Cameras Offline

[yellow_flash]

Hi,

My cameras are having issues remaining "online". Recordings and the live view are no longer working even though I am getting real-time motion detection alerts. This is extremely frustrating as I pay for a CVR plan for both affected cameras. Not only is the CVR functionality inhibited because of this issue, but normal motion detection recordings are not even uploading to Arlo's cloud.

I've tried the following to troubleshoot:
- Rebooting the base station (this works, but then I lose ALL the recordings from any motion detection events or CVR for that matter)
- Turning the cameras on and off
- Removing and adding the cameras is an issue as I am remote for most of the time.

What's worse is I can't even create a case with Arlo support because there was an "unexpected error" that wants me to reach out to Support. 

[Headers]

I'm beginning to suspect that my problem with my Arlo Pro going offline constantly is not due to mobile coverage (SIM installed not WiFi enabled). I installed a camera at a holiday home 2hrs away for security reasons. I have had constant problems with the camera going offline. Reported to support and they explained how the camera goes into "safe" mode if there is a problem with signal. I told them the Arlo system needs a diagnostic backup so that you know what has caused the problem. I have had no reply or feedback from support. Support is quite poor compared to other technologies I have purchased over the years. Sometimes the camera comes back online itself after 7-10 days. Other times I have had to drive to the location and physically reset the camera. Take battery out, wait 2 minutes, put battery back in. But even then, sometimes in a short time the camera will go offline again. There is no pattern -its all over the place. I have very good 4G mobile reception at the site so that shouldn't be a worry. Hence, after reading a few comments here today I am suspecting the ARLO system or servers may be the culprit for going offline.

[Ripcrip]

I confirm. it's a general and global problem at Arlo but they dare not admit it. I think they can not afford after the release of netgear capital, to operate the system. it's serious..

[Mavrrick]

The Arlo Pro 2 doesn't use your house wifi but the Wifi from the base station. So is your base station going offline, or is your camera going offline. 

If it is the base station is it directly connect to your router or your network via ethernet like it should. Where ever it is located it should be directly connect via wire all the way to your internet provider.

If it is the camera then you may want to add another Base station to extend the range of the one you have, or simply move the base station closer to the camera.

If you want to not have the dependency on the base station's wifi then look at the Arlo Q or Arlo Q Plus. Both of which don't need access to a base station just your inhome wifi. The limitation they have is that because they don't have a central base station between them they don't exactly play together.

[Fonzie1973]

So i solved my problem yesterday with the following actions.

-I charged all my battery's to full.

-Rebooting router

-Rebooting basestation. (green light for charging, geen light for internet,  no light for the camera's?)

-Dit the sync again for all of the camera's and it worked.

I don't know what caused the issue for the disconnect of all the camera's. 

[Arrowj35]

when I bought my pro 2 system back in December of 18 they worked great for about couple months but seems like after some of their new app updates mind do this all the time now it's aggravating I wish they would give me my money back.

[Headers]

My bad - my camera is an ARLO GO (not 2). So I posted my original comments in the wrong forum. However, my original case numbers were 40987517 & 41095715. So, if anyone from Arlo support is monitoring I need a reply  which has been absent from my first 2 support requests). I am now considering going back to retailer to obtain a full refund or credit. The camera has now been offline for 12 days and hasn't re- awakened which occurred in previous off- line outages. 

[wellfleetion]

1. It’s wired for power and is about 25ft from the base station outside my busy street/front entrance way above the door. It was working fine the first week, perfectly, so perfectly I was beginning to think Arlo got their **bleep** together (I had another unit that was constantly going offline and I returned it months later under the BB extended warranty). Well like my prior Arlo “Pro” 2 “security” camera system this too just went offline and has been for the last 5 hours. I can’t wait to get home from work to get out and then climb a later to troubleshoot after working 2 jobs today!!!  The only reason I bought this was b/c it was on sale for$149 and I noted it had a different base station (round with no USB connection for external storage) and I hoped these issue would be fixed. Well here we go again they aren’t! My mistake AGAIN! My last unit I brought to the attention of the BBB. This is sooo ridiculous. I can’t believe this.

[Skihouse]

Funny thing...Arlo asks my opinion on the community and their support. I give it a negative review and how we all feel, hit submit... and lo and behold...an error message! Coincidence...I think not.

There are soooo many others having off line camera problems and Arlo support does absolutely NOTHING!

This company will be bankrupt soon, mainly because their customer support is NON EXISTENT.

I'll be banging them up with a very negative review.

I'm also back in the market for another wire free security camera system.

Can you tell I'm happy.

[seoidau]

I have realised that my two Arlo Pro 2 cameras have not detected anything at all all day today. The last notification was 23 hours ago. Today, twice I have walked past them, and tonight a third time walking right up to one and waving at it for a few seconds.

I bought my Arlo Pro kit nearly two years ago, and additional Pro 2 cameras (in use) subsequently since.

Given how appallingly unreliable your products are, why am I considering buying an Ultra kit? Why should I continue with your notorious unreliability?

I am seriously considering buying a new kit, then tonight realised that my existing system hasn't done anything all day. So I am seriously asking why.

[TomMac]

I'd reboot the base via the power button to see if that fixes issue.

[vickster69]

3 wifi camera's,same issue for the last 9 months.

no consistency. Currently sitting here for a hour while the base switches itself on and off,sound on camera's is there,then gone,camera's "connecting' but never do.

Batteries in all camera's lasting only a few days, so all plugged in and still saying they barely charge.

I want my money back and will never purchase again.

[ShayneS]

HI @vickster69

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

[DaniB]

When you say "if your base is too close to your router" how close is too close? I've been having these same issues and my base currwntly plugs into my router so limited with how far it can be away. Any ideas? Strange thing is, I still get motion detection alerts, but my app (android & up to date) shows base & cameras offline. ?? I'm baffled.

[DaniB]

Same same, I get motion detection alerts even when app says offline. If I close app, sometimes it shows online, sometimes I have to do this several times. That said, my base light flashes red reasonably frequently too 😞

[ShayneS]

HI @DaniB

I was suggest contacting customer support I will provide the link for you here: Arlo Tech Support

[DaniB]

Thanks, I will do.

[Devearne3]

We have spent over 1,200.00 on this with the solar panels plus geek squad and other items for it. Both cameras worked well for the first 3 months, then would start loosing charge and batteries had to be changed/charged every 5 to 7 days. Even had to buy extra batteries.

 because the charging station for them takes all day to charge them. Finally we discovered the solar panels were draining the batteries more. So we disconnected them, then the batteries would last about 2 weeks. This was still unacceptable having to climb up and down ladders to charge and change. So we finally decided to just wire them with the correct wires and adapters. One camera has worked flawlessly now for apx. 3 weeks with the battery still in and keeping it on 100%. The other camera will work for close to 3 days and then goes offline. Have to go outside and remove battery, reset, etc., then it works for about 2-3 more days and goes offline again and again. The base station has nothing to do with it (tried all that too). Really disgusted we bought this expensive system that does not work. Fixing to take this camera and the solar panels back to get new camera and credit for panels. Thing is, the new camera we get could be bad too after the luck we have had. Everyone we talked to where we purchase say they just bought inexpensive game type cameras that hold AA batteries and work with sd card and have no problem. My brother also has this with no problem and even has much better pictures than arlo. It makes me sick that we purchased this. If the new camera doesn't work, we are going to buy the outdoor gaming camera.

[BarbaraButler]

This is without a doubt the most worthless *** I have ever bought. Support? ha. Good luck on getting them to answer a phone, they are afraid they will get the virus. CHAT? Same thing. This **** keeps knocking me off line and telling me I have timed out. Sign back and and around and around you go in circles. A few more days of this and it's going back to Lowe's where I bought it. I can't stand technology that does not work and dealing with this ** is not worth having a camera to see what or who is on my property. Jeez.!!!!!! 

[HOB370]

More on this issue.

I have had the Arlo Pro 2 system (base station with 4 cameras) working perfectly for just over two years now).

All of a sudden the cameras begin to go offline, all at once. 

I reconnect them, and they work for a couple of hours, then go offline again.

My internet connection is stable and I have not moved the cameras or the base station since they were installed. All cameras are fully charged.

Arlo Chat hangs up on me. The 2-year statutory warranty (under Swedish law) ran out just before the problems begun.

Seems like many have the same problem, but does anyone have a solution?

[Skihouse]

I've had mine for about 2 years as well. I have 3 camera's.

These are at our vacation home in a neighboring state about a 3 hour drive away.

I have one inside and 2 outside.

They worked well for a while. Now they continuously go off line.

The one farthest away from the base station is no more than 100' away.  

I have to climb a ladder to take them down and recharge them ALL THE TIME because the battery dies out when they go offline.

I've tried moving the base station so there is the least amount of walls to go thru. I have the base station sitting about 5 feet from the modem and about 5 feet off the floor.

I've tried everything and obviously, they're now all out of warranty.

ARLO and so does their support system...and that's if you can get through! And good luck getting someone that speaks understandable english.

I'm now looking for a new wire-free system. A couple of friends have the Blink system and they seem to like it.

[Reallyconfused]

So, a quick look at the other threads remind me of just how unreliable this system is but does not actually answer my question. 

WHY is my device off line??

Every few weeks one of my 5 cameras goes offline. (Where it goes, I haven’t a clue! Vacation?) This is not new to me as it has been going on from when I purchased them almost a year ago. And based on reports here in the forum, it’s a known issue.

It can happen to one of the battery powered units or one plugged into ac, and totally random. Not one camera is free of this fault.

The wifi indicators show a healthy level whenever I check, and I find them to be pretty consistent so I don’t think it’s that. 
The irritating part is having to climb up, remove, take in the house, delete, pair, go back outside, climb up, and remount the cameras. (I typed all those steps individually to further my point!) Then all is fine until the next random failure.

So the question, and I direct this to our fine group of moderators as they should be well versed in this by now, is:

WHY does this continue to happen?

Are you,  Arlo aware of the issue? Has it been traced back to hardware or software?

Are you working on a solution? And when is it coming?

When the system works it really is a nice system, but the flaws are to many at the price paid. ( I will not go into how poorly my activity zones are working right now, that’s for a different thread!)

I await your response.

Thank-You in advance.

[Reallyconfused]

So....that makes me want to return for future advice.

[StephenB]

You specifically asked Arlo, and most of the folks here are other users.  You perhaps should contact Arlo Support via live chat or phone: https://www.arlo.com/en-us/support/contact.aspx

One of my bases sometimes goes offline - I think that is happening when the firmware is updated.  The next time it happens to you, you could look here and see if a firmware update has been posted.

[Reallyconfused]

Yes, and I was hoping Arlo mediators might chime in. No need for the lengthy back and forth with customer service as I’m sure there is nothing they can do.
Just some basic insight from the knowledgeable Arlo moderators would be quick and simple, as I know they are privy to these sorts of things.

No. No firmware update. Just random camera issues.

[Skihouse]

Thank you for posting.

This is exactly what I've been experiencing ever since I bought this system almost 2 years ago.

The sad part is, I had a choice between a few different systems to monitor our vacation home. 

After doing a lot of research and reading a ton of info and reviews on different wire-free systems , I chose the Arlo Pro 2 Wire-Free system.

I couldn't more disappointed!!!

Offline issues are so frustrating as I have to climb a ladder every time I go to our home to recharge and sync the camera's to the base system.  The camera's are no more than 80' away from the base.

The house is in another state 3hrs away.

When it's working, I like it. But one or both of the outdoor camera's end up offline sooner or later.

It seems that technical help from Arlo is nonexistent. You'd think that with all the folks piping in with the same "offline" issues, Arlo would respond to their customers with a solution.

Maybe they need upgrade their software.

I'm looking at the Blink wireless system now. A few friends have it, and love it! They say it's very dependable!

Arlo, please help us with a solution...at least respond to all these threads.