I Lost a camera in my house - Is there a way to find it?

[Henrikno7]

I have an Arlo camera that is still within range of my base station (presumably still in my house), that is physically missing.



I can view the camera from on my system, but cannot physically locate the camera. Someone must have moved it, hidden it, etc.



It looks like it's somewhere dark (from the video/pictures I can view), but the location is unrecognizable. I've tried shining flashlights, setting the motion detection up to 100, etc all around the original location, but the video feed doesn't change / register motion, etc.



Any suggestions on trying to locate the camera before the battery runs out?



The image I get from the camera is below....

[StephenB]

You could offer a reward I guess.

This is a Pro, correct?  If so, you have no audio.

NightVision isn't kicking in - if you enabled it, then there likely is something covering the camera lens (a bag perhaps or maybe inside a sock).  If it were just in a box or enclosed space (like a drawer), I think you'd still see something from the IR spotlight - not just black.

If NightVision isn't turned on, then obviously do that next.

If it is a Pro-2, then enable the audio.  Walk into each room and announce your location (loudly).  Listen on the live stream with headphones, or maybe have an assistant monitor the audio from a desktop PC while live streaming.  That should help narrow it down.

[Henrikno7]

With the night vision on I get this picture but I've searched the outside bin and the Room I last had it, was put in a bag because I was decorating, the bag I thought I put it in is beside me .
So it's somewhere else And as you said it would show something with the night vision on,as you can see ; well hopefully you can see the picture I've attached. A reward ? Lol search party I would be needing 🤭

[Henrikno7]

The camera mounted at the front door has audio but I bought 2 other camera's but not ones with audio, the one at the door came with the base station only so I bought 2 others, it would have helped if they were ones with audio.

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

Ok.  So it is

• in the dark
• in something that has an opening on the right side of the picture.  It looks like it's an opening into a large space (since there are no details there).  

Not sure if the ridges along the left give you a clue or not.

I wouldn't rely on motion detection.  If you haven't tried turning on all the lights (and maybe pulling open all the drawers) you perhaps should try that.  Then check live again, and see if you can see something w/o Nightvision on.

Do you think someone deliberately hid it, or is it more likely it was just misplaced?

[Henrikno7]

Thanks for your reply it was in my front bedroom at the window and me and my brother where emptying the room so I can decorate it, each time my brother was near the bedroom window I was getting notifications from my phone,so I asked him to pass the camera to me And thought I put it in a black rucksack I have . I looked for it yesterday and couldn't find it but my brother didn't know what I done with it after he gave me it.
Alot of things where put outside a wardrobe, bedside cabinets etc to be picked up by the council yesterday morning which they did , so I don't imagine it's ended up at the tip with the wardrobe. I checked the outside bin as I said,so the front room is empty apart from one wardrobe but I've looked in there and my living room, the black part my brother thought was like a suitcase he brought out of the bedroom and left in my living room, strangely enough where the black rucksack was that I thought I put it in. He wouldn't hide it from me but I'll try everything you mentioned in about an hour without the night vision on , unless it is in the outside bin then I'll have to get my brother to walk around the street with it to see if it dissapears from my network lol just kidding ,it definitely looks like the front room we where in it's probably somewhere I've looked (hopefully)

[Henrikno7]

Tried everything you recommended and it was just the black screen , but I moved bag's around where it may have been lifted and put in by my brother and now it's not connecting to the app on my phone, I remember opening the camera so the batteries wouldn't be in contact with the positive/negative but it's obviously still been on now that I have moved bag's it may well have opened up and the batteries aren't touching the negative/positive part's on the camera so making it offline so it is more than likely to be in one of the bags I moved.

[StephenB]

Good luck - I hope you track it down.

[Henrikno7]

Thanks for your help it was appreciated,I found the camera in another bag inside a box lol and as I mentioned because I had opened the camera to stop the batteries from touching the positive) negative elements it was still touching them so I was still connected to it.
I had moved the bags and then lost the cameras connection And low and behold when I found it the lid on the battery compartment wasn't touching the batteries but all's well now.
Although I think Arlo should have something to try and locate cameras that get misplaced in the house and other places.

[StephenB]

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@Henrikno7 wrote:

Although I think Arlo should have something to try and locate cameras that get misplaced in the house and other places.

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Some of the newer cameras do.  The ultra has a siren in the camera that you can turn on.  It's not that loud (which is probably a good thing for locating it).

Finding it when it's outside of the base station range isn't really possible unless it had a GPS tracker built in.  That would be pricy, and probably wouldn't work well indoors.

[Henrikno7]

Hopefully I'll not be losing it again lol I understand about the GPS I have trackers using GPS on my dog collars when they are in the garden but when they leave the Geo fencing or get out of the garden I can only go outside and check the app using GPS and a map with a direction/compass and how many metre's they are.
Handy but pricey aswell but hard if one dog decides to go the opposite way as the other and the GPS signal takes time to update the location so by time you get there they've moved, they run on batteries aswell so when the battery runs out you lose the GPS signal.
Technology eh? 👩‍💻