Battery discharging while plugged in

[Johnny290]

Arlo ultra plugged in , battery will charge to 100%. If left plugged in battery will discharge down to zero and go offline. At the time that it's discharging battery level in the app still says 100% it will keep saying 100% until finally it goes completely offline down to 0%. all this happening while plugged in. Yes I am using an Arlo charger and an Arlo wire. This whole process of discharging down to zero takes less than 24 hours. Yes I have refreshed the app cleared my cache. Like I said the whole time it is discharging the battery states that it's at 100%.
I've also tried restarting the base station. Unplugging base station for a minute and plugging it back in. Uninstall the camera reinstall the camera. Nothing helps

[wowser66]

Arlo pro 3, battery will charge to 100% plugged in and then while still plugged in will discharge although it still says 100% and a few hours later will say 2% and still has the lightning bolt on the battery, tried a different battery and charger and the same happens.

[Johnny290]

Not the first time this has happened. I'll tell you why it's happening because they updated the firmware. They just can't leave well enough alone. This situation has happened before..

[wowser66]

Thanks for your reply, pretty much useless to me like this, only 6 months old, so with one arm behind my back I got an ultra 2, hopefully have better luck with this one whilst the pro 3 is sat doing nothing, not happy.

[Johnny290]

Enough people complain. They will have a firmware update to fix it

[Johnny290]

I don't know if you are running a solar: panel or not. But if you plugged in, try taking the battery out and run it without the battery. That's what I do.

[wowser66]

No not running a solar panel, direct mains, tried everything but didn't know you could run it without a battery, typical tried everything but that! It's good to know though thanks.

[wowser66]

After having a mess about I can comfirm that the battery that is draining whilst plugged into the mains isn't actually down to 1% the camera just thinks it is for some reason and goes off line. I switched to battery on 1% into an Ultra 2 and the battery that showed 1% previousely now showed 96% in the Ultra 2 without any further charging so not a battery or charger problem.

[jguerdat]

Try removing and resyncing the camera - maybe it will clear out anything weird.

[wowser66]

Hi, thanks for your reply, that has been done many times with no luck, pretty sure it's a firmware update problem with the base or the camera.

[ShayneS]

Hi @wowser66

Can you try &

1. take battery out
2. plug in camera
3. insert battery

and test again 

Thanks!

[wowser66]

How can I keep the camera plugged into the mains whilst inserting the battery? The charging point is on the case which you have to have fitted on to charge, to then insert the battery you have to remove the case which will also disconnect from the mains.

[Johnny290]

Just another botched irresponsible, untested firmware update by Arlo.

[ShayneS]

@wowser66

You can open the battery door and remove the battery while the camera is plugged in. You will have to Take the battery out > Plug in the camera with the door open > then insert the battery and test again.

Thanks

[wowser66]

Am I missing something here? Talking about a Pro 3 here. The whole cover is removed when removing battery and the charging contacts are on the cover that is removed.

[wowser66]

Thank you for your message, unfortunately I could not use the pro 3 without power so had to buy an ultra 2, the pro 3 that isn't working properly on the mains I still have, but is no longer connected to my hub so won't be able to provide screen shots, I would however appreciate if you could let me know when the problem is resolved.

[arlo_rg]

Was your problem solved? I have the same problem with 1 of my Arlo Ultra cameras.

[wowser66]

Hi, I connected the pro 3 to the smart hub that my ultra 2 uses and the battery drain while plugged in on the pro 3 has resolved I itself for some reason, but on the older hub the pro 3 still drains so for me it looks like a problem with the older hub, haven't a clue what's going on to be honest.

[arlo_rg]

@ShayneS Any update?

[arlo_rg]

I had a chat with technical support today and was told that it seems like a HW issue and the camera in question needs to be replaced.

[wowser66]

Hi, thats what they always say when they dont know whats going on. The Pro 3 I have that started doing this I connected to the new smart hub and the problem went away so the camera didn't have a HW issue, and this is happening to a lot of people and they are saying everyones cameras are suddenly having HW issues it's nonsense. As far as I know the DEV team are looking into an issue with a certain model and firmware issue of one of the hubs.

[arlo_rg]

Thanks @wowser66!

[arlo_rg]

Update - I brought the Ultra camera that was misbehaving indoors and connected it to the Arlo indoor charger that came with the Camera. The Camera started working fine. My outdoors adapter and cable are made by Wasserstein. I tested the camera with the Arlo indoors cable and Wasserstein adapter and the camera worked OK. So in my case it seems that the Wasserstein outside cable has gone bad. After some reading, I ordered the OEM Arlo 25 ft outside cable (comes with a captive adapter). Will test before installing outside.

[Johnny290]

Arlo sends out firmware updates. They try very hard to make everything not work except their stuff. Reminds me of Apple. Of course buying their cable, is ridiculously expensive.

[arlo_rg]

In my case it was a confirmed magnetic charging cable issue. The spring in the marked terminal (see picture) was bad leading to a contact issue.

[Jcamp]

Wow. Same problem here. I am on my third camera. (ultra2) from Arlo. They keep saying it is the camera. I have changed chargers and cables. Also changed batteries many times. The worst part is in the middle of the night I get an alert saying battery low. I've seen it go from 100 to 2% in 20 minutes and back to 100. New camera installed yesterday with new battery and a cord and charger from another ultra that is working fine. Guess what? Just checked and charge is 56%. Going nuts. Sure hope they get this fixed soon. Not getting much sleep with alarms going off in middle of night