Pro 5 camera will connect to VMB5000 easily and live stream, but no recorded events

[pkincy]

Just spent an hour with Arlo support with no resolution. I will see if the community has any ideas. I upgraded a five camera system; three Pro 2s, two Ultra 2s and a VMB5000 and no subscription that was working perfectly well. I replaced the three Pro 2s with three new Pro 4s bought from Mother Arlo directly. Of the three new Pro 4s one is working well. Another wouldn't update its firmware so had to be RMAd. The replacement is installed and working well. My current problem is my third Pro 4. It will connect perfectly well. It updated its firmware. It is seen in My Devices and shows a thumbnail on the dashboard. It will live stream. What it won't do is commemorate any event. Although it live streams it doesn't seem to recognize movement nor will it upload an event video to the Library. I do have trial subscriptions but also have an SD card in the VMB 5000 and this single Pro 4 won't upload to either the cloud library or the VMB5000 local SD card. All other cameras will upload videos of events. Any suggestions are welcome

[StephenB]

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@pkincy wrote:
this single Pro 4 won't upload to either the cloud library or the VMB5000 local SD card. All other cameras will upload videos of events. Any suggestions are welcome

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The Pro 4 won't store anything to the Arlo Cloud if you don't have a subscription.  If you do have a trial subscription on the camera, I suggest trying to make a manual recording while livestreaming the camera.  (that isn't possible if you don't have a subscription).

I would also try the motion detection test, and confirm that the camera is detecting motion.

Swapping the cameras with one in another location also would be useful (seeing if the problem moves with the camera, or stays with the location).

Have you tried the hardware reset? 

1. Remove the camera from the account
2. Press the sync button inside until the LED flashes amber (about 15 seconds)
3. Add the camera back to the account

[pkincy]

The camera is detecting motion even with a relatively low sensitivity set and I have moved it front to back.   However I haven't reset it and will do that.   Thank you for the suggestion.

[pkincy]

I did try the reset and there is no difference.   The camera is working in all measurable ways except it just will not send a notification or send a video either to the cloud or the SD card in my VMB5000.   I did notice last night when I had it in the front of my house with a number of other cameras that all the cameras would activate the bright white light when I was out front except this problem Pro 4.   Unfortunately I have come to realize that my last purchase of three Pro 4s to replace my older three Pro 2s was simplly 67% defective.

[StephenB]

BTW, your post title says Pro 5, but the posts only talk about Pro 4.  Is the Pro 5 a typo?

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@pkincy wrote:

it just will not send a video ... to the cloud 

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Again, (unlike your Pro 2 cameras) you need a subscription for the Pro 4 to store any video in the cloud.  

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@pkincy wrote:

it just will not send a notification or send a video ... to the SD card in my VMB5000. 

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Just to clarify...

• The camera is connected to the VMB5000?  (not your home wifi?)
• The rule for the camera in the mode(s) you are using are telling the camera to record?

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@pkincy wrote:

I did notice last night when I had it in the front of my house with a number of other cameras that all the cameras would activate the bright white light when I was out front except this problem Pro 4.   

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Which just confirms that the camera isn't recording for some reason.

[pkincy]

Solution:   Was able to work with an Arlo support person on the telephone and it turned out that having 5 cameras on one hub seriously limits upload bandwith.   Although I get 330 MBPS down, I only get 12 MBPS up and that is not enough for 5 cameras on the hub.   So we reset 2 of the Pro 4s to connect directly to Wifi and voila! everything is working just fine.   Now the downside to that is I need the subscription as two of my cameras are not hooked through the VMB5000 hub with the SD card.

[jguerdat]

Interesting. Either way (connecting all through the hub or some to WiFi) still has to compete with the same upload speed issue. It's actually not an issue unless you have multiple cameras streaming at once. The hub certainly is capable if there's no fault in it - I have 10 devices connected to my 5000 with no issues (I've had as slow as 10Mbps upload speeds). WHile testing would be needed to be sure, such as reconnecting one camera at a time to the hub, I really doubt upload speed is the issue. Of course a brute force test of removing all devices from your account and setting it up again as if new could be the ultimate answer one way or another.

[pkincy]

I certainly wondered about the reps claim that each camera uses 2-3 MBPS up and that use is constant.   However the fix (avoiding the Hub) certainly demonstrated he is correct simply because it works now.   And I have 5 Arlo cameras, now 2 Ultras on the hub and 3 Pro 4s, a ring camera/floodlight and two Eufy cameras with a hub and a whole myriad of other devices connected to wifi both up and down.

[StephenB]

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@pkincy wrote:

I certainly wondered about the reps claim that each camera uses 2-3 MBPS up and that use is constant.  

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It isn't constant, as recording (and streams) use variable bitrate encoding.  Bandwidth depends on how much the scene in the field of view is changing.

One difference is that when you use the base all the streams are being sent over one connection to the cloud.  The cloud connections for the wifi-connected cameras are all independent.  So it is possible that the single aggregated base connection is being throttled due to congestion or perhaps bandwidth limiting that is happening in your router.  

Though if you are happy with the way everything is working now, I suggest leaving things as they are.