Arlo pro motion detection problem

[DebbiG]

Hello,

I have the Arlo Pro with 4 cameras, and the system had been working great. however in the last 48 hours the camera covering the driveway and front half of my house is missing almost all motion. It barely catches the cars driving by or people walking and biking like it used to. My system is set to armed, and the running man is black and it is set at 80 like it has been. All the other cameras are working great, but of course one of the most important is missing everything. Appreciate the help.

I have the VMB4000 and my firmware says it is up to date with 1.10.0.8_22190

thanks, Debbi

[jguerdat]

Apparently you've never used a PIR sensor light or other similar device. All PIR sensors work the same with motion across the FOV being the best way to cause motion detection.

[Wklovelace3]

My motion detection is hit or miss also. Along with rapid battery drain. Really hope someone from arlo would respond to these issues but so far they have not shown any concern for the real issues that are happening to some users

[Redmoonstar]

My motion detection has been hit and miss (more miss than hit) since the May upgrade, I have also had a case open for set recording not working since June!

[Wklovelace3]

Mine started acting up the same time of the rapid battery drain problem that is back. Was fixed in may but now its back

[paulmike3]

Motion detection has been on a steady decline for about 2 months for me.

Sometimes I can open the garage, pull the car out, and close the garage with no detection. Then a couple hours later, a leaf blowing on the tree will set it off 10-15 times in a row.

Infuriating.

[JamesC]

grillmaster77,

You can find information on zones here: How do I set up the Arlo Smart cloud activity zones?

All the same rules that apply to normal motion detection apply when zones are active, those rules are just applied only to motion that occurs inside the zone.

JamesC

[MartinIan]

I must apologise for this late response: I did the full system reset and it is now working and recording. A side effect seems to be though that my solar panels are not working again. I have again swapped the cameras, which worked last time, but not still not working.  Trying to find out how to contact Netgear Arlo to see if they'll maybe replace the whole set-up - these tech companies have got really good at hiding.

[jguerdat]

Use the Contact Support link at the bottom here and again on the new page.

[JamesC]

midwestarloguy,

Given the number of issues you're experiencing, i've opened and escalated a support case on your behalf. I will reach out to you in a private message with more information.

JamesC

[MartinIan]

Thanks. I'll give them a call

[pc2k17]

My batteries are fine, but I also have motion detection issues. Issues I didn't have before most recent updates.

I have a camera inside the attached garage. I can open the garage door, back the car out, close the door and nothing. Other times it goes off as soon as the car starts rolling. Sensitivity at 95%, car 10-12 feet away. I put the sensitivity up to 100% and it now gets the car everytime, and, it also picks up every piece of flying dust or flying bug, constantly going off. Back to 95% and it's back to previous. 5% difference shouldn't be that much of a difference, from missing things, to getting every thing.

Also have 3 other cams inside the house. When my pets enter a rooom, cameras used to pick them up right away, now they have to be 3-5 feet closer before being detected, and sometimes I get a video of them leaving a room, but not entering the room (I'm pretty sure they don't have a transporter).

Also have a new Pro 2 outside. 30 feet away from camera are 4 apple trees. (apple trees are small, about 10 feet high, 5 feet wide) With sensitivity at 100% I can stand right in front of the trees, wave my arms and nothing. Ok it's 30 feet away, makes sense, but then I move a tree branch around and the camera detects that motion. Not people, but does get trees. Gets people at 20 feet, trees at 30 feet.

Seems inconsistent....

[paulmike3]

I have a feeling one way they are dealing with the battery drain problem is decreasing power for motion detection. Maybe only turning half the IR sensors on at a time at low power every so often, or something like that.

[pc2k17]

I agree. Seems they may have lowered motion detection sensitivity, one would assume to combat the battery drain issue. Unfortunately, I don't think detecting too much motion has anything to do with abnormal battery drain. If the arlo devs/engineers just took 30 minutes and came here to read posts they'd know that. Hopefully they put things back the way they were, if they did indeed make a change.

[Redmoonstar]

---

@paulmike3 wrote:
I have a feeling one way they are dealing with the battery drain problem is decreasing power for motion detection. Maybe only turning half the IR sensors on at a time at low power every so often, or something like that.

---

I think your correct about the IR I have noticed in the last couple of weeks that a couple of my camera's ( I have 5) are only showing half the red IR lights when motion is detected. I only noticed this as I walk past them at night getting wood and dogs settled before bed. I did think it was weird but one of these camera's is being replaced (I hope) due to draining a fully charged battery with very few recordings in 7 hours and some of that was disabled. I put a new straight out of the box charged in a charging station battery in it and an hour later it had drained 10% with one recording. Maybe it takes more power to only use half the IR !

[rp17]

I have the same problem.  Since the update a few months ago I get 0 alerts for motion unless im standing directly in front of the camera.  I have to set my motion detection at 100% permanently and now I get a notification if anything at all moves slightly.  Its either completely 0 notifications or everything that slightly moves in the wind.  Am I stuck with $500 worth of cameras that dont work anymore now??

[Wdufrene]

I finally got my cams up and pointed last night. My door cam (i have not had a chance to really look at the others yet) bugs trigger it often. But it didn't catch me walking out to my truck or coming back in. Is there a down time between being triggered? or does motion start it over as soon as it catches it? i have all 6 of my cameras set to default sensitivity and they are all set to record on Motion only. I have push notifications set only when i am outside of Geofenced area and not to push notify if we are home.

[Redmoonstar]

I have all 5 of my camera's set to 100% for motion as the update in May broke it. My camera's are all hit and miss ( more miss than hit) since the May firmware upgrade. I would up the sensativity and see how that goes. I also have my 2 camera's close to the house set to record on audio.

[Wdufrene]

thanks Ill try that..  it caught the screen door as it closed behind me i was already inside. I set up one of my cameras inside in teh doorway so i compared the times. i even stood in front of the camera for 10-15 sec looking at it to see if the IRs were on. i was hoping i had enough light that it was the case (that the IRs were not on)

[pc2k17]

Motion sensitivity has been worse after recent updates. You have to be 3-5 feet closer now, for my indoor cameras, for the camera to trigger at 100% sensitivity. My garage camera at 100% picks up everything including, bugs and cars 60 feet away, but move the sensitivity down to 95% and it no longer gets the bugs, but it also misses my 3700 pound car pulling out of the garage at 12 feet away. It does pick me up in the garage fine. Like mentioned above, it's hit and miss, and annoying. Started after recent firmware updates.

[KenGirloy]

You're absolutely right. I asked that if it was the last update in my chats, and mentioned some from the community said that was the problem, but no answer.

I've chatted with Arlo many times, four days ago from a chat someone said I should unplugged the base station ethernet and power cord for more than 10 seconds and plugged both in. The day after no videos in the library so I turned off the base power button and turned it on again, but after no videos. Yesterday I chatted again, someone said I need to take 1 cam’s bats out, very near to the base, and unplugged the base station ethernet/power cord and plug in. When I did that some cams were offline so asked if I should restart the base, and said no. But yesterday I did, restarting the base about 15 times because it was the only way to make the library work. Today no videos in the library at all. Set motion to 100% and no videos.

I hope they will come up with a new update to fix the old one. I'm guessing I can't go back to an earlier update, but I wish I could so Arlo will work.

-Ken

[alcat]

agreed ... While I do have periods of usability I also have unusable periods.

What I can say with complete confidence

1 - My 10-camera system that was reliable before firmware 1.2.21616 no longer works.

2 - Now I have at best a 5-camera system that works "most" times. But I am consistently having to open/close battery latches to force caneras back on line for motion detection to work

3 - I can stream a camera and view realtime without issue. However reliable motion detection is not happening

I have decided to accept a lower quality system while I wait for a) Arlo to fix this or b) I replace Alro. I am activly reviewing other systems.

[TheWatcher24]

Same here. The motion detection lag is so bad , I set up a custom rule , with another camera to start recording hoping that if one detected motion , by the time the object or person got to the other camera it would record. Rarely worked tho.. I've since went to wired camera system. Wish arlo worked , the concept was great

[TheWatcher24]

How much moving around of cameras as far as motion detection range and angles have you tried ? I got slightly better results facing them at a 90 degree angle from the area I wanted to monitor, meaning I see half of what I want to see , just to give the camera a chance at detecting motion. I've went to a wired system. None of those issues with them, just the wires

[TheWatcher24]

What is the latest firmware update?

[KenGirloy]

From what I can tell no updates for the base or the cams, but I checked both yesterday.

So a week ago I set a new rule in the Arlo schedule to make a video to the library for the 1st cam, when motion was detected from the 2nd cam, and the rule is just after midnight. And Arlo works even when no motion was detected from the 2nd. I waited a few days to make sure it worked. At first I set the 2nd to make a video to the library for the 2nd, when motion was detected from the 2nd, but it didn't work, so I changed to make a video to the library for the 1st.

Problem solved!