All Ultra 2 Cameras Went Offline

[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

[Dionysius]

So I got all my cameras up and running again.  Now today every cameras is back to doing nothing.   What the hell is Arlo doing!!!   I have been a loyal customer for years with the Pro models.  This is not acceptable.  This crap should never happen and if it does it should be fixed immediately!!!

[AshTray900]

I just checked mine and they are at least streaming ok, one has dead motion if I notice mine go back down I’ll chime back in. God I hope mine don’t bug out, maybe just reboot them all who knows, yes it is very ridiculous. Not sure what’s so hard about firmware testing!

idiots

[Dionysius]

I hear you.  I am just tired of having to get to all the cameras and pull the battery, factory reset and/or resync.   It is just insane.  When Netgear ran these cameras we never had issues like this.

[RickVan]

Just spent 30 minutes with online chat.  ARLO is totally CLUELESS!  It's all Hope and Pray your camera's come back online, and 3 of 4 of mine did.  The fourth will do nothing.  I can get the 3 amber blinks, but after that all I ever get is a dim blue blink followed by a brighter blue blink and this repeats ~ every 15 seconds.  

Like I said, ARLO has NO 100% step by step procedure on how to revive a camera that works.  Hope and Pray is all they have.   

I have yet to get an email explaining this ClusterF**k or a damn apology from ARLO.   I have wasted at least 6 hours of my valuable time now.  If I ever buy another camera system, it will NOT be an ARLO, my 4-camera setup is just 2 months old, over $1200.

[Film]

See if this helps - https://kb.arlo.com/642/What-do-the-different-LED-behaviors-on-my-Arlo-camera-mean

I had 8 affected by this outage and one of them was stubborn to re-add.  I had to move it closer to one of my base stations before I could get it back online and it took 2-3 tries of resetting and re-adding before I got it working again.

[ArloNB]

Thanks

[bubba56]

Arlo Ultra VMB5000 UPDATE: 

Received new $200 Arlo Ultra Hub/Base station a few hours ago. As with my original my Hub loaded easily with a steady blue light.   I made sure my two cams were charged and tried to sync, got nothing! The Hub tried but failed every time to sync the cams which literally appear dead and worthless.

I finally contacted Arlo support on chat after a great deal of anxiety and frustration. I was told other customers had the same prolem as me and it was due to the firmware update they made two days ago. There is NOTHING they can do at this time and as soon as they fixed the problem I would be notified through email.

To those of you whose having the same problem with you Ultra or Ultra 2 please note my empathy goes out to you all.

[Film]

That might be what you were told, but there are quite a number of us that have managed to restore our systems to full functionality.  I have 4 VMB5000 base stations, 8 Ultra 2s, 6 Essential indoor wired cameras, a doorbell, a chime and one older Arlo Q wired camera.  This outage knocked out all 8 of my Ultra 2s and bouncing all the base stations, removing all the cameras from the Arlo app/web interface, resetting them to defaults, re-adding them and then manually updating the firmware worked for me.

In case this helps, here's what firmware rev my bases and Ultra 2s are running:

Bases - 1.21.1.0_1431_9611cf3

Ultra 2s - 1.070.52.1_35_1bdb65f

[Hinkman]

Days ago all my Arlo Ultra cameras went offline while all my older cameras continue to work.  I have tried resetting my base station, power cycling it, etc.  I see others with the same issue but not a word about it yet from Arlo.  Anyone know what’s going on?

[Salex]

Just spent over an hour with live chat support and they were worthless, had me do everything i had already tried over 20 times.  Was able to remove and reset 7 of 8 cameras but the 8th with allow a factory reset so will not go into sync mode.  I am convinced it is bricked but they will not replace while the engineers are still working on the issue.  I know i need a replacement camera but they are not, frustrating and illogical.  

[Offlinearlo]

This!

[Dgmi]

I had a few that acted like bricks and kept doing ‘factory reset’ & reseating the battery and they evetually started to wotk

note- battery has to be fully charged.

mine were all drained because of what ‘they’ did

[Chippmaker]

I am also having this problem both of my ultra 2 on the 15th both bricked today (17th) I got one to come alive i dont know how but it needed a firmware update and it seems to be fine as for my other one I hear it clicking but no lights or won’t reset 

[GRAW4413]

Same; lost 2/2 Ultra 2's and cannot get either back, no amount of troubleshooting has worked. Mine went down on Sep. 15, 2023.

[MIK3]

Same.  4 Ultra2’s down on 9/15.  Resets didn't work for 2.  One worked after resetting for 1 day and stopped again.  The other one is still working.  Today doorbell stopped working and shows offline.

[GRAW4413]

Same; lost both of my Ultra 2's and cannot get either back, lights never come back on, and no amount of troubleshooting has worked. Mine went down on Sep. 15, 2023.

[JPC_77]

As angry as I am, in a way I am glad I’m out of town for this and not home to fuss with it yet. I get everyone wanting their cameras back asap but who knows what the end game is going to be here when it’s all said and done. People have lost cameras and batteries in this process, service aside. Who’s to say once a resolution is realized that the people who put in all the work to resolve (and granted, some of which at Arlo’s direction) isn’t going to be back to square one if yet another firmware push doesn’t have to override this current one. Given the mixed results everyone has had with their outcomes, I think I’m content waiting for the official decree before moving forward. At this point, the damage has been done with Arlo having much to answer for (not that they will) at the end of all this. Horrible, horrible company management and customer service this all has been.

[Dgmi]

Agree. I put about 6 hrs restoring my 9 cameras, and they could just as easily screw it all up again in a matter of minutes.

[JP-B]

Hi

I own 50 Arlo cameras to monitor a business and a large open area. On the 09/15, 13 of my Ultra2 cameras went off line and I cannot reset them and reconnect them. I found dozens of people reporting the same issue on line, and not a word from Arlo support anywhere. In fact although I bought 50 of their cameras, some of them recently, Arlo told me that I was not entitled to their support. Is this really an American company? Meanwhile our property is not anymore protected by video surveillance, and apparently Arlo does not care a bit. JP

[martincc]

as a followup to my original post, moments ago I reached Arlo Technical Support by telephone. I found their phone number in my Arlo app, under "Settings, System, Support" then selected one of my Ultra 2 cameras, and jumped a few more hoops to be provided a phone number to call. Their phone system allows you to wait, or it offers to have them call you back (in chronological order) later; I waited about 30-40 minutes.

As I expected, Arlo Tech Support and Engineering are aware of the outage. They explained Engineering is working on a firmware remedy. Tech Support offered to walk me through some steps to see if any of their remedies might help. I said 'no', as it was dark and raining outside, and my cameras are too hard to access for anything less than a certain fix.

I  conveyed my sense that Arlo management does not respect its customers. Arlo did not notify us of the outage so might take steps for alternative protection, or not waste our time trying to figure out what ultimately was outside our capacity to remedy. I suggested the Arlo fix should NOT require customers jump through more hoops, but should come directly from Arlo to our cameras.

I explained that I do not hold this against customer service, but against Arlo management and engineering.

Furthermore, I did not want to hear any "I'm sorry" from Arlo; saying "sorry" is cheap and easy, and meaningless by now. Arlo owes its customers something more tangible - free service or something for the time we've wasted.

[Dgmi]

I have 9 and had another order with Best Buy for 3more cameras, which obviouslly I cancelled in light of what I just had to go thru to bring 8 of the 9 back online.

Terrible experience. They pushed a firmware update on Friday afternoon and let us all customers bang pur heads on the wall with no communication from them. ughhh

[doodledad]

Made the switch over to Arlo from Nest cameras several months ago... This has been a huge mistake. Now the cameras are not working at all due to an issue on Arlo's end. Never was any communication sent out on the issue... I have spent hours trying to figure out the issue but come to find out its a software problem.....  UNACCEPTABLE! I want my money back... I won't ever purchase an Arlo product again. Terrible product. 

[martincc]

I think it is not the cameras, or their concepts that are so bad, but their corporate engineering and customer service mindset are among to poorest of any supposedly customer-oriented corporation. I too have become, again, aggravated by Arlo missteps. I posted about this earlier today, and concluded:

"The Netgear, then later Arlo companies have a long history of this kind of security camera systems poor customer responsiveness. Usually in business these kinds of issues originate from either money or people problems: I believe this poor corporate mindset at Arlo is not a money issue. Leadership starts at the top with Mr. Matthew McRae; many of us customers are waiting to see some leadership."

One lucky thing for me is that I never rely on only one model of camera; my coverage include several generations of Arlo Pro and Ultra cameras. So if Arlo screws up one model camera, as they apparently did with this Ultra 2 firmware push, the others remain on line. That only moderates my frustration somewhat, it's like I'm poking back at Mr. McRae in his eye with "ha, ha! You failed to take all my cameras off line" 😁

[facelvega]

OK, I have all 10 of my U-2’s running again from two locations (2 base stations).  What I did (basically a recap of prior instructions with a few extra notes…):

1. Unplug base station from power for 30 seconds, then plug it back in.   You should get a solid orange light for around a minute, then flashing orange light for 30 seconds, then solid blue light (booted up and ready to go). 
2. IN THE MOBILE APP (not your desktop), remove all U-2 cameras (the dead camera has a black box with “Your Arlo camera appears off line” message; press the “gear” icon, them press the red “Remove Device” button)
3. In the mobile app, restart the base station; select the base station on screen, then scroll down and press the Restart button.  This may be unnecessary, but only takes a few minutes: once again, solid orange light for around a minute, then flashing orange light for 30 seconds, then solid blue light.  IIRC one of my base stations seemed to do a firmware update – if this happens you get an alternating orange/blue light for a minute or so also.
4. Pop the cameras out of their cases and bring them to the base unit.  You will spend 5-10 minutes per camera, so get a cup of coffee (or whiskey…).
5. POWER IS CRITICAL.  Whatever the idiots at Arlo did, it put the camera in a state of SUPER-power drain.  Until you are successful at loading the new firmware, it is STILL in the super-drain status.  If you check the battery with a voltmeter, you should see 4.2 volts – if not, the reset may not work.   I think that the solar or plug-in charging wires MAY NOT provide enough current to keep the camera going for the reset.  I know for sure that the AFTERMARKET batteries I have DO NOT have enough current capacity to reset the camera (Vemico).  I was able to reset everything using fully charged Arlo batteries.  The aftermarket batteries powered the camera fine AFTER the reset.   I do not think that it is possible to charge the battery in a screwed up U-2.  You will need an external charger, or an earlier camera version (Pro) to get the battery fully charged.
6. Put the fresh battery in the camera.  PRESS AND HOLD the sync button, total time will be around 30 seconds.  After holding the button in for about 15 seconds, you get an orange flash; another 10 seconds, and you get a quick blue flash, then a long blue flash; then about 10 more seconds you get a steady blue flash every 2 seconds;  it is now ready to connect to the base.
7. In the mobile app, press the “Add New Device” button, select “Camera”, “Ultra 2”, Base Station, then your base station will start looking for the camera.  Even if they are beside each other, it can take 2-3 minutes for them to find each other.  The app may ask if you want to manually pair – say yes, and make sure the camera is still doing the steady blue light flash (1 sec on, 1 sec off).  If the camera stops blue flashing, do the sync button press again until you get the steady blue flash back.
8. Once it pairs, rename it and get back to the Device screen on the app.  The status will now show “Firmware Upgrade Required”.   Do the firmware upgrade (which actually takes it back to the old version that worked).  Depending on your wifi speed, it should take about 2 minutes, and the camera light flashes alternating blue and orange.  Once it is done, your U-2 should be back to correct operation.
9. Now you have to go through all the options on the camera, and set them back to what you want: night vision, field of view, activity zones, alerts, etc., etc…  Lots of typing…

Hope this helps, thanks for all the good info here!

[Frisbee44]

So I spent a good bit of time w support.  Here's what I got:

1) there was "an issue" with the Ultra 2 platform systemically on or about Sept 15.  (Read between the lines how you will.)  "Engineering is addressing it." (Again, read between the lines.)

2) Here's the solution that has worked for me:

- Make sure your Ultra 2 battery is (mostly) charged.

- Pull the battery on the camera for at least 10 sec from the device.

- Reinsert the battery (mine would give a single blue flash.)

- Wait about 30 sec then press and hold the sync button on the camera for 10 sec or until you see an orange blink.

- Press and hold the sync button on you *BASE STATION* for 3 sec.  This starts the re-sync process. When both devices start blinking blue rapidly, congrats, you're re-associated.  *BUT YOU'RE NOT DONE YET!!*

- Wait for the connection to stabilize, about 2 minutes (or less).  Then check the camera view on your app.  It ought to request a firmware update.  Go ahead and do it.  When the firmware update is completed, you're good to go.

- If you don't wait for the firmware update, consider the problem *NOT* fixed, and you will need to repeat this process.  No firmware update = No functional solution.

The first time is horrible.  You get faster with each successive reboot.

(I feel like they ought to be paying us for this...)