Ineffective support - actually NO support

[KevP]

Has Arlo stopped responding to cases? I raised a ticket 6 days ago and to date have received no reply other than an email saying thanks for getting in touch and that someone will get in touch within 48 hours. Also, when I try to call I get no answer. Is it worth continuing with Arlo subscription when one of my cameras stops working and I get no help at all? This comes just after the camera actually recorded 2 people on our property at 4am in the morning and we're keen to get it back up and running asap! Has anyone been in touch with support recently which may confirm that support actually exists.

[StephenB]

Are you using phone support between 6 am and 6 pm US pacific time?

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@KevP wrote:
one of my cameras stops working 

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Are you able to live-stream the camera?  If not, is the camera showing up as off-line?  Or does the app just hang when you try to live-stream?

What have you tried to do to fix it?

I'd start with removing/reinserting the battery (which reboots the camera).  If you don't see the normal blue LED behavior, then the camera might need to be charged. You can try swapping batteries with the other camera to see if you have an issue with the power circuitry in the camera (and also rule out a battery problem).

If that doesn't help, I'd restart the base.  Then try bringing the camera indoors, and see if it resumes normal operation when closer to the base.

One final step that can help is to remove the camera from the account.  Then do the hardware reset (holding down the sync button until the camera LED flashes amber).  Then add the camera back.

[KevP]

I'm in the UK and have tried phoning between 9am and 5pm. My issue was that the battery needed recharging. This I've done in an arlo battery charger and when the light turned green I put the battery back in the camera I got all indications the camera is alive as led's lit up. But it won't come back online as the app still says the battery is too low and needs charging - yet it's now fully charged. I've put the camera next to the base station and switched off/on the base station but still no joy. I notice there's a part of this community where I can check software versions. From the app my base station and cameras seem to need updating - but the app says there's no updates available! How do I force an update? I have 2 other cameras and 1 door camera which are all working fine, but the base station is flashing orange. I've no idea how to proceed. I put all this down in a support case, but as stated, no-one from support got back in touch. Is there relevant documentation you could point out which gives steps to take and how to do them? I'm tempted to do a factory reset of the base station but step by step guide would be useful. By the way:- base station is VMB5000r6 (firmware 1.21.1.0_1431_9611cf3) cameras are H10 (firware 1.070.52.1_35_1bdb65f) door camera is 1.4 (firmware 1.8.0.0_4_4a16fed_758744c)

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

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@KevP wrote:
I'm in the UK and have tried phoning between 9am and 5pm. 

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9 am - 5 pm in the UK is 1 am - 9 am US pacific time.  Phone support isn't available until about 2 pm your time ( 6 am in California).

I'm tagging the mods ( @JamesC , @ShayneS , @BrookeN ) in hopes they can facilitate/assist.

A blinking amber light in your hub likely is telling you there is a camera connection error:

• https://kb.arlo.com/000039100/What-do-the-LEDs-on-my-Arlo-SmartHub-or-Base-Station-mean

As far as firmware updates go, they roll out slowly (and there is more lag in Europe, due to the Verisure/Arlo partnership).  There is no way to speed that up.  There is a firmware update function in the app, but it isn't very useful in practice.

Resetting the base is not the best idea, as that will require you to remove all the cameras from the account and add them all back again.  If you want to reset something, try resetting the problem camera.  You'd first remove the camera from the account.  Then hold down the sync button inside the camera housing until the camera LED flashed amber three times.  Then add the camera back to the account.

[KevP]

Great, resetting the camera itself did the trick. Once I removed the device the base station stopped flashing and turned solid blue. Had to reset the camera twice before the pairing would work. But at last back up and running. So it's community 10 v 0 Support. Still doesn't explain why support never got back to me (case no was #00596971) which doesn't fill me with confidence around Arlo as a reliable product. Also this link https://www.arlo.com/en_gb/support?utm_source=app_desktop&cc=en&_ga=2.79516957.805399834.1709540716-... shows the chat times as 9am to 5pm (UK time as it's UK website). But thanks @StephenB for the assistance and links. Appreciated