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?

[pc2k17]

@Wklovelace3

The workaround is to keep the cameras turned on and setup a custom mode. In the custom mode add a rule that includes only the cameras that you want to be armed. If you have cameras that you want disarmed do not include them in the custom mode. Then leaving all the cameras on, swtich to the custom mode you setup. Disarmed cameras will not drain the battery as long as you keep them turned on and being disarmed they will not detect motion or record video or turn the IR lights on.

[ragriff]

Why is battery drainage occurr when not turned on?

[pc2k17]

@ragriff

There is currently an issue with the Arlo cameras that causes the battery to drain when you turn the cameras off. Arlo has said the engineers are investigating it. The batteries drain while off because the cameras are still detecting motion when they should not be, this causes the drain. The workaround is to create a custom mode and in the custom mode create rules for cameras that you only want armed. Any camera that you wanted to be off, do not add a rule for those cameras in the custom mode. Any camera without a rule will be disarmed. Keep the cameras on, just have their state be disarmed. This will return battery usage to normal and the camreas will not detect motion, record video, or turn the IR lights on.

[CameraMan19]

Wanted to add my own voice to this topic. I noticed the 2nd camera's battery was draining ridiculously fast compared to the first that I got.

I went to put it on the charger and I guess the room was dark enough I noticed the red lights came on even though the device is disabled in the app(I turn them off while I'm at home and re-activate them when I leave.) I was able to replicate the behavior by taking it into a well lit room and then into a dark room, the red lights came on each time I stepped into the dark.

What is going on?

[CameraMan19]

Also, it seems to only be happening with the 2nd camera I bought, not the one that initially came with the base station.

Kind of creeping me out to think that maybe it's been recording this entire time. This needs to be addressed ASAP.

[HG_SIMON]

You're exactly right !
I hope dawn or any other member of the team knows that this needs fixed too!
I gotta go to store today and buy some more batteries cause one of my cams (turned off) was still throwing the night time leds and draining the batteries
Ughhhhh!!

[HG_SIMON]

Even if you turn off the night vision the camera will make a click like it's being activated .. so one way or another batteries are going to drain and this needs to be fixed

[HG_SIMON]

Not everyone runs another app (smartthings )
The arlo should work right like it did on its own before this update ..
Just saying

[HG_SIMON]

Umm sorry to interrupt but your statement is incorrect .. The night vision only worked when cam was turned on not when off ... a lot of people are lately (cause of update )having the problem of lights coming on when passing by the cam and it's turned off ..

[HG_SIMON]

Not sure if this will help until arlo fixes the problem the right way . For now I've been unplugging my base unit everyday and then back on and it cures the night vision coming on by itself on my cams turned off .for a lil while ...
it's becoming frustrating cause I almost have to do this twice a day since I leave my house and turn inside cams back on and so on ...
Anyways , I hope this might help for now
I forgot to do this the other day and one of my cams drained super low ::(
My cat was in the living room but cam was off but I think it's was turning the lights on

[KimberlyB]

HG Simon perhaps you are misunderstanding the thread. And my statement is not incorrect. That is the problem is that motion is being detected and night vision is turning on even when the camera is off. That is exactly what everybody has been saying.

[KimberlyB]

I have been able to solve the problem temporarily by simply turning night vision off. For whatever reason it is not sensing motion while the cameras are off during the day. The problem seems to be with the night vision. I have checked and recorded the battery during the day as well as at night. The problem is not occurring while the system is armed but the cameras are off during the day which tells me it is not detecting motion while the cameras are off during the day. It only seems to be doing it at night while the cameras are off. So for me right now this is a good fixed because I don't really need the night vision on anyway

[KimberlyB]

HG Simon, that is not the case. The problem is only occurring with night vision. I marked my battery life down on a piece of paper. I then left the cameras armed but off during the day. I spent the entire day in the garden walking past cameras, walking past the interior cameras, etc etc. Having absolutely no problem with the cameras clicking or turning on when they are marked off. However at night or in low-light, even when the cameras are off, the night vision will click on even when the cameras are off. That is what is draining the battery. So maybe you have a different problem. The problem we all seem to be experiencing happens with the battery draining from the night vision turning on when it should not be because the cameras are off.

[pc2k17]

The IR led lights coming on is just a side effect. What's happening is the cameras are still detecting motion when they are turned off. They detect motion and in a dark room that's why the lights come on. In a bright room you won't see the lights but it is still detecting motion. When the cameras are off they shouldn't detect anything.

Read this thread, post #30 is the troubleshooting I did:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Arlo-Pro/Infrared-light-comes-on-when-camera-is-off/m-p/1570006#M36...

There is a work around for now. Either choose the disarm mode or create a custom mode and add a rule for only the cameras you want armed. Any camera without a rule will be disarmed. Disarmed cameras will not detect motion, record video, or turn on the IR led lights and your battery usage will go back to normal.

[HG_SIMON]

What you replied back is correct .. I replied to some other posts too so I might of got one mixed up .. . Anyways
Thanks for replying back

[KimberlyB]

I would have to disagree with that, unless you are having a different problem. I have been testing this for the last week. The cameras are not detecting motion during the day because even though I have them off and I'm moving past them constantly, my battery life is not draining one bit. The problem only seems to be when it detects motion at night while the cameras are off. I don't agree that the night vision coming on is the symptom. I think there is a problem or a glitch in connection with the night vision. The night vision should be off when the camera is off. But my cameras are definitely not detecting motion during the day when they are off. If they were, over the last week, I would have seen a horrible battery drain. But I have not. The battery level is exactly the same as it was since before this problem started. I don't use SmartThings so maybe you guys are having a different issue but I can most definitely with 100% certainty say that when the cameras are off and the system is armed, mine are not detecting motion erroneously during the day, the problem is only at night

[KimberlyB]

No problem. I just wish they would fix this. It was a big deal for me to spend as much as I did on cameras, I did not take my purchase lately. Very frustrating to see the horrible customer support and problems like this. Very upset

[pc2k17]

If you created a custom mode and your cameras are still draining then you did something wrong. Trust me, I did hours and hours of troubleshooting on this issue. Disarming the camera works. And while it's a workaround instead of turning them off, disarming cameras via a custom mode is a normal function of the system, so your not rigging anything, your just disarming instead of turning them off.

Maybe a POE camera system, whiub is much more reliaable, might be what woudl work for you, but that will cost you about $2,000-$5000.

[HG_SIMON]

The problem we all seem to be experiencing happens with the battery draining from the night vision turning on when it should not be because the cameras are off.
That is what you said in your reply ...
that's what I'm saying as well That's happening for me too..

Anyways
I hope a real solution with update fixes everyone's stuff

[pc2k17]

I have to disagree that it's only night vision. Myself and many others in other treads on this issue had battery drain during the day, some with smartthings, some without. Common reports are batteries draining while kids are playing out in the yard or the person working in the yard, during the day, with the cameras off, and the batteries were draining. Mine drained during the day, plus, at night, I was actaually able to get the IR lights to turn off and the cameras still detected motion and drained the batteries while the cameras were off and the IR lights were not coming on.

Either way, during the day, only at night, doesn't matter. It's an issue that Arlo needs to fix, but for now disarming the cameras you don't want armed stops the battery drain. If turning off the night vision stopped the drain too then that's great, but it didn't for me.

And just to add, I didn't want to get to technical to cloud the issue, myself and a friend watched packet traffic and that's how we dermined that motion detecting was happening when the cameras were off, no matter if it was dark or light outside and no matter if the IR lights were on or not.

[pc2k17]

Yes correct. The problem is with the Arlo system when the cameras are turned off. If you leave the cameras on and just disarm them, battery drain will return to normal. Something changed on the Arlo side that started this issue last week. The forum moderator has escalated the issue to the Arlo engineers and hopefully they figure it out and fix the issue soon, because we should be able to turn the cameras off if we want to.

[Joeyy]

Even if my Arlo Wire-Free Cameras are switched off, the motion detection is activated and drains the batteries every time I walk through. I just noticed today that the batteries of my cameras are very low and also noticed that the motion detection is active even if the camera is switched off. Seems we had a very similiar issue back in 2016.

Does anyone has the same issue or can confirm this behavior? Looks like this issue started during the last 2 weeks. 

Any ideas, how to resolve, or seeing the same issue? 

[secaz]

Why on earth is this thread marked SOLVED?

IT'S NOT SOLVED.

This all seems like a ploy by Netflix to sell more batteries, honestly...

With my ten cameras, most of which are only reachable by LADDER... I have to get up on a ladder now to swap batteries FAR too often.  Thank you, Netgear, for making this almost senior citizen drag out a ladder far more than I want to.  I typically turn off the cams in areas of my yard if I am going to be working outside... so... now I have to, what?  Turn off night vision?  And then when it gets dark remember to turn night vision back on?  Come on.  I can't remember what I ate for breakfast half the time.  The calendar in my Samsung S8+ is filled with reminders of things I need to do differently now and chase around with Arlo because of all the changes the past few months... these cams worked great when I first got them, now they are a frustrating annoyance most of the time... I spend more time chasing things around with my cams than anything else.  And can someone PLEASE redsign the Android app?  Everytime I'm in Arlo and need to adjust my brightness, swiping down on my phone activates the stupid alarm drop down tab.  In general, it just gets in the way, I spend more time swiping it out of my way after its been activated more than doing anything else in the Arlo app.  Ah, to go back to the good old days where everything worked, and worked FAST and virtually FLAWLESSLY... but I now wonder if this period of wine and roses was just to lure me into buying more cameras... and then once I had - BAM... bugs and issues galore...

[KimberlyB]

EXACTLY secaz....Net gear this problem is NOT SOLVED.

All I can say is that I hope people are actually calling customer support instead of just complaining, because I don't think Netgear cares. Like I said on an earlier post, I spent 2 hours on hold with tech support, only to be told that they might push out a fixed soon and would notify me in a day or so. No notification ever came. Do they even monitor these Community Support forums? This is TOTAL BS and exactly why I will be buying from Ring from now on...great cameras and great customer support. Very disappointed in Arlo.

[pc2k17]

This thread was marked as solved by the original person who posted the issue after I provided a way to stop the battery drain, which was to disarm instead of turning off. For the original poster that solved the issue for them so they marked it as solved. The OP marked as solved, netgear didn't.

I agree about the alarm button being at the top of the android app, I pull it down by accident sometimes as well.

I like you change the brightness on my phone all the time, auto brightness doesn't cut it for me. So, for an easier way to chnage brightness on android, go to the play store and search for Brightness. Download and install the app called Brightness devoloped by Alexey Rogulin. This app lets you change the brightness on the fly, it's free, no ads, no permissions needed, just put a shortcut on your homr screen and tap it. An interface comes up instantly, not even a full app, that allows you to change the brightness. Works great.

BTW - calling Arlo support is useless. It's just a outsourced call center where they read from scripts. They have no troubleshooting skills and I doubt any issues people call in for get logged and passed on to Arlo. It's a poor excuse for 1st level support. However, JamesC, the forum moderator, has escalated this issue to the Arlo engineers. I'm an engineer myself and really have no confidence that the Arlo engineers are very good at all. Only reason I stay with Arlo for now is because they are the only cameras that fully integrate with my smart home system (smartthings & echo/Alexa). I don't blame anyone for switching to somethnig else.