Cameras are not recording after using solar charging panel

[LRoldan72]

When I first installed my cameras they worked great except that I have so much traffic on my street that they would record activity all day long so I had to replace the batteries almost monthly. Then I upgraded my cameras with solar charging panels and it's been all downhill from there. They began to record less and less and have become really flakey. Except one wasn't getting enough sun to charge regularly so I've since hard wired power to this camera but now it won't record at all. I've reset the base station, resynched all cameras individually, updated firmware for all cameras and base station but nothing seems to be helping. I don't know what else to do, any ideas?

[JessicaP · Accepted solution]

Hi @LRoldan72,

Try to remove the battery in your camera and re-insert it back in and see if that helps. And make sure that your camera is shown as armed on the mode section.

[LRoldan72]

The armed mode suggestion did the trick, thanks! I have to ask though, how would it have changed on it's own?

[Dannybear]

If you use the phone App and use the left thumb you can accidentally change the mode setting when you swipe up or down when viewing the mode list.
Alternatively if you use basic activity zones on any of the cameras they can corrupt the modes, rules and schedule entries within the base station.

[LRoldan72]

Thanks for the response, I never go into the modes though so I'm not sure how that could be the issue but the base station and corruption is an interesting thought. Speaking of that, my base station has also been losing internet connection lately too. I know it's not my internet going down because no other device go offline, any thoughts there? Corruption maybe?

[Dannybear]

When you say that the base is losing internet connection, can you provide further detail?
E.g. Does the internet led go out or goes yellow. Do you loose connection using the App or browser.

[LRoldan72]

When using the app, all cameras show "your Arlo device is offline. Please make sure it is connected to the internet. Visit support.arlo.com for help". I just reset the base station before I saw this response so I can't say with 100% certainty but I believe the internet LED was yellow. Resetting the base brought it back online.

[Dannybear]

It will likely recur again, but to be proactive check that the Ethernet connector on the base is not loose.

[LRoldan72]

I really need to figure this out or just scrap this whole system. I had an incident about 2 weeks ago that the cameras didn't catch which has made me pay more attention to this system and I really want it to work but the base station goes offline daily and I'm getting tired of resetting it every day. Any ideas what could be causing it to lose its internet connection all the time?

[Dannybear]

At a guess the firmware is running amok because the base has been damaged and vice versa.

Get onto support and replace the base station.

This will not prevent damage to the new base, but placing it on a ups and never power cycling the base would be a good start.

[LRoldan72]

I'm considering wiping my system and starting fresh. Any thoughts or advice on trying this?

[Dannybear]

I’m not sure how old your system is but I have not lost any further functionality since opening a new arlo account and installing the hardware.

Having said this I still retain the legacy issues in the base.

I did this as I was concerned that someone or some third party App was hacking the system via the account access as was previously flagged as a concern by Arlo.

If you wish to go this way with a new login and your issue is related to damage to the base then it will not fix it. A base replacement will.

If it is just a reload you want to do I can suggest the following. Read the FAQ’s first.

Deactivate the cameras from your profile page.

Remove the cameras from your devices page.

Remove the base station from the devices page.

Perform a factory reset of the base station to remove the serial from your account.

Delete cashe and App from mobile devices.

Reinstall on new or existing account.

Hope this helps.