Arlo Pro 5S won't connect to mesh router

[Ruffnready]

Long time Arlo user and longer time Netgear user...my old cameras were EOL so I ordered 12 Pro 5s to replace...some of my cameras are Pro 4s and came up easily on my wifi where my hub's reach isn't strong enough....took minutes....

On the Pro 5s and am a day and a half, two chats and one call that I got as Arlo that was a 3rd party I learned after letting them in on teamviewer...disaster and no telling how much damage they did or can do....

Problem is I cant get the Netgear Orbi Mesh 6 router to recognize the the Pro 5s cameras...I have don't factory resets multiple times, have run the process with no connection to hub and it simply wont find the cameras even if 3 ft from hub...I read documentation on orbi site for Mesh networks and it says disable 5G temporarily on the Mesh network..none of this works......I need the mesh to have cameras that work outside the reach of the Hub...which worked easily and in minutes with the Pro 4..can anyone help me...this has been a terrible experience and now I got exposed to some 3rd party via team viewer whose number came up as arlo support

[JamesC]

Ruffnready,

Try checking your security type within your router settings. Change to WPA2, if it's not selected already.

Also try checking to see if there are any additional firewall settings enabled.

JamesC

[Ruffnready]

Thanks.  WPA2.  No firewall.  5 cameras now tried and only one was recognized.  Disconnected all the satellites so only main router.  Disabled 5 and 6 mhz .   Multiple factory resets.  Had cameras face wall.  

just totally unsatisfactory.  Pro 4 cameras when added months ago came on instantly .   Ready for a refund

[JamesC]

Ruffnready,

If you have an existing Arlo Base Station, consider trying to onboard to the base station first to allow the camera to update firmware. Improvements for connectivity have been made in recent releases that may alleviate the issue you're experiencing. If you're able to connect the camera to your base station and complete the firmware update, you can then remove the camera, factory reset, and attempt to onboard again directly to your WiFi network.

JamesC

[Ruffnready]

Tried this to...no luck.....out of gas battling this...going on 36 hours...so disappointed....trying to find where to return and get my money back for a few thousand bucks of useless gear from a company I enjoyed for many, many years...

[JamesC]

I've escalated the details you've mentioned here. A member of the development team will be reaching out to you to collect more information.

JamesC

[Ruffnready]

Thank you...they need to hurry as I just initiated a return for all twelve cameras and everything else....This is nowhere near the quality of past products...went to mount on and the silver screw in piece fell out of the cover.....and two of the three that I synched with the hub, would not go live view in the same spots that the old reliable Carlo 2 had been...said unexpected error try again....the third one just gives me a red circle with an exclamation point....I grew up in technology and founded a tech company....shocked at how poor this experience has been

[Ruffnready]

Thanks James, I had a VM with no call back number and a message that it appears everything is working and to call back if I need more assistance.  What a joke!

I have 2 pro 4s on Wi-Fi and got one pro 5 on Wi-Fi.  Can’t get any others on WiFi which I need.  I have put some of the pro5 cameras in places where I had Arlo 2 to see how they would work and I can’t get liveview as it says unexpected error or timeout.   

really need some help asap but I am seeing a different company after the ipo.   

[Ruffnready]

And doesn’t Netgear that makes the Orbi Mesh 6 still own 89% of Arlo? Reflects poorly on them as well

As I mentioned, even the silver insert in the cover to use to mount the camera fell out when I got ready to mount.   Who is the product manager?

[JamesC]

Ruffnready,

Arlo is no longer part of NETGEAR. I apologize for the poor experience so far.

The agent that left you a voicemail should have also left an email. I encourage you to respond to the email so we can continue to work toward a resolution for this issue.

JamesC

[Ruffnready · Accepted solution]

Ok.  PROGRESS!   Thanks for your help.  Jeffery called and we had a good conversation and went through the process with trial and error doing everything to be sure we were on the right firmware, that setup was on 2.4, checking security options and more.  Processes I had done several times BUT he suggested we do the setup on a camera connected to the hub and remove it  .   Then go through the setup without the hub.  We both were surprised when he found the camera.  Then we did another and one more which worked to setup.  The firmware had just been released yesterday and everything had been updated but apparently the workaround on security is to set up with hub first, then remove, then install without hub.  Great news is it worked.  And going up and down ladders for two days has been good exercise.  Probably your folks can tweak the install to make more convenient but got me through.  Few more cameras to do tomorrow as it got dark.   He also suggested while my Internet is blazing on downloading which helps streaming, I need to check with Cox the Internet provider on a bit better upload speed with as many cameras.   An amazing comeback and thanks to you and Jeffery!

ok an the pic is probably something for the product manager.  Metal fell out of case.  Was glad I didn’t install by my pool.  Maybe add a little glue or something?

[Ruffnready]

First there are big differences between the web and the IOS app...Web has more problems that i have forwarded on.  On the newest release of the app, boarding experience of the pro 5s was first a nightmare to figure out the workaround.  Then the workaround which was board each camera to hub, update firmware, then delete the just added camera and reboard without the hub should never be acceptable to Arlo and certainly isn't a reasonable expectation for customers to go through.  I did this for all 12 new cameras and have them on line in a blend of WIFI for longer distance cameras and Hub for closer in...Tip of the Hat to Jeffery Navarro at support for grinding through it with me...

As a workaround, I have now tried via smart notifications to eliminate vehicles on the cameras that generate the most.  Will see today if that helps.

I offered to send images of activity zones not working to help yall troubleshoot. No one seemed interested yet but they would be in my opinion be helpful in diagnosing.

After a week of seeing if things have stabilized and I have figured out whether the changes I have tried to reduce notifications bring them to an acceptable level, I will revisit my review of the app and Arlo.  Certainly, this has consumed more time than I had envisioned, but hopefully this works.   Might suggest some documentation that optimizes how best to achieve this rather than discovery as I have had to do.

[StephenB]

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@Ruffnready wrote:

And doesn’t Netgear that makes the Orbi Mesh 6 still own 89% of Arlo?

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Netgear divested all their Arlo stock a couple months after the IPO in 2018 (passing it on to Netgear stockholders).

• https://investor.netgear.com/releases/press-release-details/2018/NETGEAR-Completes-Spin-Off-of-Arlo/...

FWIW, my own Pro 5s is connected to my Orbi 860 with no issues.  No idea what was going on with your setup.

[Ruffnready]

Mine is the 960 quad band which I replaced my 860 Tri band with.  

also now finding I cannot update any firmware on a pro5s without deleting camera, installing on hub, deleting camera again , then installing on wiFi.  .   That also means climbing the ladder, bringing it next to hub and after the rigamarole, climbing the ladder again to put in place.   Not to mention I have to set all the parameters again for name, smart notifications and so much more.    Come on Arlo.  Figure this out!!!!

the camera involved is the original one we got working on the Wi-Fi that served as process we used on other.  Does this mean there is a firmware update for all of them and I am going to have to delete all 12 after climbing the ladder for everyone, install on hub, update firmware again, then delete from hub, then add as a Wi-Fi without hub, then rename and redo all the camera profile, climb the ladder and install again in its location? 

[Ruffnready]

Update from last post.  It took removing camera from location and bringing inside plus 5 tries but finally the firmware updated and the good news is without having to delete the camera, installing on hub and so forth.  Whew!