Cannot view video - Says "maximum of 5 streams" I have only 1 camera, and I am the only viewer

[carlsonron]

Camera works fine for a while, then when I try again to stream live using MS Edge or Chrome browser I get the "maximum of 5 streams" message.  

I only have 1 camera, and I am the only person who looks at the live streaming.  There is no possible way that there are 5 live streams underway when I try to view the video.

Please solve this for me.

HW Version VMC3040Sr6

Firmware 1.8.3.2_17494

[steve_t]

Strange. Does it happen in the app at all?

[carlsonron]

When I go live on the Android App I get a perpetual "Buffering..." message in the image.  It doesn't stream live.

[JamesC]

carlsonron,

Consider rebooting your camera and attempt the live stream again. Do you experience the same behavior?

JamesC

[carlsonron]

I have been troubleshooting this problem for a couple of months now.  I have rebooted on multiple occasions and the problem does go away initially.  But the problem always returns.  

Rebooting is not an acceptable solution, because I can't reboot while I am away from home, and that is specifically when I need the camera working.

For what it is worth... this problem also occurs on a separate 1-camera application at my office building.  Same exact camera model, same exact symptoms and circumstances.  But obviously a completely unique network with different Internet service and different network equipment.

For this reason, I believe that this is a firmware or hardware issue that needs serious tech attention.

[steve_t]

You can remotely restart the base station. That might be worth a shot. Otherwise remove all of your cameras and then do a factory reset of the base. Then log in. Then add the base station. Then sync the camera. Hopefully you only have to do this once to join the millions of others of us that have no problems at all

[carlsonron]

There is no base station.  It is a single Arlo Q plus camera (only one on the account), with an Ethernet cable plugged directly into it, communicating to the Arlo cloud.

Please note that this same issue is happening to two separate and independent sites that are identically installed, and has been happening for several months, despite my best engineering troubleshooting efforts.

I have reset the camera twice already in the past month.  (Again, both separate sites with 1 camera each.)

[steve_t]

Oops. Sorry, I didn't even look which section we were in.

Have you contacted support and opened a ticket?

[carlsonron]

Tickets opened twice.  Underwhelming support, not worth doing again.

I'm searching for anyone else having the same issues.

[carlsonron]

Apparently no solutions yet in the collective experience of the community...

I may have made a little progress on this.  I examined the microsd card that was in the camera.  It appears that the Arlo has corrupted its writing to the card.  I'm wondering if, once Arlo corrupts its card, if it can't get past that to allow the camera to operate normally.

Has anyone experienced this before?

[JamesC]

carlsonron,

If you remove the microSD card, do you experience the error message?

JamesC

[carlsonron]

I'm currently testing that situation.  I removed the card a few days ago.  So far so good. 

I will follow-up after I feel confident one-way or another about whether this made a difference.

[carlsonron]

Here is the follow-up:

On June 8 I removed the microsd card that was corrupt and I rebooted the camera.

On June 10, the camera stopped recording images to the cloud and began displaying the "maximum of 5 streams" message.  This continued until I rebooted it this morning (June 16).

So clearly, the microsd card does not have a causality role in this issue, because it happened again without the card present.

Next hypothesis:  This camera is in a high traffic area.  I wonder if it exceeds a certain quota of video, does Netgear simply refuse to accept more video content, causing the camera to issue this inexplicable message?  Again, this is a basic account (free) with 1 camera, and I am the only viewer of the content.

Any thoughts on this?