Arlo pro battery life

[Bt4run99]

First time user sorry if I didn’t post in the correct area. My Arlo pros are dying abnormally fast! I lose about 10% a day even on cameras that are switched off. I got these cameras Thanksgiving 2017. Haven’t had an issue since early May. I got a 4 months before having to charge my cameras. Now in a week and a half my cameras are 50%. Nothing has changed on my end. No new electronics, cameras in the same locations and base unit hasn’t been touched. Only thing that has happened is that update Arlo put out. I even have a camera I charged 2 days ago that has never been used only linked to the base station that is now at 91%. IT’S NOT EVEN TURNED ON!!!!!

[Smarks]

I get it guys, just throwing out ideas.  I'm as frustrated as you all.  What even urks me more is I was having a new house built and was deciding what cameras to use and I could have had my house wired for Ubiquity PoE cameras.  I'm kicking myself hard over not spending the money 18 months ago to have ethernet run and bought these POS cameras instead.

[alixvincent]

After dealing with this battery issue there is no way i can recommend Arlo to anyone. I am stuck with my system but most likely will eventually dump it.

[hastings1331]

Same issue here, been having it for awhile now.  Batteries went from lasting 3-6 months down to about a month.  I'm hopeful Arlo will figure out the problem but I'm researching alternatives to this system.  Many of my cameras are difficult to get to and having to take them down, recharge, and put them back up once a month is getting really old.  I bought this system because of the long battey life.

[crw]

I agree with you. Having to take out a ladder each month to take down and put back these cameras is a real problem. I sure hope they come out with a fix very shortly. 

[hastings1331]

I hope they do too, and soon.  Either they fix this, or I buy a different system and never buy an Arlo product again.  There are a few options out there that do basically the same thing, though I really love my Arlo system.  This battery stuff though is a breaking point for me.  I'd be better off having wired options than this short battery life deal.

[Elkman]

Don't want to give any false hope and certainly way too early for a full assessment, however ubruptly unplugging my base station from the AC power source for 5 minutes and plugging it back in seems to have dramatically improved the battery drain issue. IMHO, this may indicate that the last base station firmware upgrade wasn't performed correctly, and this procedure forced a re-install of the firmware.

Had tried everything else recommeded in these threads before (pulling camera's battries out for 30 minutes, un-parining and re-pairing cameras, etc.) without any success, my batteries were all draining 20% per day and lasting one week until I had to re-charge them.

It has now been one week exactly since I did the base station AC unplug trick and all batteries are still reported at 100% capacity.

CAMERAS

HW Version: H8

Firmware Version: 1.092.0.16_21159

BASE STATION

HW Version: VMB4000r3

Firmware Version: 1.10.0.8_22190

[Davhd]

Elkman,

Hope it works for you, did not for me.  I have tried that each time after a battery recharge.  I have seen same where it stays at 100% and I think it is resolved then it starts dropping 4-5% per day with no recordings.

I reported on 9/10 that my low activity camera was at 44%.  This morning it is at 32% and has not had a single recording since the 10th.

Anyone seeing success with field trial?  Most likely take several weeks to prove out since batteries seem good for a few days post reboot or recharge before going into a spiral.

[BGPunggol]

Hi David
U need to reboot the station daily in order for the drainage to stop. We noticed that everytime you put in a fresh battery, it won't drain for 7 days but will certainly start thereafter. I just changed a fresh one 5 days ago and religiously reboot the base daily. Shall update you guys on result.

[mrshanno1]

I'm on field trial... after 2 weeks my 2 cameras are at 92% and 87% which is a great improvement over before field trial.

[ProfZebu]

One of my camera switched off alsoo by today. The battery was around 80%, and it was offline in the morning...

WTF??? I am experiencing it since August.

Camera FW is 1.092.0.16_21159.

[klam55]

Abit to early for a full assessemt as @Elkman stated but I'm feeling optimistic. Other than just a recharge about 3 days ago, maybe 4 days my battery is still holding 100%.  

Didnt' reset base station or take out battery for 30 min or anything. 

My firmware is the same as @Elkman

CAMERAS

HW Version: H8

Firmware Version: 1.092.0.16_21159

BASE STATION

HW Version: VMB4000r3

Firmware Version: 1.10.0.8_22190

[raderred]

How did you get on the field trial?

[raderred]

I’m fed up with this. Arlo needs to email an official response to all users with a status update weekly. I’m paying good money for my service, let alone the cost of the four cameras + base, and it’s relatively worthless. I don’t ever know when or how soon the camera batteries are going to give out.

[JoeCymru]

I did a rant on one of the battery drain threads (there are so many I am unsure which one I engaged in and too lazy to look it up) because I had not had the issue until I recharged all four batteries recently. The previous time I had recharged them was before the June update, and had not had the issue. This time two of my four began unusual drainage, the most remarkable was one that was disarmed on schedule for sixteen hours a day every day and also had zero activity. I suspected that something Arlo did in June made solid resyncing hit and miss, probably from a whole bunch of "Smart" instructions Arlo added in June for those who wanted to sign up to the new and improved Smart features. I needed to resync since I am charging batteries off line. Trying to follow my own theory, I continued to charge and rotate batteries. For now, everything is back to the way it was before without the immediate drain beginning. All four cameras so far are holding their charge. There are lots of theories and hopeful work arounds here, but I still believe that the June update has a lot more to it than the fix for the IR light drain, that Arlo has packed in some Smart features or changes (whether signed up or not) that when one syncs and the sync is not quite perfect, the cameras loose their little minds and start burining through their batteries. Forcing several syncs seems, seems, to have got my cameras back on track. This may be the reason some people are have luck with rebooting their base. The root cause is still there of course.

[navycut]

Why is this thread marked as SOLVED when there are multiple reports of people still seeing the issue? 

[lohki82]

Other threads have been marked as SOLVED as well. It’s disgusting how Arlo is treating this. Unfortunately I’m stuck with this POS camera system but I will jump in the first PoE NVR deal when I find it and run cabling like I should have over a year ago when I bought ARLO.

Just got done climbing ladders and recharging my batteries AGAIN. Arlo should take a hint from Bose on customer support. I had a pair of QC35 gen1s out of warranty that developed a issue where they wouldn’t turn off. Bose had me send it back and they sent me a brand new $300 pair of gen2 for free out of warranty.

[Dewey2]

On Aug 26th I put to recharged batteries into 2 cameras and today Sept  16th I am re-charging the batteries. One camera has about 120 seconds of recording in this time period, the other about 400 seconds, not much for either camera. My other 2  cameras are below 40% and actually do 2 to 3 times the volume of the 400 second camera.

As with everyone else, this showed up in early June for me, after 12 months of only charging the batteries when new and then after 6 months of use. 

The system has gone for crap, and it is time for Arlo to own up and fix it. 

[raderred]

Hey all.  I chatted with Arlo support today and explained that all 5 of my cameras were draining fast ever since the May firmware update.  The first explanation offered was that three of my batteries have a low signal, including one that the battery is currently low on.  I explained the the two with the best signal (three bars) and full charges were just charged today after lasting only 23 days.  I typically only get 1-2 recordings per camera per day.

After I explained that signal strenght isn't the problem, and telling him that I had reset and restarted every camera, base, modem, router in the chain multiple times.  I've swapped batteries.

I told him that I know this is a known issue due to this forum, and that some members had mentioned being included in the field trial for an update to the firmware to correct this issue.

He checked all the settings and confirmed there was nothing that he could see to improve on in them.

He initially said they were going to send me a new base in order to try to isolate the problem, but then backtracked because it wasn't clear that a new base would fix the issue, and he didn't want to add to the frustration.

In the end, the case has been escalated, and I'm supposed to get an email with information about entering the field trial.  I'll update this thread as I find out more.

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[Stunew78]

I’m on the field test firmware and it is (so far) restoring battery life to how it was.

I have been VERY vocal about this problem, even reporting it to external news services.

However, I can say that if this firmware I’m testing sees the light of day, our problems will be solved. Fingers crossed.

[Davhd]

Thanks for the responses, I appreciate it.  I powered off base for 10 minutes and I have to agree that it does slow down the drain for a few days.  I was losing 4% per day with zero recordings.  Post power down, it went down to 1% and today it has already lost 2% with no recordings.  So it is ready for another reboot it appears.

I charged batteries on Aug 15th, today a camera with 4-6 total 10 second recordings is at 25%.  I could setup Smarthome to power on/off the base every day but what is the impact on components with hot power up/down every day.  Also, I did not spend my money (Well apparently I did) to spend time troubleshooting a system for which I do not get reimbursed.

I reached out to James to get on field trial last week to see if that would solve issue but as of today my system still has not been updated.  

[CDF]

Can you post the solution to fixing the quick draining camera issue please.  Ours never had an issue until this spring and now they drain so fast they are almost useless to us.  Please post or email the solution.  Thanks in advance

[Redmoonstar]

I am also one the trial firmware I have three camera's connected to outdoor charging cables due to the battery drain and because we are going away for five weeks and the cameras were draining in 2-3 week's so while away we would have no security. I have another camera connected to a solar panel and it drains 3-8% overnight with 3-4 15 -30 seconds recordings( it's set to 80 seconds but this no longer works since that May upgrade) my 5th camera is on battery,  I fully charged it to 100% using charging pod on the 27th August it is now on 34% it dropped 1% in 5 hours with no recordings and another 1% with 4 10 - 20 second recordings. My system has been set to record set times ranging from 55 - 85 seconds since March 18 and is armed 18 hours a day and I was getting 2-3 months in full charge with the set times recording correctly. Now since May my set times no longer work, batteries don't last so I've have to spend more money to keep them operating while on holiday (have now wasted $2400 on this system which no longer works), motion detection is now terrible, cameras have been in the same position since November and were detecting fine until May. Live feed mostly doesn't work and when it does open the sound cuts in and out, videos become so pixilated you can't see any thing then recording stops.I was happy with this system until netgear broke everything with that May upgrade( I would call it a very bad downgrade) and now I have a system that doesn't work as advertised and is basically useless for security as someone can now walk up to my vehicles, get in and drive away without the camera's recording! We run a business from home and the employees come and collect work vehicles so I know the camera's aren't detecting because of this and they did pick up employees before May. I am now waiting for a Reolink Argus 2 to come and if it works as advertised I will be wanting a refund for all the money I've had to out lay for the arlo pro system and buying more Reolink camera's 

[pc2k17]

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@CDF wrote:

Can you post the solution to fixing the quick draining camera issue please.  Ours never had an issue until this spring and now they drain so fast they are almost useless to us.  Please post or email the solution.  Thanks in advance

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Currently there is no fix. There is nothing the end user can do to fix the rapid battery drain issue some people are experiencing. Arlo has to push out new firmware. Currently the new firmware is in testing. There is no ETA of when it will be ready for the general public.

[Davhd]

Hi CDF-

The issue needs a long-term fix/firmware update from Arlo.

Since this fix has taken a long time, currently being field tested, folks have looked for workarounds.

Workaound solutions others pointed out in this thread were pulling power on base for 5 minutes then powering back up.  

Other solution was to every day, use app and go to settings/my devices/office/restart.  This reboots base station.  All of this seems to slow down the battery drain.

So basically you babysit your Arlo Security system hoping this latest field trial of new firmware resolves battery issues.

[BGPunggol]

Hi Redmoonstar
There is a temporary fix if you would want to try but it involves ONLY the Base Station. Dismantle all connection to the base station and delete all cameras link. Factory reset by poking the reset button behind the Base Station. Then reassemble the Base Station. Thereafter, reboot daily the Base by on and off the power button for 30 secs. Yes, it's a bit troublesome but so far it has work for me. My Arlo charged to 100% still have yet to drop 1% since Sep 8 2018 (11 days) with average 4-5 25sec video recording. If you want to reboot it while away, use a time set plug at the power socket so it does the work for you when you are not around.