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

[JaySchwarz]

Problem Solved. If you at Notifications under Plans, there are switches to enable People, Animals, Packages, etc. 

These were toggled off for all cameras. The Arlo agent thought maybe we did this, but that’s highly unlikely. I wonder if these got set during a system upgrade. Dunno. 

But, the agent was very helpful fixing the problem. 

[Curt2698]

Idk what app your are using but your instruction makes no sense. Not a fix for me.

[JaySchwarz]

I clicked on the upper left icon on the Arlo iPhone app. Then, under location and plans, I clicked my plan. Then, I clicked Smart Notifications. I went into each device and toggled People and Vehicles on. 

Hope this makes sense. 

[Curt2698]

That is not how my app is set up on Android. But what you are likely talking about is notifications which are not the probelm with the feed. The feed probelm is that even when Smart Notifications are off you should still get a recording. That is now working on my Hub cams but not Floodlight cams. You shouldn't have to get notifications for the cams to record motion. If that was the case I'd get endless alerts. 

[dgoldg]

@JaySchwarz That's not the core issue people are having. Arlo changed it so that not all motion is being recorded and posted to the Feed, only the ones where Smart Notifications are turned on. Which means if you want to see motion but not get notifications every time, you're out of luck. I don't want to get notified about coyotes in my backyard at 3am, but do want to see them the next day. Arlo screwed this up, and they still haven't fully rolled back this for many users. 

[Bugger]

@JaySchwarz what you described is not hitting on the issues discussed in this thread.  All you did is enable Smart Notifications for specific categories of recordings.   Any and all motion events should be captured by a camera, sent to the Arlo’s cloud services for processing, and categorized as a Person, Animal, Vehicle, Motion, or Package.  To be clear, that should happen every single time. Then at that point, Arlo’s services should determine whether to send a Smart Notification and/or save the recording in the user library - and importantly, the notification and the saving of the recording should NOT be linked.  Recordings need to be saved regardless of the smart notification status.   The key issues that have been discussed in this thread are missing recordings and failure to properly identify certain categories of motion, which both seem to have arisen in the past couple weeks.  Neither appears to be resolved for all users. This is where we are at. 

[Curt2698]

Correct and every time, like now, I call their stupid center they just tell me to do all the reset bs I have done multiple times. Sorry ARLO I actually need my cams for security so I think it's time to look elsewhere. This fix is so stupid easy. Reset to the last version of the app until you work out the bugs. Several weeks, no resolve and now same vicious cycle with you call center shows how mismanaged you are. Reolink seems to be able to do what I need. Pain in the a$$ to change at this point but I seriously am done as of today. Expect my cancelation in the coming weeks once I can get the right equipment.

[Curt2698]

Oh and other brands with same functions are cheaper on subscriptions so we can all save in the long run. I bought your brand because you were the best at the time. Now you are just a brand.

[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

[Jeff-SJ]

Hoping to see the behavior returned soon...  it has been over a week.

This should be simple.

Overarching rule:  Everything goes into the library (any motion), no matter what and these are a saved sliding 30-day window.

Otherwise: Smart Notifications defined to push for immediate screaming alerts.

Still - nothing returned to normal for me.  (I use Android (13) on phone).   I only get smart notifications saved (thank goodness), but I want to browse all recordings for 9 cameras in the perimeter on demand.

I do still have animals registering as persons or vehicles on occasion - I'd rather have a false positive vs. running blind.   It does flag real persons properly - most important to me.

It would be good to know post-mortem on this issue as to what the thought process was on this change.

[KcRachael]

So is this just a recent change? Because from the 28th of August I always had the notifications turned off for vehicles but they always still were shown in my feed? 

[StephenB]

---

@KcRachael wrote:

So is this just a recent change? Because from the 28th of August I always had the notifications turned off for vehicles but they always still were shown in my feed? 

---

I suggest you read this:

• https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Pro-4/Not-capturing-events-if-not-on-smart-notification/m-p/24179...

[Curt2698]

Check this out and it's stand alone. No hub needed. Only $110

https://reolink.com/product/argus-3-ultra/ 

[NaomiWorts]

I’ve been having this same issue with all my cameras since September 4. I see responses from Arlo claiming that they’ve rolled back the changes made around smart notifications, however every single one of my 9 cameras (6 outdoor, 2 doorbells and 1 indoor) all continue to not record unless smart notifications have been toggled on. When will a proper fix actually be put through? It’s been 10 days of my cameras basically not working and it’s causing a lot of frustration!

[Poem]

The subscription isn't worth the price if the advertised features aren't working.  Looks like someone else had the same issue.  https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Video-Doorbell/Arlo-Video-Doorbell-not-detecting-people/td-p/1948...

[Curt2698]

At this point I do not think they have the capacity to fix it. There is definately a major issue in their organization. This was so simple. Roll back to last version. They either didn't save it or fixing as they go instead of beta testing. It's really bad.

[ralfyguy1]

Somebody there screwed up royally. I bet this was not planned and they are just trying to reflect. I make you a bet that this was never planned. Somebody screwed up and now they don't know how to fix it 

[dtheo]

Hi,

In my case the new feature rollout did not cause the videos to not be recorded. Instead it caused them to not be tagged (Vehicle, Animal, Person) correctly. My iOS feed tab is configured to only show tagged videos (Vehicle, Animal, Person). Since videos were no longer being tagged correctly the feed became empty. All the videos expected were recorded but they are tagged as generic motion instead of the appropriate tag (Vehicle, Animal, Person). Unfortunately for me the “rollback” has not resolved the issue of the videos not being tagged correctly. Hoping it will be resolved soon.

[JDSec]

I have the same issue and my cameras can’t be pulled up to see live. They always say offline. Says the case is also offline. However will capture smart notifications. I just went in  and toggled my smart notifications and surprise surprise all of a sudden I get a vehicle notification. I’m about ready to throw these out. 

[Dogwatcher1]

Hi JamesC, we’re still continuing to have issues with events not being recorded if the notification toggles are turned off. 

As you point out, there is very confusing verbiage in the smart notification toggles which state that if turned off events won’t be recorded. I note that this was not there when this issue started a few weeks ago - the change was made without any changes to verbiage. The confusing verbiage is now there but you say the change has been rolled back - which is even more confusing and we’re not sure what to do as we still aren’t seeing events if the notification toggles are turned off.

As others state, all we want is for all motion to be recorded and for us to be able to toggle what motions we receive notifications for. I want to be able to see all my dogs movement in the library but I don’t want to be notified every time the dog moves. This is what we had before and now do not have. It should be a simple fix to go back to what we had (and are paying for). Now all I have is days  of no recordings on my cameras - which is not what we are paying for at all! 

[fenton11]

Still not working for me either. I expect a refund on what I’m paying for each day until this is fixed.  There are a lot of other choices for home security out on the market. Each passing day makes it’s easier to just go with competitors. 

[captain_fred]

This change is a game changer for me.   I need to record deer, coyotes, fox etc wandering through my property but I don't want notifications all night long.   Only if people are detected do I want notifications.  This was previous behavior.  Especially since you still haven't fixed the double notification bug.    If not repaired soon I'll be forced to cancel service and replace my 12 cameras with another vendor.

[Curt2698]

@Captain_fred I am in the same boat. I am already looking at brands and will buy by Wednesday if this is not fixed. Sad. But look at Reolink. They have a 4k cam that is stand alone. No need for a HUB. Don't know about your application but I have cams upto a quarter mile from the house so that is imperative and actually the 4k more like the Ultra series would do me better than the 2k Floodlights ARLO offers. If you find other brands let me know. Definately considering options.

[Pchammond]

Came here to say the same thing. Came home the other day with a dead snake on my porch and went to look at the recordings of my cat possibly being the one to kill it however I’m no longer getting animal recordings with out turning on the notification like you described. Same thing is happening to me. 

[Bart99122]

Arlo support keeps emailing me that I need to update them on the status of my cameras or they'll close my case. I keep responding to them only to get the same email the next day. Sticking their head in the sand and ignoring customers will not fix this or make it go away!