May 2025 Smart Detection - Battery Drain

[tnord951]

Since the upgrade, my 8 Arlo 5 Cameras lose about 2% of battery per hour and 4 of the cameras have solar panels. I'm ready to cut my losses and move on from Arlo, but I thought I would see if anyone is experiencing the same issue. I know the upgrade caused my issue as nothing has changed for two years and everything worked perfectly. I have tried everything possible, including starting over, but continue to have a system that is worthless. My doorbell has never had an issue and the battery drain is happening on that device as well. Any help, please....

Thanks

[jguerdat]

This may be due to a connection issue for the cameras. Are they connected to WiFi or to a hub? How many total minutes per day of recording and live viewing are the cameras providing? 5 minutes or less per day is the spec. You may need to remove activity zones to get a true reading of the totals since a recording is made but the servers may throw out the recording based on the zone settings.

[tnord951]

Weel, here is what I know. The system has operated correctly for two years except for the cell backup feature on the keypad. That issue was fixed by Arlo 2 months ago. I have 20 motion sensers and have been connected with the secure link on all cameras. The solar panels have maintained the cameras for two years with the exception of a couple times where needed to swap out batteries. The camera's do not have zones setup, and I rarely receive notifications, maybe a handful a week, which is a 10 second recording. Again, no problem for two years. I also have 2 wireless keypad, and they have worked great. If not for the cell issue, I would have changed my parents from Ring to Arlo, but that held me back. I should mention, I was gone for three weeks and during this time the only thing that changed was the upgrade and within a couple days every camera was going dead before I could get home. I have been working on this issue for the past 4 days, I have factory reset every camera, connected directly to internet, did 2.4 only, added sensors, eliminated cameras, downgrade Arlo service. I thought maybe my batteries are an issue, so I bought 3 XL batteries and those are draining down just as fast as the regular batteries. Yesterday, I disabled two cameras that are connected to solar panels, so I could tell if they would charge up a little - nope (stayed the same though) and once it got dark, down go the batteries. I have my sensitivity down to 25%. I purchased a Reolink Cellular Camera today, so I will have a peace of mind when I leave for a few days. Maybe it is interreference of some kind, but I'm just the guy that buys the cameras and I want them to work. Arlo owes me a ton on money if they want to pay me by the hour, while I'm troubleshooting this crap. I manage my parents Ring camera setup and never have an issue. I read online, which I should have done prior to investing as I see post after post on battery issues and no answers except too far away from the router or too much activity, well I do not have these issues. Remember, it worked fine for two years and when I'm gone something changed.. What?? UPGRADE / POWER CONSUMPTION.... I will probably be selling my $1500 Arlo System for $10 on Craigslist...