Arlo Q / Q+ VMC3040 - 1.10.1.0_154_d1c2e38 - 24th November 2020 - bricked camera!

[d1mag]

I have three VMC3040 cameras, and this morning 2 of them were stuck with an almost black video last night. (after the firmware update)

Only full day-light later in the morning made a visible picture.

It seems like a bug where settings are mixed up with "Night Vision" and "CameraLED". !!!

The two cameras with "CameraLED" turned off, remained with black video.

The camera inside with "CameraLED" turned on, the night vision worked.

After turning off both "CameraLED" and "Night Vision", and restart a couple of times, and later Turning on BOTH "CameraLED" AND "Night Vision", and restarting a couple of times, the image was back to normal quality in low light environment. I ended up with black tape, covering the CameraLED instead of turning it off with the software setting.... just to get rid of the annoying light.

I guess you have to fix this issue as soon as possible... 

[Billysport]

Hi, same problem!  on 2 cams.  So frustrating.  Dark pictures.  I rebooted the cams and one is now ok, the other has dropped offline and will not connect back up via the app.  Can not find the device. 

Arlo- this is poor, users have done nothing, the firmware updates itself and now customers are having issues.  Please sort out ASAP. Thanks!

[gilbo2]

Same problem here. No amount of reboots are fixing it 😞

Please roll back the firmware Arlo team until its fixed.

[majestik_12]

I have noticed an issue today, also.

Sometime before 5am UK time there must have been a firmware update & now the black & white mode on the camera is gone - it is stuck on colour & defaults to night vision in the dark, which is useless as it looks out through a window.

I have had the camera for nearly 5 years now & this has never been an issue - with black & white mode working perfectly at night.

As stated before, I have footage from 1am working perfectly. Then 5am, just a reflection of the night vision lights!

Needs patching soon, as I have no footage once it goes dark outside!

[JessicaP]

The Arlo development team is currently investigating this issue. We will provide an update as soon as we have more information to share with the community.

[d1mag]

Have you tried my sequence to fix it?

Disable both "CameraLED" and "Night Vision"... reboot the camera a couple of times.

Enable both "CameraLED" and "Night Vision", and then reboot the camera again...

This finally managed to turn on the Night vision again... but always with Camera LED turned on of course.

[majestik_12]

Hi there,

I just toggled the Camera LED on & tested the live view (still pitch black - colour mode without Night Vision). Then toggled the Camera LED off & restarted the device.

This has re-activated the black & white mode, allowing me to see the usual view out of the window once again.

Previous restarts (3 hours ago) had made no difference.

Not sure how long this will last, but thought I'd share that it has sorted itself out for me (for now).

Cheers

[gilbo2]

ummm, just tried again to toggle the Camera LED off/on & restarted the device.

This  re-activated the black & white mode 🙂

[ASL667]

Same problem here. I need night vision without the LED. It worked before without any problems! Please fix this issue. I managed to get the old status, but after three hours it turned black again without any action on my side.

[Spronkers]

I have the same loss of night vision on my Arlo Q, since this update.

This is a serious problem which needs addressing asap. I thought the camera had just broken, so I have been tricked by you into buying a new one which also doesn't work.

I am furious about this.

[Spronkers]

In addition to the loss of night vision, the audio seems to be intermittent.

[Rob999]

I can also join the club. My Arlo Q night vision is also broken since the last update. Great, just what you need with a security camera as luckily enough, break ins never happen at night.

[gilbo2]

Problems return!

Although yesterdays tip to toggle the camera LED off/on and restart worked, all my Arlo Q cameras are back to dark images again tonight. This is clearly not a permanent fix.

Please roll back firmware.

[Morfik]

What ever you do don't remove / reset the device!

I wish I'd seen this first, had the same night vision problems that just started in the last couple of days. I've reset / re-added my ArloQ twice and it now won't work at all, just displays a completely white screen on live view and then disconnects. Strangely when I go in to motion zones I actually get an updated picture just not on the live view which is the most important part.

[youngblood]

I have the same problem with two VCM 3040 cams....

Arlo, why are you messing up something that works great already???

It is high season for criminal activity and we are now stuck with useless security cameras.

I hope it'll be fixed very soon!!!!

[kgparkes]

I also had this issue on both my cameras last night. After attempting numerous power cycles etc I gave up. The cameras came back this morning but one has gone dark again this afternoon. I didn't realise the firmware was automatically updated, that's really annoying as we have no way to restore the previous version so we are at the mercy of Arlo who have obviously rushed out a very poor update without any consideration to it's paying customers. Has anyone contacted support to ask for the firmware to be rolled back? If I was really cynical I would say it's an attempt to get people to buy more cameras on Black Friday!

[erikvds]

Ah yes,

I just posted the same problem. Didnt notice this thread. Uhm same issues as everybody here. Dark night view, can't turn on or off, when deleted from network unable to add them again.

This is really bad. The camera's were working perfectly, now its totally useless. Please fix it asap or roll back the update!

[lp77]

Wow, I knew something must have happened.
Tried rebooting both of mine, one came back, the other didn't.
Tried removing and reading but it is not connecting to the WiFi anymore, and after a while on with support, I think they're sending a new one out.

I'll try this workaround with the still working one, cheers!

[Spronkers]

>> If I was really cynical I would say it's an attempt to get people to buy more cameras on Black Friday!

Well, it probably will work but it certainly won't be any more Arlo.

[Lowie]

Same here 😖

[khalid7412002]

Im having the same issue. 

I had my camera put away for a couple months but brought it out today as i was going on day trip and wanted it set up while I was gone. 

At first it worked but then about 10 minutes later, when I would remote log in, all it should was a white image. Once i got back home, i deleted it from my devices but now it won't connect using either the phone or the website. Interestingly enough, I see that the camera is attempting to connect to my network, but it just fails at the discovery step. 

So I tried googling solutions but it seems maybe the latest firmware is the cause of these issues.

[kgparkes]

I have created a support case and mentioned this forum thread so they understand it is affecting multiple users with the same symptoms. If anybody gets a response from Arlo support, please update us. I've not tried un-linking my cameras from the WIFI network yet, judging by some of your responses this results in not being able to communicate with the cameras again. lp77 said that Arlo would replace their camera after this happened, I wonder if they would replace a camera that is out of the 2 year warranty, as I don't want to end up with a bricked camera!

[Spronkers]

I've also raised a support ticket but I am not hopeful for a reply any time soon. The creation of this ridiculous problem and their lack of response to it has been shameful.

I'm researching other camera makes at the moment with a view to chucking these away. Arlo doesn't exactly invite loyalty.

[majestik_12]

After initial success with the Camera LED toggle, it reverted back to Colour Mode without Night Vision (black screen pretty much) when my timer plug auto-rebooted it overnight (a fix for another long-term persistent issue where the camera loses internet connection & stops recording to the cloud until you do a hard reboot - I believe it still records to the card, but who knows).

But, just now as I was logged on, it said it was updating the firmware. It has been rolled back to 1.9.0.3_278.

Anyone else had this happen? I'm assuming it's a blanket roll-back & tonight we should see the Black & White Mode working again.

Cheers

[gilbo2 · Accepted solution]

Same here, my Arlo Q's now back on 1.9.0.3_278 after a restart today.