All Ultra 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

[ronsmith7144]

These instructions are wonderful! Thank you arlo!  Any idea how I can do these steps while I’m out of town????????????

[Richard60]

Two of my cameras are Arlo Ultra 2 cameras.  They went offline on September 15, 2023 at around 3:28am (I have one of them on a CVR plan, and that is when the timeline clips stopped).  Since it is my understanding that Arlo does its firmware updates around that time, I assumed that the outage was the result of an update and that Arlo would correct the problem within a reasonable amount of time.  When that didn't happen by evening, I became concerned but did not have time to address the matter until this afternoon.

The first thing I did was search the Arlo Community forum, where I immediately saw that lots of other people were experiencing the same problem.  I read some of the posts and decided that, as much as I dreaded doing it, I would pull down the cameras, remove them from the account, and add them anew.  I tried this on one camera but my base station would not automatically pick it up, and I was unable manually to get it in a state where the amber light would start flashing.

I then started an Arlo chat and was told I would be walked through the process to get the camera back up and running.  During the session, the assistant told me to hold down the reset button for approximately 15 seconds.  At that point, I realized what I had been doing wrong:  I had pressed the button and quickly released it.  On the second try, I did hold it down longer, but only for about five seconds.  When I held it down for what was about ten seconds or more, the amber light started flashing.  From there, the rest of the process was automatic, and the camera was paired to the base station.  I repeated the process on my own for the second camera.  It should be noted that soon after each camera went back online, I was prompted to do a firmware update.  That update was "1.070.52.1_35_1bdb65f".

I was relieved that the whole ordeal was finally over.  I had to take down two cameras, one from just under a soffit, and restore the positioning and configerations for each, which is kind of aggravating.  I had hoped that Arlo would push out another update to fix the original problem, but once the cameras were offline, I'm not sure that Arlo could bring them back to an online state.

[ArloNB]

Hello Richard60,

Thank you very much for the information. I am confident that it would solve the issue, but it will not work for me since I am far away from where my cameras are. My only solution would be a remote activation of the cameras by Arlo team. 

Troubleshooting the way you did, was it necessary to remove the batteries from the cameras, put it back, and then do the reset pressing the reset bottom for 15sec, or it was not necessary to remove the batteries? 

Is it necessary to remove the cameras from your Arlo account to reset it, or not? 

Thanks

[Dgmi]

fyi - In my case, this might help anyone else having this issue.

 I had to get up on a ladder pull the cameras around my property out of the cases.

In order to do a ‘reset’ on the camera you have to press the button that’s on the bottom side of it for about 15sec., in order todo that it has to be out of the case.

I had to pull the batteries out of mine as whatever they did drained my batteries, so needed to charge them anyway.

Had to remove/add cameras in the app and only way to add them back is to be on the same  wifi network as the base. I tried doing this remote and wouldn’t let me until I was on same wifi as the base unit.

[ArloNB]

Thank you Dgmi for the information 

[Dgmi]

You’re welcome arloNB

I have a 9 camera set up and had to do this on 8 out of 9 of them - some of them up to 5-6 tries as they were  completely unresponsive. eventually they started working.

I’m new to arlo/ arlocommunity, but the community here is great as I found the reset procedures in one of the other threads on here.

[hotuonghung]

Yep, I have the same problem, and they are offline currently.

[Richard60]

I did have to remove the cameras from my Arlo account and then add them back.  However, as it turned out, it was not necessary for me to remove the batteries, although I did at the time because I wanted to make sure they were not depleted.  What I did was put them on a charger and the charger light showed green.  One of the cameras -- the one on the CVR plan -- is indoors and plugged in all the time.  The one I had outside on the house was being powered by a solar charger on the roof.  Really, all that was necessary for me to do (after removing them from my account) was to remove the case in order to get to the reset button.  Yes, I see your problem since you do not have immediate access to your cameras.  I would like to think that Arlo can reactivate them remotely, but I'm just not sure this is even possible given that they are completely offline.  Hopefully, you will be able to find a solution.  I can imagine how frustrating it must be.

[ArloNB]

Thank you very much Richard60. 
🤞🏻Very helpful comments 

[samijo8297]

Yes me too. It's only one camera offline. Arlo said they are having issues

[JPC_77]

Just advising that my 3 Ultra 2’s have been offline since the 15th as well. I too bought these ahead of being out of town for a month and this all happened the day after I left. I’ve contacted Arlo twice (phone & chat; one w/an hour wait time) and was told both times the issue is still being worked with no ETR. The agents for all their good intentions, know absolutely nothing. Clearly this is a big deal if we’re going on 72/hrs with not even an updated statement from Arlo and a huge swath of the community are still offline. I am angry and frustrated beyond words.

[JPC_77]

Just throwing in that I too bought a suite in July ahead of a month of travel. This happened the day after I left for that trip and everything is still offline (since 9/15). Wait times for chat or phone are well over an hour and the agents literally know nothing. They acknowledge fault of the issue and advise support is working on a fix but there is no ETR. We’re going on 72/hrs now and Arlo hasn’t bothered to update their original statement on the matter. I cannot understate how angry and dumbfounded I am by the lack of urgency or transparency in this matter, though the Community here is much appreciated.

[pkwct]

Thanks SG5,  following your steps did work (I hadn't been holding the camera reset buttons long enough).  One of the cameras required resetting three times before it would connect and all camera batteries were drained down to 3% after receiving the updated firmware but all are now back online.  What an ordeal!

[Sevakesmailian]

This is ridiculous. Support keeps saying to reset devices, but it's not working. I pay for their service which I can't even use. They know there is an issue, but on the site, it shows everything is working fine. SMH. Arlo, you dropped the ball big time on this.

[JudgeSweden]

My solution:

I started out with restarting my SmartHub. Then I pressed the SYNC-button on the backside of the hub, so it started to flash blue. While it was flashing I took all my four cameras and pressed and hold the little sync-button on each camera until it flashed amber three times (approx 15 sec), after that they started to flash blue. I opened the app and all Ultra2-cameras prompted for a firmware update. Started it on all of them and that was it. Now they all work like before.

Before all this I of course charged all four batteries. I have the Arlo double charger, so It went by really quick.

[KCinFL]

Tried restarting base after Ultra 2s went off line but no luck.  Removed camera and tried to reinstall but now the camera "can't be found" by the system.  My older Arlo cameras are working fine.

[Bez01]

I keep my cameras charged regularly. Suddenly 4 went off line. I have tried everything including factory reset. 

Once battery inserted into camera, there is a single blue light flash (right side) then nothing else.

Adding using manual synch does nothing.

Battery is fully charged. It's like camera has died!

No extreme heat or cold (in UK).

Very strange!

[Richard60]

You're welcome ArloNB.

[Offlinearlo]

I’m in same situation. Furious.

[ArloNB]

Hi JPC_77,

I had also the same answer when I called them. No prediction when the problem will be fixed. 

[Frisbee44]

All 8 of my Ultra 2 cameras across 4 locations recently bricked.  My last video feed was 2 days ago (Sept 15), but they started dropping off 3 days ago (Sept 14). 
All of the cams either were powered or had at least 1/2 battery. 
Now on reset, I get a single blue flash then nothing. 
If I connect to power, I get rapid blue flashing for about 2 sec then nothing. 
the App reads: “your Arlo camera is not connected”

Anyone else see this? Any ideas on a solution?

[Bez01]

Strangely enough the synching worked once the cameras were plugged in as well as having full battery. Very annoying and issue unclear but got there in the end. The manual synch button doesn't seem to always work...

[martincc]

Arlo Ultra 2 cameras on many systems went off line on or before 15 Sept. 2023. All my Arlo Ultra 2's are still down as of 17 Sept at noon ET. Many Ultra 2 owners have posted here about how we independently (no notice by Arlo) discovered the problems. Many of us wasted time to reach/access our cameras not knowing the problem originated at Arlo. Then too many of us wasted more time trying this and that to reset our Ultra 2's; I read some people had even more time wasted working with Arlo 'Tech Support', but with no luck.

Worse still, Arlo Corp. 1. realized they had a problem, 2. they have (to this time) not proactively communicated to subscribers, 3. there has been no response from Arlo Co. about a remedy, plan or timetable. With many of our best cameras being down, this leaves many of us feeling, if not actually, vulnerable.

When outages occur Arlo management should directly notify affected subscribers  - this is a norm for most of the better security/fire alarm companies.

As this Ultra 2 outage resulted from Arlo negligence, their remedy for this should not inconvenience customers further. Arlo Corp. should also offer some tangible expression of apology in the form of some financial credit against subscription renewals, if not refunds.

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.

Martin

[MELCO]

Here is my update as of 9/17/23 12:05PM EST.

Arlo still has not posted another service update/issue since 9/15/23 even though all my Arlo Ultra 2 cameras are still offline, as is.  Isn't it a service issue if your cameras are offline? And continue to be offline?

I had to make a decision as I was heading out of town.  I could not wait nor rely on Arlo providing a "Non-touch camera or re-configuration" solution that didn’t require physical access to the cameras. Thus, I removed all of my Arlo Ultra 2 cameras from the Arlo app, re-set all of the Arlo Ultra 2 cameras to factory defaults (How to factory reset Arlo devices - https://kb.arlo.com/en_US/000062659), re-installed all of the Arlo Ultra 2 cameras in the Arlo app, updated the Arlo Ultra 2 camera firmware (1.070.52.1_35_1bdb65f) as pushed out by Arlo after the re-installation and re-configured all of the Arlo Ultra 2 cameras in my configuration (5 Arlo Ultra 2 Cameras (VMC5040-200NAS) with 3 Arlo Ultra 2 SmartHubs (VMB5000-100NAS) – All appears working again. This all took me, given the camera locations and effort, 2.5 hours.

I hope this helps anyone in my situation, but I really hope Arlo is able to push out a fix to do everything that I did…as one would expect as it was their software update that created the issues…

[RickVan]

I too noticed this problem, but 2 days after it actually happened.  After wasting 4 hours of my time, I managed to get 3 of 4 camera's back online.  The 4th, just does not seem to work.  Also, it seems one of my batteries may have been bricked.  If either of these do not come back online, I will expect full replacements from ARLO at absolutely ZERO cost to me.   This is plain and total Incompetence on ARLO's part.