Recordings won't play in full screen

[Chasglass]

Android app update, 9-25-25. Prerecorded videos in the feed only playback once. To get them to play again you have to back out and reload. Also, the device feed is very slow and difficult to scroll through.  It's very bogged down even if app is reloaded. I have 14 devices and it's almost impossible to scroll through them. Latest app update needs to be fixed.

[ShayneS]

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

[Lilac]

Yesterday, and still today, the video recordings in my library won't play in full screen mode.  The audio plays  but the video doesn't play.

[jguerdat]

WHat phone and OS version as well as the app version? Have you rebooted the phone and reinstalled the app? If you download the video does it play ok? What happens if you use a computer browser (my.arlo.com)?

[Edinburgh_lad1]

I can play mine, so it's your set-up specific, unless you're doing this: https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Secure/Playing-videos-problem/td-p/2461016

[JehovasFitness]

same issue, clicking the play button does nothing.

android, no changes to OS

[ShayneS]

Hi @Chasglass 

Thanks for the feedback. I noticed this a few days ago and I reported to the appropriate team. I'm waiting for more information. When I hear more, I'll provide it here.

[secaz]

Android 15 - Arlo 6.4.5_6040502 - Samsung S21 Ultra 5G

Same problem here - have been struggling with video playback for ages, gets worse every update.  I have to download videos to watch them - makes the app unusable.  I have 15 active cameras right now so lots to monitor and every new Arlo release something else (usually several somethings) is either broken or crippled or just plain disappears.

And the web portal is a serious joke - rather stick needles in my eyes than use that, the site was designed by minions from hell.

Long ago and far away, back in the day when things worked "better", I also used to be able to slow mo through a video, backwards and forwards by dragging my finger on the progress bar, which was SUPER useful for me.  And I could pause/play precisely without the video having a mind of its own and doing whatever it wants to do.  Now I have to download videos to my phone and watch in local player for sane playback and to do slow mo.

I have always loved the hardware - the old cameras, anyway.  They have stood up amazingly well in the desert heat and I have yet to have a camera die on me after all their many years in service.  They work great, but only when server side is correctly working.

And once upon a time, Arlo worked flawlessly - it did, honestly, no joke.  Was not long, though, before they started to break its functionality and its been one huge careening train wreck ever since.  Would be a constant source of amusement if it wasn't so damn frustrating to deal with its myriad of deficiencies.

Arlo has never worked when I needed it to work the most.  You can always tell when they are working on server side - that's another joke, forget having things work correctly when that is going on, and often triggering and recording don't work at all or are spotty during maintenance hours.  Was standing outside in the wee hours with my dogs and heard my phone chip Arlo notification multiple times, Arlo had changed modes all by itself, TWICE.  Went from standby to away to home, I had to manually set it back to where it should be.

I notice all these deficiencies because I work from home and tend to keep very different hours from most people.  I have forward facing cameras armed at all times so it's easy to notice Arlo not working when there's clear and present activity, like, oh, a huge truck rolling by.   At night all cameras are armed front and back, so It's easy to notice Arlo not working when I go out in the back yard in the wee hours after having forgot to disarm the system and yet nothing triggers as I walk past cameras.

It's false advertising to call Arlo a security system in any way shape or form.

Apparently the KISS methodology doesn't exist at Arlo.  The app and web portal are a hot messes, especially the tools for configuring features.  What drugs were they doing when they designed all that?

Think my dogs are getting tired of hearing mutter "Arlo strikes again" on a daily basis.

[Edinburgh_lad1]

The issues you're describing have been raised before, to little or no improvement but instead more feature being broken. I have no idea what they do at Arlo but there are serious issues with the app and the way that they work on it that need addressed. To repeat what the issues are:

- missed events, regardless of how far away the camera is

- quality of footage (pixelated, overexposed)

- constant issues; new issues appearing regardless of whether the old ones are being addressed or not

I spent a lot of money on this system and I expect it work. its not working at the moment.

[secaz]

I've been expecting it to work for years - save your sanity and find a different system, or get a dog or two.  My dogs alert me to all things, including everything Arlo misses.  Their accuracy is 100% - Arlo is maybe 20% to 30% accurate on its best days.

Arlo would have better functionality if it could be trained to trigger cameras when your dogs bark.

Misidentified triggers are hysterical.  Cactus are identified as people, boulders are identified as animals.  I have a road runner that frequents my yard and likes to hang out in the planter box in front of my kitchen window.  He's always identified as a person, as are the quail and Gila woodpeckers that often visit the same planter box.  The architectural pop-outs on the sides of my Santa Fe style house and garage get identified as people.

I leave Arlo on DND at night - too many misidentified triggers.  My dogs tell me when something is wrong, and when they do that's when I check the cameras.  Providing the app works, the Android app is such a POS have to fight with it more often than not, have to launch it several times before things will function.  It's a major joke.

Arlo has a super hard time dealing with people who walk directly towards or away from cameras, same happens a lot with vehicles.  Doesn't matter how far or how close, either.  The doorbell is a joke - I can often stand right in front of it at night and it won't trigger.

If I didn't work from home and didn't have dogs, then I would have switched years and years ago.  But, like you, I invested in it, and was able to get refurbed cameras dirt cheap, so could afford many of them.  These days I use it mainly check cameras when the dogs bark and to identify animals that pass through at night.  The javelina videos are fun.  At least Arlo can identify fat, hairy desert pigs AS animals, lol.

[ShayneS]

Hi, Are you still experiencing this symptom?

[DannyBearAgain]

@ShayneS 

My Android app 6.4.6 is doing the same, unable to replay recordings, need to back out and reselect to play them again.

[ShayneS]

@DannyBearAgain

Is this when in full screen as well?

On first press of the play button?

[DannyBearAgain]

On my android it doesn’t matter if initially playing the recording from portrait or landscape mode.

once recording is ended you can’t restart video only audio.

[ShayneS]

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

[Beauwinvt]

Does anyone have an issue with the replay only playing once then won't let you look at the event again?

[jguerdat]

Been reported here before and I believe it's now being looked at.

[RPro]

I submitted a request to support about this problem. Loss of function in an already twitchy app is unfortunate.

[RPro]

The problem of the app not playing a video the second time has been happening to me for a week or so. It's still happening now. Watching a video a second time requires backing out and reselecting the video. The play button doesn't work after the video has played all the way through.