Arlo Pro cannot connect to cams moments after being connected

[Rustedryder]

I have 5 Arlo Pro cams, the issue is when I bring up a camera to view the first time everything works and I can view and record perfectly. If I disconnect from the camera being viewed and then try to reconnect to it right away or within a few minutes it fails to connect. The motion and speaker icons at the bottom of the viewing pane grey out and then immediately go back to white and the camera just indicates it is connecting but never does. After about 15 minutes I can then connect to it again. The interesting thing is, I get notifications of motion and or sound during this time period but no recordings of what triggered the camera(s). I have tried turning the camera on and off in settings and resetting the base station in settings but nothing seems to allow the affected camera to connect again until about 15 minutes after the original disconnect from the successful connection. This seemed to start happening around January 2020, the system was flawless previous to then.

[ShayneS]

Hi @Rustedryder

What version of the Arlo app are you using?

  May I ask which troubleshooting steps you have performed so far? I don't want to suggest any prior methods you have previously performed.

[Rustedryder]

Hello Shayne,

I am using version 2.13(2334). 

I’ve been trouble shooting this on and off since mid January performing the following steps but not necessarily in the order listed. 

Changed out the Cat5E cable from base station to router

Changed Ethernet port on high speed router

Assigned a static ip to VMB4000 within router

Attempted to turn camera(s) off from within settings then back on; also turned camera off from within settings then logged out of Arlo and back in turned camera on with no effective resolve

Changed the name of affected camera(s)

Deleted and re-added camera(s)

Turned off 2 of the 5 Pro cameras; issue remained on the 3 remaining cameras

Increased high speed service from 60mbps download X 10mbps upload to 160X15

Removed USB external drive from VMB4000 to free up processing time and memory

Performed restart of base station from within Arlo (sometimes resolving the issue allowing me to connect to affected cam(s) but not always)

Assigned QOS on high speed router to Ethernet port

i think that’s pretty much everything I’ve tried but the issue remains constant, if  a camera senses motion and starts recording, all is good for that particular instance, however if something else happens that causes the motion sensor to trigger within a moment or two of the previous recording then the camera fails to connect and record but I do get the notification of motion detected. If I try to manually connect from my IPhone, IPad or laptop I get a failure to connect to camera. 

I would definitely appreciate any assistance you could offer on this most troubling issue. I count on these cameras as an early warning device and as I indicated in my initial post, they were flawless until early to mid January of this year. 

Sincerely,

Mark

[ShayneS]

HI @Rustedryder

Thank you for the detailed information. Have you tried other phones/web/devices and tested this issue?

[Rustedryder]

Hey Shayne,
Yes I have, I have an IPhone 6S and an IPhone 7 both running IOS 13.3.1 an IPad IOS 12.4.5 as well as a Dell laptop Win 10 using both Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge with the same condition across all devices. I also disabled wifi on my mobile devices with the same issue on 3G and LTE. The only difference is on my laptop I get a failure msg within the affected cam viewing pane “The request timed out” compared to on my mobile devices there is a “connecting” msg and a spinning spiral along with the speaker and motion icons go from white to grey as though it is going to connect then back to white immediately at which point I know it will not connect.

[ShayneS]

Just to double check, this is occurring on multiple cameras correct?

I have checked your account & it looks like all your devices are up to date on there latest firmware as well.

[Rustedryder]

Yes, that is correct. Just moments ago I had notification of motion on 2 cameras and when I went to bring them up to check what was happening, I could not connect to either of the 2 cams that reported motion and only one had recorded the activity because I am assuming the one that didn’t record was already unable to connect as a result of previous activity and recording. There was a period of more than 30 minutes that I could not connect to either of the mentioned cams.

[Rustedryder]

Sorry Shayne, I should have confirmed in my previous post that all Firmware on all cams and base station are at the latest version.

[ShayneS]

I see that you have tried just about all troubleshooting steps. Have you thought of performing a factory reset on your base station & re-adding the base/cams?

[Suaverz]

Happy to see I’m not the only one experiencing this issue. I confirm this has been happening to me since about mid January as well. Any updates?

[Suaverz]

I should add something that might help. I have two cameras in the same room. I’ll connect to camera one, watch a bit, then stop live view. If I try to reconnect to camera one, no dice, I can’t get back to it. I then connect to camera two a few minutes later and I can still see the infrared glow from camera one, as if it never stopped live view. It’s almost as if the original live session on camera one never closes when I hit the stop button in the app (I’m on iOS). No idea how you guys do Live view session management but if you’ve got extra security in place to prevent live view hijacking, maybe it’s working too well? Either that or hitting the stop button on live view doesn’t tell the camera to stop, and this the camera hits a natural timeout or something 20-30 mins later.

[ShayneS]

Hi @Suaverz

They ask which troubleshooting steps you have tried as well?

[Rustedryder]

Hey Shayne,
Yes I have, more than once and even changed base stations along with the addition of a new Pro cam. It always reverts back to the conditions identified within my original and subsequent posts.

[Rustedryder]

Opened a case with Vin 2020-03-26 at Arlo support. will provide updates as they become available.

[Rustedryder]

After further testing of the new firmware on my base station the news is good! I am now able to connect and reconnect to my cams after live viewing, recording (short and long duration). I haven’t seen my cams this responsive since January 2020. Well done Arlo Team!
Thanks for listening to your community and all of us devoted to your products. You have restored my trust in your products!!!

[boofwv]

Having similar problems with my Arlo Ultra SmartHub and cameras.  Just started not allowing me to connect to live view of the cameras, is now only taking still images instead of video, and will not allow the Doorbell and Chime to be connected to the base station or synced.  Multiple chat attempts with the Arlo support team have been disconnected.  The firmware says it is up to date.  Have tried the troubleshooting steps that other users here have tried as well.  Any help is appreciated...

[boofwv]

Issue corrected by uninstalling all devices (including the base) and setting up system as new.