Argo Q Keeps Rebooting

[bikegear]

In the app the firmware shown is 1.9.0.3_278. For a couple weeks now the camera apparently reboots itself in the early morning mostly but at other times during the day as well. After a period of time it reconnects to my wifi and the blinking amber light turns solid blue again with no intervention on my part. I was trying to find a page on this site to check what the current firmware is but haven’t been able to, I assume my unit is up to date. 

Also on every page of this site I get that 2 factor message even though I have enabled it. I’d like to stop seeing that banner. Regarding 2 factor the push notification does not come through on my iPhone so I had to add SMS with my number as a method. 

[jguerdat]

The Firmware Release Notes section here has this info. Go there and search for VMC3040 (the Q model designation).

https://community.arlo.com/t5/Firmware-Release-Notes/Arlo-Q-Q-VMC3040-1-9-0-3-278-24th-July-2020/m-p...

You have the latest firmware. 

Your issue could be caused by a variety of things such as a bad power supply (try another with the same output specs) or perhaps a faulty camera. I'd start by swapping supplies and then removing and re-adding the camera.

[bikegear]

Thanks for the response. For now I just unplugged the camera and powered it back on. I’ll see how it goes from there. When it reconnects itself everything functions properly.

[bikegear]

I can’t tell whether it’s actually rebooting or just dropping the wifi connection and reconnecting. But it happens every day around 5am consistently. I can only assume this is a software issue when it happens so consistently at the same time every day. I have seen it occur at another time but it always happens at 5am every day. I did change the power supply which didn’t make a difference. It does reconnect to my wifi network each time and operates flawlessly afterwards. 

[jguerdat]

Can you verify that your router isn't dropping the 2.4GHz band occasionally?

[bikegear]

@jguerdat

The camera is connected to the 5GHz band and no other devices are dropping their connections at those times and almost all except for a printer and my Apple Watch connect to the 5GHz band. I normally turn the camera off in the app once I view the screen, we mostly use it to check on our dog when out of our apartment so we never leave it on continuously. This morning I have turned it on and will leave it that way through tomorrow to see if that changes anything. If it still drops I’ll try connecting it to the 2.4 band to see if that changes anything. 

The camera sits right next to my router so it gets a very strong signal on the 5 band and has worked with very few issues for several years until now, the only other issue we’ve ever had was the push to talk function failed a year or two ago but was resolved by a software update. Unfortunately both my router and the camera received software updates recently around the same time, so it’s difficult to know where the problem is. But this is the only device that is experiencing any issues. 

[jguerdat]

I wonder if it's the physical placement of the camera near the router that could be an issue. I recently had to solve poor connections between cameras and a hub that had been next to each other for years by moving the hub away from the router. I don't know how to troubleshoot that other than to add distance.

[bikegear]

That’s not an option in that the camera is placed exactly where I need it which is where I have to have my router. Since there’s been no issue for a couple years I have to assume it’s software related or the camera is failing. Again this started around the time of the last software update which unfortunately was about the time of a router update. So I’ll try to wait until the next update for one or both to make a decision. I could try changing the band it connects to, I have the 5GHz and 2.4 bands named separately, but I don’t know whether it’s worth it, and really shouldn’t be necessary. It does this at various times during the day but it consistently does it every day between 4 and 5am. That consistency seems to indicate software to me.

if it doesn’t resolve after the next update, either router or camera, I’ll probably look at another manufacturer’s system. It’s the only camera we use and mainly to check on our dog when we’re away. One reason I chose this was that it can use the 5 band while most others are 2.4 only. 

[bikegear]

I did change the band the camera connects to. The router is a WiFi 6 unit but is capable of creating a WiFi 5 or whatever band. I had read some devices had issues with WiFi 6 so I connected the camera to a non-6 5GHz network. I’ll see if that makes a difference. Otherwise I’ll look over other cameras to choose for after the next software update.

[bikegear]

Well this still makes it difficult to isolate the cause but it leads me to suspect the software update of the router. I made the change to a 5GHz non wifi 6 network on my router and so far there has been no drop in wifi connection of the camera. 

I had read on the router’s discussion forums references to some devices having an issue with the default wifi 6 network. The camera had not had any issues with this previously but both the camera and the router got software updates within the last couple months and now I’m suspecting the update to the router as causing the issue. However it was the only device so affected. One day does not prove this is resolved but I am fairly confident. It had dropped it’s connection everyday between 4 and 5am and for the first time in more than a month it did not this morning. It also would drop occasionally during the day but since making this change yesterday morning it has not. 

[bikegear]

To clarify I don’t now believe the camera was rebooting, I think it was just dropping the wifi connection. I assumed it had rebooted when I saw the blinking amber LED because I couldn’t think of any other reason for it dropping the network. And I believe the issue was precipitated by a software update on my Amplifi Alien router about 3-4 weeks ago. 

[bikegear · Accepted solution]

After more than 48 hours with no wifi connection issues at all I’m assuming this is resolved and was due to a bug in the Amplifi Alien software update not in the camera software. Connecting it to the non wifi 6 network of the router has resolved the problem.