Arlo Pro Batteries not holding a charge as long as they did originally

[ArloJames]

I chose to buy more cameras about 6 months into my first purchase because I was impressed by the performance of the batteries. I now have over $1000 invested in a 10 camera system and am paying an annual fee for storage. Now the camera batteries are a year old and don't perform nearly as well as before. I'm charging them all the time. I call for support and it goes nowhere. Hours on the phone and in chat, checking everything, yet never conceding Arlo batteries are to blame. Nothing has changed with my system or my usage. It's the batteries. They are (trying not to type explicatives) not holding a charge as long as they did originally. I'm now constantly charging batteries. This is, in my opinion, false advertising/bait and switch/price gouging. I'm writing to the users of Arlo Pro to encourage them to stand up and not tolerate this. Are we expected to buy $50 dollar batteries, times the number of cameras in our system, every year. Fix it Arlo or we will fix you!

[Chief93]

I am having the same problem with the batteries.  One of the cameras I have I leave "Live" all the time and the other two I only turn on periodically.  Last month I charged all three batteries, (2 @100% charge and 1 @ 99% charge) and now one of  cameras showed only 11% remaining when I got a text.  The other one was at 20% today.  The one I have Live all the time is at 25%.  Someone please tell me how that makes sense.  The first time I charged the batteries, they charged fairly quickly and now they take allot longer to charge.

[pc2k17]

There was an issue for about a month or so that caused rapid battery drain. June firmware update should have fixed the issue.

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Arlo-Stories/Firmware-Release-Scheduled-6-21-to-Address-IR-Rapid-Ba...

[Chief93]

I charged all three batteries yesterday to 100% with the batteries in the cameras.  Now I'll wait to see how the battery charge holds up.  I hope the charge lasts or I'm going to return the cameras and base station to Costco.

[melhellman]

I too spent good money for a system that worked well and I was happy.  Battieres didn't last all that long before they needed to be recharged and I did purchase a charger for the batteries that charged 2 at a time and it worked perfect.  I also purchase 4 other batteries so I could simply change out the batteries quickly.   Much to my surprise, the batteries stopped taking a charge.  At $50 each I thought that was a bit not so good. And the topper was talking to customer service that is OUT SOURCE people that don't understand english.  They flat told me the battieries were not under any warantee.  So I LOSE on this deal.  Falling on deaf ears, I would NEVER recommend this product to anyone looking for a security systerm.  What a shame.  Good product and flakey people.  I guess I need to go shopping again, but probably never again to Best Buy either as they too don't support any answers.

[JamesC]

melhellman,

Was the charger you purchased an Arlo Branded accessory? It seems unlikely that all 4 of your batteries would be bad. If none are charging, it could be an issue with the charger rather than the battery.

JamesC

[bonbon5000]

Same here - 5 cameras 

I suspect that the company prefer us that we'll buy new batteries or the solar panel 

[melhellman]

I was able to charge up 2 batteries in the camera and it worked, but 3 other batteries would not take a charge at all.  Went on line looking for another security system as Arlo/Netgear simply turn their back on customers.  I will make it know by all that will listen how BAD they are.  Not a good way to stay in business.  I did notice the batteries where made in China so probably that is half the problem but it they won't take a second charge Netgear needs to find a new battery maker.  I am sure they could care less.

[dougjohnson8]

It's now September 2018 so apparently the June update refered to in the July 9th post did not resolve the battery issue.  I have 9 active cameras, two on ac and 7 on battery.  The battery operated cameras used to last for months, now they only last 2-3 weeks.  We charged everything on 9/1/18, went on vacation (2000 miles away) and by 9/16/18 we were getting notices tht the bateries were "tired".  By the time we got home on 9/24, all but one of the 7 battery operated cameras had stoped working.  Not a good way to protect your home while away.

So, Netgear, where do I send these bad batteries and when will you send me replacements (at no cost to me)?

[dougjohnson8]

I tried to go to the link but received an access denied.  What's up with that?

You do not have sufficient privileges for this resource or its parent to perform this action.

Click your browser's Back button to continue.

Return to my original page

[ShayneS]

dougjohnson8,

What type of cameras do you have? which ones are being affected?

[pc2k17]

To find firmware release notes you can go to the main Arlo forums page, then choose the Firmware and Release Notes forum.

Here is the direct link:

https://community.arlo.com/t5/Firmware-Release-Notes/bd-p/arlo-release-notes

The post dated September 26th are what you want to review. There are 3 of them.

[1upsetcustomer]

I have the very same problem. Batteries lasted for roughly 6 mos out of the box. The cameras are on schedule that runs for 10 hours at night. Now I can only get about 5 -10 days out of a charge. Some cameras last longer then others. I’m assuming Netgear will not do anything as they have not had their hands forced. I feel all of us posting here create a class action suite against Arlo and Netgear. It would not be hard and we would be able to get new batteries, maybe ones that even work.
Team at Arlo, I suggest you get your customer service team to start taking care of these issues or this will become a very costly replacement for the company.

[pc2k17]

@1upsetcustomer

The battery drain issue that some people experienced was resolved with a firmware update several months ago. If your still having this issue it is something specific to your system.

Looks like you have a Arlo Pro 2 system, correct?

What firmware do you have on the base and cameras?

[1upsetcustomer]

As far as I know I have the latest and zero change. Also if it was software I would not see the variance I am getting with the current setup. The cameras have been disabled for months because I got tired of charging them.

[1upsetcustomer]

Here is the base.
Yes pro 2 I believe

[pc2k17]

That is the correct up to date firmware for the base. The cameras also had 2 updates the last few months, you may need to enable them, charge them up, and if needed let them update the firmware or initiate the update from the app.

The latest Pro camera firmware is 1.092.0.19_26228.

The latest Pro 2 camera firmware is 1.125.11.3_26229.