Battery drains in about 10 days. Gets triggered maybe 20-30 times a day?

[kirkmc]

I set up four Arlo Pro cameras around my house. On one of them, the battery drained in about ten days; the others are between 63% and 88%. Obviously, this has something to do with how often they get triggered, but is it really possible that the battery can only last ten days, when the camera gets triggered maybe 20-30 times a day? Or should I assume that there's a problem with the camera itself? 

[TomMac]

I would pull battery and swap with one of the other cameras to see if the issue follows the battery.( pulling battery will also reset the camera )

But, yes excessive use can drain the battery fast. My pro cams usu run 2+ months with normal use,...btw, spec use is less than 5 mins a day of recording/live viewing ( which uses the most power )

I also would check to see if you need a CUSTOM mode for that camera to lower the usage on the camera maybe change the sense levels, etc

[kirkmc]

I've got the recording setting in the middle of the three options, but I did up the motion sensitivity, because of the lag between motion detection and recording. It covers just a small area, so if someone comes by from any direction, they're almost out of the frame by the time the recording goes on with the default motion setting. Should I just accept that that will make for very short battery life? If I have to change it every ten days, that's a bit annoying. 

[StephenB]

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@kirkmc wrote:

 It covers just a small area, so if someone comes by from any direction, they're almost out of the frame by the time the recording goes on with the default motion setting. Should I just accept that that will make for very short battery life? If I have to change it every ten days, that's a bit annoying. 

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Upping the motion sensitivity won't decrease the battery life directly - though making more seconds of recording per day will.

Some suggestions:

• Look for any evidence that the camera doesn't have a stable connection to the base.  Pixelated recordings, or recordings that have gaps is one symptom.  Failure to live stream is another.  Repeatedly re-syncing with the base will drain power pretty quickly.
• If you use activity zones, try disabling them - so you can gauge how many seconds per day of streaming is really going on.   When on battery power, the activity zone processing is done in the cloud, so any motion detection will stream to the cloud (with recordings dropped if they are outside the zone).
• If you use "record until motion stops", then consider doing a timed recording instead - which can reduce the amount of recording minutes per day.

[kirkmc]

The connection is fine; of my four cameras, it's not the weakest. In the app, I see two out of the three bars. No gaps or glitches. 

I don't use activity zones. 

I don't see a "record until motion stops" setting in the app. In any case, all the recordings are fairly short. 

[StephenB]

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@kirkmc wrote:

I don't see a "record until motion stops" setting in the app. In any case, all the recordings are fairly short. 

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Look in the rules for the armed mode.  https://kb.arlo.com/42/What-are-modes-and-rules-and-how-does-Arlo-use-them

Earlier @TomMac suggested that you swap the camera locations, and check to see if the problem moves with the camera.  Did you do that?

[kirkmc]

All four of my cameras are set to record when motion is detected; there is no scheduling, no geofencing. For now, I've put in another battery - I bought two spares to make it easier to change them. I'll see what happens; if this doesn't deplete quickly, I'll assume it's the battery. If it does, then it'll be the camera, so, in that case, I'd try moving a different camera there.