Motion reported as SmartHub rather than camera name

[mharps]

Hi,

Not sure why but we keep getting notifications advising that motion was detected on our base station.

Unable to find anything about this in the manual, in the Community discussions nor via searches on the internet.

Have a USB drive attached and video recordings are saved to it.

Unable to find a reason for any sort of motion with the base station.

Anyone experienced this?

How can I stop it occurring?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Cheers,

Mike

[Kaynadian]

@K80Shooter Thanks so much! I missed that comment. 

@JamesC could you kindly give us an update regarding this issue?

[User12100]

For what it is worth, i just communicated with Arlo support who told me there is no ETA for resolution. Stranger in my opinion is that i first followed the instruction to remove and reinstall the devices. I removed the doorbell and camera at my front door. Even though devices are removed, i still get notifications from base station when someone approaches the door.

[michaelkenward]

This is getting more annoying by the day.

The lack of any communication here is especially troubling. They seem to have run for cover.

[mharps]

All the more reason they should roll back to the previous firmware version.

If they don't know what has caused it and can't fix it, then I would say they have some pretty serious issues with software development.

I test software for a living and never have I experienced such a lack of communication and ownership of a defect that has been reported.

[dcfox1]

Agree they should communicate this but rolling back firmware would cause problems for those that don't have problems. 

[mharps]

I'm not sure why it would cause problems for other users.

It would simply put back code we no worked for the majority of people.

Any issues they tried to fix with the latest firmware have obviously caused problems for multitudes of people and the situation we have is really starting to annoy a lot of people.

The previous firmware version did not result in this number of people indicating they have problems like the current one.

[dcfox1]

@mharps  I don't have any problems here. Not all have the problem. Yes some do and post it. The firmware fixed other problems so rolling back would open another can of worms. 

[Max1234567]

Same issue. I get notifications from all cameras but occasionally motion is detected at base station. 

[JamesC]

The development team is working on a fix to resolve this issue that should be available soon. I will provide an update once we have more information.

JamesC

[Amati5]

I noticed occasionally it used the correct name, usually at night.  Last night our internet was out for about 15 mins, this morning it used the right name for about 30 mins then back to “base” again.

[mharps]

Hi, Well it seems an update was installed recently and now we are seeing notifications for each camera correctly.

Unfortunately now we are unable to access out locally stored videos and the light on the base station is flashing orange most of the time.

I have tried restarting the base station using both the app on my phone and powering down the base station, leaving it switched off for 5 minutes then powering it on again. 

The base station light eventually is blue in colour but as soon as I attempt to access the locally stored videos, it starts flashing orange and I am displayed the following message:

"Videos stored on <our base station name> are not available. Please check your connection settings."

I am able to connect to each camera via the app, so my connection to the base station is fine, just not able to access our stored videos.

So please Arlo, raise another incident and get this issue fixed please.

It won't be long before I will start asking for my money back.

[mharps]

Hi,

I just tried logging in to my account online and that kicked me out of my app.

I then logged back in on the app and after a few minutes I tried accessing the locally stored videos again and suddenly they started appearing.

I should point out that the previous comment reporting my inability to access locally stored videos was made after I had previously logged out of the app on my cell phone, tried to access them on my wife's phone then back on my phone again multiple times and was not able to on both phones.

We had attempted to access the locally stored videos over a period of about 15 minutes and was not able to.

So I am not confident with the app software and this version of the firmware at this point in time.

Hopefully it will now work as it should over the next few days.

If we still experience more issues, I will report them back here.

[JF234]

My system is working again. I am no longer receiving notifications stating "motion detected on base station". My notifications correctly identify each camera when motions are detected. I am also able to retrieve the video clips from my external storage.

[Finewine69]

I can confirm my system is working normally as well since yesterday.....WoooHoo

Thanks Arlo team

[JamesC · Accepted solution]

A cloud fix has been released that resolves this issue. This fix is automatically applied and does not require any interaction with your Arlo system.

Thanks,

JamesC

[Mikeinaustex]

there were two parts to this issue.  one was having smart hub listed instead of camera name on alerts.  the second was no video was recorded regardless of name.  i see the correct camera name now on alerts, but no video is ever recorded.

[michaelkenward]

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@Mikeinaustex wrote:

there were two parts to this issue.  one was having smart hub listed instead of camera name on alerts.  the second was no video was recorded regardless of name.  i see the correct camera name now on alerts, but no video is ever recorded.

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I suspect two separate issues. Might have been pure coincidence.

Reports from the wrong device (a hub) did not result in lost recordings for everyone.

Try troubleshooting that as a standalone problem.

[mharps]

Hi,

Well it seems that Arlo has successfully corrected the issues experienced with the SmartHub being reported rather than individual cameras.

Thank you for fixing that issue.

The non access to locally stored videos issue I experienced after the new firmware had been applied is also to be considered a non issue. Since regaining access to the videos, the system has been performing as expected both with the correct reporting of cameras and being able to access locally stored videos.

To Arlo, as an experienced software developer and tester, I ask that in future, you ensure you thoroughly test your software before rolling it out to users. While I understand that 100% testing is usually reserved for companies like NASA and those that deal with products that have life threatening impacts if they go wrong, it is possible to have a set of tests for the changes being implemented as well as a set of regression tests that should be run every time you have a software release.

Please ensure that you include a regression test that proves the correct cameras are being reported in notifications.

Your reputation rides on the products your provide and that includes the software you ship with them.

Kind regards,

Mike

[dcfox1]

@mharps  What wireless camera had you developed or tested? 

[mharps]

You don't need to be able to build a car to drive it - just as you don't need to be able to build a camera to be able to test the software we are given to use it. There was no fault with the camera, just a defect or multiple defects in the software supplied for the users to be able to use the cameras and access the videos created.

Developers of software should be carrying out what is called "unit testing" and when they have proven their software is working as they expect it to, hand it over for further testing. It is better to then have someone specialized in testing, other than those who develop software, test it as they are not confined by the thought processes used in developing the software and will often consider things the developer would not have thought of or had the time to test. Those who test software, need to know the rules (usually called requirements) around how the the software perform.

If anything within those rules does not work as expected then they have found a defect which should be reported. 

There are a number of different types of software development and software testing that can and should be carried out, some can be bypassed if the risk is considered so small to not warrant testing.

But in all cases when there has been an event in the production environment, tests identified to thoroughly verify any fix has been successfully implemented, should be kept for future regression testing. When used, regression tests are very good a confirming that software has not regressed and that a previous defect has not been reintroduced.

This is my last comment re this issue.

Thanks again Arlo for fixing the issue we experienced.

[michaelkenward]

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@mharps wrote:

There was no fault with the camera, just a defect or multiple defects in the software supplied for the users to be able to use the cameras and access the videos created.

There are several places where software defects can get in the way, not all of them "supplied for the users".  A lot of the work goes on in the Arlo (or Amazon) servers that run the "back end" of the Arlo system. As there was no obvious update to firmware or apps, that is probably where this one happened.

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@mharps wrote:

Developers of software should be carrying out what is called "unit testing" and when they have proven their software is working as they expect it to, hand it over for further testing.

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That happens already.

Feel free to apply to join the club. Sounds like you would love to tell then what to do.