Pro 3 will not accept Best Battery Life mode

[rockmaplecove]

My Pro 3 cameras will not accept the "Best Battery Life" mode. I try to set it to best battery life but when I close the window it reverts to best video.  My camera batteries are not lasting a week. This has been very frustrating. My daughter's Rings are lasting over a month. What's wrong here?

[jguerdat]

Not sure why you can't get that setting to stick but there's not a ton of difference between best battery life and best video. The root of the issue is that the batteries aren't lasting long enough in the first place. How many total minutes, on average, of recording and live viewing are you doing? The spec is for <5 minutes total per day.

If you're not overusing the camera then the issue is likely the connection between the cameras and hub. What is the displayed signal strength? Are all cameras having this issue or just some? What is the house construction (stucco is the worst)? How far away are the cameras from the hub? Are there any 2.4GHz wireless devices near the cameras or hub that could be interfering with the signal?

[rockmaplecove]

Thank you for responding. Sorry that it took so long to reply. I thought I already did but never sent the response. (uh oh) You made good points that give rise to other questions that I could not find in the KnowledgeBase.

 You: How many total minutes, on average, of recording and live viewing are you doing? The spec is for <5 minutes total per day.

My Response: Where is recording minutes measured or quantified? How do I identify this number? Once identified, how are the recording minutes modified? [I could not find either of these topics in my queries of the knowledgebase.]

You: If you're not overusing the camera then the issue is likely the connection between the cameras and hub. What is the displayed signal strength? 

My Response: 2 have 3 bars. 4 have 2 bars. 

You: Are all cameras having this issue or just some?

My Response: None of the cameras seem to be lasting as long as they should.

You: What is the house construction (stucco is the worst)?

My Response: Brick veneer.

You: How far away are the cameras from the hub?

My response: The farthest may be 120 feet.

You: Are there any 2.4GHz wireless devices near the cameras or hub that could be interfering with the signal?

My response: No 2.4GHz wireless devices except maybe the router to which it is connected.

Additional pontification: After all that I was stumbling thru google, Arlo knowledgebase and my Arlo app.  Seems to me like the activity zones don't function since leaf movement outside the zones still seems to trigger the video. 

I turned just about everything off including HDR. I thought I saw something that said activity zones don't function under 2k format. Is that correct? I also turned off autozoom and tracking, the spotlight, auto HDR, local 2k streaming. Brightness turned down to -1.

I created an activity zone on my lawn and set the smart notification to people only yet the camera captures every care that drives by even though the road is not in the activity zone.

I am testing the sensitivity of the cameras to between 10 and 25.

With all that I am doing the cameras are not taking as many videos as they once were so the batteries seem to be lasting longer. Even a blind hog will get a piece of corn every once in a while. 🙂

Any additional advice? Is there an article in the database that lists all these possible solutions to battery life? 

Thank you.

Turning almost everything

[StephenB]

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@rockmaplecove wrote:

My Response: Where is recording minutes measured or quantified? How do I identify this number? Once identified, how are the recording minutes modified? [I could not find either of these topics in my queries of the knowledgebase.]

They aren't measured by the system, though if you turn off activity zones you can count up the number of recordings per day.

But as they said, their battery life estimates are based on < 5 minutes of recording per day.

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@rockmaplecove wrote:

I thought I saw something that said activity zones don't function under 2k format. Is that correct? 🙂

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No it isn't correct.  Also, activity zones don't affect battery life.  About all you can do is position the cameras to reduce the amount of unwanted motion in the field of view, and/or reduce the motion sensitivity