4540 revision 2 hub.

[StephenB]

---

@Retired_Member wrote:

if I could use the app I would but it couldn't do it either so possibly only a US feature.

---

It's not a US-only feature.  FWIW, they implemented it because there was a world-wide backlash when they dropped 7-day free cloud storage on the Ultra (which of course they have continued with all the new cameras).  Personally I suspect that the limitations in the feature cost them more business than they gain in extra subscription revenue.  A lot of people with old cameras won't upgrade them because they want to keep the free storage.

There is a problem here that affects some smarthubs.  One of my VMB5000s works properly - letting me see local storage from the iOS app.  The other doesn't, even though it is configured the same way.  Recordings are still stored on it, but I need to eject the microSD card.  As I do have a subscription, it isn't a big problem for me.

Arlo knows about it, but I haven't heard anything from them lately on it.  I'm leaving the system as it is, in hopes they will eventually fix it.  

[GrandmamaDeb]

I also have animal detection turned off but still get them, I’m so sick of it. 😭

[Somiskel]

Same!  I don’t understand why.  
May front yard camera dies daily because it keeps picking up my dogs…but animal smart notification is set to off.  I only have people set. 
mite driving me nuts

[StephenB]

---

@Somiskel wrote:

May front yard camera dies daily because it keeps picking up my dogs…

---

Smart notifications only filter notification - they don't change the amount of video the camera captures.  So they will not improve battery life.

[Somiskel]

Same with me.  I have gone round and round with Arlo.  I have my smart detection for animals OFF and my camera dies within a day because my dogs are setting it off, even though they shouldn’t be.  Did you ever find a fix?

[Somiskel]

Correct. But if the smart notification worked the way it should, my camera wouldn’t be going off every 2 minutes. 
I have ANIMAL smart notification off, but it still notifies me of an animal allllllll day long. 

[DannyBearAgain]

You need to remove the dog from the camera FOV to stop the camera detecting motion. The arlo object detection is a cloud based service and so requires the camera to upload the video to internet for each event. This is why the camera battery goes flat quicker.

 I would suggest to externally powering the camera to keep the battery charged would resolve the issue of the battery going flat. A solar panel may not give you enough so consider using an outdoor charger cable and adapter.

[Somiskel]

I don’t have the option to keep the dog out of the view of the camera & that is why I have my smart notifications to people only.  All other motion, vehicles and animals are off and I get notified alllllll the time that the camera picked up animal even tho it’s not suppose to be…so the camera is going off non stop. 
I don’t know what else to do.  Arlo tried helping me, but nothing the suggested worked

I charge it in the house daily. 

[DannyBearAgain]

The arlo smart notifications will alert you to objects it doesn’t recognise and will label them as motion.

Is it possible that you’re getting motion labels for when the dog triggered the camera even when you have smart animal notifications disabled?

 If otherwise the issue is with the arlo smart notifications service and you should open a fault case with arlo to action them to fix it. 

[Somiskel]

They aren’t being labeled as motion, they are being labeled as animal.  

I’ve tried to go through arlo and they have walked me through every step to fix and it doesn’t work… it has to be an issue if multiple other people on this thread are saying the same thing.

[StephenB]

---

@Somiskel wrote:

They aren’t being labeled as motion, they are being labeled as animal.  

---

If you are using email notifications, then this is expected - the smart notification filtering unfortunately only applies to push notifications.

[Somiskel]

I am not sure what you mean.  But I have the app on my phone and it pops up at animal in front yard.

it’s not labeled as motion but animal…my animal smart notification is off but animals still trigger it. 

[StephenB]

---

@Somiskel wrote:

I am not sure what you mean.  

---

Email notifications would show up in your email account, as well are on the phone notification screen. Are you seeing them in your email?

---

@Somiskel wrote:

 But I have the app on my phone and it pops up at animal in front yard.

it’s not labeled as motion but animal…my animal smart notification is off but animals still trigger it. 

---

Obviously it shouldn't be doing that.  Have you tried power-cycling the base and camera?

One thing you could play with is the motion detection threshold.

• https://kb.arlo.com/41/How-do-I-change-the-motion-sensitivity-on-my-Arlo-camera

Use the motion detection test (moving around yourself in the field of view).  See if a lower threshold will detect you reliably.  The lower threshold will result in fewer triggers by the animals.

[Somiskel]

I am not receiving them in my email. I have toggle the motion on and off. I have reset the camera I have reinstalled the app the only thing I haven’t tried is lowering the threshold.  I will try that