Still images removed from alert emails

[Rueg]

In the Arlo notification emails, there always used to be a preview picture so I could possibly see what was captured in the video.  This stopped coming thru a few days ago making the Arlo emails pretty useless.  Is there a way to get the preview picture in the emails back?  I didn't change anything.  They just stopped showing up. 

Thanks.

Steve

[sspeak]

It seems like the email notification format changed recently (in the last 2-4 days) and now the still photo capture doesn't show up on my phone email client.  Does anyone know what changes were made?

[RAM3]

Mine has been out for days, video and still capture.....seems to be widespread

[migman_2001]

There are currently system issues.

[grover5177]

I have been getting email notifications for a couple years now that had an imbedded snapshot of the trigger event.  A few days a go, I also stopped getting the snapshot/picture with just a big blank space in it's place.  The clickable link to the actual recorded video is still there if I touch in the open area, but again, no visual snapshot/picture.

Did some testing on my own and used 3 different email services to test which were Xfinity, Gmail, and Outlook thinking if it were an Arlo issue, the snapshot/picture would not appear anywhere.

To my surprise, they snapshot/picture showed up in all three services when viewed outside my normal email program on my Android.  If I view the emails from Arlo in any of those three services either via their email app or their web interface, the snapshot/picture is still there.

So the problem at least for me appears to be that something changed in my phone email app, which at this time is Blue Mail.  Accordingly, I went out to Play Store and sure enough, Blue Mail pushed an update to their Android email app the same day the thumbnails/pictures disappeared from the notification emails.

With all the other issues I have had with Arlo, I was sure it was them, and it may still be if they changed the formatting in some way where Blue Mail has issues displaying it or are now ending this "feature" for those of us that don't "pay up", but as far as I can tell right now, I can't blame Arlo for this one.

[GR2011]

I have TypeMail which I believe the same company that manages BlueMail and I also noticed that my Arlo picture thumbnail no longer is displayed in the body of the email. I think it was also due to a recent update by the email app developer.

[GR2011]

Well, I just went back to the previous version of TypeMail and it didn't bring back the jpg thumbnail. 😞

[GR2011]

I just used my internet mail to get to my personal email and when I open it on my phone phone, the preview is there. It just will not preview the picture within the email. Very frustrating.

[GR2011]

Just used my Samsung email app from my phone and it wouldn't display the thumbnail. I'm starting to think it's Arlo.

[miketech]

Getting email notifications promptly, but the video that used to accompany the notification is no longer there.  (there's a link to it).  The video is being recorded and in the library, but no longer in the notification itself.  Tried this with different emails and providers so it's not being blocked.  Tried on both cell and computer email clients.  No video attachement at all.  Did arlo decide to not send the video via email anymore?  Just started a few days ago.

[Rueg]

I am using Microsoft Outlook and the preview pictures are not showing up.

[GR2011]

I think we can now comfirm that Arlo did something to change that feature in the way they do notifications. Why send out an attachment when all they have to do is include a link to the page that contains the image/video? 

[grover5177]

I won't say it's not an Arlo problem and I just assumed it was a side effect of all the other issues they have been having over the past week.  But after I tested things out a bit more, between three Android Email apps, Blue Mail, Outlook and Gmail, Blue Mail is the ONLY one that doesn't display the preview picture and my previews stopped the same day Blue Mail pushed an update to their Android App and hasn't worked since.  That would indicate it's a Blue Mail issue (and possibly other email apps as well) but maybe Arlo changed the compression, format, resolution, etc. of the preview picture which broke certain email apps where others still work???  I gave up a long time ago trying to get Arlo to address any issues that aren't up to the level of a system outage.

The space in the Blue Mail message does take me to the video if I tap on the large blank space where the preview picture should be but no picture.  But again, I have three of my cameras all sending email alerts to three different email accounts and two work (Outlook and Gmail) both within their Android apps (on my Note 😎 AND in their web interfaces.   

So if this still works for me in say Outlook but others it doesn't?  Then it very well might be a backend issue with Arlo since it also seems that all the issues over the past week or so seemed to affect some while not affecting others at any given time.  So for now, I am just using my Gmail or Outlook app for Arlo alerts and Blue Mail for everything else.

Maybe someday before I die, somebody will actually figure out what's going on.  But I am not betting on it!  😉

[rulviebaby]

The preview picture disappeared in my Outlook 2010 sometime between 02:18 am EDT on 5/23 and 7:19 am on 5/23.

I noticed that the link where the picture was accessed previously was at 'https://arlo.netgear.com ..... etc' and now it's at 'https://my.arlo.com ..... etc'.  For me I think Outlook is trying to protect me against a potential security issue, and I noticed an option to display the message in a browser.  

I'm not that familiar with Outlook but there must be something to configure to fix this.  

I can, however view the new format properly if I view the email in gmail in the Chrome browser, but that is a big pain to me.  Outlook is a superior tool.  It's curious how different people have different success stories with different email clients.  I also noticed that a new rectangular solid black or navy image is in the defective email display.

It seems to me if Arlo would just put things back the way it way it would fix everything and not cause all this frustration.  I agree the email is useless without a preview!

How do you request that Arlo address the problem?

[CWuestefeld]

Arlo has changed the content of their notification messages, so they no longer contain a still image from the video. It still works in some places like Gmail, presumably because there's jscript that's automatically retrieving it in the new-format messages. But in readers like Outlook, where security settings prevent jscript from running, there's nothing.

Old message's HTML:

<p style="text-align: center;">

<a href="https://arlo.netgear.com/hmsweb/users/library/share/link/XXXXXXXXXX_201905">

<img style="width: 400px;height: 225px;" src="https://arlos3-prod-z2.s3.amazonaws.comXXXXXXXXXX/recordings/XXXXXXXXXX_thumb.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=XXX..." />

</a></p>

New message's HTML

<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">

<tbody>

<tr>

<td align="center" class="player-wrapper" valign="top">

<a href="https://my.arlo.com/hmsweb/users/library/share/link/XXXXXXXXXX_201905">

<div class="img-arlo-player"></div>

</a>

</td>

</tr>

</tbody>

</table>

They've completely removed that <img> tag, so there's nothing to show the still image.

[CWuestefeld]

Arlo has changed the content of their notification messages, so they no longer contain a still image from the video. It still works in some places like Gmail, presumably because there's jscript that's automatically retrieving it in the new-format messages. But in readers like Outlook, where security settings prevent jscript from running, there's nothing.

Old message's HTML:

<p style="text-align: center;">

<a href="https://arlo.netgear.com/hmsweb/users/library/share/link/XXXXXXXXXX_201905">

<img style="width: 400px;height: 225px;" src="https://arlos3-prod-z2.s3.amazonaws.comXXXXXXXXXX/recordings/XXXXXXXXXX_thumb.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=XXX..." />

</a></p>

New message's HTML

<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">

<tbody>

<tr>

<td align="center" class="player-wrapper" valign="top">

<a href="https://my.arlo.com/hmsweb/users/library/share/link/XXXXXXXXXX_201905">

<div class="img-arlo-player"></div>

</a>

</td>

</tr>

</tbody>

</table>

They've completely removed that <img> tag, so there's nothing to show the still image.

[sspeak]

I really do believe that Arlo changed to formatting of the email somehow. I just wish they'd tell us what they did so that we might find ways to fix it.

[Retired_Member]

Yep. I just confirmed that Preview Image is no longer displayed in Outlook and Windows 10 Mail clients. Works in browsers and iOS native email app...

[Rueg]

The preview pictures are coming through in the emails on outlook.com, but they are not coming through on the emails on my PC through the Outlook application.  Strange.  Hopefully either Arlo fixes it or somebody posts a fix.  Otherwise, Costco has a really good return policy.

[grover5177]

If something as basic as preview pictures in the email alerts is truly being taken away unless you pay up, then I am basically done with Arlo.    What's next, downsizing the library to 24 hours?  Halfing the resolution of the video so it's all but useless?  Elimination of email alerts altogether? At this point, nothing is off the table.

As a 40+ year computer tech/programmer, if I released apps full of bugs, firmware that simply didn't work, relied on a backend infrastructure that is woefully undersized for the feature set they are trying to push, and encountered the number of outages they have, I simply would not have a job. 

So since my only leverage as a customer is to simply not be one I cancelled my almost 2 year subscription in protest and went back to the basic feature set to at least get basic functionality back.  But if their response is to now cut back the basic feature set, then my only alternative is to not only leave but make sure anyone else I have contact with knows this as well.

[ScottK1]

Arlo when are you going to answer this complaint?

[ScottK1]

Arlo when are you going to reply?  All email programs seem to be affected on Android and also Outlook 365 on PCs.

[TechJohn]

Like the original poster, I had been receiving preview images in the Arlo alert emails that I receive both on my Android phone as well as on my PC running Outlook. In both cases, the previews have stopped within about the last month or so. I find this very dissapointing as I get many alerts of which most of them I can dismiss with just looking at the one embedded preview image within the email. Now, I am forced to click the link of each email to see what is going on, which is very time consuming.

Is this change the result of something Netgear did to get us to subscribe to do their Smart plan service?

[rulviebaby]

I looked into rendering email on multiple clients and apparently it’s quite a problem for developers (no excuse Arlo).

There is a known problem with Outlook (20xx) when trying to size objects and some special provisions to supposedly fix the issue.  Here’s a link to one site that discusses it:  https://templates.mailchimp.com/development/css/outlook-conditional-css/

If you look at the source code of the email in Outlook (view source), you’ll see that they have included some of the constructs that are Outlook specific.   So you have to believe that at some point during their development Outlook worked ….. maybe.

If they made changes after this testing and only checked it on their phone or in gmail then that was sloppy.

I also found several commercial services that will test your email in one submission on 70+ email clients and give you a report.  It’s pricy from my perspective so I didn’t try it with the Arlo email(even with the free 7 days).  But Arlo should probably use something similar to this for testing:

https://litmus.com/email-testing

I never reported anything to Arlo as I don’t know the process and from reading this thread it could be useless.  Has anyone reported that on 5/23 the email preview in Outlook 20xx broke?????  And other clients if it doesn’t work there?

Here’s the beginning of one of my emails to show what they have done.  It’s over 500 lines total:

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml">

<head>

<!--[if gte mso 9]>

      <xml>

         <o:OfficeDocumentSettings>

            <o:AllowPNG/>

            <o:PixelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch>

         </o:OfficeDocumentSettings>

      </xml>

      <![endif]-->

<title>Arlo Technologies, Inc</title>

<meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"/>

<meta content="IE=edge" http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible"/>

<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/>

<meta content="telephone=no,address=no,date=no" name="format-detection"/>

<style type="text/css">

[Fastmike]

Yep! Same here!

A lot of issues since May 23!

No record on May 24; no more preview picture (outlook, nor other clients on phone and/or computers); email alert sometimes not showing up or arriving up to 12 hours later; etrc... a total mess!

I have 3 different systems in different houses (Arlo, arlo Pro and arlo Pro 2). All impacted... same for my parents.

Too bad for a security system! And no communication from Netgear to their customers?