Expensive mistake (Arlo Ultra)

[JK24476]

Hi all

Starting to feel like these cameras were a complete waste of money.  I have 3 Arlo ultra cameras and the base obv with Premier and CVR.  All on the latest firmware:

Zoning doesn't seem to work at all, I still get notifications from things outside of my zone

I bought cables to do CVR.  For some reason batteries are saying 85%

Lastly and worst for me, CVR is a joke.  I scroll back, and maybe I can see a video at a time, maybe not.  There are gaps.  No reason why, so despite paying more I don't get continuous recording 😞

Any advice on any of these three points would be greatly appreciated

Oh and while I'm trying to post this, its saying Correct the highlighted errors and try again, but not highlighting anything ha ha!  Am I being punked?!  Where's Ashton?  Ah its the labels, which aren't here I'm told.  Wow it is hard to post on here :S

[JK24476]

By the way for any poor soul who's new like me, just type Troubleshooting in the label section

[53Crusher]

I was one of the very first owners of the Arlo Ultra system and am well versed in it and previous firmware updates/problems. This is my current system.

Base Station VMB500r4 Firmware 1.15.0.1_244_c345a43

4 Ultra Cameras H6 Firmware 1.070.50.0_197_09137a0

Audio Doorbell HW version 1.2 Firmware 1.2.0.0_309_283

Chime HW version 1.2 Firmware 1.2.0.0_297_266

Android Arlo App 2.12.0_26090 released 12/13/19

All cameras have constant AC power cables

The above is just to show that my $1500 Arlo Ultra system is completely up to date for firmware/software and is still completely non-functional. Although I did NOT want to spend 1/2 of my weekend troubleshooting Arlo equipment, I felt it was my duty to try and be part of the solution and not just complain. I did NOT want to go down this road, but I did. 

Got out my ladder, physically removed all four Ultra cameras, audio doorbell and chime. Within the Arlo desktop app, I removed the chime, bell, four cameras and then base. Pressed sync button on chime 10 seconds to reset it. Pressed sync button on doorbell 10 seconds to reset it. Removed the batteries from all four cameras. Pressed reset on the base station for 10 seconds. Took the additional steps of deleting all video in my cloud storage library. Bought a brand new 64Gb SD card for the base station. Deleted the cache for my Arlo Android app and then deleted the app. Restarted cell phone and re-installed Arlo app. 

At this point, I believe I had created the equivalent of a new out of box experience. Plugged Ethernet cable into my SmartHub and applied power. Light went to a solid blue. Used my newly installed Android app to add the SmartHub to my account. To be extra safe, I gave it a different name than before. Inserted brand new 64 GB SD card and reformatted with the Arlo Android app. One at a time, I installed the camera batteries and added them using my Android app. To be extra cautious, all cameras received a new name. 

Finally, I added the audio doorbell (with new name), and associated it to a camera. Lastly, added the Arlo chime (with new name). All synced well and everything went as it should have. 

Physically reinstalled all devices back to where they belong. Verified that I could do a "live view" on all cameras. Doorbell and Chime behaved as expected. 

THIS IS WHERE I BELIEVE THE PROBLEM LIES.........

Tried to set up activity zones with my Android app as well as Desktop app. All four cameras are automatically zoomed to either the upper left 1/4 of the live view screen, or they are even zoomed into a 12"x 12" area in the upper left quadrant. There is no way for me to change this. As a result, I can NOT set an activity zone and they really only trigger when something happens in this small area. 

Although Arlo hasn't paid me to be a beta tester for their system over the last year, that is EXACTLY what I have had to do to protect my $1500 investment. I REALLY hope you will forward this to your engineers. There is NOTHING I can do to make this better. The problem lies with the firmware update of 12/2. Instead of focusing on new features, Arlo should make sure that basic functionality exists first. I am starting to regret my purchase last year. 

Certainly i could call tech support and let them take me through their pre-written scripts, but as you can see I have meticulously done what they would have me do and my system is still no better than a door stop.  The problem lies with ARLO.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT TO DO!

[JamesC]

JK24476,

The development team is investigating reports of issues with activity zones.

CVR gaps could be an indication of the camera dropping offline at the time you experience the gap. What is the signal strength like for your camera? Interference and range issues can result in inconsistencies with connectivity, which could result in gaps in your CVR timeline.

JamesC

[JK24476]

Hi, I'm sorry for the slow reply, I've been trying many things and moving things around.  So have you ever seen it where CVR will not load on an apple device?  Always at least two bars. If I come on my laptop however, I can see the timeline :S