VMS5240 This morning my two Arlo Ultra Cams stopped working

[MrCat]

Says base station on line, cameras off line; happened early 25 Sep23.

Is Arlo down?

[JamesC]

The development team is currently investigating reports of this issue. The recent firmware release has been rolled back. Please restart your base station/SmartHub to allow your cameras to receive the previous firmware version. If you're still experiencing an issue, you may need to remove and reinsert the battery within the affected cameras to allow them to come back online.

JamesC

[MONTANABIGSKY]

All five of my Arlo Ultra 2 Cameras are showing offline.  They have been offline since around 10 pm Mountain Standard time yesterday, 09-14-2023. We have determined its not an issue on our end, and have tried all the trouble shooting suggested by the Arlo Community Manager we saw in other posts, and nothing has changed; we are still offline.   Hopefully for the amount of money we have sunk into this product, and the monthly membership fee we pay; Arlo will get it fixed.

[Marie12]

4 cameras on one side of house went offline at the same time, including one inside the house. 1 camera outside on other side of house still works. Checked batteries, even put the spare in, no good. Removed and tried to readd cameras and base station, didn't work. Replaced base station, didn't work. Can't be due to heat because the one in the air conditioned house quit at same time the others did. Battery packs still check out good, I swapped them in the working camera. None were in direct sunlight. They've been in service less than 6 months.  Anyone else with this problem?

[LegacySW]

Same here. Rebooted 1 basestation and then cameras but not working. Continuing with the firmware refrash to factory, upgrade, and rejoin.  That is working but is labor intensive.  Failing cameras only short blink blue. Working camera blinks blue longer then does the flashing blue network join.  One failed had two short amber, the other didn't blink at all.

[LegacySW]

Forgot to reboot 2nd base station and cameras flashed to bad version 1.070.53.0_60_de6aae5.  Remember to reboot your base stations before starting factory refresh. There was a comment about battery draining which I can confirm. Had red battery status.  Trying to charge cells before recovering cameras to 1.070.52.1_35_1bdb65f

[djskyhawk]

I'm trying to resynch 2 cameras, hub won't find either.  I've tried putting camera next to hub and at 1 foot intervals, up to 12 feet and nothing.  I've tried both cameras over 100 times each.  I'm going camera shopping for a system that works.  The least Arlo could have done was gives us notice of updates and problems, so, the dozens of people with these cameras wouldn't be pulling their hair out trying to fix them.

[bubba56]

This is Version 4.8 Model: VMS5240

This morning on Friday September 15 2023 my two Ultra Cams stopped working and knocked offline. The Hub was ok with blue light. I’ve tried every trouble shooting instruction possible except calling support which I refuse to do. They’ve never been any help. Their support agents never speak clear English.

I uninstalled the cams and hub. I was able to reinstall the hub but it refuses to sync with my cams. My Arlo Ultra Security is now worthless!

I read online a short time ago that all Ultra Cams was shut off due to the most recent update. Has it been fixed or when will it allow my cams to once again sync with my hub! This was a reliable system but now I have my doubts and anger is replacing trust!

[Dionysius]

I had the same issues with syncing some of my cameras after they all went offline.  I had to factory reset a few of the cameras multiple times along with logging out of the app and resetting the hub.  It was a pain in the butt.

[Arlohuh]

After the firmware update today,  all my cameras show offline.  I've restarted the hub multiple times.  

[Lloydy_33]

It happen to me at exact same time camera offline. Will not sync. Hub is fine working with Doorbell camera. Must be issue with cameras.

[AshTray900]

i also have devices offline, just noticed it today, i have 2 base stations, the arlos on base station rear are fine, the ones on base station front, all offline!

reboot base, reboot cameras, still offline, cameras are powered all the time ultra 2's, in fact i have one old arlo pro still running off that base station also, its fine. both went offline at the same time so camera failure is unlikely. this is stupid argh. and they are ridiculously expensive. i dont know what happened but apparently your not the only one to notice.

was today the first day that you noticed they were offline, i had a package delivered a couple days ago and both worked just fine

[AshTray900]

also have cams down, base station 1 - 3 arlo ultra 2's still work, base station 2 - 1 arlo pro and 2 arlo ultra 2's - the pro still works both ultra 2's went down and are offline, literally today, my history shows recordings on both yesterday.

rebooted cams, rebooted base, same on the web and iphone app.

does sound like an arlo screw up, my cameras better not have been bricked, these things are each as expensive as a new game console! 

[LegacySW]

It is painful to do but my recovery method was to reboot basestation (to get rollback firmware), delete the camera from the app, factory re-flash by holding sync 15sec until after led blinked 3 orange, wait...., start add back in app, reboot by battery reseat,  get notice of firmware update, accept firmware update to rollback version, and do same steps to all other cameras.  Be carefull ejecting camera as to not loose black o-ring. If you can, charge battery first as bad 1.070.53.xxxx was reported to drain cells and I had one almost depleted battery in one instance.  Time to wait after flash before rebooting is TBD but don't pull cell if led is blinking blue/orange as I suspect that is firmware writing.

[AshTray900]

oh god, factory reset and re-pair. jesus this is stupid, for the cost of all this arlo should have local techs come do this, super pissed, im about to try that on one that is easy to get to

[tebrodrick]

I have had 2 of my U-2 camera's drain the batteries from 95% to zero overnight. One of them was plugged in, and still reported "Battery is too low to connect". Now all 4 U-2's are offline. Waiting to go home to see about the reset option.

Maybe a little more quality control on the Firmware updates is in order. 

[AshTray900]

factory reset the ultra 2's that were on the front base station, they both needed firmware to get to the version the ultra 2's on the rear base station had that didnt have any issues, now both have hideous color, looks like some lense thing (update - i had to go BACK out with the ladder and have them in stream mode and cover them up until they switched to night vision and back and then the color looks right now)

thanks arlo for making me have to reprogram everything since you guys obviously dont have failsafes built into your update process!!! now on to resetting all the finer details and activity zones, fix all my modes.... ARGH guys you SUCK!

agitated once again at a freaking 3000 camera setup when my old arlo pro setup from 10 years ago never flinched, why oh why didnt i just say "f" the firmware EOL and keep the old system (the only reason i swapped was because i wanted to hard wire the system and thought it stupid to run cabling through my attic for cameras whos power connections were obsolete) for the cost of this i could have had a f'n real outlet installed right by each darn camera

[LegacySW]

I got a community manager to reply in my question thread (typing on tablet so I can't grab the link). They rolled back from 1.070.53.0_60_de6aae5 to 1.070.52.1_35_1bdb65f this morning. Reboot the basestation to pickup the rollback but good luck trying to resync without doing the factory reset followed by upgrade to rollback version.  It takes awhile to get all the cameras restored that way.

[AshTray900]

i just noticed the two i fixed by factory reset went to  1.070.52.1_35_1bdb65f now im rebooting my other base to hopefully do it (and not screw up like the front one did)....

update - rebooting rear base made all of them back there show firmware updates, doing them one by one, i dont suggest doing all of them at the same time, maybe this is why the front 2 got zonked, i do believe if they went to "device offline" you are probably going to have to factory reset at that point (i bet they tried to roll back and failed as nothing but factory reset revived them, i highly suggest anyone that is on the previous firmware reboot it and do them individually and not let the arlo device do it for you...)

[GeGe111]

Same for me, I bought these to have a hassle free security system, just 2 days ago I had the ladders out and took them down, charged qnd put back up because they do not last anything like the stated time and now I have to do it AGAIN??

Refund time, not even out of the trial phase, not fit for purpose! If I wanted a system that I have to constantly play with to keep it up, I'd not spend north of £900 on it!!! Arlo should be issuing free plus subscriptions to all affected users.

[MD_Nick]

Remove the cameras from the Arlo app, do a reset by holding the sync button until amber lights flash.  Add them back to the Arlo app.  They will show offline initially, go to settings and apply the firmware update.

Had the same issue.  Cameras updated to 1.070.53.0_60 firmware and 3 of my cameras were offline this morning.  When I hooked up the 4th that was powered off it worked just fine.  The offline camera was running 1.070.52.1_35 firmware. 

I spent some time chatting with Arlo support  but we could not get them back online.  After messing around with them for a bit I found that if I did a full reset of the cameras and added them back, they would still show offline, however there was a update showing in settings.  Clicking apply caused the camera to roll back to the older firmware.  Once the firmware update was applied they started working again.

[Pack4now]

Was same with mine, 3 ultra 2's off line this morning,  6 pro 4's just fine.  Had reset and reconnect to hub.  Now none of the 3 are showing charging with solar, thoughthe 5 pros that have them are showing charging.  When I did the chat 13 were in front of me, when I did my reset, went back on, seen 33 people in front and said screw that, didn't have time to wait for support.  Figured it out on my own.  Though hopefully will fix the charging issue, I have solar panels so I don't have to climb ladders every couple months.

[AshTray900]

gee thanks arlo, you fried my motion sensor on one of my cameras... I know exactly how to test this and have factory reset 3 times now, this is the SECOND time one of my cameras motion sensing ability got zonked with an update. the first time i went through a week of troubleshooting just to figure out i had a bad camera and i had to pay for shipping to get it replaced with the "were gonna charge you the full price if we dont get the other back by x". i can assume the reason this happens with firmware updates is that the sensor is so sensitive and failure prone that when your updates make me reset them (this happens semi frequently as is shown with todays issues) the simple act of popping the camera out CAREFULLY is enough to hose that sensor, the fronts are spotless to and they dont have water inside them and never did.

you guys can seriously go screw off, i will suggest everyone avoid you like the covid virus, over 300 dollars for something that should IRL cost about 99 bucks and the worst security product on the market today.

honestly i wont be satisfied unless i get two free cameras sent to me, without shipping charges, one to replace my dead one, and one for a backup when another inevitably fails, because it will, they are poorly designed, you guys are seriously the Yugo of the home security system!!!

I cannot believe i have dumped this much money into this stupid worthless crap, your selling a product that is trash based on a reputation you got almost a decade ago. I think im contacting the BBB. I am an IT expert and an antique radio restoration guru, you aint fooling me, its toast. i have no patience for another weeks worth of troubleshooting and the stupid RMA process again.

[Dionysius]

I have been able to get all my cameras up and running again.  I noticed one of the cameras does not sense any motion.  A Mac truck could drive in front of it and nothing.  I did not think that an update would destroy the motion sensor.  I guess I will be dealing Arlo customer service again.

[AshTray900]

yep... me tooo

[mj722]

Thanks for exact instructions. Worked for me!

[Hasler]

We are having the same problem. Arlo was working fine when we went to bed last night. Woke up this morning & it was offline. Got it back up & it worked fine all day until about an hour ago. Now offline again & can't get it working. What is going on?