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

[Curt2698]

Oh that sux if this is intentional. I don't need hundreds of notifications but because of theft in our area I need to record all activity. This is so dumb.

[Curt2698]

Thanks and I did b4 coming here but they want me to do a bunch of steps like recording my screen blah blah blah and I cannot as I am not home.

[Bugger]

Arlo documentation clearly states the obvious need for recordings without Smart Notifications here.   There is no mention of the need to have Smart Notifications enabled for recordings in the documentation - and it does not make any sense.  Arlo will need to revert this misstep quickly.   The community here would appreciate an update on what is being done please @JamesC . 

[JamesC]

We're currently reviewing all of the feedback being discussed on this feature change and i'm making sure each of your voices are being heard by the management and product teams.

I will provide any updates I receive on this topic here as soon as possible.

JamesC

[vpdsouza]

my Arlo Ultra 2 Spotlight Camera records some animal activities during the day including my cats running around or squirrels running arround.  however when deer come and eat my plants in my backyard with the two Arlo's are monitoring my backyard I see no recording with the subscription but it was recording find when I was in the trial period, WHY?  what is different between Costco trial and subscription?  Why isn't it recording everything when I subscribed for it?  It's not just animal but I still don't see the cars getting in and out of my driveway which is just absurd  having Arlo in the house....

[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

[DudeMac17]

Very surprised to hear this, but thank you @JamesC for listening to everyone. While we’re at it, clicking a notification USED to take you to the relevant video, which makes complete sense. Suddenly, about a month or so ago, it doesn’t do that anymore. Which is frustrating cause then you have to go find it in your feed. 

any input on that one? 

[Bugger]

Thank you @JamesC for the update and for hearing the community’s feedback. This is the right move for Arlo and its customers!

[caryh]

@JamesC Thank you for supporting us and making the right decision.

[StephenB]

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@vpdsouza wrote:

my Arlo Ultra 2 Spotlight Camera records some animal activities during the day including my cats running around or squirrels running arround.  however when deer come and eat my plants in my backyard with the two Arlo's are monitoring my backyard I see no recording with the subscription but it was recording find when I was in the trial period, WHY?  what is different between Costco trial and subscription?  Why isn't it recording everything when I subscribed for it?  It's not just animal but I still don't see the cars getting in and out of my driveway which is just absurd  having Arlo in the house....

---

There is no difference between the Trial (which comes from Arlo, not Costco) and a paid Arlo Secure Subscription.

There is a recent change in the behavior that might be affecting you.  Now if you disable a smart notification (for instance animal), then the system will not record anything it classifies as animal.  It used to block just the notification, but Arlo just changed that a few days ago.  (IMO blocking recordings should be an option, as there are many situations where you want to block notifications but not recordings).

So check your smart notification settings next.

[StephenB]

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@Curt2698 wrote:

they want me to do a bunch of steps like recording my screen blah blah blah and I cannot as I am not home.

---

No point, since this is an intentional change in behavior on Arlo's part.  Sounds like some people in the support team didn't get the message...

[SouthernArlo]

@JamesC  When can we expect to see this change,  back to how it was b4 this absurd and idiotic decision ?  Also. There is a IOS update in the App Store that was released yesterday ( 9-6-24 ) labeled iOS update 5.0.  The description says it “ paves the way for upcoming features, bug fixes and performance improvements “   What are the “ upcoming features  And performance improvements “ ???

[Bart99122]

My Pro 4 cameras stopped working on 9.3. After over 3 hours with Arlo chat I turned on all notifications and then my cameras started working. But now I get dozens of notifications! They said to mute the notifications and there would be a fix in the next 24 hours and they would contact me. Nothing. I contacted them again and they acted like I was the only one it was happening to. I had to start all over from scratch. Everything works fine except I have to keep all notifications muted. But the camera I really need to know if someone is here, I have no way of knowing now. Very frustrating! 

[Bugger]

As of about 1:40am EST, I am seeing recordings in my library that were NOT associated with a Smart Notification.  So as far as I can tell, the key functionality that’s been discussed in this thread has been resolved.   Cc @JamesC 

[Curt2698]

Nice

[Curt2698]

Ok not nice. Mine is not working yet even after reinstalling the app and reseting the cams

[Bart99122]

I just turned off all notifications except the camera I want them for and all cameras are now recording. Thank you! 

[Bugger]

I am still on app version 4.19 for what it’s worth. I would think this is backend functionality and app version wouldn’t matter but who knows

[dgoldg]

As of 1:39PM Pacific time Saturday, I am still not seeing the old functionality. I'm curious to hear from others about their experience.

[fenton11]

Still not working for me either yet as of 11:06 am HST. 

[Curt2698]

@JamesC some say this is already fixed. Many not like myself. Do we need to do something to restore the old functionality. I need to suppress alerts but don't want to lose recordings...

[Bart99122]

I turned all notifications off except Smoke/CO2 and all cameras are working. Try logging out and back in. Mine logged me out and it was working 

[Curt2698]

I went one step further and reinstalled the app. No such luck

[Rusty68]

This is still happening. Unless notifications are on almost nothing saves to library.  I have only front door video since the night of 9/2/24

[Bart99122]

All of mine are working like they were before. I've rebooted each camera and bases, un-installed and reinstalled the app (Android). I'm sorry it's not working for you