Arlo q shows wrong clip length

[Arlodog6578]

1.  Today I’ve noticed when I go to my Arlo Q library the clips show at the right length. 20 seconds, 15 seconds they show the right length in the library. When I open up the Clips to view the clip it says that the clip is one hour and 46 minutes long. When you play back the clip it only has the correct amount of time 20 or whatever length and may be in the library view. After the action finishe the image freezes and the video keeps playing.  This has started today and it happens with every single clip.  The cameras also failed to pick up some events today. Not sure if that’s related or not. Is anyone else having an issue?  I’ve got the latest iOS update.

[ArloJesse]

That is a good idea, Janice!  Next time, I wil have to buy from Costco that's for sure. I was also thinking of getting the Arlo Pro 2 with the base station.......but I'm hesitant to spend that amount of money if Netgear is ignoring their internal problems.  When I asked the customer rep where the center was located (because he didn't quite grasp what I was telling him), he refused to answer. Evasivness is never a good sign in a customer service rep.  Hope you have better luck with the new cameras.

[Janice805]

Well if these are not up to par at least I know I can take them back to Costco.  I try to buy most of my expensive items there because of their return policy.  Already I'm not so sure about these Arlo Pro cameras.  Way fuzzier than the Q, colors are way off ... I just don't know.  I guess if I had these first they would be OK, but this is a huge step down.  I'll give it a week and see if there's something I'm not understanding about the picture quality of this system.  Meanwhile, I'll keep following here to see if they fix the Q problem.

[MSLTX]

Tonight (3/8), all my Arlo Q recordings are showing the correct length when playing.

[ArloJesse]

I know there is the Arlo Pro camera and then there is the  updated version called the Arlo Pro 2.  I wonder if Costco sells the Pro 2 version?  Either way, one would think both versions should be excellent due to the high price tag. But it sounds like the Arlo Q has a better picture quality. As of right now, my Arlo Q is working.....but I'm waiting to see if the fix is temporary like it was last week.  Good luck, I hope your new cameras work out.....if not, thank goodness for Costco!

[jubei]

I've got an Arlo Q Plus and I've had this annoying problem since new, 3 weeks? and to resolve it, I had to reset my device and I also formatted my sd card just to be safe. It works for a day or so and back to faulty video files with wrong video lengths and no sound.

I just did another reset to fix this issue and ran into another problem. Now I'm unable to create detection zones. I've tried with Firefox, Edge and Chrome and they all have the same issue. I can create the first zone then it hangs after I click save. The weird thing is I can create all 3 detection zones using an android app and ios app but it does not work.

So be careful when resetting. 

On hold at the moment. Hoping for a fix. Taking so long though... 

[Mack1359]

Well here we are again....what is it now - 2 weeks of this nonsense?

My cameras today are showing the wrong times still and I can't review the footage.

Still no answer from Netgear or fix. I've attached a screenshot.

Pointless cameras, a waste of money and time.

I'm outside of 90 days so I can't even submit a report online or call anyone.

Never again!

[brh]

@Mack1359

I don't think they are really enforcing the 90 day rule, but Customer Support will not be able to help you as this is a bug in the system. Arlo does know about it, but when they will have it fixed, nobody knows.

Brian

[simpsonhomer]

I have Arlo Pro 2 and I have this problem intermittently on 1 of 5 cameras—it is the only camera that I have plugged into power and it only started happening as soon as I plugged it in.

I think this only happens on cameras that are pre-recording video (like the Q which constantly buffers video and saves a few seconds before motion is detected).  This is how my Pro 2 operates when plugged in, and I bet it's why Pro/Pro 2 users aren't reporting the same problem (they're on battery power which doesn't buffer video...and the original Pro doesn't even support this feature so naturally those users can't have this problem).

I think Netgear changed the way that recording times are recorded and the -3 second start time is messing up the video files.

Note that my battery-operated Pro 2's have always recorded fine.  The problem is only when plugged in pre-buffering video.

Also, I have some video files that indicate over 2 hours 43 minutes recording time but they are actually under a minute.  VLC plays them fine but the time jumps, for example, from 0...13 seconds to 2:43:42 seconds and continues for until the end of the actual recording.  The file sizes match the actual duration (so it's not actually recording a massive file).  It's definitely how the software is encoding the timestamps and it's definitely related to the -3 second buffering (which I can't turn off on the Pro 2 unless I disconnect it).

[VenusEnvy]

I also noticed this is not just happening on the Q, but the Arlo Pro 2 when plugged in. Seems to be related to the clips capturing the few seconds prior to motion being detected.

This is very annoying!

[Newdog]

Spoke with customer support. They said they are aware of the problem and will have fixed this week. He said all the videos will be corrected. We will see

[Janice805]

OK.  I just returned 4 Arlo Q's to Costco because of this ongoing problem Arlo has and can't seem to remedy.  So I purchased an ARLO PRO 3-Camera system.  I'm not completely happy with the Pro vs the Q in both picture quality and other stuff.  But I refuse to go back to the Q.  So now Costco has a 5-Camera ARLO PRO 2 system.

So let me understand something.  Until (if ever) Arlo fixes this problem, can you use the Arlo Pro 2 cameras UNPLUGGED and on 1080P?

[ArloJesse]

Thank you for letting us know, Newdog. A bunch of us have called and haven't received a decent response. My Netgear rep tried telling me that the problem is with all of us (the customers) and our home networks...and not them. Passing the buck....not very professional.

[brh]

JamesC the site moderator has posted that this is a known problem and that the engineers are working on a solution.

Brian

[ArloJesse]

I was going to buy the Arlo Pro 2 system as well....but I'm going to wait a few months to see if Netgear gets its act together with all these problems. But I'm curious if the Pro 2 cameras will work, as you mentioned, if unplugged and only using batteries? Let us know if you can.  Thanks!

[brh]

@Janice805

The Arlo Pro 2 will have the same problem as the Qs until the problem is resolved. The Pro 2 cameras will not have the activity zones or three second look back unless they are continually plugged in to an AC outlet, just like the Qs. They will however work just as the Pro models do, (unplugged, but the camera life may not meet your expectations).

Brian

[brh]

@ArloJesse, @Janice805

Thanks for the Kudos ArloJesse.

I would not make a purchasing decision due to this problem. I believe that finding a solution to the problem is a top priority at Arlo. If the Pro 2 is what you want, go ahead and purchase it. I think the solution will come in the next week or so.

Brian

[ArloJesse]

Thanks for explaining that Simpson. It's the most information I've been told in over 2 week about this problem. It makes sense that it would be a buffering problem. Just don't know why it's taking so long to fix.  ;-(

[Ffxjack]

Same issue for me. Was looking into arlo pro 2 but will go with ring likely now for entrances. . Hopefully, firmware update will eventually resolve the issue with arlo Q. I’m okay with bugs in electronics but what upsets me is poor support or blaming the consumer.

[simpsonhomer]

It's definitely related to the -3 second recording on the Q and Pro 2 (when plugged in).

This evening I rigged up an existing Pro 2 camera to USB power.  Regarding video file integrity, this camera had been flawless since I got it (and running on battery).  I tested it as soon as I confirmed it was getting power and allowed it to detect motion and record automatically.  It immediately had problems—it recorded a "2:01" video that was actually much shorter.  VLC played to 0:12 and stopped.  Arlo's iPhone app played to 0:12 and stopped video but continued playing audio for about a minute and then flip-flopped—no audio and just video.  The downloaded file size was large—definitely much larger than a 0:12-second recording.  It did capture the 3 seconds before motion was detected but essentially ruined the rest of the recording and made it useless.

I wonder if the copy on USB local storage is also damaged or if it only becomes corrupted once on Netgear's servers...

[TheGiant]

Adding my problems to the list also.

Along with everyone else I noticed this problem a couple of weeks ago. Just recently I'm now noticing that the recordings dont have audio for the entire clip or the first 20 seconds or so.

This has been partiuclarly frustrating as someone actually tried to break into my hous the other week. I wasn't able to download the video for the police properly as the time issue kept showing a frozen screen of no activity, or the cops had to go through 2hrs of blank screen to get somewhere.

Add to this that the recording stopped after 10 seconds mid motion of someone breaking in and its particularly frustrating.

The only way I've found to avoid the time issue is to set ur recording to the max 2 mins. My issue with this is I can't create zones atm due to that problem as well and every car going past is now resulting in 2 mins of recording and taking up too much space...

These products are going backwards at an alarming rate....

[Zzzzzzzzzz]

My Arlo Q started to misbehave around February 22/23 as well. When I called customer service, they told me they had never heard of this before. They proceeded to try to insist that I do all this ridiculous testing on my Wi-Fi, change channels etc. I politely hung up.

At that time I couldn't find any discussion on this issue except for one posting. I have all the issues that are being discussed and have tried 8 Arlo Qs from Costco. Back in December when I bought them they were working basically okay. Now even new ones that I try have the issue immediately. The only thing that kind of works is restarting and power cycling the cameras repeatedly, no partucular sequence. sometimes you have to do it multiple times until it works.. But as most people have noted, this fix only works for a few hours now, and then you have to do it all over again.

Last week this problem spread to my Arlo Pro 2's.

Ring cameras come with their own set of issues..... sigh, like all of you I really do need security cameras that work.... I've spent so much time and effort going through all these cameras, setting them up , debugging them etc. The equipment itself is quite expensive, and then of course there is the cost of my time, energy, and endless frustration....

At least now that I have found this discussion, hopefully the issue is actually being worked on. I get so tired of calling Arlo support and having them always tell me that it's my fault somehow, which is ridiculous. There's very little troubleshooting you can actually do. You product either works or it doesn't!

[ArloJesse]

Zzzzz, I had the same experience with Netgear Customer Service.  I was chatting with them for over 30 minutes and, finally, hung up. Their first response appeared to blame the customer instead of their own equipment. It was very frustrating speaking with them. The same rep emailed me and wanted me to answer 17 questions (proof of purchase, date, camera number, camera id, etc.) after wasting my time for 30 minutes chatting.  I only purchased the camera 75 days ago but it seemed to me that the questions were not geared toward fixing the problem....but rather how to get out of responsibility for it. I have stopped dealing with them and will never recommend Arlo cameras to anyone.

[brh]

@ArloJesse, @Zzzzzzzzzz

I believe the problem is that the Customer Support people are not being told about these problems, probably because the engineering department does not have solutions. The best thing to do is to check here for answers first. Those of us that are trying to help people solve their problems have quite a bit of experience with using the Arlo cameras, so if we can't help you, then there is something going on at Arlo's end that we too are not aware of.

Troubleshooting is the process of elimination and to be able to help you we must have a clear idea of your situation as possible. Thus, what appear to be silly questions being asked by the person trying to help, are just that we are not at your location and can not see your system. Too often those with a problem give us little to no information initially to go on.

So in defence of Customer Support, they have no idea about these problems that pop up and thus have no solution. They are simply trying to understand your situation and compare it to what problems in the past.

Brian

[Mack1359]

As I've been frustrated with a security system that does not work for over 2 weeks due to this ongoing problem I decided to post about it on the latest Arlo Instagram post where they laud how great their system is. I figured maybe a marketing / social media person might reply and say something like "We're sorry the system has been out of action for 2 weeks but we should have a fix this week" or something along those lines recognizing that something is wrong. Instead they just deleted the comment and another persons comment that also expressed disatisfaction with the system. I've worked in both technical support and product development for close to 30 years and I've never seen a company mismanage "breaking" their customers systems so badly. I'm very grateful for the other Arlo users here who have been swapping ideas and communicating with each other.  Far greater communication than anything coming out of Arlo or Netgear.

[simpsonhomer]

Just some math here and some information about timecoding:

I downloaded one of the bad files and viewed the detailed specs in VLC.  This file was misreported by Arlo (and file metadata) as being 3:45:56.  VLC plays the video clip just fine except for the timeline which suddenly jumps to near the end of 3:45:56 (if you don't look at the timeline/duration then there's nothing unusual).  It's actually about 35 seconds long.

The Arlo Pro 2 (and probably other models, too) record at 24 frames per second but VLC reported only 0.062406 frames per second.  3:45:56 is 13,556 seconds.  13556 * 0.062406 ~= 846 frames.  At the regular framerate of 24fps, that's 846 / 24 = 35.25 seconds—which is what I got when I timed the entire playback with my stopwatch.

So Arlo is recording every frame, it's just misreporting the timecode at the frame level.  That confuses and throws off the Arlo player in random ways, whereas VLC handles the "skip" better.

Another way to look at this is to gauge the file size.  This particular clip was 4,731,932 bytes (~4.7MB) in size.  Arlo Pro 2 video at high quality is generally recorded at 1.1 Mb/s.  So this clip should be roughly 4,731,932 * 8 bits / 1,100,000 ~= 34 seconds long; this is pretty close to the actual timed duration (note that the recording bit rate is variable depending on the complexity and amount of movement in the video).