Arlo VMB4500 suddenly stopped Pro 2 cameras and doorbell connection today

[VeronikaTMoore]

Have a network of 4 Pro 2 Cameras connected to 2 base units each, VMB 4000 and VMB4500 and a doorbell.

Today without warning the 2 Cameras and doorbell connected to the VMB4500 base unit stopped communicating with the cloud and did not update the status.

Multiple restarts of the base unit did not fix this.

In the end, I need to remove the cameras that were connected to the VMB4500 and the base unit and the add back (sync) the base unit back and the cameras and doorbell.

I have no idea what happeed.

These are the product versions.

Base , VMB 4500r2, 1.14.0.2 2777

Arlo Pro 2, H5, 1.125.13 31717

Audio Doorbell, 1.3 1.0.0 309 283

Please note that the units occasionally would lose connection the site and reappear a few minutes after and the unit would also appear to lose and regain internet connection.

[ShayneS]

Hi @VeronikaTMoore

When did this issue first occur? Have you tried to reboot your modem & router?

[VeronikaTMoore]

The same problem has happened again today and as before only the VMB4500 was affected the VMB4000 was not.

I tried restarting the internet connection and the unit multiple times and tried the reset multiple times.

When the base unit was started, it would go blue and then about  2 minutes later flash orange.

Eventually after 20 attempts including disconnecting and reconnecting the cat 6 network cable from the unit to the 4g router - the unit finally stayed blue and a reset finally worked, and then I managed to add back one of the two Arlo Pro 2 units and the doorbell.

Looks like the outtage may have listed more than 6 hours

Next time this happens to login to the base unit when directly connected to the network and not via the Arlo app.

I am wondering if the base unit has problems, re-establishing internet connections if the DCHP lease has expired?

Perhaps there should be a way to access the base unit direcly via the USB port in order to check if the orange light problems are camera connectivity, internet connectivity or internet connection cannot access the cloud.

Would be nice if there was a way to periodically backup the arlo configuration on a base unit and restore it, ideally to the USB stick connected to it when a reset is done.

PS - is there any way to force a previously connected Pro 2 camera to redo the sync without pressing the button on it for example if the camera is located high up and a ladder cannot reach it and it's powered by solar panel.

This is importsnt because when you do a reset on the base unit and cameras need to a synced again, the previous sync is not remembered.

[ShayneS]

Hi @VeronikaTMoore

  Have you tried contacting customer support regarding this issue? I have attached the link here for you - Arlo Tech Support

[Fricke]

I have the KNOWN ISSUE, when a USB backup device is plugged into the base station the BS will stop recording videos to both cloud and backup, it will eventually show the middle light off - disconnected to cloud, and then after some time it will reboot. The reboot has grown to a 5 miniute event. Here is my case, "Case 40935203, Base station, with USB backup device plugged in, base station will stop communicating to the cloud (middle light goes out), stops recording video to both cloud and backup device, and then eventually reboots. "

I currently have 6 cases open with support and now recieve "if you do not update the case it will close notifications". So support does nothing and the case closes??? Whats the point of opening the case to get something fixed? I was happy with Arlo when I got the cameras, easy to install/move, easy to configure.. now there many problems and it doesn't seem like Arlo is interested in solving them. I checked with CostCo and was told there is no 90 day return policy on the equipment I purchased and all I need to do is return it for a full refund. One of the main points was the backup device, if power goes out it will still record video as the cameras are on batteries and base station/router/cable modem is on a UPS. So if the power goes out and my ISP goes out too, I will still record videos on the base station backup. This is an important feature to me. Criminal know cut the power cut the cable...  now is I have a USB backup plugged in it pretty much does not function at all for 10 minute blocks of time often. Not a very good system. 

Here is a copy of all my cases, most are not a big problem, all did not exist before. Brand new basestation was tried and did not fix anything. 

Case 40935203, Base station, with USB backup device plugged in, base station will stop communicating to the cloud (middle light goes out), stops recording video to both cloud and backup device, and then eventually reboots.

Case 41069352 Videos tear, freeze, distort, at 11 seconds for about 1 second. Videos are viewed on Galaxy S9 or computer. 156518296060.

Case 41069306, Camera LED night lights come on and off but no video is recorded. Example videos 1528690144349 2^nd camera light, no video, 1545448778056, 1545451969185.

Case 41069309 Galaxy S9 notifications stop counting at 38 notifications but the cloud shows many more videos. Arlo Video Count, Screenshot_20190813-074504_One UI Home. I uninstalled and reinstalled the application, I cleared the cache.

Case 41069312 Galaxy S9 landscape view, when speaker is turned on it cannot be turned off. Must go back to portrait view small view window to turn off speaker function. Screenshot_20190810-112741_Arlo

Case 41069349 Base station, Reboot or power on takes forever, 5 minutes. Was much quicker before.

Case         Base station, 09-02-2019, 1305, as I was speaking to Arlo support the middle light went out. I opened a browser and went to facebook and browsed and then to craigslist and browsed with no issue. I tried to login to the Arlo cloud but was told my base station is still offline. I asked the associate if she can look from her side and she said it was OK. Just then the middle light came on and I was able to login to the Arlo cloud.   

[VeronikaTMoore]

We did the following:

Relocated our VMB4000 and synced our Pro 2 cameras and doorbell to that so that we can switch off the VMB4500 as it's useless. After doing this everything seems to work.

We are fed up with it's VMB4500 flashing orange light it shows so often, it even shows a blue light meaning no problem when there is no internet plugged into it and was found to sometimes create corrupted recordings on the USB stick connected to it - these consisted of other full sizes files that needed to be repaired for a price or 432 byte empty files.

We are contacting Arlo support to try to get a replacement - VMB4000.

With the VMB4000 in use - no more quickly flattening Pro 2's cameras (even with Solar panel) in less than 1 week and doorbell  (in case the doorbell battery flattened in less than 1 day and you could almost watch the charge level go down).

Note that the VMB4500 was working ok for just under a month before it all started going wrong - suggesting that the problem might a bad software update - also the range for the VMB4500 appears to be less than the VMB4000.

[VeronikaTMoore · Accepted solution]

Relocated the VMB4000 unit and reconfigured the devices that were connected to the VMB4500 - 2xPro 2 and Doorbell to use the VMB4000 and since doing that - everything is working properly, no disconnects, no excessive camera battery drain, Cameras connected to Solar panels can charge back to 100% even when triggering more than 200 times a day, no more 5:05 second recordings.

Customer support was contacted and the VMB4500 has been returned and we requested they replace it with another VMB4000.