There was a problem establishing a connection to the media server

[aripa]

My Arlo Pro camera is giving me this message(There was a problem establishing a connection to the media server) when I try to view live video through my web browser. On my phone using the app it just doesn't connect(show the rotating busy icon) and I am not getting any of the recordings during motion detection. It appears to be recording because I am still getting notifications on my phone when it detects motion. I've tried restarting the base station. I have also tried removing my camera as a device from the base station. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.

[KipMN]

There was a problem establishing a connection to the Media server.... anyone else having this issue? Don't know if the update a few days ago caused this or what? I can login to the hub and see all of my camera's but when i try to click on one "Live video" it tells me "There was a problem establishing a connection to the Media server" I called support and they did indicate that they are having issues that are in direct effect of my problem. The weird this is i called my buddy that has an "Arlo System" and his works fine??? he does have a different model "Arlo Pro 2" i have the "Arlo Pro". My Arlo camera's firmware is = 1.092.0.19_26228 and my System version is = 2.7.2. They said that they will call me when the issue is resolved but its been down for several days now...... am i waiting in LA-LA land? Also i have used multiple browers on multiple PC's. In addition to my Arlo App version = 2.7.7 (56) even tried using "Mobile data" instead of my wifi. Is there a way to manually push an camera version update? i see there is a newer version out but how do you force it to update? Any intel would be great! Thanks!

[ependi_ependi]

Since April 20, 2019 at 01:55 a.m. My Arlo Pro ( 3 Cammeras + 1 Base) system is having problem in Live Play/ View Mode ( unable to display Live View using either my smart phone or PC browser) "there was a problem to establishing a connection to the media server". but the push notification facility still working properly. Please Help me to solve the problem. thank you

[aripa]

I have the same issue!

[bramanpriest]

Have had these cams less than a year, everything worked perfectly up until about two months ago. First one camera stopped connecting live although it continued to record events, I could watch the video clips. The other camera continued to work fine, could connect and view live. After removing and re-adding the one camera the other also stopped connecting. I have found several threads on how to fix this, reset the hub, removed all devices, synced everything up again. I have gone through this process several times, the cameras detect motion/sound and record the event but i cannot connect to and view live. In the phone app both cameras and hub say getting status but never connect. Cameras are sitting right next to the hub. Of course i don't have any packaging for these, bought last summer. Any ideas?

[karmilli]

Once AGAIN Arlo is down. We have Arlo Pro 4 camera with base system. Would someone please advise? When I click on a camera to view, I get the message "There was a problem establishing a connection to the media server". I have rebooted the system many times as well as the individual units. When this has happened before it was an Arlo issue but now no one is monitoring for problems because no one answers my messages. This happens entirely too much for a system that cost as much as Arlo does. I will not be buying Arlo again.

[Jkbd]

Exactly why you don’t buy cloud based cameras. Selling my Arlo system. 2 days without any response from Arlo is unacceptable!

[Frustratedbarry]

So I've hed 2 arlo pro cameras hooked up for two years or so and a couple of quirks nothing major everything has worked ok. Two days ago there was a firmware update notice that came up on the app screen so I accepted it and everything just stopped workin. Next day I resetted the hub nothing still , deleted hub , deleted cam nothing, deleted app nothing. The camera works it can and does sync with the hub but doesent live stream. I called Arlo tech support....what a joke....they kindly told me they are having isues and hang in there they are working on it . So now here I sit with two cameras I cant use.

HELP!!

[Asterix7]

Considering the fact that I am recording locally on a USB stick that is attached to the base station that shouldn't be an issue at all.

[Frustratedbarry]

So I've hed 2 arlo pro cameras hooked up for two years or so and a couple of quirks nothing major everything has worked ok. Two days ago there was a firmware update notice that came up on the app screen so I accepted it and everything just stopped workin. Next day I resetted the hub nothing still , deleted hub , deleted cam nothing, deleted app nothing. The camera works it can and does sync with the hub but doesent live stream. I called Arlo tech support....what a joke....they kindly told me they are having isues and hang in there they are working on it . So now here I sit with two cameras I cant use.

HELP!!

[Asterix7]

You are not the only one who has this problem, so hang in there. I'm sure they are working on a fix. The fact that it is a long weekend probably doesn't help with how fast a fix will come.

However, the more people will raise the issue, the more likely a faster response will come from Arlo...

[adocorp]

We shouldn’t need to allow any inbound ports.. I don’t. My work around to my system working again was to disable my AV protection on my gateway firewall. I did not troubleshoot enough to see what was being filtered. Maybe some signatures, in don’t know. after I did this, I have not experience any issues since.

btw, I was able to reproduce the problem by enabling my AV again on my gateway firewall. My next step in this Arlo fiasco is to exclude the IP of my base station to the gateway AV as a better work around.

I am still surprise Arlo is clueless on what is going on... I am losing trust in these cameras 

[ArloUser52]

Since 4-19-19 until now 4-21-19, all five of my arlo pro cameras have failed to connect or unable to connect to the media server. I have rebooted, unplugged, reset, and resynced all the cameras, router and base station numerous times thru out the last two days and still cannot view live stream or connect to the media server. I have gotten zero recordings and my system has been unusable during this time. All devices show up on the latest arlo phone app and when login in online. All  firmware and hardware for the cameras and the base station is up to date. I am out of ideas and dont know what else to do at this point.

[BryceD]

Allowing ICMP outbound (plus the related inbound reply) presents a negligible security risk.
You can argue that allowing ping requests to the external interface of your gateway is some risk, but just allowing your internal hosts to successfully ping out is incredibly minor.

While I agree this shouldn't be necessary, (if you can resolve DNS, you don't need to ping the same DNS server???) the workaround isn't worth fretting over.

Again for those that didn't see and are skimming the thread...

Remedy:
1. Configure your firewall to allow ICMP outbound request (type 😎 to 8.8.8.8 and the related inbound reply (type 0).
(Thanks blah8 for the correction)
2. Reboot base station

[CBADZ]

I'm having the same problem. 

Has anyone got their system back on line?

[angel_no]

Having the same issue for 2 and half days now. I tried contacting their online chat without success.

[Slamammy]

I have an Arlo Pro base station with three cameras. Firmware on the base station is 1.12.2.0_2794. Hardware version is VMB4000r3. I haven't had any issues since installing the system until about 2 days ago. My notifications have been working without issue, but the cameras are not actually recording. None of my networking configuration has changed. I have even created additional rules for the IP of the base station to allow all traffic outbound. I have power cycled the device. I have even removed all cameras individually and re-added them to the base station, which did not work. I have also removed the base station from my account and went through setup again. I have also looked at packet captures coming from the device. I don't have any packet captures from when the cameras were working so I can't really compare anything.

[milton_mike]

Glad to hear you’re getting the notifications - I’m not. My system has been installed for over a year and decided to stop cloud recording / notifying / streaming yesterday around 5pm ET.

Are you able to see any failed connection attempts on your packet capture?

Support says this issue has been present for three (3) days now.

Keep your receipt and original packaging handy 🙂

[Slamammy]

Current packet capture shows A LOT of back packets being sent to/from Netgear's servers. Lots of faulty TCP flags and RST packets.

I'm sorry to hear that you are having issues too. It is definitely a burden from a system that you rely on.

[milton_mike]

If you Whois the IPs do they come back as Amazon/AWS? It seems like this could be as easy as a media server cluster being offline within AWS - odd to see the silence from Netgear/Arlo.

[Slamammy]

Yes. A few of the IPs in question pointed to AWS servers. The few in particular were located in Ireland. AWS Service Health Dashboard looks good for the region (https://status.aws.amazon.com/). A bit of communication would be great, especially if users are affected.

[milton_mike]

Arlo Media Servers Compromised?

Yikes!

https://downdetector.com/status/arlo/map/

[Slamammy]

I would bet on a misconfiguration or a failed migration somewhere. Who knows though. All SSL certificates that are associated with the traffic to/from my base station appear to be signed by Netgear or Amazon. A passive DNS search on the domains and IPs all appear to be pointing to legitimate destinations.

Again, communication would be ideal at this point.

[piedmoose]

@BryceD Unfortunately the remedy you suggest has no impact on my system. 

[jguerdat]

One person just posted that trying to add a new camera (which didn't exist) caused the base to check and update the firmware. He then canceled the new camera install and all was fine. Kind of a backdoor but if it works...

[Slamammy]

I would hope that Netgear's support would not suggest to disable AV/IDS/IPS protections on consumer devices. Removing security controls should never be "the fix". According to my research, Netgear's servers are sending garbage traffic (TLS traffic with incorrect ACK and RST flags) to/from my base station.