Bought a house with Arlo installed

[xjyang]

I bought this house from a seller. The house has the Arlo base station and some Arlo cameras installed. I was not left with any useful information regarding what are the types of these devices and how to set them up.  I just plug-in the base station into my wifi router's ethernet jack, power it, download the Arlo app on my cell phone, and successfully pared the 3 wireless cameras inside the house. That works fine.

But the house has 5 more Arlo cameras installed on the outside wall; some were installed in reachable locations, but others were installed in very high locations. All 5 cameras seem to be using wired power. Using a ladder I was able to touch one of the 5 wired cameras. But when I pressed the "sync" button (short or long), no lights blink. So, I was unable to add this outside camera into my app; not to say others that are much higher.

I guess the previous owner should have all those cameras working, and by doing some googling, I got to know that if I press the "sync" button on the base station, it will find and connect all the previously working cameras. But even if I pressed the "sync" button several times (short and long), nothing changed - the device still can see only 3 inside cameras that I have paired before.

My questions are:

1)  How can I set up all the outside wired cameras to work? Do I really need to climb that high to press those sync buttons?

2) Is it possible that the previous owner still can see the cameras installed in my house? How can I be certain that he cannot?

Thank you in advance!

John

[StephenB]

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@xjyang wrote:

1)  How can I set up all the outside wired cameras to work? Do I really need to climb that high to press those sync buttons?

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Yes.  Though I think I'd take the cameras down, and sync them near the base station.  Check that they have batteries inside.  Perhaps also check the there is actually power reaching the cameras.

Also, you can then tell us the camera models.

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@xjyang wrote:

2) Is it possible that the previous owner still can see the cameras installed in my house? How can I be certain that he cannot?

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If the cameras and base are now in your account, the previous owner cannot access them (unless you choose to share them).

The cameras that aren't in your account yet are another story.  We don't have enough information to know what he can or can't do there.  It'd be useful to know what the camera models are.
 

[xjyang]

Thanks for your quick response!

So, you mean those wired cameras cannot be paired using the same way I paired for the inside wireless cameras? For inside cameras, I just used the Arlo app and put my phone close to them. I didn’t need to bring those cameras close to the base station.

Also, could you share me a link that shows how to unplug/plug Arlo wired cameras?

Thank you very much!

John

[StephenB]

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@xjyang wrote:

So, you mean those wired cameras cannot be paired using the same way I paired for the inside wireless cameras?

Not sure how to answer that, without details on the camera model.

Arlo doesn't actually offer wired outdoor cameras, though the outdoor cameras can be AC powered (either with or without the battery).  I am wondering they actually are getting any power.

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@xjyang wrote:

Also, could you share me a link that shows how to unplug/plug Arlo wired cameras?

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I don't know of any link.  The outdoor cameras either use a magnetic connector or a standard microUSB connector.

If you are seeing something very different (coax for example), then it'd be good to confirm that they are in fact Arlo cameras.

[xjyang]

Hi StephenB,

Regarding your statement "I am wondering they actually are getting any power", I would say "yes, they are". Because I can see that they are blinking periodically (red light) whenever I stand below it. 

And for your statement "it'd be good to confirm that they are in fact Arlo cameras", I would also say "yes, they are". Because I can see the logo "arlo" clearly on their body.

I will take a more detailed scrutinization to them, and come back if I have any new findings.

Thank you!

John

[jguerdat]

The slow blinking amber LED on the camera means the battery is too low. Since you seem to believe that there's AC power applied to them, you need to check both ends of the power cable to determine if they actually have power. You also need to charge the batteries, either by using an indoor charger after you dismount the cameras and bring them in or by actually applying that AC power using an outdoor charger.

[xjyang]

Yes, I have found that some of the previously believed wired cameras are actually wireless! And the slow-blinking LEDs on the cameras indeed indicate that they have very low batteries. I took some of the cameras down and recharged them, and now they have been paired successfully. Other cameras are still left on the wall because they are too high for me to reach. I think I will leave them there for some time.

Thanks very much for all of your help!

John