Walk me through this...

[TerribleCams]

Ok here's some issues I'm having for the last 3 months.

I have 2 pro 3 cams on a smart hub.

One cam always records in 2k with a badge on the thumbnails in the library while the other never does that. Both are identical in every single setting and both are outside in the same environment.... Identical...

The cam in the driveway (problem cam) records incessantly 35 feet from the road regardless of activity zones. It's always on battery power. Does it need AC power to utilize activity zones?

Everything is up to date, firmware, app, etc etc...

Repositioning the cam is all I'm seeing for suggestions. If that's the solution, then you're saying activity zones do not work? If that's the case, what am I supposed to be paying for?

Obviously I'm going to swap the two cams to see if the other one does the same thing out front. I've reset, removed and resynced, reloaded app etc etc... Any other suggestions? Seems I have a bad cam?

[StephenB]

---

@TerribleCams wrote:

The cam in the driveway (problem cam) records incessantly 35 feet from the road regardless of activity zones. It's always on battery power. Does it need AC power to utilize activity zones?

---

This can be a bit confusing.

If the camera is on AC power, then activity zones are applied by the camera itself.

If the camera is on battery power, then the activity zones are applied in the Arlo Cloud - which requires a paid subscription. The camera will always stream video when it detects motion, and the Cloud will then supress notifications and cloud recordings that are out of the zone.  Local recordings will still be stored.  

Activity zones won't improve battery life, since when the camera is battery powered, it operates the same way whether activity zones are set up or not.

---

@TerribleCams wrote:
Repositioning the cam is all I'm seeing for suggestions.am?

---

Well, also reducing motion sensitivity.  But IMO adjusting the camera position is the thing to look at first if you are trying to improve battery life.

[TerribleCams]

Hi StephenB,

Thanks for responding.

Battery is of no concern as it seems to last very long. It may sound confusing to some but I understand exactly what you're saying.

Here's the issue then. I get notifications from this cam 35 feet away and far outside of the activity zone(s). I've tried one zone, several, small zones, doesn't matter. And the notification is ALWAYS for motion when it's outside of the activity zone. I've turned off "all other motion" in smart notifications and still receive notifications for "motion" constantly on that cam whether it's a car or person. Activity zones do not seem to work.

If I turn motion detection down, it won't even detect my truck pulling in the driveway.

I'm on the trial for 10 more days. If I can't get this to work properly, I can't justify paying for a subscription for features I'm not able to utilize.

[TerribleCams]

How would repositioning the camera make activity zones work? Either activity zones work or they don't. If I need to reposition the camera because vehicles outside of the activity zone incessantly trigger notifications, then that means activity zones do not work. No?

Cars going by on the other side of the road trigger a notification for motion, my activity zone is two feet inside of my driveway. So even cars that are 10-15 feet outside the zone are still triggering a "motion" notification (not vehicle) to my phone and this happens all hours, day, night, morning, afternoon even though "all other motion" is turned off. It's not reflections. There's no branches or other moving objects in the cameras view. It seems like activity zones do not work properly.

[StephenB]

---

@TerribleCams wrote:

Here's the issue then. I get notifications from this cam 35 feet away and far outside of the activity zone(s). I've tried one zone, several, small zones, doesn't matter. And the notification is ALWAYS for motion when it's outside of the activity zone. I've turned off "all other motion" in smart notifications and still receive notifications for "motion" constantly on that cam whether it's a car or person. Activity zones do not seem to work.

---

I've seen some similar reports - notifications arriving even though the category is turned off, and issues with notifications even when there is no apparent motion in the zone(s).

Not sure where Arlo is on investigating these, perhaps @JamesC or @ShayneS will chime in and let us know.

Swapping the cameras is a reasonable next step. 

[TerribleCams]

Yeah, I don't get any ghost notifications, it's cars and people. Inside the zone the notification will say "vehicle" or "person" or "animal"... Outside of the zone it will ALWAYS say "motion" whether car or person, not too many animals out in the street. I have motion turned off yet it still triggers cars. I've had 3 in the last 10 min. All motion, even though it's blatantly a vehicle. Something's definitely wrong.

Why does this camera always have a 2k badge on recorded videos?. I turned on the lowest setting "battery saver" or whatnot. Still records in 2k. Again, I'm not worried about battery. I was just seeing if maybe I could get it to stop doing that, the other cam never has that 2k badge even though all the settings are identical. Very odd.

[TerribleCams]

Also, pointing the camera at a wall shouldn't be the fix. Activity zones either work or they don't.

If someone parks on the street, outside of the activity zone I don't care. If they then, walk onto my property into the activity zone, I want the camera to record. At that point it's also recording the make/model of the trespassers vehicle on the street. If I need to point it completely away from the road, well then, what's the point of paying for activity zones? What's the use of the camera if I can't get a vehicle description? Seems kind've silly but I also don't need to know when a neighbor drives by. Hence the use of activity zones.

It seems pretty simple, it also seems like an issue that's gone through several models of Arlo cameras and several years.

Is it going to get fixed?

I will swap cams today but I don't have high hopes of it working. Although something does seem off with that particular cam always recording in 2k no matter what.

[StephenB]

---

@TerribleCams wrote:

Why does this camera always have a 2k badge on recorded videos?. I turned on the lowest setting "battery saver" or whatnot. Still records in 2k. Again, I'm not worried about battery. I was just seeing if maybe I could get it to stop doing that, the other cam never has that 2k badge even though all the settings are identical. Very odd.

---

2K is of course a feature.  The only way I know of to force the Pro 3 to record in 1080p is to enable the "Auto Zoom & Tracking" setting.

IMO there should be a better way to do this - ideally an explicit resolution setting, though I guess it could be embedded into the power management options.  As an aside, I've never seen much difference in battery life with those options, so I just always use "best video".

---

@TerribleCams wrote:
Yeah, I don't get any ghost notifications, it's cars and people. Inside the zone the notification will say "vehicle" or "person" or "animal"... Outside of the zone it will ALWAYS say "motion" whether car or person, not too many animals out in the street. I have motion turned off yet it still triggers cars. I've had 3 in the last 10 min. All motion, even though it's blatantly a vehicle. Something's definitely wrong.

---

I agree, it shouldn't be working that way.

[TerribleCams]

I see...

The cam in the back NEVER records in 2k. At least it doesn't have that badge the the front cam does on the recordings. "Auto zoom and tracking" is off on both cams. The front cam always has the 2k badge on recordings, the rear cam never has it. I've gone through a million times, both cams are on the same EXACT settings minus what they're seeing.

[StephenB]

---

@TerribleCams wrote:

The cam in the back NEVER records in 2k. 

---

Is this also a Pro 3?

[TerribleCams]

Yep, both Pro 3s from a package deal. Came with 2 cams and a smart hub. I need to read the package again to make sure they are the same cam. They are running the same firmware. Hardware on both says H9 in the app. I assume they are the same cam.

[TerribleCams]

🤣😅
Upon further inspection... I THINK it is because I have the back cams view slightly shrunken down, cutting off the 2k badge from view. If I go back from before I shrunk the view. It's there. That's my fault. Good to know for future reference though for others that are asking why it doesn't say "2k" in their recordings like their other cameras 😂🤷🤦

[StephenB]

---

@TerribleCams wrote:
🤣😅
Upon further inspection... I THINK it is because I have the back cams view slightly shrunken down, cutting off the 2k badge from view.

Thanks for following up.  That's something that's very easy to miss, and could easily be something others have done.

[TerribleCams]

StephenB

I just looked, I've had 14 notifications to my phone for motion on the front cam from 12AM to now. I should have exactly zero. I have motion notifications turned off for both cams. I don't care if it records. I just don't want my cam notifying me everytime someone drives/walks by. The cam is 35-40 feet off the road and it's not even pointed directly at the road. It's 8 feet high and pointed at the far corner of my driveway with no other moving objects in sight.

I don't have high hopes that it'll be any different swapping the two cams. I've had several "motion" notifications/alerts to my phone from the rear cam as well. Likely birds/leaves blowing etc even though "motion" is turned off. I just don't get as many because 1/3 of the view isn't the road like out front. And again, with "motion" notifications turned off, I should get zero notifications for it.

[TerribleCams]

So I made the activity zone smaller again to just cover the front steps.

I get a motion notification for a white van that drove by about 5 min before I got home which was 35-40 feet outside of the activity zone. I back my truck and giant white trailer into the driveway. Which is 10 feet outside the activity zone and the direction the camera is actually pointing and no notification at all, no recording.

This is ridiculous.

So at that point someone could have been in my driveway messing around in my garage and the camera may as well have been non existent.

Then I put the activity zone back the way I had it. A car drove by and I got nothing. That'll last a few cars then it'll fall apart again and I'll get notifications for 8 out of 10 cars as motion, and we'll outside the activity Zone.

It never records things I don't get notifications for either. There's never anything in my library I hadn't been notified of. If it records, I'm notified. The camera seems very selective on what it feels like recording instead of doing what it's supposed to do.

[JamesC]

Reports of this issue are currently being investigated by the development team. As soon as I have more information to share, I will post an update.

JamesC

[TerribleCams]

Hi James,

This has gone on for the entire trial period of 3 months I've had the cameras setup. Not once have I felt like the cameras have functioned as they're supposed to. I have seen in other threads that you've said the exact same thing about activity zones (possibly a different issue but under a veil of faulty activity zones and notifications regardless) ranging from 2020 to present day as I've scoured these threads looking for an answer. Seems there isn't one and some users have laughed that their thread was marked "Solved". Is the solution really to point the camera where nothing moves? So activity zones don't work? So people are paying for a feature that only exists in the land of make believe?

Is this actually going to be fixed or are we all being scammed? See, if one didn't have traffic within view they wouldn't know activity zones don't work. They're likely happy set back in the woods. I wouldn't consider my road busy. I also wouldn't consider my house extremely close too the street. I feel bad for those on a busy street or right against the road.

How can I justify jumping into a paid subscription from here? Am I just supposed to pretend the cameras work? Am I supposed to believe this will be fixed as I read about the same problem being present for 2 years? Am I going to be credited another trial period when it's fixed considering this one has been completely burned up on incessant notifications for a trigger I have turned off along with a terrible experience?

What's really going on behind the curtain?

[JamesC · Accepted solution]

The cloud fix for this issue has been released and you should be seeing the results of the fix now. You may need to remove and reapply activity zones and toggle your smart alerts now that the fix is available. Please let us know if you are still seeing inaccurate smart alerts and/or motion being detected outside your activity zones.

Thank you,

JamesC

[TerribleCams]

Hi James,
Today was very quiet while I was at work. In fact I didn't get any notifications at all, not one. Not even when I left the driveway, or when I got home. The last notification I had was when I was walking out the door going to work. Normally the front camera sends a "vehicle" notification when I'm leaving and returning and my truck/trailer is only about 20 feet max from this cam.
Upon returning and noticing I didn't get a notification, I reapplied activity zones and toggled smart alerts. I then pulled forward and back and got a "vehicle" notification.

Then curious, I turned motion detection up to 100% to see what'd happen. This did trigger a "motion" notification to my phone when a vehicle went by far outside the activity zone and with "motion" notifications off in smart alerts. Curious if the fix entailed weakening motion detection as the cam had a hard time seeing my truck/trailer as a moving object when it's always seen it at the same settings. Seems if activity zones worked properly, anything outside of the purple area would be ignored no matter the other settings whether detection is at 100% or not. Also, the "motion" alert was odd considering those aren't supposed to come through.

Maybe a hiccup.

Either way, it does seem better ....so far.... A few Cars have gone by at my previous settings and they've all stayed completely under the radar at these settings but I've only had it working since I got home. We'll see if it sees my truck leave/return tomorrow at normal settings.

Thank you for the heads up! I'll keep an eye on it.

[TerribleCams]

Hi James,
Today seems to have been completely flawless. Not one single unwanted notification. It saw my truck leave and return. Girlfriends car leave and return. Got an "animal" notification for a cat in the driveway so I know it was still working while I was gone.

This looks very promising. It's worked one day in a row 😅 but flawlessly. There's still hours left in the day but I think the cams are doing very well now.

[JamesC]

Thanks for the update. The team is continuing to monitor these features and will be addressing additional concerns should any arise. Please let us know.

JamesC