Infrared light comes on when camera is off causing rapid battery drain

[Shammy]

Why does my camera night infrared come on when I have the camera set to off?

[Wklovelace3]

Yes. Mine misses mailman now. Its hit or miss and he drives in the same spot every day at the same time. So cant blame it on the sun. Of course when you bring it up on the forum the community managers and support always seem to point the finger at us like we are doing something wrong. They make silly suggestions like try adjusting the sensitivity. I know what the system is capable of it used to work flawlessly. The problem is if theres an issue theres nowhere to turn. I dont need to even explain whats it like calling support. Not sure why all of a sudden we cant have a firmware update that works for everyone. Is it really that screwed up?

[Rito2]

This product is garbage. I went back to my local Best Buy requesting a refund they said all they could do for me is exchange the entire unit. I just need my cash to go with a different brand. I will give this one more moth then I am done. Unbelievable. Like most have mentioned in comments here if you can’t fix it return back to the May firmware. 

[Greg0101]

So my 5 cameras have been offline most of the day, I have not done anything at all to base station or cameras. Normal activity of family coming and going and no notifications.

All of sudden I’m getting notifications and cameras appear online with recently recorded image and have recording in library but I can’t use the live mode and then cameras go offline. So what event triggers the cameras to come online and start recording as if nothing has happened? No change in mode etc.? Weird!

[secaz]

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@Wklovelace3 wrote:
Yes. Mine misses mailman now. Its hit or miss and he drives in the same spot every day at the same time. So cant blame it on the sun. Of course when you bring it up on the forum the community managers and support always seem to point the finger at us like we are doing something wrong. They make silly suggestions like try adjusting the sensitivity. I know what the system is capable of it used to work flawlessly. The problem is if theres an issue theres nowhere to turn. I dont need to even explain whats it like calling support. Not sure why all of a sudden we cant have a firmware update that works for everyone. Is it really that screwed up?

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Went out with my dogs down the side of the house yesterday, sun was on the other side of house so can't blame sun, and it was mid-morning and spent several minutes over there milling around with pups, that camera is 10 ft or less away, and only got ONE video the whole time... and motion was set to 85%... and I was walking about with the pups, no way Arlo should have MISSED all that motion, and yet - IT DID.  There are frequent times now that I get videos with nothing going on in the clips because the motion was long gone before it started to record... and as I have previously said, I have a small house and THREE base stations there's no way that the cams are too far away from their base stations so can't blame connectivity...

[secaz]

Joy - and another base station just up and decided take my cams off line... had to shut down base station, as in unplug it, and wait, then bring it back up... cams still said off line, and took several minutes after base station was back up for all the cams to eventually come back on line, one at a time, not all at once, either - didn't see a change in firmware version so its not like there was a firmware update for cams, either.  The system IS garbage, but at least I work from home so can chase glitches around... how do people who work away from home deal with this mess?  I'd be super angry if I logged in while away at work and saw all my cams were offline...

[Wklovelace3]

Yep cant count on arlo. Good thing i have a real security system. 100 lb dobie. I just noticed my first video was shortly after noon. So i guess all morning not a single car drove by. Thats funny because the last previous 7 days there was an average of 25 videos from 8 to noon. You cant count on this nor should it be labeled a security camera.

[paddos]

80 days since the May 14 firmware disaster ... followed by two firmware updates ... and Pro batteries are still draining at 3 to 4X their advertised life ... 3 weeks if u r lucky versus 3 months or more.

You think Arlo has modified their merchandizing message for all those unexpecting customers who are still purchasing their products?

Out of ideas to get their attention without trying to legal action ... 80 days with know issue without modifying what is now misleading advertising as well as impact to installed base should interest a class action attorney.

[Redmoonstar]

All 5 of my cameras are now set to 100% and they constantly miss what they would have recorded before the May upgrade, I've now had to purchase outdoor charging cable's for 3 of my camera's due to battery going from 75% to 0 in 4 hours with only a few video's recorded as it doesn't detect motion any more and will have to purchase a solar panel for another camera as the outdoor cable isn't suitable. We're going away and if I don't get some way for the batteries to charge my house will be unprotected due to battery drain. I am looking for a better system however I don't want to have to hardwire it so not a lot of choice. Any suggestions appreciated. 

[DeiterB]

Multiple issues, geofencing not working, unreliable motion detection, and battery drain. Rehashing most of what has been posted multiple times. Just can't get my head around the lack of urgency regarding this issue. I feel honesty and communication is lacking. I have a 4 camera system that I wouldn't remotely consider a security option. Netgear what is the plan?

[paddos]

Has anyone tried removing and re-adding base to see if battery drain is fixed?

I have one base/2 pros with normal drain and two other bases with rapid drain. All bases/pros using same settings, firmware, and disarmed. Really strange that one out three is ok. Have swapped batteries but no change. Have powered cycled bases but have not removed and re-added the two with excessive drain.

Thoughts?

[dhung]

right... just yesterday 1st Aug (after 9 day) I check the battery charge using the app, it drop to 89%.

and just now,  2nd of Aug afternoon, the camer is Off Line........... WTF is going on!!!

Netgear/Arlo guys, Please Please Please Please!!!!... ROLL BACK to the old Firmware while your engineer trying to findout what's going on with your "newer" firmware.

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@dhung wrote:

As a place keeper, the morning after andother the new updated on the 24th July. 

v1.092.0.16_21159

The Arlo Pro camera that I'm having battery drain issues was again reset/resync/fully charged up, Night Vision(IR) and Video Quality are set to Active & Best Video in Video setting for that camera.

Checked in this moring via the app, the battery are down to 92% since, the camera is only 5 meters away from the base station, in beween there is a solid brick wall.

Still too early to tell..........

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[secaz]

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@Wklovelace3 wrote:
Yep cant count on arlo. Good thing i have a real security system. 100 lb dobie. I just noticed my first video was shortly after noon. So i guess all morning not a single car drove by. Thats funny because the last previous 7 days there was an average of 25 videos from 8 to noon. You cant count on this nor should it be labeled a security camera.

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I live on a cul de sac so one way in, one way out and I'm second house from top of street, so I know who comes and goes and when... I had same thing happen, long period of time where NEITHER of my street cams got triggered... I was beginning to wonder if there was a holiday and everyone had stayed home from work.  Great reliability...

[secaz]

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@paddos wrote:
80 days since the May 14 firmware disaster ... followed by two firmware updates ... and Pro batteries are still draining at 3 to 4X their advertised life ... 3 weeks if u r lucky versus 3 months or more.

You think Arlo has modified their merchandizing message for all those unexpecting customers who are still purchasing their products?

Out of ideas to get their attention without trying to legal action ... 80 days with know issue without modifying what is now misleading advertising as well as impact to installed base should interest a class action attorney.

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I've said it before, it is FALSE ADVERTISING and there are laws against such false claims... class action law suit seems in order... Arlo is NOT a security camera system, it is wholly unreliable.  And if you don't work from home like I do, then you can't REALLY know how unreliable it is.  I'll hear or see a big vehicles go by and NEITHER garage cam will capture it... and I have these two cams pointed in different directions so can blame sunlight interfereing with BOTH cams at the same time...

[secaz]

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@Redmoonstar wrote:

All 5 of my cameras are now set to 100% and they constantly miss what they would have recorded before the May upgrade, I've now had to purchase outdoor charging cable's for 3 of my camera's due to battery going from 75% to 0 in 4 hours with only a few video's recorded as it doesn't detect motion any more and will have to purchase a solar panel for another camera as the outdoor cable isn't suitable. We're going away and if I don't get some way for the batteries to charge my house will be unprotected due to battery drain. I am looking for a better system however I don't want to have to hardwire it so not a lot of choice. Any suggestions appreciated. 

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I chose Arlo because it was wireless, but had misgivings before I even purchased it.  It was the least of all evils for me, and I was attracted by fact that if I didn't like where I placed a cam, I could easily just move the mount and cam somewhere else without having to re-wire things, not to mention I'm OLD and wiring a system myself was out of the questions.  And I didn't want to pay the high price of having a professional security company do a wired system - but in retrospect?  Would have cost about the same as all the money I've pumped into Arlo, and it would work a million times better I'm sure...

[Redmoonstar]

I have a 5 camera system I have removed each camera then the base then reset base, added it to my account then synced the camera's twice, I have also had two replacement base stations ( which I reset after set up before adding the camera's) and none of this has made any difference to the multiple issues I now have with these camera's including battery drain.

[secaz]

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@dhung wrote:

right... just yesterday 1st Aug (after 9 day) I check the battery charge using the app, it drop to 89%.

and just now,  2nd of Aug afternoon, the camer is Off Line........... WTF is going on!!!

Netgear/Arlo guys, Please Please Please Please!!!!... ROLL BACK to the old Firmware while your engineer trying to findout what's going on with your "newer" firmware.

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@dhung wrote:

As a place keeper, the morning after andother the new updated on the 24th July. 

v1.092.0.16_21159

The Arlo Pro camera that I'm having battery drain issues was again reset/resync/fully charged up, Night Vision(IR) and Video Quality are set to Active & Best Video in Video setting for that camera.

Checked in this moring via the app, the battery are down to 92% since, the camera is only 5 meters away from the base station, in beween there is a solid brick wall.

Still too early to tell..........

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Netgear got their money, so they do not care - their lack of communication and urgency speak quite loudly to the fact that they don't give a rat's a**...

[NetBox]

Netgear need to STOP developing new Arlo products and pump their resources and efforts into fixing the ones they already have before they even consider bringing something new out.

But that's not good for the pockets as new products bring new revenue.

[secaz]

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@NetBox wrote:
Netgear need to STOP developing new Arlo products and pump their resources and efforts into fixing the ones they already have before they even consider bringing something new out.

But that's not good for the pockets as new products bring new revenue.

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Again, Netgear doesn't care, and nothing we have said here has made any difference.  All we can hope for is that people considering an Arlo purchase research before buying and stumble across this thread. Perhaps we can save some consumers from speanding their hard earned money on this garbage system.

[Raider1v1]

is the issue that we dont really have an alternative? or IS there an alternative? no everyone can run wired cameras everywhere they need them.

[NetBox]

While I agree that new potential customers should be fully aware of the problems the Arlo systems are suffering (at the moment), if Netgear were actually to be totally transparent and aware potential customers of the issues they simply wouldn't do any sales.

That would in turn end the life of Arlo, the whole project would then undoubtedly fall by the wayside and we would soon find they shut the servers down and end support etc. So no one wants that to happen.

Netgear therefore seriously need to get this fixed as soon as possible and treat this as a matter of urgency, firstly because this is meant to be a totally reliable security system (and people lives could be affected by it not working) and secondly it is costing them their reputation.

They are actively working on a fix but why it is taking so long, only god knows, but I think some transparency on this by Netgear would be appreciated by us end users who suffer each day with the expensive system which do not work as advertised.

[secaz]

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@Raider1v1 wrote:

is the issue that we dont really have an alternative? or IS there an alternative? no everyone can run wired cameras everywhere they need them.

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I would recommend wireless security knowns as DOGS.  Dependable, reliable... and great company...

For what it's worth, had I known that Arlo was going to be THIS bad, I never would have bought it - I would have instead gotten a third dog, a big one with lots of teeth and a terrifiying bark and menacing growl.  My two little terriers alert me to everything going on outside, but are too small to do anything about it if push came to shove... besides, they live inside, I never leave them outside.  They are far more acurate and reliable than Arlo... and with the wide range of signals they give me, I know if whatever is out there is something different, familiar, or threatening...

[paddos]

@Redmoonstar

Thanks for response. Guess there is nothing I can do on my end given what you described. Just weird that one of my bases is working but the other two are not .... everything on my end exactly the same ...

[Fy27]

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For those of you who bought the system through channels such as Costco who have up to a year to return it, I would recommend this route.  If this is not resolved soon, I plan to rip the whole thing out and simply return it to Costco.  Netgear/Arlo definitely don't want you to do that, as clearly demonstrated by the tech support who pleaded me not to do so when I threatened to do so since she wouldn't acknowledged that there was a battery drain issue.  If more people started doing this, I'm sure it will get their attention. 

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[Raider1v1]

yup, i bought both of my 3-camera systems at costco for exactly this reason.

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@Fy27 wrote:

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For those of you who bought the system through channels such as Costco who have up to a year to return it, I would recommend this route.  If this is not resolved soon, I plan to rip the whole thing out and simply return it to Costco.  Netgear/Arlo definitely don't want you to do that, as clearly demonstrated by the tech support who pleaded me not to do so when I threatened to do so since she wouldn't acknowledged that there was a battery drain issue.  If more people started doing this, I'm sure it will get their attention. 

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[secaz]

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@Fy27 wrote:

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For those of you who bought the system through channels such as Costco who have up to a year to return it, I would recommend this route.  If this is not resolved soon, I plan to rip the whole thing out and simply return it to Costco.  Netgear/Arlo definitely don't want you to do that, as clearly demonstrated by the tech support who pleaded me not to do so when I threatened to do so since she wouldn't acknowledged that there was a battery drain issue.  If more people started doing this, I'm sure it will get their attention. 

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Netgear would need several thousands of us, probably even more, to return our systems to even notice so much as a blip in their sales figures.  Unfortunately, I bought my Arlo gear from several online retailers, such as Amazon, Newegg, Walmart... whoever had the lowest price on whatever hardware or accessory I was looking to acquire at the time.  To the best of my knowledge, 30 return policy... and I'll wager the amount of people who have purchased from Costco is considerably less than those of us who have purchased from other outlets...