Cameras always on depletes the battery

[crw]

SHOULD THE CAMERAS BE ON ALL THE TIME ? THE BATTERIES DRAIN SO FAST. MAYBE LEAVE THE CAMERAS OFF UNTIL YOU WANT TO ARM THE SYSTEM ?? SUGGESTIONS ??

[Saj0167]

We have had our system for about a year. Over the last couple of months all of our batteries have suddenly stopped lasting more than a couple of weeks. They used to last months. We have not changed anything in the settings

[crw]

I'm going to try leaving all cameras on off until I want to arm the system. I'm hoping that will give longer battery life. I'm becoming disenchanted with these cameras only over the battery issue. I'm wondering whether there are better batteries that can be bought for those cameras ???? Maybe someone should n this site can help. 

[DocCJC]

I've tried everything but nothing helps with the battery drain. Used to last months before the May / June updates. Problem is with the firmware so only Netgear can fix it. 

[howarmat]

Yep i have noticed the same thing in the last couple months.  Something has changed in the system that now kills the battery 3-4x faster 

[crw]

Thank you for letting me know this. I didn't realize that Netgear was able to do a firmware update to these cameras wirelessly and without the customer knowing. This is a real problem from many aspects. Is there any way to contact Netgear about this ? Obviously calling the support number won't accomplish anything. Any suggestions ? Having to recharge all these cameras every 6 weeks is a major negative and I would think that Netgear wouldn't want a lot of negative publicity or reviews to come out over it. 

[crw]

I'm wondering whether Netgear did this purposely in order to sell a product that they may be coming out with ? "Extended life batteries perhaps for the low low cost of just $99 " ? Netgear needs to answer about this. How can someone senior at Netgear be contacted ? Maybe if enough people contact Netgear it would help ?? . 

[pc2k17]

The rapid drain battery issue was introduced in a May firmware update and was fixed in a June update. Since the June update my battery usage is back to normal. Why some others still have an issue, I'm not sure.

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Arlo-Stories/Firmware-Release-Scheduled-6-21-to-Address-IR-Rapid-Ba...

[howarmat]

---

@pc2k17 wrote:

The rapid drain battery issue was introduced in a May firmware update and was fixed in a June update. Since the June update my battery usage is back to normal. Why some others still have an issue, I'm not sure.

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Arlo-Stories/Firmware-Release-Scheduled-6-21-to-Address-IR-Rapid-Ba...

---

Right it was suppose to be fixed with the June update by on most of my cameras the drain is still very rapid.

[jwilliams08]

I agree. I have separate home automation that disarms/arms my cameras with certain actions in order to reduce unnecessary recording and conserve battery. Typically, I am able to achieve 4-6 month battery life. Since the updates, I have seen 40% drain in 2.5 weeks. At this rate, it's looking like a 2 month battery life window. That's 2x to 3x typical drain - something is still broken.

[crw]

I believe it's still broken as well. The only way to save battery life is to turn off all your cameras and only put them on when you need them. Netgear certainly knows about the problem. They also read these boards. As such, why haven't they said a word about the battery problem on this community board ? Perhaps posting a lot of negative reviews on various sites will get their attention ......

[pc2k17]

Actually, the original issue with the battery drain was when the cameras were off. While the cameras were off they still detected motion and turned on the IR lights which drained the batteries, so if your saying turning the cameras off is saving your battery then it sounds like the fixed firmware was applied correctly otherwise you'd see massive battery drain when you turn the cameras off. The June update fixed that issue. As I mentioned, mine is working perfect now.

With 5 minutes of recording and/or live viewing time each day, Arlo says you'll get 4-6 months out of a charge. My busiest camera gets 20-30 one minute recordings five days a week. The drian on this camera is just below 2% per day. I'll get about 2 to 2-1/2 months out of it, which is what I used to get before the battery drain issue. Since I use 4-5 times more recording time per day than Arlo says to achieve a 4-6 month battery life, my battery usage is completely normal now. 

Arlo has 1.3 million users so I would imagine, as with any update, for some of the users it may not have applied/updated correctly. Since the June update, the forum here has quieted considerably about this issue, which makes me believe the June update fixed the issue for the vast majority and my guess is Arlo considers the battery drain when cameras are off issue solved.

The only thing I can recommened for anyone who has the latest firmware and is still seeing above average battery drain, is to first restart the base and pull all your camera batteries (if you haven't done this already), and if that doesn't help try to remove all cameras, remove base, factory reset the base back to the day you bought it, set it all back up and hopefully the June firmware will apply correctly.

[crw]

Thank you very much for this detailed information. Please tell me.....how would I get these updates ? Do they get installed automatically or do I need to somehow connect the cameras to a particular website? Thank you !! 

---

@pc2k17 wrote:

Actually, the original issue with the battery drain was when the cameras were off. While the cameras were off they still detected motion and turned on the IR lights which drained the batteries, so if your saying turning the cameras off is saving your battery then it sounds like the fixed firmware was applied correctly otherwise you'd see massive battery drain when you turn the cameras off. The June update fixed that issue. As I mentioned, mine is working perfect now.

With 5 minutes of recording and/or live viewing time each day, Arlo says you'll get 4-6 months out of a charge. My busiest camera gets 20-30 one minute recordings five days a week. The drian on this camera is just below 2% per day. I'll get about 2 to 2-1/2 months out of it, which is what I used to get before the battery drain issue. Since I use 4-5 times more recording time per day than Arlo says to achieve a 4-6 month battery life, my battery usage is completely normal now. 

Arlo has 1.3 million users so I would imagine, as with any update, for some of the users it may not have applied/updated correctly. Since the June update, the forum here has quieted considerably about this issue, which makes me believe the June update fixed the issue for the vast majority and my guess is Arlo considers the battery drain when cameras are off issue solved.

The only thing I can recommened for anyone who has the latest firmware and is still seeing above average battery drain, is to first restart the base and pull all your camera batteries (if you haven't done this already), and if that doesn't help try to remove all cameras, remove base, factory reset the base back to the day you bought it, set it all back up and hopefully the June firmware will apply correctly.

---

---

@pc2k17 wrote:

Actually, the original issue with the battery drain was when the cameras were off. While the cameras were off they still detected motion and turned on the IR lights which drained the batteries, so if your saying turning the cameras off is saving your battery then it sounds like the fixed firmware was applied correctly otherwise you'd see massive battery drain when you turn the cameras off. The June update fixed that issue. As I mentioned, mine is working perfect now.

With 5 minutes of recording and/or live viewing time each day, Arlo says you'll get 4-6 months out of a charge. My busiest camera gets 20-30 one minute recordings five days a week. The drian on this camera is just below 2% per day. I'll get about 2 to 2-1/2 months out of it, which is what I used to get before the battery drain issue. Since I use 4-5 times more recording time per day than Arlo says to achieve a 4-6 month battery life, my battery usage is completely normal now. 

Arlo has 1.3 million users so I would imagine, as with any update, for some of the users it may not have applied/updated correctly. Since the June update, the forum here has quieted considerably about this issue, which makes me believe the June update fixed the issue for the vast majority and my guess is Arlo considers the battery drain when cameras are off issue solved.

The only thing I can recommened for anyone who has the latest firmware and is still seeing above average battery drain, is to first restart the base and pull all your camera batteries (if you haven't done this already), and if that doesn't help try to remove all cameras, remove base, factory reset the base back to the day you bought it, set it all back up and hopefully the June firmware will apply correctly.

---

[pc2k17]

Base station and camera firmware updates are done automatically by Arlo/Netgear. There is no way for the end user to perform the updates. Unfortunately they do not notify their customer base before they push out an update (like for example SmartThings does).

[crw]

Got it. Thank you very much for your reply and information. Much appreciated. I sure hope they fixed the issue. Thanks again

[howarmat]

---

@pc2k17 wrote:

Actually, the original issue with the battery drain was when the cameras were off. While the cameras were off they still detected motion and turned on the IR lights which drained the batteries, so if your saying turning the cameras off is saving your battery then it sounds like the fixed firmware was applied correctly otherwise you'd see massive battery drain when you turn the cameras off. The June update fixed that issue. As I mentioned, mine is working perfect now.

---

Ironically enough I have  a brand new camera that I paired with the system but has not been put up yet.  It is set to "off" in the settings right now and has drained down to 71% in about 2 weeks of sitting. I even have the log of the last day for that camera.  Again its set to OFF even.  All firmware is upto date as well. this drain is similar to the other cameras as well that are ON

[DocCJC]

I acknowledge that the June firmware update has fixed battery draining for many users who reported the problem in this forum, but there are still others, including myself, who have systems that are still not peforming as they did before the May and June updates. I've done everything to try to isolate the issue (including full reset). So there is still a problem that Nergear needs to look into. 

[crw]

What surprises/disappoints me as a customer is that Netgear itself doesn't post any replies or updates on this issue. Numerous customers have these problems, yet Netgear doesn't post a reply or an update as to what they are doing to fix it. That speaks volumes to me abotut the company in terms of product support and customer service. They should be monitoring and responding to these customer concerns. After all- there's no point calling Netgear unless you want to be 34th in the que as I was today when I just gave up. 

[pohleonguk]

I still have poorer battery life after the update as well. It is slightly better but it still drains around 25% in about 10 days and the thing barely records anything as its in a low traffic area.

[crw]

It would be nice to hear from Netgear about the battery issue. Had I known about the battery problem and Netgear's lack of support I would never have bought these cameras. 

[Jeff3113]

  The only thing I can think of is maybe the batteries come from the factory at 100% and the chargers never get over 80%.

The power indicator is 100%, but really only 80%.

I am losing 3% per day.   This is with much less activation than when the system was first installed.   Now LESS than a total of 2 minutes recording per WEEK.

It is totally unacceptable to require monthly recharging.

[crw]

What I can't understand is why Netgear doesn't even repsond to any of these customer concerns. You would think that they would be all over this issue, but they simply don't seem to respond. Very confusing to me. 

[JamesC]

The engineering team is continuing to investigate reports from users on increased battery drain. With each recently released firmware update we've seen feedback from many users that these firmware updates have been improving the issue for some. While I understand others continue to experience battery issues, I want to ensure you the engineering team is putting forth their best effort to identify and resolve any issues that may still remain. As I find out more information on this ongoing investigation, I will post an update.

[storage_man]

---

@howarmat wrote:

---

@pc2k17 wrote:

Actually, the original issue with the battery drain was when the cameras were off. While the cameras were off they still detected motion and turned on the IR lights which drained the batteries, so if your saying turning the cameras off is saving your battery then it sounds like the fixed firmware was applied correctly otherwise you'd see massive battery drain when you turn the cameras off. The June update fixed that issue. As I mentioned, mine is working perfect now.

---

Ironically enough I have  a brand new camera that I paired with the system but has not been put up yet.  It is set to "off" in the settings right now and has drained down to 71% in about 2 weeks of sitting. I even have the log of the last day for that camera.  Again its set to OFF even.  All firmware is upto date as well. this drain is similar to the other cameras as well that are ON

---

You and me both.   I have 2 camera's one of which is sitting on my desk for the last 2 weeks (awaiting a replacement solar panel charging cord), is not armed and has gone from 90%  to 55% doing nothing.  The charging cord just died by itself after a couple of months. 

[Jeff3113]

The FOUR cameras I have are installed within 70 feet of the base station. The closest uses the least battery. The farthest uses the most.
In fact, TWICE as much battery over the past two weeks. I have cycled the cameras off during non-use. They operate 9 hours each night.
Q: Is there ANY way to synchronise the cameras ON with them being activated?
Right now each one had to be MANUALLY turned on/off.
Thx, Jeff p