Arlo Pro Batteries Are Draining Fast?

[yxarlo]

Battery drain increased significantly since July 2018. Now drains upto 5% a day. I have had most of the cameras up for over 1 year. A couple more added 3 months ago. All used to last 3 or 4 months per charge, now I have to charge every 2.5 weeks. The only thing changed seems to be firmware updates in July 2018. How do I revert back to old firmware?

[Alex5]

Same exact situation here. I have 5 Arlo Pro camera. Batteries used to last 7+ months. Since June/July, I can't make 30 days, in the same exact conditions (same wi-fi, same position, same usage, etc.).

Arlo support made me reset everything, but I still have the same problem.

Cameras hardware: H8

Cameras firmware: 1.092.0.16_21159

Base station hardware: VMB4000r3

Base station firmware: 1.10.0.9_24726

[svharvard]

Arlo support: do you have any answers on the fast drain? Mine are draining quickly like others have explained. Waiting for a response from you.

[pc2k17]

---

@Alex5 wrote:

Same exact situation here. I have 5 Arlo Pro camera. Batteries used to last 7+ months. Since June/July, I can't make 30 days, in the same exact conditions (same wi-fi, same position, same usage, etc.).

Arlo support made me reset everything, but I still have the same problem.

Cameras hardware: H8

Cameras firmware: 1.092.0.16_21159

Base station hardware: VMB4000r3

Base station firmware: 1.10.0.9_24726

---

You're running the field trial firmware....... have you noticed any improvement? I didn't have the drain issue, so can't tell if it's helping or not.

[Jayz0r]

Posted elsewhere before but will add my name here again as well since I'm still dealing with the same as everyone else in here, and like others, also ever since that dreaded May update (which was great, considering I was out of the country for a month and had the cameras die during that time). I've been recommending the Arlos everywhere before, but now I'm telling people to look elsewhere, the device has become a burden and is unreliable when it comes to the battery. All is well until, for some reason, it starts draining fast. What's even weirder is, the cameras that don't do much and are close to the base station seem to drain faster than those further away and having constant action.

Come on Netgear, fix this already. It's extremely frustrating.

[GK22]

It appears these posts are all complaints with no one from Arlo monitoring. I have a 3 camera system that I bought 4 months ago from Costco. At first, batteries lasted over 2 months. Now, 2 of the 3 cameras need to be charged every couple of weeks. The third one, which is the furthest away from the base station, seems to be working normally. I tried chatting with Customer Support, but it times out without connecting me to anyone. There is no way to email for help. If I can't find a reasonable response from Arlo in the next week, I will be returning the system to Costco - they have an excellent return policy.

[ShayneS]

Good Morning GK22,

  The Arlo development team is currently investigating this issue. We will provide an update as soon as we have more information to share with the community.

[edck]

same experience.  In most recent recharging the battery, i remove the batteries linkage, power off the base station, restart and re-sync.  Still the same.  it drop almost 20% after 1 week.  Avg 5-7 videos per day.

[Ronin8793]

I've had my Arlo Pro cameras for about a year.  They've worked well, until a couple months ago.  I was getting 3+ months on a typical battery charge.  Now--about 3 weeks, if that long.  With the same activity.

Arlo--FIX THIS!!!    There's ZERO reason to have this system if I need to charge the batteris every month.

[Rosety71]

Right...

[Rosety71]

I would return it. Junk.

[Micolabn]

There are a lot of us with problems.  Arlo either doesnt know, doesnt care or cant fix their own stuff.    Complaining here doesnt seem to do any good.    Maybe we should all post on social media. Maybe that might get them working faster to fix the problem they created.

[Svelle]

I got the same problem. 1 charge last for a week..

[Stevejb]

Sent them a message via Facebook page.  asking to confirm that they were aware of the issue.   Folks my also post on their page.  https://www.facebook.com/arlosmarthome/    (and twitter)

[JoeCymru]

I had thought I had missed the bullet. No. I have had my setup since last January. My largest complaints have been about the lousy app. The system however made it through the May and June updates with no negative reactions. Until now.

I set about replacing all four batteries by doing a round robin on an off line charger. I have done this before with no issues. Now I have the battery drain issue on two of four cameras (so far). One lost 8% in three days with no recordings and armed for eight hours a day, the other lost 9% in four days with about ten recordings and armed all day.

My previous recharge was right after the May  update. The June fix for the May infrared problem (and whatever else) had not seemed to change anything until I needed to resync my cameras last week during the charging session. Only after this resyncing, after the June update. did this appear. Correlation? Who knows. Certainly not Arlo.

None of this is due to signal strength, and since I do a round robin on the batteries, no camera has the same battery as before the charge. What is more, since I am charging them on an off line charger, the 100% I start with is a true 100% not the 80% called 100% when they are charged in camera, therefore the cameras should have stayed at 100% for days even in use. There is something very wrong in the base camera communication / syncing that is hit and miss and some cameras are freaking out burning through batteries while not actually producing any usable data.

[Skouby]

I think that we are many with the same problem. My batteries are down with up to 70% in just 48 hrs. Honestly I am a little pissed about the situation. Mostly because Arlo support is not responding. However I am convinced that Arlo is the best solution in the market for now and willing to give it a few more days...but Arlo Support step up and update your customers on when a fix is expected.

[JoeCymru]

To elaborate, Arlo support - as has been said multiple times on this and other Arlo forums, is only good for people who have not read instructions or the FAQ's. Beyond that they are more irritating in their inability to help than anything else. For people who understand the first rule in any issue concerning electronics operation is to try a power recycle or reboot, for those who understand narrowing down problems with swaps when feasible, for those who have checked signal strength with analyzers, and especially for those who have had their systems operating normally for an extended period of time and they suddenly go erratic, there is a frimware or back end problem that does not effect everyone but certainly is not induced by the owner. My batteries were acting normally from May through August and into a few days of September.

If my resyncing cameras is Russion roulette on the cameras' operability, and this was not the case before the updates, then certainly a fix is conceivable. Sure it is not the entire installed base of owners ... yet ... but my experience should make Arlo wornder if this can spread as more people need to resync for whatever reason after June.

[JamesC]

The engineering team is currently investigating reports from users experiencing battery drain issues. Currently, field trial firmware is being tested that should help resolve this issue. I will provide an update when I know more.

JamesC

[Jimbodos]

Just got my system 6 cameras.  One down to 53% in 2 days.  Yikes  Will keep updated

[Jimbodos]

My new system just came and hardware says H7 .  Why everyone else H8?  Just got set up and dont really know whats going on.   Thanks

[Jimbodos]

Did the seller slip me some old cameras H7 vrs H8?   Not sure what it means.  Help please

[jguerdat]

It's of no real consequence. The hardware versions happen due to engineering or supplier changes. As far as this issue is concerned, there's no known relationship between the issue and hardware version.

[deewt]

My batteries have been draining within days with minimal motion since the last update. I've had my system for about 21 months and up until now, the batteries would last 2.5 - 3 months. They have also been hit or miss on catching motion that it used to catch every single time. I'm also getting false alerts of motion when there is none. None of this began until the updates.

[350smallblock]

Batteries draining fast here too. They used to last for 6+ months but now only 2 weeks or so. One cam hardley ever see's action while the others are recording 3+ times a day.....maybe. However, they are all draining at the same rate of speed. Note: they do have different signal strength bars which would lead me to think that the weaker signal batteries would drain faster. However, thats not the case. 

[harley239]

Same here. Have been having issues since about May. First 1.25 years they lasted 6 months or so, now they are lasting about 1 month or less. I am tired and ready to change systems. If they cant fix this in the last 4 months, they will never fix it. Also when I change the batteries, I have to take the battery in and out multiple times to get it to connect.

[reduviid]

Netgear, have you thought of reverting to the last firmware version which didn’t cause problems while you sort this out?