arlo pro batteries drain superfast, firmware or app issue?

[spaparizos]

Our 4 arlo pro cameras are suddenly draining the batteries like crazy. For example, last night at 2AM the 15% warning email comes and at 6 AM the battery is completely dead. Without any video, anything triggering the camera and no live feed since we are sleeping. Anyone else is seeing something like this? I cannot be the batteries because all 4 cameras are draining like that and there is no way 4 cameras fail at once after working really well for over a year. Basically I can't charge them fast enough, they drain after a couple of days or less. Suggestions on how to solve this are welcome. Nothing changed in our setup for the past year +

[TomMac]

Yes, the li-ion cells do drop fast at the end of their life charge cycle... but yes it is odd all 4 went at once.

I would remove one of the camera ( in settings , Remove Device ) and bring back as new with resync... see if that changes anthing for that camera... if so, do the rest.

If not, I would remove all and fully reset the base unit and bring all back as if new

[spaparizos]

Thanks for the suggestion. I have two cameras down now. So I will charge both and remove and resync one and see how they both behave.
 How do I reset the base though? You mean press the button in the back for too long or something?

[jllihotz]

This is happening to my 4 Arlo Pro cameras as well.  They've discharged from 90% down to 20% in about a week.  Really frustrating as they are not the easiest to access in order to charge.

[harley239]

I hate to say it, but it seems like hackers are watching our cameras live. I am having the same battery issues. Also, out of nowhere,  I heard the sound on 1 of my cameras as if it was on live view. Strange things happening lately.

[Arlo_Leander]

There is another thread that discusses the battery drain. Look for the posting that has over 400 replies with very little participation from Netgear. This sudden battery drain is a known issue and may be related to the May update.

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Arlo-Pro/Infrared-light-comes-on-when-camera-is-off/m-p/1573950#M37...

[spaparizos]

I resolved this issue by doing a reset of the arlo base station. I had to readd / resync all cameras afterwards unfortunately. But camera battery usage is normal afterwards.

Try to take down the power on the base station for a few minutes. Then your router / internet as well. Then bring them back up. But after a few minutes so any cache or short memory goes away. See if that solves the problem first to avoid the tedious resync.

Alternatives that I considered, changing the router wifi channel, which will also make the base station channel to move. In case for example a neighbor added a new wifi that interferes. In the same concept, see if you added a new wifi device or something near the base station that might be interfering with the wifi signal.

There was nothing wrong with the cameras. Netgear suggested I reset the cameras, take batteris out etc. I tried variations on different cameras and it did not fix the problem. Obviously all 4 cameras would not have problems at the same time.

[pc2k17]

What you did only provides a temporary solution. We've all already been through all the troubleshoting. When you reset the base, or pull the batteries and reinsert, or charge the batteries, or resync the cameras the issue of the cameras detecting motion and turning on the IR lights when the camera is off, which in turn drains the batteries, does goes away but only until the next time you turn the cameras on/off. The problem of batteries draining quickly when the cameras are off or just draining quickly in general, is in the firmware, and it's nothing the end user can fix.

[spaparizos · Accepted solution]

It seems to me we are describing different problems?

When I started the thread, the problem was out of the blue my cameras started draining the battery like crazy. Went from full to dead in under two days. I did not switch any cameras on or off. Any troubleshooting on the cameras, like recharging, removing the batteries etc did nothing.  I confirmed I had the latest firmware when I talked to Netgear. And all 4 cameras failing at the same time is indication to me that is not the problem of the cameras.

The solution that worked for me, and still works 2+ months since I did it was to reset the base station, power down my router AND base station and leave them like that for a few minutes. Then power up the router and base station. I also removed any devices, ie google mini, a few feet away from the base station. Since it worked, I don't have the means to repeat this test to further isolate what step was the good one. If I were to redo it, I would leave the reset as last step, since it requires resyncing and that is tedious 🙂

I hope at least some people find this useful.

[pc2k17]

Yes, different things. I didn't realize this thread was that old. I was talking about the May firmware bug that is currently draining batteries when you turn the cameras off.