Camera recording but no video on portal - New thread

[pjama]

I'm starting a new thread for missing videos but more specifically when I know they're being recorded but they aren't being uploaded to the portal as well as no notification.

I've reported this problem before in the no video threads but I think it's a similar symptom in that there's no video on the portal but different in that I KNOW the camera is recorded either because of the video being on the SDCard when I checked or the IR lights were on and visible.

I noted the latest firmware VMB5000-1.12.3.2_134_185068d has been installed on my base station and rebooted it but this issue is still happening.

Yesterday there were 2 instances on one camera at about 5pm and one on another camera at 11pm that I know recorded but there was no notification and no video on the portal. There were recordings about 1/2 hour either side of the 5pm events that did upload. I KNOW the cameras recorded because the recordings were on the SD card. If there was no SDCard this would obviously manifest as no recording at all.

My network is fine as far as I know, it's gigabit throughout and 20Mbps upload to the internet. On one instance when videos weren't getting uploaded, I tested and could ping google with no problems. That's obviously a bit different to uploading a multi MB video file but connectivity to the internet was there.

Can this be looked at by Arlo? My feeling is it's a capacity/availability problem at the upload server and/or the base station gives up to easily when testing availability to upload. Perhaps Arlo is a victim of it's own popularity and needs to upgrade capacity?

[JamesC]

pjama,

That last firmware update should have resolved this issue. If you're still experiencing problems with videos not saving to the cloud, I encourage you to reach out to the support team to further investigate the issue.

You will find several options for contacting support in the provided link: Arlo Support Team 

JamesC

[LandJS]

I have not had a single issue since the firware update until today. Two cameras triggered for a car and shows under devices on both in the app.  Neither though sent a notification and only one is in the library.  Just the one incident and honestly unless I was following another systems thread I can't say that any are 100%.  Once sd card viewing online is enabled I will add that for insurance but one main reason I chose Arlo was the library in the cloud.  If a thief finds your system be it a card or drive your evidence is gone.

[pjama]

@JamesC I've been waiting to experience this specific issue again since I reported it above but haven't seen it again. It's behaving it's self while I'm watching it closely and testing it.

I'll wait till I can confirm it happens again before I cantact support but as you can probably appreciate it's a bit hard to catch unless it's a known recordable incident that's not uploaded to the cloud and then I have to wade through the SDCard files to compare and confirm.

Thanks for your assistance.

[pjama]

@JamesC  I've had this happen another couple of times that I'm aware of. I logged case number 41076860 for a couple of instances around 3:43 this morning. You may wish to look into it for more details but it's an hour of my time I'm not going to get back. 😕

The outcome is that I need to go and change my wireless router channel so that the Aro wireless channel changes (to the same)..... I find this an unlikely solution but will follow up on it.

It's unlikely because 1) two wireless networks in close proximity will interfere with each other if they are on the same channel. I think the support person is wrong here but may be confused with changing my router wireless channel may force arlo to chose another channel to avoid interference. and 2) The comms problem seems to be between base station and arlo cloud servers which has nothing to do with wireless.

Hopefully this will get resolved soon.

[pjama]

Just an update on the wireless situation:

My router was fixed at channel 6 for 2.4GHz and auto chose 149 for 5GHz

Arlo was also on Channel 6 for 2.4GHz and 40 for 5GHz

Interesting that arlo chose the same channel as my router. If that's by design then I'd say that's a flaw. It really should choose a different channel to avoid interferance.

We'll see how this goes.

Inidentally, all my cameras had/have 2 bars on the wireless indicator.

[LandJS]

If the router is left on a set channel that is the only one it can choose.  After Arlo is rebooted to the set channel you have to go back into the router and a set to auto.  If something happens to cause Arlo to choose channels again, it does often choose the same one as other things on your system.  I did swap which end of our hutch the router and Arlo are on, same cable and distance just swapped ends and that has kept the signal from dropping to one bar on any camera for a week now.

[LandJS]

I should have added that changing channels can eliminate interference and affect signal strength but after going back and reading through this thread, I'm not seeing what channels would have to do with recordings to the cloud being missing.  Perhaps I missed something.

[Kammfam]

I've always missed motion where the cameras are off on a smoke break or something and completely miss things right in front of them, but now I'm having the issue where the camera is actually seeing the motion but not recording it to the cloud. This is new SINCE the update. I only noticed this today because the web portal showed me a thumbnail of a car going by an hour previous, but when I went into the video library, that video wasn't there. I pulled out the SD card and discovered 2 videos from today that were there but not on the web portal.

[pjama]

Per Arlo support suggestion to resolve this issue by changing wireless channel, I manually changed my home router from channel 6 to 9 for 2.4GHz. However I've since had another instance of a video on the SDCard but not uploaded to the portal (cloud/library). So this doesn't appear to have fixed the problem but I will observe a few more days. Interestingly, the next morning the Alro base station had automatically moved it's 2.4GHz from channel 6 to 9 as well (it was not rebooted at all).

The details of last night's problem are: I have videos on my SDCard for (among others before and after) 20190828_2005, 20190828_2111, 20190828_2114 and 20190828_2229 but only corresponding video for 20190828_2005 and 20190828_2229 on the portal/cloud/library. ALL smart notifications are ON for both cameras that I know are having this problem so they should record, upload and notify everything.

@LandJS regarding wireless, I agree with you, although could you explain how you manage to get Arlo and your wireless router to stay on different channels? It seems what Arlo support and you are saying, is to change the Arlo wireless channel, change the wireless channel on your router and Arlo will follow. But if I change it again,  Arlo's only going to follow again, right?

The fact that my arlo base station auto chooses the SAME channel as my router is disturbing. Arlo if you are listening, if this is by design, it's wrong. It should choose a channel with the least intererance, away from the loudest (ie usually the nearest in physical proximity) to work effectively.

And yes I can't see how wireless has much to do with uploading to the cloud but I need to jump through the hoops to get this resolved. Perhaps slow wireless borks the upload to the cloud.

[LandJS]

Without asking support I couldn't say if changes were made in the last firmware.  My channel changes used to always stay until a reboot but now they do seem to change as Arlo chooses.  I wouldn't agree with taking that ability away from the consumer however.  Wi-fi channel traffic is varied as much as each and every neighborhood is and changes continually throughout the day as neighbors sign on and off.  Only by watching a wi-fi analyzer in your area for awhile can you learn the traffic patterns in your neighborhood and choose the best channel.  So unless Arlo is regularly looking at the traffic through out the day, it may pick the best one in the morning but be the worst one by evening.

[Kammfam]

Where do you see what channel your base station is using?

[LandJS]

I've been using an app called wi-fi analyzer for a couple years now before I ever got an Arlo.  I just use the free version but it can be upgraded.  Free does everything I need.  It shows all the wi-fi traffic in my area by name and what channel they are using and what signal strength is and recomends what channel would be best.  If everything is working I ignor changing anything.  When Arlo chose a conjested channel I would go to the router and set a channel for both 2.4 and 5ghz and reboot Arlo forcing it to use those.  Then go back into the router and turn auto back on and Arlo used to always stay on the separate channel until a reboot.  Then it was check it with the analyzer.  A pain but what worked for a weak signal.  Since moving the Arlo and Router both which is also trial and error since it's about the 5th time, this last move has kept all cameras at 2 bars or more.

[pjama]

Daily update:

Re upload to portal/cloud/library: The problem happened again last night. From midnight there were two videos on the portal but 6 on the SDCard. The extra videos on the HD card were from three different cameras so that confirms all my cameras are doing this.

The cameras received an updated firmware last evening (ie before midnight and above problems). That's the first time I've been asked to allow the update to the cameras. Good change Arlo, I appreciate at least knowing. It would be good to display current and proposed update versions though.

Re wireless: I'm now convinced the arlo base station purposely chooses the same 2.4GHz wifi channel as the router. I set my router on auto and it moved to 13 while arlo was on 9. I rebooted arlo and it moved to 13 as well. I was then very mean to arlo and turned off my router 2.4GHz all together and left arlo to fend for itself. After a reboot some time later it chose 9 again. So the above missing videos on the cloud acccured when I can conclusively rule out local router vs arlo wireless interference. ie in 2.4GHz router was off and in 5GHz, arlo and router were on different and free channels. Also I've now changed the arlo wireless channel per arlo support requested but the problem still persists.

Arlo, despite above, I really think the logic arlo uses for choosing the wifi channel should be looked at if possible.

I'll observer a little longer but not sure what to do next. Perhaps persistent pinging or port availability of arlo key servers to confirm connectivity but I'd need arlo (amazon) permission to do that.

@Kammfam I use "Wifi Analyzer" on android. I have it on good authority from a friend the same app is not available on apple.

@LandJS Thanks for that info. That sounds like a lot of trouble to change the channel but I don't see any other way.

[LandJS]

anytime you reboot Arlo or it restarts on it's own for some reason there's a chance it will choose the same channel and really it doesn't matter if it's not a congested channel.  The same channel can handle a lot of traffic but if you have a lot of neighbors come home and start using the same channel it could get congested.  There's no reason to change it if there's not an issue.  If you live in a city then there's a lot more traffic than the country.  If you use DLS for internet your's is yours,  if your on say Comcast and all your neighbors come home and go online things can slowdown beause you share it with them.  Now completely turning off 2.4 could cause an issue depending on your setup.  2.4 can reach areas 5ghz won't as well.  Out in my RV my new Samsung TV will only find my 2.4 but my S10+ gets 5ghz anywhere on my property.  Some routers have dual 5 ghz.  My grandsons newest router says it can do wi-fi 6 but my S10 is the only thing I own that can use it so I'm not upgrading for awhile.  As for the SD card, can't tell you.  I'm not using one until they allow access without removal.

[Kammfam]

Okay, this is ridiculous. My cameras have just started doing this SINCE the update. I am missing multiple videos daily on the portal, but they are on the SD card. I've always missing motion before, but it's like the cameras were asleep. This issue is new where it's actually recording but only to the SD card. And what's crazy is the portal knows I have a recording because it shows me when there was last activity and shows a thumbnail of the recent video. But when I go into the Video Library, the video isn't there!

What good is a security system if I don't know when it is recording?! Am I seriously expected to remove my SD card every day and wade through piles of videos trying to figure out if I missed anything important?

[28036b]

You said you had 2 recordings in portal library but 6 on SD card.  Just curious...  if you Live View your camera I presume no video shows up in the library?   But does a live view activation trigger a recording to the SD card despite the fact there is no upload to the library/account?

As I said, just curious if you could try a live view and see. 

[pjama]

Just a quick update as I've been away and have small window of oppertunity to look at this.

I've done a video count of whats on the SDCard vs what's on thportal for the last few days. I'm not sure if there are circumstances where vidoes should be on the card but not on the portal but it seems I'm missing quite a few videos.

Today, Sep 1st to now (17:30) 88 on the SDCard, 77 on Portal = 11 missing

Yesterday 31st August, 37 on the SDCard, 26 on the portal = 11 missing

Previous day 30th August, 33 on the SDCard, 108 on the Portal. Wot? ahhh, ooops I left my SDCard in my PC that day after reporint in the morning so it doesn't count. 😕

I've also set up something called smokeping (http://oss.oetiker.ch/smokeping/counter.cgi/2.006011) to ping an "arlochunks" server (Sorry Arlo, I'm getting desperate) and it indicates my internet access has been uninterupted for the last few days I've had it on.  The average RTT is 29.3 ms although it did elevate for a period between 19:00 and 22:00 on last night (Saturday 31 Aug AEST).

@JamesC is there anything else I should be looking at here. I'm getting a little over this and losing confidence in my Ultra (my pros are pretty solid though).

[pjama]

@28036b, I haven't got time to test at this point but I'm pretty sure just a live view does not record to SDCard unless something triggers a recording at which point it should do what it normally does and record to SDCard (because it's there) and portal (because it's always supposed to).

[28036b]

@pjama It was just an idea, as if a live view trigger did record to SD even though it did not record to library then you might check your router logs for connections that matched the extra SD video recordings at times that you know it wasn't true motion and it wasn't your own live view causing the trigger. 

[pjama]

Next update: So after videos going missing again last night I contacted support under the same case number and had a 2 hour marithon session (I can't keep this up).

Fortunately the issue happened right there and then with several instances of what should have been library videos and notifications but only resulted in videos on the SDCard. So they could see first hand exactly what was/wasn't happening.

The eventual work around was to change the mode from Schedule (currently using mode for 2 of 4 cams) to Armed and rebooting. This seemd to fix the problem for here and now with Arlo notifying and recording to the library (assumed it recorded to SDCard as well at this point) in imediately subsequent tests. We agreed that it would be suitable to change back to Schedule but edit to use Armed instead of my AllCams mode that was pretty much the same as Armed. But....., as it turns out, I'm a remedial Shedule editor and it didn't actually save so I had the same modes in the schedule as earlier but vids were still saving to the library. I think it was more the reboot than the mode change that fixed it.

Edit: I'm going to blame editing in web app via browser vs android app because I just edited the schedule again and the change stuck in the web app but has the pre-edit version in the android app. If I do a similar edit in the android app then look at it in the web app, the change stuck but it blew away some of the other time/modes.... sigh. I'll mess with it till I have Armed as the predominant mode but this is getting a bit tedious.

[Kammfam]

I've never used any other mode besides Armed, and I'm always missing motion, so I don't think that's the issue.

[pjama]

@Kammfam Are you sure your camera is detecting motion and recording? ie is it either saving videos to an SDCard or at least the IR light come on (at night) indicating it IS detecting motion? I'd like to exclude "I pretty sure it should have detected motion and recorded" incidences if I can in this thread.

I think there's two current ongoing issues that look similar:

1) no motion detected, therefore no video in the portal/cloud/library and

2) definitely motion detected, but still no video in the portal/cloud/library.

You may have both based on your post history. I'm reasonably confident I don't have issue No 1 but can't definitively confirm one way or the other. I'm trying to sort out No 2 in this thread for the instances I KNOW motion was detected and recorded but no video was uploaded.

[pjama]

Update: I've had 2 full days since I changed things and it DOES appear mode related. Two days probably isn't enough but I'm updating hoping others could chime in.

Previously I had generally 5 time slots on any given day in my Schedule, all with custom modes (3 variations of 2 or 4 cameras based on cameras A and B or A,B,C and D). I've since changed the early morning and late night time slot from custom 4 cameras mode to Armed mode and they haven't missed a beat. Meanwhile my mid morning (6 to 8:30am) and mid afternoon (5 to 7pm) slots which is a custom mode, FrontCams with just cameras A&B active, HAS missed uploading some videos to the library. My middle of the day mode varies per day and I've been messing with it so I haven't collated and posted that data.

My FronCams mode is very simple with just detect motion (85%) then record video and send alert. Same for both cameras A and B. I've certainly deleted this mode from both time slots in my schedule and put it back in. I'm pretty sure I also deleted and recreated the mode as well (I messed around a fair bit during and after my last session with support 3 days ago).

If others could confirm their Ultras are definitely detecting motion either by way of video on the SDCard and/or IR lights lighting up on motion at night or as @Kammfam has had, the still-capture for the camera* is indicative that it detected but there's no corresponding video on the portal/cloud/library for that instance, it would be helpful.

* I think I've had this as well but haven't been able to double check because the still-capture is fairly quickly overwritten. I *think* the still-capture, while displayed in my android app, is cached locally and not actually on the cloud but I'm just guessing on that.

I hope Arlo engineers are looking at this data as it's a fair bit of work to remove the SDcard, compare, collate and report. I'd reeeaaally like to see this get fixed soon. 🙂

[Kammfam]

I'm fairly certain I've had both issues, but who knows. I'm definitely not taking the SD card out daily and sorting through that mess of videos trying to figure out if I missed any. I just know that I've watched someone walk directly in front of the camera, and there's no video on the cloud. Then they walk back by 3 minutes later, and that one records to the cloud. That happens almost daily.

I do know for sure that I've had videos on the SD card that never appeared on the cloud, because I have checked it a few times since reading about others having this issue. Totally agree that it's WAY too much of a pita to be taking that card in and out and trying to sort through long file names trying to search for missing videos, especially when you have more than a couple cameras in your collection.