Arlo Pro and Fire TV (Alexa Skill)

[Lax12]

When trying to use the new Arlo Alexa skill through Fire TV, the Fire TV is stuck on a "Waiting for Netgear" screen and never loads the video feed.

Fire TV and Arlo Pro camera and base station are up to date. Restarted both, did not resolve the issue. Discovered devices in the Alexa app and double-checked device names, no found issues.

Any reason why the Fire TV is unable to connect to the Netgear base station/Arlo Pro camera? Is this a known issue and fix coming?

Thank you.

[JeremyBrumm]

All you have to do is make the request twice in a row (Alexa show me “x” camera, Alexa show me “x” camera), mine comes up in less than 5 seconds every time.

[Kevin-norcal]

Do you need the 2nd gen Arlo base station for this to work? I have the original with pro cameras. When I say show "front door" Alexa will say okay then nothing happens.

[Horsefly]

Have you tried what has been mentioned above? Mine didn't work reliably at all, until I tried to repeat the command. Just as has been described above. Say "Alexa, show me the front door". Alexa says Ok, the screen changes, but you get the "Waiting for Netgear". If you just wait, most of the time nothing happens. If instead you repeat the command again at this point with "Alexa, show me the front door" then in a couple of seconds it shows the live camera.

After getting pretty frustrated several times, I've found that this works almost 100% of the time. Obviously the Arlo guys have some work to do on the Alexa app, since this clearly isn't supposed to work this way. Still, it is a good workaround for now!

[Kevin-norcal]

I don't get the "Waiting for Netgear" message, just an okay and nothing happens. This made me wonder if the original Arlo hub is compatible, I couldn't find anything online about it. Yes I tried saying twice, and tried playing camera on Arlo app first.

[BrianDev]

I also have the original Arlo Base station with a mix of pro and original cameras. The “tell Alexa twice” works for me almost without fail. I do find that if you wait too long before issuing the 2nd command it seems to not work. Strange workaround but seems to work for the majority of users. Try making sure you have latest firmware then rebooting your base station then give it a shot.

[Kevin-norcal]

Strange, still nothing.  Rebooted Arlo hub and Fire.  Still the same, get an okay, then nothing.

[MikeDJ]

Are the cameras listed in the alexa app under smarthome devices? What device are you trying to use to view the cameras?

[Kevin-norcal]

yes, all cameras are listed under Smart Home devices.  I'm trying to view on the 2 gen FireTV Stick.

[Kevin-norcal]

Update, I rebooted the cameras (took batteries out), and now it's working.  Thanks everyone for the suggestions!  

[Dbain28]

Can anyone help me out, I have the Alexa and Arlo skill and they are linked, but each time i ask to view the camera it continues to say Waiting on Netgear. Now when I say the command again I'm good. Shouldnt be this way and Netgear/Arlo need to do everything to fix this issue. So is anything has a fix let me know...

Thanks

[Roadwarriors]

I just got my system and ran into this issue.  Thanks to everyone for contributing. You saved me a bunch of time and frustration.   Saying it twice works for me too.  I have a feeling it because of the way Arlo's go to sleep.  When it gets the first command the camera is not responding quick enough since it is waking up when Alexa expected a reply.  When you do it twice the camera has woken up and responds to the request.  I do some programming and have run into the issue before.  I am sure when they tested (and everything worked fine) they camera was running and not asleep.

[JeremyBrumm]

I would always say it twice until today, as of today before I could even say it a second time the feed was live on my TV. Thank you Arlo/Netgear for whatever you did to fix this.

[Dbain28]

Not sure of what I’m hearing, I know I posted the problem I was having with the Alexa /Arlo application(waiting on netgear)

A recent post stated something that sounds like a fix was issued. I’m hearing correctly???? Or do I still have to ask twice to
Pull up a live feed ??????

[Boe_w]

I have the exact same problem.  Guessing everyone does. I have found that the only way it works is if I start a live steam on my Iphone, leave the stream running on my phone, Then call “alexa show camera name”, and it works for that camera, so long as streaming to my phone!!!

If I stop the stream on the iphone the stream to the fire tv stops and says  “buffering” after about 30 seconds.  Some serious bugs at play, it would seem.

[Dpovolo]

Alexa skill for Arlo is not available right now in Canada.  Is there a timeline?

[Dbain28]

Can someone either at amazon or arlo PLEASE explain to me why when I ask alexa to show me the front camera, does it take me to ask alexa twice to get the camera to pull up on my fire tv stick. My fire tv stick has alexa built into it and should work, but why cant anyone either at amazon or arlo address this issue, and ensure a update are sent out to all users. I got the firetv stick with alexa and was excited when I found out I could merge my accounts, but unhappy when I found out it takes me twice as long to have the camera pulled up  on my tv then using my arlo app on my phone. SOMEONE needs to make it an issue that gets fixed ASAP..

[jhoughton1]

I struggled with that for a long time -- assuming that if Alexa said "Okay," it meant she had communicated with the device and the device had agreed to perform the function. It wasn't happening with Alexa and Fire TV (Gen 1). Finally a tech at Amazon and I worked it out. Amazon and I had always referred to the tv device as "Jim's Fire TV." But looking at settings>devices on the TV showed the FTV device name as "Amazon TV." Aha! Then, drilling down in the iPhone Alexa app, "Music, Video & Books" > "Fire TV" > "Manage Devices"  lo and behold, I had that set up as "Jim's Fire TV." I unlinked, then linked the app to "Amazon TV" and bingo.

That, of course, took me to the next hurdle, "Waiting for Netgear." Now I know what to do about that. Agree that Netgear needs to make it a one-stop shop and hope they will, soon. This was waaaay too much work, figuring it out with minimal assistance from both Netgear and Amazon (which is, have to admit, better CS than most).

[rahjib]

Yes, this workaround is working for me. Have to issue the command twice. Takes about 10 seconds to get a feed up on screen. "Seems like" an obvious bug and can be fixed fairly easily. If issuing command twice works it makes sense somewhere along the communication pipe the first command is getting lost. I'd venture a guess a say first command opens the UI to show the feed and stops at that. Second command starts the feed on the open UI.
Netgear please fix.

[Mgkeating]

Asking twice to wake up the camera is ridiculous Netgear or Amazon needs to fix this ASAP. I am fairly disappointed with the Arlo Pro it isn’t everything Netgear hyped it to be. I am also very didssipointed that two months after I bought the Arlo Pro the came out with the Arlo Pro 2 which has 1080 HD. I am done with Netgear.

[rahjib]

Update a day later, noticed a caveat , the workaround does not work if fire TV is sleeping. When fire TV is sleeping, first command wakes up fire TV and even opens the UI showing "Waiting for Netgear" message, but after the second command in that scenario actually makes that UI quit, which feels like a smooth and silky crash and fire TV goes back to home screen.

Subsequently once fire TV is awake, issuing the command twice works. Issuing the command twice works without a problem of fire TV is first woken up by other means.

[rahjib]

Mgkeating, I am liking the concept and the system so far, but am h

[jhoughton1]

I'm afraid the home-netcam tech just isn't there yet. I've returned several cameras to Amazon. The Arlo Q is so far the best of the bunch, but that is saying very little. "Works with Alexa" is a gross overstatement that one can only take as having been intended to deceive. No one at Netgear can possible believe that this camera "works with Alexa" except in the most rough sense of "works." 

[VincentS]

I line in Canada and gambled and got an Echo Show, hoping it would work with my recently purchased Arlo Pro (I know, sounds crazy, but I had the same issue when for Sonos speakers (coulnd't find the skill), and bought an Alexa enabled Sonos One, installed it, and the skill showed up!)... It does not work - skill is not there 😞  Any idea od the timeframe on when it might be available would be appreciated.  I have a couple of Arlo Pros and an Arlo Q, and was hoping to get more and use throughout my home... like them so far, and hoping not to have to give up and look at other (Alexa enabled) products... in particular since Arlo is marketed as Alexa enabled.

[RFD]

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This worked for me also.  I'm using a FireStick.  I say "show "name of camera"," then say "show "name of camera"" again and it work within 3 seconds.  No need to open the app or have it live first..  

MikeDJ wrote:
I finally got it working. It’s not ideal and clearly there is an issue with the Arlo Alexa connection. I have the Arlo Pro Base Station and 8 Arlo Pro cameras. I also use the Element 4K TV with Alexa built in as well as Fire TV Sticks with Alexa remote (Called 2nd generation) on my other TVs.

So all you have to do is make sure your cameras are on. I use routines in Smartthings to arm and disarm my Arlos but however you do this it won’t matter. You do not have to push live on the cameras like some suggest, even though it does work sometimes.

The key is to request Alexa show you the camera 2 times. “Alexa show me the front camera.” Wait a second then request again, “Alexa show me the front camera.” It works. Still frustrating since I have the ring pro Doorbell and I don’t have to do that for it to work. Hope this helps until they come out with a real fix.

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[DavidBlackwell]

I just wanted to post here because seems like everyone has the same issues as I did today when I tried using Amazon Echo to display my live camera feed on my TV (with Fire TV Stick). 

I first enabled the Arlo skill on Alexa app on my phone

Then I told Alexa "Show me camera 1" but found out my Echo was not linked to Fire TV. From the Amazon Alexa app, I tapped on the menu, then "Music, Videos, and Boooks", then "FireTV, then Devices, then linked my Fire TV stick.

Last problem... I tell Alexa "Show me camera 1" and she says OK and then my TV just shows "Waiting for Netgear...". The workaround for this issue is to open the Arlo app on your phone and tap Live to see live feed of the camera on your Arlo app.. then tell Alexa "Show me (your camera name)". Once Fire TV starts showing your camera feed, you can close the Arlo app on your phone. 

Live stream on Fire TV stick only works if you first start live streaming the camera on your phone.

Last bit of advice.. make sure your Fire TV stick is Gen2 - only Gen2 Fire TV stick supports live camera stream. You can tell which generation your Fire TV stick is by looking at the FCC ID number on the stick:

1st-gen = 2ABDU-0509
2nd-gen = 2AE6S-0948