Arlo #Pro4 broke down after barely 2 years

[Jenny91030]

Hello, I saw a lot of posts here on Arlo #Pro4.  This system seems to break down a lot.  Ours stopped working less than 2 years and of course it is out of warranty.  This is really bad for an expensive camera.  Won’t get it again.

[StephenB]

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@Jenny91030 wrote:

 Ours stopped working less than 2 years and of course it is out of warranty.  

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How did it fail?  Did you try the hardware reset process to see if that resolved the problem?

[Jenny91030]

Yes, I did try to reset it by pushing the reset button at the bottom. It did not work.  Thank you for asking.  

[jguerdat]

Did you follow this procedure?

https://kb.arlo.com/000062880/How-do-I-factory-reset-and-re-sync-my-Arlo-camera-Arlo-Secure-4-0

You must push the button for >15 seconds to reset the camera.

[StephenB]

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@Jenny91030 wrote:

Yes, I did try to reset it by pushing the reset button at the bottom. 

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FWIW, there is no reset button on the outside of the Pro 4.  The only button on it only releases the housing.

There is a button inside the camera - is that what you meant?  It is labeled "sync", though AFAIK it can only be used for reset.

If so, you do need to remove the camera from the account first, and then hold that button down until the camera LED flashes amber.  As @jguerdat says, that takes around 15 seconds.

[Jenny91030]

Yes, I did.  Instead of blinking blue light, the light was red. Thank you for the suggestion though.  

[Jenny91030]

The problem was that the camera was removed from the account and I tried to add it but the camera could not be detected.  And I did remove the camera cover to reset the camera and it did not work.  

[StephenB]

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@Jenny91030 wrote:

Yes, I did.  Instead of blinking blue light, the light was red. Thank you for the suggestion though.  

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It's supposed to flash amber after the 15 sec, but that often looks red to me.  The camera doesn't actually have a red LED.

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@Jenny91030 wrote:

The problem was that the camera was removed from the account and I tried to add it but the camera could not be detected.  And I did remove the camera cover to reset the camera and it did not work.  

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It sounds to me like the camera is working, but that re-installation is failing.  Are you getting to the QR chime step?

If you are using your phone, then perhaps try switching to a PC (my.arlo.com).  If you have a PC you can connect with ethernet instead of WiFi, do that.

Also, I suggest doing the reset a second time when you attempt the install again.

[Jenny91030]

Thank you so much for the suggestion.  I will try again and use my laptop.  Traveling now but will get to it when I am back.  Really appreciate your help.  

[Jenny91030]

Yes, I did get to the QR code chime step but the phone could not detect the camera.  I tried this multiple times.  And I was using WiFi, wondering if that is the problem.  I can try smart hub next time when I am back.  We have an older system with smart hub at another house and that set up has been working for nearly 5 years and we have been happy with that one.  

[StephenB]

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@Jenny91030 wrote:

Yes, I did get to the QR code chime step but the phone could not detect the camera.  

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And the camera probably did connect to your wifi (that is generally the case with this problem).  Usually this happens when the phone is connected to 5 ghz wifi, while the camera is connected to 2.4 ghz. Really annoying that Arlo hasn't fixed that issue.   

The PC often will behave differently, especially when it is connected with ethernet.  Switching to a smarthub instead of WiFi should also work around the problem, because in that situation the smarthub is detecting the camera, and then passing that info onto the phone.

[Jenny91030]

I see.  That is good to know.  Let me try to connect via the smart hub when I am back.  Hopefully the camera is still good.  Glad this community have someone like you here.  Will be in touch soon.  But one question though, why was it working before?  Did something change with the Arlo software?  Thanks!  -Jenny 

[StephenB]

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@Jenny91030 wrote:

 But one question though, why was it working before? 

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Hard to say why it went off-line at this point.