Pro4 camera disappeared with all its recordings

[Blacktip75]

One of my 7 camera's has disappeared from all my devices. I tried looking for recordings to see if anyone stole the camera but also all recordings are gone whilst I have a 60 day retention. It is a bit of a rough night with a high chance of problems so I really need to be able to see recordings.

Is this just Arlo messing with their infrastructure or was everything deleted?! I hope it is currently recording as it is covering a sensitive/risk area.

[DannyBearAgain]

Is it possible that you accidentally removed the camera from your account? 

You would need to be onsite to add the camera back into your account. I.e. arlo app needs to access your local network.

[Blacktip75]

That is very unlikely, I think I have not seen a recording since I replaced the battery with a full one. (Can never fully rule it out, but 25 years in software engineering generally has me fairly cautious, especially when working with more buggy equipment or software)

Strange thing is that all old recordings are gone too. I mean if the camera is stolen or breaks you should still have all old recordings 

[Blacktip75]

Quick update, the camera was flashing blue. I unplugged the battery, plugged it back in again, reconnected to a hub (could do positioning just fine). And the recordings are back in my feed. 

However, after adding it to my dashboard it shows up as offline. Suspicion the camera is toast (still in warranty fortunately).

What I find craziest, why do the recordings disappear if the camera drops. They should be linked to my account. Does it mean if someone buys or steels the camera and connects it they would see my old recordings? I have a few indoor/garden camera’s for which this would be a GDPR violation. 

[Blacktip75]

Quick update (edit button on the forum would be a nice touch). 

The device stopped working Friday afternoon. Meaning it was not the battery change and I did not delete the camera as I was in a workshop. So the problem is arlo side (software or hardware).

My next debugging steps will be:

1. Reboot the hub

2. Flip the battery with another camera

3. Reset the camera if that fails.

4. Try connecting via WiFi (this was the normal setting before I think

[StephenB]

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@Blacktip75 wrote:

What I find craziest, why do the recordings disappear if the camera drops. They should be linked to my account. 

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Normally the cameras remain in the account when they drop, and show an off-line status.  But I do agree that recordings should be retained for the retention period even if the camera is removed from the account.

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@Blacktip75 wrote:

Does it mean if someone buys or steals the camera and connects it they would see my old recordings?

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No.  Even though the camera wasn't showing up in the account,  the system still recognizes the camera.

It is odd that the camera disappeared from the device list though.

[Blacktip75]

It is Arlo messing with me

I just did a reset, battery swap, all worked ok. 30 minutes later I got a “Arlo forced a factory reset” message in my apple notifications  and the camera is gone again.

Unfortunately the message is not shown anywhere and I forgot to screenshot it.

[Blacktip75]

Final update, I contacted support, identified as a technical issue and they will replace under warranty. Pretty happy with their quick resolution on issues here.