Ultra motion detection is not acting effective

[Gremlyn]

My Ultra cameras are not detcting motion beyond a few metres and most of the time, either misses the action or just doesnt record anything. 

The cameras appear to have a delay between recording and when motion being detected or it's not detecting the motion untill the end im not sure which. 

Before the ultra, i had the pro 3 installed for a few days, (upgraded to get better resolution) and those cameras detected motion well out to about 6 or 7 meters. I have the arlo door bell and it detects motion the other two cameras do not. 

I have tried 

• Resetting the base station and adding the cameras and removing the batteries from the cameras
• Moving the base station away from the router
• moving the base station closer to the cameras
• Changing the motion settings to 50 and 100
• Cameras are plugged into mains power
• Contacting support, which is crazy hard from australia time zones and online support just doesnt respond.

Summary if issues

• Motion detection is inconsistant in distance
• Motion detection range is far less then the previous pro 3
• Motion detection not triggering in some instances, my door bell detects cars and people driving and walking past the house while the two camers do not. Cameras are positioned about 2 meters closer to these events but about 1.5 meters higher

Any suggestions outside of what i have listed above appreciated. At this point i think ill be returning the

[bigbelly]

Hi everybody!

I have been an owner of Arlo since mid Aug. I have had called Arlo every 3 days to get an issue on a case that has been open since early Sept. Unfortunately every time I call, it has been with responses like

"we need to escalate this to someone else".

"we need to get someone else to address this but they do not talk on the phone".

"please be patient someone will get back to you in 72 hours"

The most difficult thing is that the call center wait time is about 80 minutes on average. Even when you call right at 9AM EST they do not answer right away. Plus I've had them hang up on me and I'm livid on the lack of response. 

After owning this expensive system for 2 weeks, it was heaven. Worked beautifully! Then the camera died on us, got a new one. The smart hub wasn't notifying us on activity. We would walk right front of the camera and nothing. I see lots of people have the same issue. We have had gaps of over 18 hours of no activity on a busy street. How can that be?

We've replaced smart hub and continue to have this issue which his not hardware related. We had incompetent workers at the call center that they don't follow up on your issues. Paying $1,000 for a system, you'd expect it to work. If it doesn't, that the company provides adequate customer service to get your system back to how it was.

So while I'm writing this long sad comment, I'm waiting for someone to answer the phone. Unfortunately I can't return the doorbell since I bought it on Amazon but I can return the system to costco. But after drilling holes in our home, its just frustrating!

If anyone thinks there is a way to fix this issue, please let me know but it appears to be an ongoing issue with the poor firmware updates.

[ShayneS]

HI @Gremlyn

have you tried adjusting the camera positioning/angle by chance? I have provided an article with more information here: How do I position my Arlo wire-free camera?

[ShayneS]

Hi @bigbelly

Do you mind providing me with this case number so I can review it?

[bigbelly]

Hi! It’s 41918888 on defective camera and smart hub. Both were replaced. Still having firmware issues on the cameras detecting motion and not relaying info to my iOS with no notifications. In addition I have no activity on my library for 18 hour stretches. I’ve walked many times in the morning and cameras do not detect me. Definitely firmware smart hub issue. Not only did I get a replacement camera, I can’t use it for my smart plan trial ... been told it has been escalated for two weeks and got zero response. I have to call every 3 days and been told that they are aware...frustrating on a $1k system. Plus no one at Arlo could give me a promo code to offset the free 3 month trial ... all you have to do is add the camera to the existing trial and if that’s difficult, I’ll buy the smart plan just reimburse me but was told it’s not that easy to do. Thanks

[ShayneS]

Hi @bigbelly

I have escalated your case and someone from the escalations team will be reaching out to you soon, Your escalations number is: 41992321

[bigbelly]

Thank You! I've been told for 2 weeks now that someone will get back to me on the replacement camera being part of the trial plan and the issue with the firmware but I doubt anyone will and I'll have to call back in 3 days asking for a status update. Thanks for your help though, I appreciate it!