Android phones (Samsung/Pixel) get drained by Arlo within hours since yesterday

[arcticchiller]

Hi everyone

I post here in this forum, because Arlo has no support e-mail address.

Since yesterday, my wife's Samsung Galaxy S22 and my Google Pixel 8a get drained by the Arlo app within hours. The phones showed up to 75% battery use by Arlo yesterday and got hot, even when we didn't use the phones much during the day. Arlo just completely drains the batteries. We never had this issue before since getting the cameras in December 2024.

We have four Ultra 2 cameras and a chime connected to the Ultra Smarthub VMB-5000.

Are other people having this issue as well? Is Arlo working on a bug fix?

Thanks!

[BrookeN]

Can you please let me know if you updated to 6.6.9 and if you have are you still seeing this same behavior?

[AshBb]

Yep I've been on that version of the app since it's been released and still have the battery issue. 

[jguerdat]

FYI, I'm on Android 6.7.4 and the battery issue still exists.

[BrookeN]

Thank you for letting me know, I will be in touch soon. 

[BrookeN]

Are you seeing the improved battery behavior with the  current Android 6.10.1 version?

[Scout152]

Nothing has helped this horrendous app. Arlo's support has been useless. There are plenty of people across both Android and Apple experiencing the same issue, but not one of your Mickey Mouse 'tech's' can solve the issue. You guys are the problem, not all of us. Fix your product. 

[AshBb]

I haven't seen any improvement. 

[Dlearious]

The problem is definitely there still but I've noticed that it's not happening as frequently.

Previously it was near-daily I was having to kill the app due to runaway battery usage. I would say now it's happening once a week.

Do we know what function of the app has been worked on to resolve? Assume it's the Geolocation feature?

[jguerdat]

I was on 6.11.0 for a few days and now on 6.12.0. I've been monitoring battery usage but need more time to decide if it's better or not. The short time on 6.11.0 seemed to be improved but needed more time.

[BrookeN]

I will let our team know that the behavior is still being seen. @Dlearious  yes it does seem like the battery drain directly involves Geofencing. 

[BrookeN]

@jguerdat can you please keep me updated.

[Dlearious]

Then again this just happened...

 

[jguerdat]

As someone else mentioned earlier it seems better but I did have to kill the Arlo app yesterday since the CPU was at 50% according to my monitor.

[BrookeN]

Are you seeing improvement with the battery draining behavior you are seeing?

[BrookeN]

Are you seeing an improvement with the battery drain behavior you were seeing?

[Dlearious]

I am on 6.12.0_6120003 - Android.

I think it's been a week or so since my last Arlo battery drain which is definitely better, not sure when it updated to 6.12.0 though?

[BrookeN]

Thank you for providing that update. 

[GeneralMeow]

---

@BrookeN wrote:

Are you seeing an improvement with the battery drain behavior you were seeing?

---

Nope.

Soon as I turn on Routines, a few hours later,  phone gets hot and kills battery.

Version 6.13.0_6130002

[jguerdat]

I'm on Android 6.14 and have noticed that my phone isn't getting hot anymore when the battery drain is occurring. I've tested this a couple of times (overnight and daytime) where my CPU monitor shows ~50% utilization with drain but no heat. I also recently updated to the Feb. Android 16 update so I'm not sure which is affecting what.

[nataliecbird]

I'm having the same problem with my Pixel 9 pro. It's so bad now my phone won't even fully charge because it's draining so fast. I'm on Android 16 and Arlo app version 6.14.0_6140002.

 

[jguerdat]

I use a CPU monitor to keep an eye on this issue. After I exit the Arlo app, I check the notification for ~50% CPU usage. If that's true, I force close the app and reopen it as the workaround.  The app is CPU/GPU/Battery Monitor & Notification if you want to try it out.

BTW, I'm on the latest/second version of 6.15 and still have the same problem.

[nataliecbird]

Thank you very much I'll look at this. Much appreciated 🙏🏼

[BrookeN]

We are still currently investigating this behavior. I will update the community as soon as possible. 

[BrookeN]

We are still currently investigating this behavior. I will provide more updates as soon as possible. 

[BrookeN · Accepted solution]

This behavior with your battery drain should now be improved. Can you please let me know if you are still seeing the same amount of battery drain on your phones?