Database is Down /Service offline

[Keniofdavalley]

The app says “database service is currently down” and could not connect to my cameras

[Wrench69]

Looks like everything is working again!

[kikstand]

Seems to be back up and running...Web UI and Phone App. 

[DaveWoj]

Honestly.

Coming to this site first is your best source with any problem.

You won't get better support and answers then you will on here.

Especially from the expert users.

[hdcrandall]

Still down in Washington State.. hey arlo/netgeaer how bout an update or an notification!? From what im reading my stay with this product may be short

[Johninthewinter]

Hey Netgear,

You really need to be more transparent about your dead service. Okay, your server is down... But you have to understand that this CAN'T happen, had a backup or a backup of a backup. And I've checked and it seems to be world wide... It's not just an authentification error. 

GIVE US AN UPDATE. We had confidence in your product from the start, it would be the minimum to give us the right answer.

[perranch]

Up and running in Stockholm 18:45 CET! Thanx! 🙂 

[Jackrmy]

Service restored in southern California as of 10:00am

[JamesC · Accepted solution]

Dear Arlo Customers,

Thank you for your patience. Arlo services are now fully restored. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. The disruption in service which affected some of our customers was due to a technical issue that arose during routine system maintenance.

For updates and more info on what happened, please visit this thread in the Arlo Community.

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Arlo-Stories/Arlo-Service-Down-Temporarily-Unable-to-Login/m-p/1521...

JamesC

[tinman517]

Back online in Las Vegas, Nevada . . . 10:44am. 

Have a good day, everyone. 

[CptDirty]

@wenklaw

Quoting you: 

---

@wenklawwrote:

Personally an outage llike this is totally unacceptable BUT seems to be the norm with many devices, services etc that need internet connectivity, servers to work.  The amount of £££ these systems are Netgear really should have a failover and also as someone said a 99% uptime for a security device is needed, if you cant provide i would argue that realistically the product isnt fit for purpose.  People react in different ways but for some to basically say whats the issue take a chill pill clearly have the Arlo's as a gimmick/gadget not a serious home security system WHICH Netgear advertise, market and sell the Arlo as just that.

I personally have a conventional alarm as well but Arlo dont state that realistically Arlo cant be relied on and you need a normal burglar alarm just in case.  I havent put all my eggs in one basket but why should those who have put up with this nonsense, Arlo need to invest money in the product, not just take it.

Along with the absolute farce with IFTTT integration i am less than impressed by a company that has had approx £1000 from me.

---

I was the one who wrote 99.99% uptime. And although it's hard to fully understand the idea behind your message here I do get an overall sense that you're somehow defending ARLO's failure today by saying that ARLO is a gimmick/gadget and shouldn't be taken seriously. Adding that NETGEAR advertises the ARLO as such? Please provide me some insight to your statement because what I'm seeing on ARLO's website is:

Mind the Store From Anywhere
If you own a business, the Arlo family of cameras will make sure you’ve got security covered. Discreet cameras go wherever they’re needed. Use the Arlo mobile app to see everywhere at once and stop trouble in its tracks. As you grow, adding more cameras and premium upgrades are as easy as a click away.

We understand the painful costs involved in installing traditional security systems. Arlo takes less than 10 minutes and no professional installation experience to set up. With non-intruding, non-intimidating design, Arlo cameras blend in perfectly with your existing store or office decor.

Minutes to install, small equipment size, no back room to maintain. More affordable than traditional security systems. Easily move cameras to new locations based on your needs with our innovative mounts.

So how do you figure that ARLO is a gimmick if it's:

1. Advertised to work in businesses.
2. Clearly advertised as an alternative to traditional security systems.
3. Clearly advertised as being "more affordable" than traditional security systems.

Unlike those who can afford a redundant security system, there is a VAST majority of people who only rely on ARLO as their primary security camera system. What's wrong with that? Where does it say that ARLO should be paired with another security system for redundancy? I'm sorry bud but to tell people to take a "chill pill" doesn't cut it. People are frustrated because they bought a failry expensive system that was down today for an alarming (pun intended) amount of hours. 

[DaveWoj]

I'd like to reply if I could.

First. I do consider the Arlo (pro and Q) to be a serious security camera.

My opinion is that 90% of these posts were from people who don't understand that if the camera is down. It's down.

Reason could be Netgear server is down, internet is down, power is down, batteries are dead.

For someone to get all dramatic and start complaining that they are going to send the camara back is ridiculous.

What would they do during a power outage or internet is down? Or the cold shuts down the camera?

A UPS is the only way to record on the USB if power is out. If internet is out forget it. You won't even get an alert.

Many of the problems I see on here are battery related. I don't use batteries. All mine are hardwired and for 3 years. Little to no problems at all and they never shut down in cold weather. But they are never 100% or 99.9%. But there will always be some issues.

People expect everything to work all the time and complain as soon as there is a glitch. There are workarounds, but you need to think and be calm before threatening to return to the store because you think that your life is in danger for the 5 hours that Netgear is down. Or you can't watch your cats playing in live mode.

I don't think it was so much about people complaining about the service being down that needed to "chill", I think it's about people not having some patience and realizing that Netgear being down isn't the only factor that will cause them to lose a connection.

They need to think about this.

If they lost internet connection or power at their home during the day for 2 hours. How would they know the camera isn't working unless they logged into the app?

They can blame Netgear all they want and it may be justified but sh*t does happen, and with server problems happening more and more it's something that has to be expected.

From the sounds of it. It doesn't happen very often.

[whitenack]

Even when the cameras were "down", they were still recording based on motion.  Once the site came back and was operational, my library was full of the recordings that occured while the cameras were "down".  So, really, all it was (at least for me) was a site access issue.

[wenklaw]

---

@CptDirtywrote:

@wenklaw

Quoting you: 

---

@wenklawwrote:

Personally an outage llike this is totally unacceptable BUT seems to be the norm with many devices, services etc that need internet connectivity, servers to work.  The amount of £££ these systems are Netgear really should have a failover and also as someone said a 99% uptime for a security device is needed, if you cant provide i would argue that realistically the product isnt fit for purpose.  People react in different ways but for some to basically say whats the issue take a chill pill clearly have the Arlo's as a gimmick/gadget not a serious home security system WHICH Netgear advertise, market and sell the Arlo as just that.

I personally have a conventional alarm as well but Arlo dont state that realistically Arlo cant be relied on and you need a normal burglar alarm just in case.  I havent put all my eggs in one basket but why should those who have put up with this nonsense, Arlo need to invest money in the product, not just take it.

Along with the absolute farce with IFTTT integration i am less than impressed by a company that has had approx £1000 from me.

---

I was the one who wrote 99.99% uptime. And although it's hard to fully understand the idea behind your message here I do get an overall sense that you're somehow defending ARLO's failure today by saying that ARLO is a gimmick/gadget and shouldn't be taken seriously. Adding that NETGEAR advertises the ARLO as such? Please provide me some insight to your statement because what I'm seeing on ARLO's website is:

Mind the Store From Anywhere
If you own a business, the Arlo family of cameras will make sure you’ve got security covered. Discreet cameras go wherever they’re needed. Use the Arlo mobile app to see everywhere at once and stop trouble in its tracks. As you grow, adding more cameras and premium upgrades are as easy as a click away.

We understand the painful costs involved in installing traditional security systems. Arlo takes less than 10 minutes and no professional installation experience to set up. With non-intruding, non-intimidating design, Arlo cameras blend in perfectly with your existing store or office decor.

Minutes to install, small equipment size, no back room to maintain. More affordable than traditional security systems. Easily move cameras to new locations based on your needs with our innovative mounts.

So how do you figure that ARLO is a gimmick if it's:

1. Advertised to work in businesses.
2. Clearly advertised as an alternative to traditional security systems.
3. Clearly advertised as being "more affordable" than traditional security systems.

Unlike those who can afford a redundant security system, there is a VAST majority of people who only rely on ARLO as their primary security camera system. What's wrong with that? Where does it say that ARLO should be paired with another security system for redundancy? I'm sorry bud but to tell people to take a "chill pill" doesn't cut it. People are frustrated because they bought a failry expensive system that was down today for an alarming (pun intended) amount of hours. 

---

Ummm, maybe i wasnt clear.  I am not defending Arlo/Netgear in the slightest, in fact the complete opposite.  My reference to gimmick/gadget/take a chill pill is directed at other posters whose attitude is to accept the outage and sit back without complaint and tell others not to be so uptight about it.  I think people have every right to be really annoyed BUT what i am also saying is unfortunatley i have become to accept that connected devices arent to be relied upon, as much as I would like to put my 100% faith in such devices, outages like these prove you just cant, totally unacceptable but not a great deal the likes of me and you can do other than voice ourselves on the forum. Unless a company can demonstrate 99.99% uptime I just cant put all my home security measures in the Arlo basket, so i dont.  I advise others not to.

Its a disgrace I totally agree but it will no doubt happen again.  And I am not telling anyone to take a chill pill, far from it.  The more people who complain the better.

People comparing it to internet outages, batteries, power going are totally missing the point, this is an error on Netgears part, one that if the investment in redundancy was there could probably of been avoided.  Likewise internet outages and power outages can be avoided but a little more dependant on local infrastructure not in this case what looks like a server issue.

[GatorHogg]

Yes. But mine were also spotty thru out the breakdown so not knowing information what was and wasn't working was a concern.

 Oh well, back up and running now and still my Arlo Pro 5 camera system is great ! ! !

Cheers

[DaveWoj]

"Likewise internet outages and power outages can be avoided"

We just had a major storm here and bothe were out.

How do you avoid or plan for that?

[wenklaw]

---

@DaveWojwrote:

"Likewise internet outages and power outages can be avoided"

We just had a major storm here and bothe were out.

How do you avoid or plan for that?

---

You are picking at what i am saying, clearly some outages that are caused by storms, vandalism etc particulary on physical infrastructure is difficult and sometimes impossible to avoid certain instances for example if you internet provider only uses a single backhaul to your local telephone exchange and its cut, if no diverse route is in place youre internet connection is clearly going off, however a diverse secondary backhaul may just keep that connection alive, but i accept there is a cost and we all want things cheap.  If its the cable to your house, thats that until its fixed. A solution maybe is a router with 3g/4g backup.  Power is UPS but it all depends on how far you want to go.

I also accept these things happen as my prev posts state but that doesnt mean i need to be happy about it.

My point is clear and simple, providers of services have a responsibility to provide a safety net.  I havent had a power cut for as long as i can remember, 15 years plus, i have had maybe 2 internet failures (that i have noticed) that have exceeded 30 mins in approx 10 years both caused by faulty routers.  

Its all back up now so thats it from me I am not getting into a debate about it, if you dont mind the outages thats up to the person but dont critise people who complain.  Fingers crossed this doesnt happen for a long time and i hope Arlo learn from this.

[DaveWoj]

I only criticize ignorant people who complain.

These are just a few of the ignorant comments in this thread.

"This system is a joke!"

"I wouldn’t recommend these to my enemies"

"I want my money back....how do I do this"

"If I get robbed or hurt, im going to sue"

"We have not been able to disarm the alarm.  I cannot open the store - LOSING MONEY!!!!!"

I read hundreds of comments, questions and complaints on here that can easily be solved by just "reading the directions" and/or using common sense. But no, you have users on here that literally open the box, look at the quick start guide, set them up in 5 minutes and expect them to work. There are a lot more settings and trial and error to go through (sometimes for a couple weeks) before the system is working properly. It ain't just plug and play.

You have users posting five pages into a thread about the server being down all over the world and asking why their cameras dont work without reading the thread.

So yeah, I guess I am guilty of criticizing people who complain.

[GatorHogg]

"I only criticize ignorant people who complain.

These are just a few of the ignorant comments in this thread."

You forgot one. Yours.

Lol.

Way too too much time on your hands lil fella . . . perhaps I'll suggets you either need a job, a nap or regulate your meds.

I really care.

Cheers.

[BillyLee]

Still not able to connected, power on and base shows all green, but login from browser or mobile, both are showing device offline, and since cannot change mode, it will keep in alarm siren status, have to turn off the power of it, please help and fix!!

[JamesC]

BillyLee,

Did you do any resets on your device? Have you tried powering down the base station and powering back on? Are you still experiencing an issue?

JamesC

[BillyLee]

Hi, JamesC:

Yes, my colleague just power it on and from the Mobile still says device offline even the base shows all green.

There is no any reset of device, we did power off and on several time, but still no luck.

Billy Lee

[sjunwood]

Billy Lee,

If there is a way to reststart your modem you might try that, also maybe restart your Mobile device, not just the program but the device.

[JamesC]

BillyLee,

I will reach out to you in a private message to gather more information.

JamesC

[Birdwatch]

My only gripe is the inability of using the system directly (Live Feed) if Netgears system is down.  That for me is unacceptable.  I use my cameras mainly for Live Feed.   Oh boy I hope they can change that because I’m sure I’m not the only one here upset about that.    My two cents

[DaveWoj]

I’m not sure that “upset” would best describe my reaction.

I would be disappointed, since I also use it for live view a few times during the day.

I think that as a society, we “expect” everything now, and when we don’t get it, we find it unacceptable.

I however, can accept the fact that technology is not perfect and that there will be problems beyond our control.

It’s not like these outages happen once a week or once a month.

Heck, my internet and power are more prone to going out than Netgear’s servers.

If you’re live viewing is that much a priority or life and death situation so much so that you rely on it, I’m sure that there are more reliable systems out there that would suit your needs.

I would not hesitate to recommend Arlo to anyone, despite some of it’s flaws.

And just as an FYI, I would guess that 95% of the “problems” that many people are claiming to have, are not problems at all. They are just too lazy to read simple directions.