System goes offline

[mbaier]

System has worked fine for years (6). Now has gone offline twice in two weeks. Unit comes back on after cycling power but has gone offline again.

[jguerdat]

How long does it stay offline? I've seen my hubs not connected at times and they come back online shortly. Assuming it's not a hardware issue, it could well be anyplace in the internet that is blocking access to the servers.

[mbaier]

Once it drops it doesn't come back until the power is cycled.

[jguerdat]

That tends to sound like a hardware problem with your base. One thing I would try would be to power cycle your router to make sure that somehow that isn't the problem.

[mbaier]

Is there a way to power cycle the base remotely? We are not home (wintering in Fl) and this problem started up. We manually power cycled it and everything was working for a few days but then went offline again.

[StephenB]

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@mbaier wrote:

Is there a way to power cycle the base remotely?

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If the base is offline, then there is no way to tell it to restart.  So unfortunately no.

Some people have connected the base to a smart plug, so they can power cycle it when away.

[mbaier]

Do the newer cameras require a base or are they stand alone? The base dropped out again after power cycling the base but only lasted a day or so.

[StephenB]

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@mbaier wrote:

Do the newer cameras require a base or are they stand alone?

Pro 5s and Essential cameras can be connected either to your home wifi or through a base.  Ultras require a base.

But none of the newer cameras have free 7-day cloud storage, so if you purchase new cameras you will need an Arlo Secure subscription to get cloud storage.

[mbaier]

Thanks for the feedback. Will the Pro cameras work with the new bases or do they require the hewer cameras?

[StephenB]

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@mbaier wrote:

Thanks for the feedback. Will the Pro cameras work with the new bases or do they require the hewer cameras?

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The Pro cameras are compatible with all bases.

• https://kb.arlo.com/000062284/Arlo-SmartHub-and-Base-Station-Compatibility

If you want to get a new base, the VMB4540 and VMB5000 smarthubs are the best options.  (the VMB4540 is a bit cheaper).

However, several folks have reported problems adding back the older cameras after they remove them from the account.  I don't know of any fix if you run into that problem.