Arlo Pro 3 camera randomly stops working

[Usmaak]

I have had this camera up and running since early in January. It will work fine for a while, and then it will suddenly stop detecting motion. If I turn the camera off and then back on, it will work for a while and then it stops again. It is happening at least once per week. I have the latest firmware on the camera and the base. The camera is plugged in to an outlet outside. When it is working, it does a great job of picking up motion. When it stops working, it picks up no motion at all. I have tried removing it and re-adding it. I have unplugged it, pulled the battery, put it back, and plugged it back in. Nothing I do works for very long. I have a 1gb up/down connection. It happens at all times of day and night. This last time, it stopped working at 12:13 this afternoon and I noticed it several hours later. 

Any ideas on how I might fix it? Or is it just defective?

[dcfox1]

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@Surch wrote:

Count me as another unhappy customer.  Pretty much the same issues here as well.  Everything worked just fine until the FW update.  1 of my 4 cameras stopped recording and live streaming.  Tried every troubleshoot and went thru 3 chat sessions and 1 live session with a CSR.  No solutions.  They won't send me new hardware because it surpassed the 1 year warranty.  

If you look back to the complaints from 2019 FW update on Pro 2s, you will find the same complaints.  Weird, isn't it?

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If it was the firmware all 4540 Hubs or cams would be down. I have had no problems with latest firmware. 

[Paulgmaple]

This thread was an interesting read.  I purchased Arlo Pro 3 - 3 camera system in October, 2020.  By accident, I noticed certain motions were not being captured.   For instance, the morning paper is delivered at the same time, 6 days a week and the person follows the same path.  On average, the system does not record the motion 2 out of the 6 days.

The problem is intermittent.  I have been in contact with Arlo mainly through the use of the Support through the app. 

Each time, I am given a series of steps to follow.   I follow those steps, without success, and report  my findings back to Arlo.  It takes them several days to get back to me and when they do, I am given another series of steps to follow.  This has now been going on for 5 months.

Looks like I have to resign myself to the fact I bought a lemon.

[MVT]

I was having issues of missed recordings also.  I noticed on the profile where I had selected to record on audio that it was more problematic.  I changed this option to only record based on the camera (motion) and recordings are much more reliable.  My cameras are powered by the outdoor AC power supplied by Arlo and that portion has worked well,  My cameras are installed in a temperate coastal climate that does not get hot nor much below freezing so temperature is not an issue

[Pinocchio]

Arlo Pro 3 has evidently a firmware bug that cause intermittent failures when the camera is used connected to power. After completely resetting the camera by removing the battery, the camera may work fine for a few days until the problem reappears. I presume this is caused by what programmers call a memory leak. Unfortunately this is an issue that is beyond the scope of the help desk as they are limited to basic troubleshooting and will at best offer a hardware replacement when they cannot find a solution. It would thus be extremely unusual that one may be able to have the issue escalated to the programming team, which is where it belongs, more so considering that this problem is being observed by only a limited set of users either because most use their camera with battery only or because they have not realized that their camera is only working intermittently. To limit the frequency of failures, I have connected the camera power to a timer that will automatically reset the connection every hour. I have also added a second camera on battery only pointing to the same area. This second camera misses some features that are critical for me and are only available to cameras with direct power connection but it is still improving my chances to catch a relevant event. I have thus resigned myself to use the lemon and make the best out of it.

[arlo3fail]

I was very interested to read this thread.  I thought I was alone, but it seems that many others have had the same problem.  Support have been totally useless, simply going through their standard menus (remove battery, resync, the signal must be poor, cameras are too close to the hub (really????) etc, etc. 

My system too has power supplies attached - maybe I'll try for a while disconnecting them and see if that helps - but that really shouldn't be the answer.  I'm guessing nobody on here has had a satisfactory fix for this problem (e.g. new firmware)? 

And do support not read these threads?  If so, are they ignoring the problem in the hope we'll go away?   (Hint: the answer is "yes")

[dcfox1]

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@arlo3fail wrote:

And do support not read these threads?  If so, are they ignoring the problem in the hope we'll go away?   (Hint: the answer is "yes")

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@arlo3fail  This is a 4 month old thread but you should contact support if you have not or again since you never said what your problem is. This is a user to user community. 

[Pinocchio]

@dcfox1 

1. That the thread is 4 month old does NOT render it less valid.

2. Suggesting that the user contact support when he clearly refers to his useless experience with the support team is not a particularly useful initiative.

3. It is more than appropriate that a user refers to his experience with his Arlo devices in a user to user community and you have no justification to censure his post.

4. I have some suspicion that this problem might be caused by a defect of the Arlo 3 camera that is beyond repair and that Arlo management may be aware of it and are just letting the one year warranties expire by letting the frustrated users handle Kafkaesque procedures with the support desk, rather than providing a more costly upgrade to a working model.

[arlo3fail]

Thank you for your support, @Pinocchio . 

I have been dealing with so-called Support for several months, and have only just seen this thread, so what does it matter that it is a old thread, the problem is the same as reported by others earlier. 

I have been patient with Arlo, so far, but my patience has run out.  I know that this is a user to user forum, but having seen others with a similar problem, it has now given me the confidence to take this matter further.

As someone who worked in the IT industry all my life, I know the difference between support and obfuscation.  A support team manager who does not take note of what users are saying when there is obviously a common issue should not be in the job.

If I do get anywhere with this complaint, I will let other users know as it may encourage them to not let this rest.

[SilverRain3]

@arlo3fail @Pinocchio  Thank you!!!! Thank you for supporting each other. 

I will say that I gave up on mine and returned it to CostCo where it was purchased as they have an excellent return policy.  I would love to try again but watching these posts tell me that Arlo still continues to ignore the defect. Other than that the cameras and system were awesome. I just can be constantly fixing a defect. I also work in IT and understand that they have no escalation, It is either reboot or replace. 

[arlo3fail]

Such a shame.  When it works, this is a nice CCTV, but when you can't rely on a security system, what use is it?  One of the failures happened to coincide with a local burglary.  The police asked if I had any footage of the street.  Of course, I replied - and then, guess what, a whole half day of recordings around the critical time was missing.

In the end, I today called Amazon where I originally bought the kit.  They have accepted that the system is unfit for its intended purpose, and have offered a refund.  So, if anyone above has similar problems, check whether your supplier has a similar guarantee.  In my humble opinion, Arlo are only interested in the initial sales and cloud storage revenue.  Reliability issues do not seem to register on the balance sheet.