Go to camera live mode, says "connecting" indefinitely. Receiving notifications but no

[MikeBravo]

Owing to one of our pet cats getting outside, we've been doing a lot of live viewing for the past few days whereupon we've learned that Arlo will only let you view for about ten minutes before bumping you off we suppose to limit bandwith usage.

However, a new problem has cropped up where trying to go live gets an instant time out on the PC web page and continuous 'connecting' message on the Android app. 

Refreshing the browser, rebooting the base station, rebooting the router and even the cable modem does nothing. 

However, taking the battery out of the camera and then replacing it does the trick. 

Anyone else having this probelm? 

[jenrobsdad]

I am getting same issue.  On my computer web it says "timed out" immediately when I try to view live. On my Arlo app on android it keeps saying "Connecting"!  I thought it might be because I am using a 3rd party cable on two of my cameras, but I am noticing one other camera that has a good battery also is having same issue.  After seeing this tread and the replies I don't think it's my equipment or apps.

[MimiCT]

I disconnected everything then reinstalled it from the base station to the cameras.  Worked GREAT for 1 day. Back to timing out again.  Blink cameras are so trouble free compared to Arlo.  Never again.

[MimiCT]

Mine does that consistently.  I even took out the battery, reinstalled it.  Disconnected the whole system from the computer and reinstalled and it worked for one day and now back to the same old garbage.  NEVER again.

[pstoren]

Happening here today. Charged up the cameras before we head north and now 2 won't even connect. They were fine when we were positioning them and now they won't connect. And it says on my iMac that 'request timed out'.

[kentlee]

I’ve also had the same connection issues and noticed something that I wonder if others are getting?

I primarily use the camera in our nursery - which is what drives us insane if we can’t rely on it to watch the baby.

When I get the connecting error on my phone (shows as request timed out on web), it usually happens either in the middle of a live view or right after I got out of one and try to get back into live view.

Once it happens it seems like I cannot get back in either without waiting an unknown amount of time or hard restarting the camera by removing and replacing the battery.

I noticed awhile ago that when I go to check on the camera, it seems to literally be frozen with the red infrared lights stuck on. This is especially noticeable since we use it for naps or at night!

If I try to reset the base station or turn the camera off/on in the app, it just eventually shows that it’s not even online.

I’ve seen the stuck infrared lights on two of cameras now which we use to watch the baby. Luckily it hasn’t seemed to happen for two other cameras Including our front door - but we aren’t live viewing that as often.

The frozen camera to me seems to indicate it could be an issue also tied into hardware/software and not just the actually connection or cloud service.

Something seems to literally cause the camera to freeze with the infrared lights stuck on!

I’m also at my wits end but thought I’d share this to see if anyone is noticing the same issue when they get the connecting/request timed out.

Finally - taking battery out and putting it back in solves it at least for a short period of time. But for anyone who has mounted cameras or is not at home that is absolutely not a viable solution.

[MimiCT]

Yes, my Arlo cameras are getting to be very troublesome.  What will Arlo do when flash players are discontinued at the end of the year?

I have a Blink system and Arlo.  Blink has been virtually trouble-free.  The only problem is you can't check the video on a computer, only the cell phone.

I hope Arlo addresses the issue.

[Gwekuri1]

Already connected twice , i am getting Connection Time Out for 2 cameras and only one is working

Rebooted the PC still getting same message

Please assist

[Steven_Martin]

This thread is starting to gain momentum & still the investors of this once great product are being ignored.

Questions have been asked directly towards the operators of ARLO regarding this TIME-OUT issue and still they have no answers.

I'll echo your comments MimiCT 

, just in case they were overlooked.

 What will Arlo do when flash players are discontinued at the end of the year?

[Steven_Martin]

, just in case they were overlooked.

 What will Arlo do when flash players are discontinued at the end of the year?

[JeffF]

System:

• 1x VMB4000r3 Firmware: 1.15.0.1_3162_d878851
• 4x Arlo Pro Firware: 1.092.0.24_985
• All devices put into service March 2017

Problem:

Starting within the last month, after a while, especially while live streaming, the cameras will start to permanently time out, all 4 have done this at one time. Each time you try to live stream from the web, a grey window will block out the camera view and say "The request has timed out". The cameras will not automatically record during this time even if it is set to do so.

If you try to restart the base station, the cameras that previously timed out will show offline with "The Arlo Device is offline"; the other cameras will return to normal operation.

The only way to fix the cameras at this point is to pull the battery out and put it back in; this makes it worthless for remote use.

I had no issues prior to last month.

Things I've tried:

• Restarting the base station - This makes the cameras that aren't responding show as offline until I pull the battery and replace it.
• Disabling the 2.4Ghz WiFi range on my Wireless Access point. - This does not help at all.
• Resetting the base station and setting it back up again using the instructions from: https://kb.arlo.com/1057976/How-can-I-reset-my-Arlo-SmartHub-or-base-station-to-the-default-values - This did not resolve the issue.
• Moving the base station further away form wireless devices. - Still did not help.
• Moving the cameras - Still has the issues.
• Removing Shared accounts.

Notes:

• It seems to likely be related to the base station or possibly a firmware update since all 4 cameras are doing it. I have been unable to find a resolution online or on the forms.
• I monitor my connection speed since I had issues with my speed not being as high as it should. It has not dropped below 350Mbps down and 35Mbps up.
• I've never seen all 4 do it at once but they have all had it happen at least once to them(one or two will stop working while the others are fine).
• The problem happens on the Android app, Firefox and Chrome.

[BlakeWeb3]

I feel like in wasted my money on 4 cameras it defeats the purpose. I’ve tried everything it seems. The only time the app seems to work is if I’m at home! I’m so disgusted I can’t return them

[Rustedryder]

Identical to what I have been experiencing since early Jan. The battery removal idea is great and will work for one of the cams I can easily get to but the other 4 are mounted high up and would need a ladder. Seriously, by the time I would do that the intruder would most likely be inside already which really defeats the purpose of the cams. 

Here is a list of things I tried without resolve and from what I have been reading here, it def seems like an Arlo issue!

I am using version 2.13(2334). 

I’ve been trouble shooting this on and off since mid January performing the following steps but not necessarily in the order listed. 

Changed out the Cat5E cable from base station to router

Changed Ethernet port on high speed router

Assigned a static ip to VMB4000 within router

Attempted to turn camera(s) off from within settings then back on; also turned camera off from within settings then logged out of Arlo and back in turned camera on with no effective resolve

Changed the name of affected camera(s)

Deleted and re-added camera(s)

Turned off 2 of the 5 Pro cameras; issue remained on the 3 remaining cameras

Increased high speed service from 60mbps download X 10mbps upload to 160X15

Removed USB external drive from VMB4000 to free up processing time and memory

Performed restart of base station from within Arlo (sometimes resolving the issue allowing me to connect to affected cam(s) but not always)

Assigned QOS on high speed router to Ethernet port

i think that’s pretty much everything I’ve tried but the issue remains constant, if  a camera senses motion and starts recording, all is good for that particular instance, however if something else happens that causes the motion sensor to trigger within a moment or two of the previous recording then the camera fails to connect and record but I do get the notification of motion detected. If I try to manually connect from my IPhone, IPad or laptop I get a failure to connect to camera. 

I would definitely appreciate any assistance you could offer on this most troubling issue. I count on these cameras as an early warning device and as I indicated in my initial post, they were flawless until early to mid January of this year. 

[JeffF]

Same issue with Android and in browsers.

[Bud0301]

I’m using an IPhone 11 upto date with everything. I’ve probably made over 6 calls to arlo customer service. It also sometimes goes for days with one of the cameras not recording and then connects when it wants to. I’ve tried to update my case with email you sent everyday the last 5 days and it states that your servers are down. You guys seem to be having many issues that you can’t solve.

[Singled5678]

Happening for me, just installed a pro 2 on same side of my house, and now my pro which has been working fine is randomly stuck on connecting and just spinning when I try to live view on it.  This camera is my doorbell camera and I’ve just bought the doorbell.  Not good.

ive resynced keep turning it off and on and still the issue persists.

[Singled5678]

It seems to be when I have my arlo pro plugged in to the electric, rather than running off battery. I’ve just wired it in yesterday.


When it’s plugged in outdoors, it seems to stick on connecting when at 100 percent.

Then when I unplug and let it go via battery it seems to be ok??

[Kida0004]

I just bought mine with three cameras. I have said a lot of good things based on what I read about this security system. But after a day of testing my cam 3 keeps saying “connecting” indefinitely. Cant see a video as it doesn't record. A real embarrassing. My wife is not now convinced about its effectiveness and security. What a waste of money.

[UTAS]

Only one of seven Arlo Pro cams has experienced this issue.  I didn't even know about it, until the camera was actually needed for inside surveillance.  Lucky that this is not a remote issue!  Otherwise, 'up crap creek'.

I took out the battery of the foyer cam and reinstalled / repositioned the cam.  It is 'okay' for now. 

Curious that this issue surfaced a few months ago, and Arlo teamsters are still trying to find a fix.  Or, is it fixed?

Will need to follow up on this periodically.  More than $1K investment, not including the monthly fees, and this user wishes he had looked at something else.

[Singled5678]

My camera is actually still doing it when it’s not plugged in. Stays stuck on connecting. Eventually I connect after many many attempts!! I’m missing Capturing people coming to My front door. Also as mentioned the camera this is doing it with is used in conjunction with my arlo doorbell.

[kgrier]

Hey Folks - Sorry to be join the timeout club with you. Some good tshooting in here. Just reporting that I got the "timeout" during Camera Positioning on my android after converting one camera to solar panel. I don't think I used that feature before, so went to PC, got the "timeout" in the browser version.  In the past I did the pull battery trick. Instead I messed around in the camera dev settings - deleted the zones, upped the vid quality. And waited for the system to recover. About 30 minutes later I was able to reconnect from the PC, recreate the activity zones, etc and the Live stream. I suspect if I let it stream long enough it will wedge again. 

Here's a thought. Bear with me. I run a 200+ security camera service for a local university with a cloud provider.  The cameras stream to on-prem devices that detect motion, then stream motion-only video to cloud storage where customers can review via a browser interface, we store a moving 30 days of video. The service is designed primarily for forensic review. Not unlike Arlo. Real-time "LIVE" view is an entirely different load profile on both the network and camera in this architecture. It typically uses the second stream from the cameras, the first stream is still going to the recording device. The vendor has tried to implement live-view in several different ways with mixed results as the system was not designed for this from the beginning, unlike a conventional VMS. 

So, what if the timeouts are not entirely accidental? What if it they  are a side-effect of Arlo trying to rate-limit / throttle the use of Arlo as a real-time monitoring solution which requires high-bandwidth synchronous communications vs forensic review, which allows async processing and communications?  I'm not saying Arlo is purposely hanging the connection, rather they don't have the live-view rate limiter thing done correctly yet.  Like the first two minutes are high-quality and then the stream is supposed to drop down in bit-rate? A watchdog timer is set so that after a period of no-streaming things return to normal. That's when our cameras reconnect. 

Anyway, that's a heck of a way to introduce myself to the group. Don't even ask about what I think on Orbi not being able to tell you who the top talkers on your network are 🙂 - Kirk 

[JessicaP]

If you're having problems where you're not receiving recording and keeps saying "connecting," try rebooting your Base Station/SmartHub to see if that helps. Also try checking on the web client on your computer to see if you're able to view your camera.

Otherwise, please contact the Support Team to further investigate this issue. You will find several options for contacting support in the provided link.

[KBrooks]

Like the old cable days of buffering. Absolutely worthless.

[zuxicui90]

I have both pro and pro2 in use. I'm experiencing the same issue for pro but not pro2. Pro is connecting forever when I try to steam it on App.

[mdulay]

Same issue here after 1 year of no problem... So frustrating.

[ranp]

Connection times out happens all the time. Very frustrating.

[MartinB88]

Exactly the same issue here. Tried restarting base station, if I take the battery out of the camera and put it back in it seems to work for a short while. Then same thing happens again. Renders the camera's virtually useless!