Ultra Cameras don't seem to want to stay connected

[Jeremyinsf]

Rare for me to buy something on 'day 1' but I've been waiting for these Ultra cameras for a while.

Anyway, I picked up today and want this to be a success - but I can't seem to get the cameras to stay connected, even when they are within a few feet of the base station.  Both the 'regular' live view and view to position the camera time out all the time... constantly.  The message I get is "The request timed out" or more often, "This Arlo device is offline

Please make sure it is connected to the Internet. Visit support.arlo.com for help." 

My Internet is fine.  Other stuff all working fine.  If I move the camera or even touch it, that seems to make it worse.  Seems to be the same issue if I try to view on web or on mobile App.  No indication that the base station is going offline.  

I allowed all the latest firmware to update on the Base and the two camera's I'm currently testing with, and it has no effect.  Camera is H6 v 1.060.20.8_30046.  Power management is "optimized".

I tried 10ft from Base and then maybe 75 feet.  Same thing.

Thoughts?  I really don't want to return them 😞

[ItsPlayTime]

I'd guess it's more like 25 ft than 40. Either way, the Arlo Pro picks up the motion every time. Both Ultra's fail every time. Additionally, the Pro is actually the farthest away of the 3 cameras.

[Travis90]

Good Evening,

I am having the same issues with disconnecting camera. I have contacted support and was advised that this is normal and the cameras will disconnect due to WiFi. The support team will not escalate the case.

Thanks,
Travis

[Bigjames83]

Well that’s pretty lame.

[KingBowser64]

UPS delivered my 4-pack of the Arlo Ultra cameras from Best Buy today. Sadly, I came across this forum before I received my package, so when it delivered, I opened it with hesitation. My cameras are also experiencing the issues described here.
So far I have only setup 2 of the 4 cameras. One camera is updated to the most up-to-date firmware, while the other I decided to not update. The base station was updated to the most up-to-date firmware available.
Both cameras, which are 15 feet away from the base station (connected to a Linksys Velop system with Xfinity gigabit Internet) for testing purposes, are losing their connection the majority of the time. I want to say that the camera with the original firmware out of the box is performing slightly better than the camera with the latest firmware.
At one point, the camera with the updated firmware was in a continuous loop of the screen going pitch black, then into night mode, then into color mode, and then back to a pitch black screen.
The cameras also experience a severe delay when attempting to load the video (when the video actually loads). Sometimes when I try to activate the floodlight, it will not even come on. I have been unable to get either camera to play the siren yet.
I hope that Arlo is able to push a firmware update fix soon because I want to like these cameras, but right now, I have barely been able to watch a video with them. These cameras have so much potential, especially with HomeKit on the horizon.

[Bigjames83]

I feel like they pushed these out too early. They should have waited until the end of the month like planned. I have the two pack sitting in my car. I am looking to replace my nest cams because honestly I’m really not impressed with the video quality for the price I’m paying for the units as well as the monthly cost.

I guess I’ll run both cameras until arlo gets their stuff together.

[Ayrity]

Same issues here for me. Try to stream from local wifi, I get black screen, or cant connect, or camera is offline.

I've power cycled, I've turned the cameras off and on, I've removed and reconnected them etc etc. One camera is about 35 feet, the other is 15. Havent even set up the other 2 yet... if it's not fixed in a week or so, I'm going to bite the bullet and return, and get nest cams and figure out how to get power to them I guess.

[Jeremyinsf]

I'm super sad to say - I packed mine up, they are going back tomorrow. 

I'm not spending this much money on a system that just doesn't work. 

And yes I know they are different companies now, but, I've been through the whole firmware debacle with my Netgear Orbi, and I'm not going to do it all over with this too.  Not how I want to spend my time.  And as these are a security item, I'm not going to risk that they don't work one day because they are 'tracking' a subject and didn't record, or they decided to randomly drop connection when the base is 15 feet away, or they don't record even when they detect motion, or they are dead because the LED won't turn off, some other thing like that.

The "published" reason that these were delayed to market was about a battery issue, not a connectivity issue.  These should have been tested and working before release to the public.  I like the potential that is here, but potential doesn't matter if it can't be met.  I've waited for these since they were announced, and in fact have waited for cameras overall until something at this 'level' became available. But it's just not worth it.  I can get 90% of what I need elsewhere.  Maybe I will reconsider after all the other paying beta testers help work out the bugs.  

I'm a technology professional myself, living in the bay area, so my standards are somewhat high.  But I'm really not asking for too much.  I just want stuff to work, and these don't.  

[Bigjames83]

I’m gonna give it until the end of the Best Buy return policy. If this continues they will go back.

[Ayrity]

May I ask what you are going to switch for? I'm interested in other options as well. Thank you so much.

[lifehackster]

Anybody here that have purchased and successfully setup the new Arlo Ultra.? I have setup mine and all updates have been installed and the Ultra takes a long time to connect and most of the time, failure to connect or camera offline? I have installed one of my Arlo Pro 2 cameras on the same hub (successfully) and has no connection issues...but both of the ultras cannot connect.

[Cwmmmm]

Lifehackster, arlo dev team is aware of this and is working on a backend update.

[adammiarka]

Are you using the Pro 2 on the new Smart Hub, or the original hub that came with the Pro 2?   I am also having connection issues and delays when trying to connect to the Ultras via the new Smart Hub. 

[Ayrity]

We all seem to be having these issues. Let's. See if they can fix it before the best buy return policy runs out.

[JamSam]

Just a quick update after a few days of use:

There is definitely some consistency to the disconnects. Change any setting and the camera seems to reboot. Also, often the other disconnects seem to be at the start of an event and the camera either captures nothing or, in at least one case for me, a zero second video. Sometimes I even get a motion or similar alert from the camera that ends up recording nothing. The camera then goes offline for a bit before eventually reappearing. Signal strength does not seem to affect this.

One other concern is that there seems to be a decent window of time, in some cases 30 sec - 2min after the end of an event where you can try to trigger another event via motion but it doesn’t always record. One camera I have captures the walk from the house the garage. I have several videos of me entering, but very few of me coming back. I seem to magically get back in the house. Motion sensitivity settings don’t affect this. That is definitely not what I want from a security camera.

There are a few other concerning bugs like the app claiming you are looking at a live image but you can see it is a still shot from a prior event (as I write this my front door in “live” mode shows a package that we removed 2 hours ago), cameras aren’t consistently triggered per the “armed” instructions (camera B is set to record when A sees motion but no recording is captured by B), etc.

That being said, when this works it is very good. While I struggle to call it 4K, the image is superior to competitors. The smart alerts are surprisingly accurate, and when the other features work, it is quite a complete system. These issues seem fixable, the real question is how long will it take and can you tolerate not having a reliable system in the meantime.

[JamesC]

The development team is working on a fix for this issue that should be available very soon. I will provide more information as soon as I know more. We appreciate your patience while we work on the solution.

JamesC

[Cwmmmm]

Any word on the firmware update arlo community manager?? Thank you..

[KGSRETIRED]

Mine seems to be worse at night.

[cgallatin]

same exact boat as ItsPlayTime except for the additional pro cameras (4) and base station. The 15 day clock is rolling 

[dwbrock]

I have been having the same issues as others with connection issues and overall sluggish response, and will also be returning to Best Buy if not resolved soon. 

[KGSRETIRED]

Is 15 days the return window for best buy?

[cgallatin]

yes

[KGSRETIRED]

Good to know.

[Rwoodru]

Obviously, I was also having connectivity issues, however I just noticed that my SmartHub and Cameras received new firmware.  Perhaps this will help! 

SmartHub - 1.12.0.0_30255

Ultra Cameras - 1.060.20.10_30273

[Cwmmmm]

@Rwoodru Novice This might be rushed, but please tell us what you have discovered with the update. Is it better? Thank you!

[Rwoodru]

Yeah, so my problem initially was that one of the Ultra cameras would restart everytime I tried to view it live, the other Ultra was ok. After the updates (cameras and smarthub,) the problem camera is definitely connecting normally.

Caveat, I'm currently charging my Ultra cameras and they are within 10 ft of the SmartHub, so I have no info about normal usage at distance. I also have 2 Pro cameras that I paired with the new SmartHub, and they seem to be working normally at distance ~30-40 ft with walls.