Arlo Pro problems and tech support's response

[TECHX2001]

Hello Everyone,

I am currently deciding between keeping my Arlo Pro or trying the Nest Cam Outdoor edition.  It is my second day with my Arlo and I had a strange occurance.  The camera mysteriously went offline at approximately 3:50AM PST about an hour later I restarted the base unit but the camera remained offline.  The camera is up in a fairly high place and I did not have time to pull out the ladder and reset/resync it before going to work.  Myseriously the camera came back online on its own (~8hrs later) around 12:30 PST.  

Network:

ASUS RT-AC68U Router

FIOS 150/150 Mbps ISP

Camera:
Full battery charge and ac adapter is hard wired

About 25-35FT from base station

I opened a case with tech support and the reply is below:

"With regards to your concern, I check the status of your arlo device. It's seems the reason why it went offline due to it update its firmware. Because during 3-5am local in your location Arlo Device push updates to those devices that are not updated.

Its not hard to assume for but I suggest to try the steps below if happens again.

1. Go to Settings > My Devices the select the problem camera. Press Remove Device.
2. Turn off the Base station then power it on after a minute.
3. Re-sync the camera with the Base station. To do so, press the sync button on the base station once (just press then release right after). When the third light starts to blink, press the sync button on the camera."

Does this seem accurate? Is there a place to toggle automatic firmware updates? 3-5AM may seem convinient to update some systems but these are security cameras and I think we need them operating at night or at least prompting us when they should update.  8 hours also seems like an awfully long time to do a firmware update.  

[jguerdat]

Firmware updates don't take long - a few minutes max.  While that could be the issue, I'm not sure the length of time you saw is explained.

As for when the updates occur, I don't see that any other time is necessarily any better.  I agree that there's a window to miss needed coverage but upgraded capability tends to minimize the (usually) slight time issue.

[TECHX2001]

I highly doubt the camera was performing a firmware upgrade the entire time. I imagine what occurred is the camera underwent a firmware upgrade and then stopped responding or failed to restart properly. I am a systems engineer for an IT MSP and have done various firmware upgrades on different devices and have not encountered such an event. Support's reply is my main concern- it makes me question if the camera truly underwent a firmware upgrade. I am concerned about reliability while within my return period and will continue to monitor the camera’s behavior before adding additional cameras.

I disagree on the way the updates are performed they should be user configurable and we should be notified before they are pushed. I should be able to dictate when such an update occurs and schedule it when it fits my schedule as it is done on smartphones and computers I assumed I was missing an option somewhere in the GUI to configure it, is there a change log online for firmware builds?

[TECHX2001]

Netgear should take note of how Samsung SmartThings recently handled a push of firmware without my approval.  They sent me an e-mail to tell me they had pushed an update and they provided an explaination.  They earn my respect for this:

Hello,

On Wednesday, August 30 we automatically updated your SmartThings Hub v2 to the latest firmware (version 18.22). We apologize that we were unable to provide advance notification of this update as we strive to alert you to updates before applying them. However, due to a critical concern regarding your Hub’s connectivity, we needed to apply the update without advance notification. Your Hub briefly experienced downtime of less than one minute as it rebooted and applied the update.

This update addresses a bug which caused Hubs to go offline for an extended period of time.

Thank you,
SmartThings Support