Not capturing events if not on smart notification

[kenzoc]

As of August 28th my cameras no longer capture any recordings for events which are not apart of my smart notification settings. As an example, my cameras used to always record my dogs in the backyard and properly tag them as animals without notifying me, now I have found these events are not being recorded and is impacting all my cameras as of August 28th. If I do turn on smart notifications for animals they are now again recording but of course sending me a push notification which I don't want.

I work in technology and can tell you this is a back end issue or firmware issue (before you tell me to reset or whatever garbage suggestion Arlo support has). 

The complete lack of QA on this product is insane, fix it. 

[JamesC]

After further investigation, the development team has identified the cause behind some users continuing to see missing video clips when smart notifications for specific events are toggled off. We will be releasing a cloud side fix later this week to address these concerns.

We appreciate your patience and feedback while we work to resolve these issues. I will provide another update once we have more information available to share

[JamesC]

I realize there is a lot of confusion in this thread due to the recent changes we rolled out. I apologize for all the frustration this has caused. Currently, we've rolled back the changes but we're continuing to investigate reports from users about a few unexpected behaviors they are still experiencing.

1.) Video clip deletion when smart toggles are turned off. This results in recordings not arriving in the library or feed when the smart classification toggle is turned off (for example, Vehicles are turned off, resulting in no notification or recording). This change was rolled back but some users are reporting they are still experiencing this behavior. The development team is actively investigating these reports. The intent after we rolled back the changes is for all event recording to be saved to the library/feed regardless of your Smart Alert and Smart Detection toggles (unless the motion is outside of a defined Activity Zone in which case it will be discarded as expected).

2.) When all motion or all other motion is turned on but smart notification toggles are turned off, clips for these events are arriving as expected in the library/feed but they don't have a classification label, whereas previously they would still have a vehicle label even if vehicle notifications was turned off for example.

3.) In the latest version of the Arlo app, there is confusing verbiage in the Smart Notifications toggle area that states recordings will be suppressed when the toggles are turned off. This is the change that was rolled back and this is being updated in a new version of the app that will be released soon.

The development team is working hard to revert these changes to the previous expected behaviors, I will provide more information as soon as I can.

JamesC

[JamesC]

We’re reverting the recent changes to the Smart Notifications settings to their previous state, which only suppressed push notifications.

Thank you for the feedback you’ve shared in the community. We’ll provide further details about this feature as soon as we can.

JamesC

[StephenB]

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@Jeff-SJ wrote:

I use a USB stick in the VMB for archiving and videos are appearing there for any motion detection.   

If this is the case it would be nice to be able to tell the app on my phone to show from my USB - dragging the USB over to my computer to wade through cryptic directory names is a non-starter.  🙂

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You could upgrade the base to a VMB4540 or VMB5000 smarthub.  Both support accessing the local storage from the app.

[Dhauser67]

Camera continues to miss recording motion. It is connected to a smart hub to even make things simpler but still misses things. 

[angelahortega]

I’m having the same issue in the US. As of Wednesday noting is being recorded unless I turn in smart notifications 

[PlatinumZJ]

And today the Arlo isn't recording anything, even though the camera is connected to the network and is functioning. 

[ShayneS]

Hello, 

Thank you for providing this feedback. I have notified the appropriate team and I will provide an update as soon as possible. 

[Somervre]

The case number for this BTW is 44246034

[Bugger]

I can confirm I have the same issue.  This is critical functionality that needs to be restored!  All motion should be recorded regardless of smart notification status- those are independent features. Need Arlo to comment on this asap.

[Jeff-SJ]

🙂

Yes, this is an option to upgrade VMB, but the fundamental issue is that a functionality 'broke' without notification and that needs to be fixed at no cost to those on a subscription.   I was quite happy with the functionality until the backend fell into a ditch spilling videos into the ether.  

[J3232]

I can confirm I am only getting recordings on what is checked off in the Smart Notification menu.

[fenton11]

I have the same issue and tried to troubleshoot. Tech support put a ticket in but yet to receive a response.  I have 4 pro 3s. They should give us a refund on the subscription equal to the number of days this issue occurs u til it is fixed. Case # 44247261. Last time my cameras uploaded video to the cloud of non smart notification was on 9/2/2024 at 9:07 pm HST. the usb drive I have plugged into my hub is capturing non smart notifications. 

[Somervre]

Almost 24 hours after "escalating the ticket to level 2 support"...no calls back, no emails.  So I tried calling them again.  I was promised by the supervisor yesterday that if I called back and gave them my case number, they would transfer me to the level 2 support.  So I called today and have been telling the level 1 guy for the last 40 minutes to transfer me to L2.  He keeps looking around for someone and no one can help him out.  

I ABSOLUTELY will be expecting a refund on my subscription.  I have put in many hours with these guys and my hourly rate is a lot more than this subscription 

[Curt2698]

My Arlo camera system has been working flawlessly for well over a year. Since my subscription renewal September 3rd when I turn off a Smart Notification on any camera (Flood Light or Ultra 2) it also quits recording whatever I shut off (like animals or vehicle). I used to be able to shut these notifications off but it still recorded all activity. Anybody had this problem? Did it get resolved? 

[Curt2698]

Happened to me starting on the 3rd. Took me 2 days to catch it. I called no resolution. They want me to screen record the problem and want some info from my phone like type, version etc. I cannot do it until this weekend since i am not home. I think its a bug on their end. It is happening on all 5 of my cameras (2 Floodlights and 3 Ultra 2s). Call if you can. 

[JamesC]

We are updating the Smart Notifications toggle to enhance your experience. Previously, this feature suppressed push notifications for selected smart detections and customers reported feeling overwhelmed by every motion-triggered event appearing in their Library and Feed. Based on your feedback, we are now expanding this functionality to also suppress recordings for these events.

If you would like to keep receiving all events in your Feed or Library, you can enable “All Motion” under your Smart Detection settings and this will enable push notifications and recordings for all detected events.

We invite you to provide your feedback on this change. Your insights are valuable, and I will ensure they are communicated to our development team for further consideration.

[kenzoc]

Obviously we aren't happy with it? You have such bad ux what's the harm in giving yet another setting we can set to let us choose whether to record or not?

More over, you haven't even updated any of the copy on the app itself to explain this. This is basically and given we all pay a subscription for this service is terrible. 

I am sure the real driver is cost saving by reducing the cloud storage we will be using which is far less now unless we want to be spammed. 

[kenzoc]

And where is this in patch notes? I've never seen a company with such bad tech practices, from my review all your notes just say minor bug fixes and stability, it's unheard of to not even list what your changing.

Laziness and poor practices coming from someone in the industry. 

[fenton11]

I do not like this change.  Revert back to the old way. If this the way moving forward reduce what I pay for my annual subscription. When it comes time to replace my cameras I will not be using Arlo. 

[fenton11]

You folks can’t even get the grammar right in the app about this change.  No quality control whatsoever. 

 

 

[dgoldg]

If what JamesC is saying is true, Arlo has REALLY screwed this one up. I have 13 cameras around my house and have invested thousands of dollars in my Arlo system. I want to see ALL motion activity if I want to in my feed, but not get notifications about each and every motion.

So for example, if a coyote or raccoon gets in my property at 3am, I want to be able to review the footage the next morning while not having to sign up for Animal Smart Notifications to wake me up in the middle of the night.

I pay to get recordings, JamesC, not to suppress them.

Arlo, FIX THIS. It was fine the way it was last week. 

[fenton11]

Apparently my screenshot of your grammar error in the app gets censored in my previous post. Arlo will never get anymore money from me. One my subscription ends in February I will go get Ring or something. 

[DudeMac17]

So I’ve been in this Arlo ecosystem for a very long time. I know all the ins and outs just to preface, but something really strange started to happen out of nowhere - no change in my system or settings or anything. So basically, the camera stopped recording vehicles specifically it still captures motion. It still captures animals. It still captures people, but I have vehicle notifications turned off because there’s a lot of cars that passed by now smart notifications is supposed to only limit the notifications delivered, but still record all events, as we know. When it stopped recording vehicles, I checked on my settings and then I turned back on smart notifications for vehicles and it began recording vehicles again, consequently notify me every time, and that’s just not gonna work for me so I turned off vehicle smart notifications one more time and sure enough it’s stop recording them .

then, so where it gets even more bizarre is, I took a camera from a different location that is on a different base station that has been recording vehicles without issue, and installed it in place of the other one turned off vehicle notification setting and sure enough that camera also stopped recording vehicles. One is in Arlo pro three, one is an ultra. . One is in Arlo pro three, one is an ultra two. 

Does anybody have any thoughts or potential explanations for this? It seems like a server issue. 

[chris4242]

@JamesC I keep all notifications off (except packages) - but I want the recordings for everything. So now I'm paying $8.59 a month to get zero recordings. I'm going to cancel my subscription and find another doorbell.

BTW your support team has no idea that this behavior is intentional.

[Jeff-SJ]

I disagree with this change!

I pay for recording storage and smart notifications are great to push to me immediately while I am sleeping (bypassing DND with a loud sound) if it happens to be a person or a vehicle or a package left on my porch.

My cameras are expending battery to make recordings, and the cloud guys are dropping my property on the floor if it is not a smart notification? My subscription says you give me 30days of recording space.  Really?   Let ME be the decider via the app as to the destiny of my recordings.

My VMB is recording them to USB, but I was told to upgrade to a newer VMB if I want to view them in the app.  No, that is not the way we solve this one.

Please do the right thing and bring back the previous functionality and add the feature for those not wanting the mass of recordings to turn them off in the app.   

Isn't this the RIGHT way to do this?   Please fix it.

ps: with this mess, it makes sense to give everyone a free month on their subscription.

[caryh]

This is a horrible and not a well thought-out change and needs to be backed out.  The smart notifications allowed for me to be notified when a person was detected within view on our property and not for any other random motion event.  Now, with most recordings not getting sent to the cloud, you must manually view them off of USB flash drives (for older hubs) or through the app with no smart filtering.

Obviously, the "Smart Notification" setting is totally inaccurate since it affects more than notifications.

Please let this thread know how to escalate this issue to the appropriate product manager as this product is no longer functioning as what we paid for.

[caryh]

Please notice the functionality does not match the description on the app.