Arlo Not Picking Up Unless Subject Is Within 20' of Camera

[TLJohns]

Hi Guys and Gals, I am brand new to the community and teetering on returning this product. I purchased a two camera Arlo Pro and just received it Friday. The purchase was due to an incident that happened one week ago today around this time of day (8pm). I was in the tub (I live alone) and my dog and myself both heard the back door on the house suddenly creaking open. When my dog jumped up and I jumped up and grabbed a towel. They were gone by the time I got there. A knife was found in my backyard, the next day when the sun came up.  Now you have the back story and why this is so important to me.  I have never owned cameras , ever. But broke down and purchased these when it wasn't in the budget. 

The motion sensor and alerting my phone is of huge importance, for obvious reasons. 

So I was satisfied when being alerted when we were moving through the yard over the weekend. I thought we were good. I found, tonight, the cameras are not alerting to everything that is in the live range of the camera, the recordings and alerts are only starting when the subject is within 20' of the camera at best. 

Contacting Arlo support is painful. I already tried that and remained on a chat hold for so long I lost track and tried to call them at the same time where I was well past the 30th in the queue. Is there a setting I am unaware of that will make the cameras pick  up everything that is within the frame on the live feed? This was a deliberate experiment tonight and I am disappointed. 

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

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@TLJohns wrote:

The purchase was due to an incident that happened one week ago today around this time of day (8pm). I was in the tub (I live alone) and my dog and myself both heard the back door on the house suddenly creaking open. When my dog jumped up and I jumped up and grabbed a towel. They were gone by the time I got there. A knife was found in my backyard, the next day when the sun came up.  

I'm sorry to hear that.

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@TLJohns wrote:

the recordings and alerts are only starting when the subject is within 20' of the camera at best. 

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The motion is detected using a passive infrared sensor on the camera (PIR).  That does have limited range - as you found, it goes out to about 20 feet.

So you do need to place the camera(s) with that restriction in mind.  Also, the cameras are better at picking up side-to-side motion.  There are some positioning tips here: https://kb.arlo.com/37/How-do-I-position-my-Arlo-wire-free-camera

You should be able to cover your back entrance reliably, but you won't be able to trigger on everything you can see in the live stream. 

Also, I'd like to be able to say that the system is guaranteed to alert you instantly if there is another intruder - but that isn't really the case.  It can give you some evidence that will help identify the intruders.  And it might alert you quickly enough that you can contact the police.  But it might not.

There are some inexpensive magnetic door (or window) alarms that you could use (either instead of this camera, or in addition to it).  Those would make a loud siren if the door/window was opened without entering a code. 

[Acguy7]

Try setting your motion sensitivity higher and then use the motion sensing tool provided in the app to set the sensitivity level so you get what you want when you want it to trip on motion so you dont miss anything

[TLJohns]

I want to thank you for replying and I appreciate the Arlo community very much. I tried this and it seemed to react sooner, I think it might have done the trick. 

[TLJohns]

Hi Stephen, your time, to really lay that out for me, was very appreciated. I appreciate you all very much. you all are a wonderful community. 

[StephenB]

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@TLJohns wrote:

Hi Stephen, your time, to really lay that out for me, was very appreciated. I appreciate you all very much. you all are a wonderful community. 

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You're very welcome.