Two different cameras failed to detect and record a man walking around our house

[MHump]

This is the second time this has happened. Luckily the man was my husband both times, but now I'm wondering who else has entered our property without us knowing? Both cameras have full WiFi bars and are set to 90 motion detection. The front of house camera is a doorbell (gen 2) and he walked towards it on the left side then across its entire field of view from left to right. The back door camera is a Pro 3 and he walked on a 45 degree angle towards it, turned and walked partly across its field of view, then opened our back door. Neither camera recorded a thing. Same thing happened last week with the same conditions. Really disappointing and would like to know how to fix this. We have 3 Arlo Pro3's and a doorbell, and will seriously scrap the whole system if it can't pick up a man walking around our property but will pick up the neighbours cat walking the exact same route.

[StephenB]

How far away was he from the cameras?

[MHump]

The doorbell camera he was no more than 15ft away when walking across the field of view (between 10-15 feet), and the Pro 3 camera is less than 1 foot away from the door he opened and entered (starting at 40 feet away at the leftmost side of the camera).

[Edinburgh_lad1]

Is the system actually armed?

And do you have a subscription?

The cameras won't record if the above conditions aren't met.

[MHump]

Yes, I double-checked at the time once I realized he was inside the house and I hadn't recieved an alert. The doorbell is always armed and the Pro3 was scheduled as armed when he walked past it (both times).

We have an active subscription as well. We have received alerts for deliveries on the doorbell camera, but I know for sure it has completely missed at least one of those, and there have been instances where the recording will only be of the person walking away after dropping off the package at our door.

[Edinburgh_lad1]

You should increase sensitivity. 

If you would like the whole of an event to be captured, it's a good idea to connect your camera to mains. 

Other factors that can (but may not) affect your situation is how far away is your camera from the the object being captured. Mine, for example, is quite far, but it's connected to the mains and so captures everything in its entirety. 

[MHump]

So I should set sensitivity to 100? They are already both at 90, and we get plenty of erroneous recordings of small animals and even tree branches swaying in the wind. 

I get connecting to mains to capture the entire event (and we would if we could), but if the camera isn't being triggered by someone walking past it would this even be a solution?

[MHump]

My mistake. The Pro3 camera was actually set to 95 sensitivity. I forgot I turned it up after the first time it completely missed my husband walking around. This one is positioned 1 foot away from where he walked past.

Could this be a problem with firmware or something? I read another post where someone had a similar problem and it turned out to be a bug in the update...

[StephenB]

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@MHump wrote:

The doorbell camera he was no more than 15ft away when walking across the field of view (between 10-15 feet), 

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That is actually at the outer edge of the motion detection spec for the gen 2 doorbell.

• https://kb.arlo.com/000062617/How-far-away-can-Arlo-Cameras-and-Arlo-Video-Doorbells-detect-motion

In many cases there are advantages to the shorter range in a doorbell, since the camera cannot be aimed.  There were a lot of complaints about the battery life of the Gen 1 wirefree doorbell, because it kept triggering on pedestrians on nearby public sidewalks or vehicles in the street.

Of course in other situations it would be nice to have more range. 

But the pro 3 obviously should have triggered, so the questions asked by @Edinburgh_lad1 are certainly relevant.

FWIW, in my experience the PIR sensors sometimes do fail to trigger.  I find it useful to cover some areas with more than one camera.

[Edinburgh_lad1]

I don't get it. So, your camera is picking up motion in terms of trees and animals but not in terms of humans, right? Have you checked the filter in the Feed/Library section that all trigger points are enabled and showing in the feed/library? If your camera is picking up motion in general, as it seems to, then it's your app/set up. Best also to provide screenshot as it's difficult to do anything without being able to see.

[StephenB]

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@Edinburgh_lad1 wrote:

Have you checked the filter in the Feed/Library section that all trigger points are enabled and showing in the feed/library? 

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Definitely worth checking, as the filter is "sticky" and it is very easy to forget to set it back after you change it.

I also suggest the motion detection test.  Walk across the camera's field of view while using it, and then find the lowest threshold value that detects you reliably.  Then set the actual threshold to slightly above that value.  The test can also be used to help you establish the range of the passive IR sensor.

The test is described in this guide:

• https://kb.arlo.com/000062895/How-do-I-change-the-motion-sensitivity-on-my-Arlo-camera-Arlo-Secure-4...