Arlo 2K doorbell Wired and Battery Wireless doorbell Not staying charged

[PCSecure]

Hi everyone — hoping someone here (ideally Arlo staff) can finally clarify this properly.

I have the Arlo 2K wired + battery-powered doorbell. Since the day I installed it over a year ago, the battery has nevershown above ~65%, even though it has always been seated on the wired power mount. I was told at the time “it’s getting power, don’t worry”, but no explanation beyond that — and it has never increased beyond that low percentage.

This weekend it suddenly stopped working completely — showing low battery — despite the wired power still being live at the door. I’ve confirmed the transformer/wired mount is still delivering power.

My core questions are:

• Is the battery supposed to charge to 100% when installed on wired power?

• Or am I expected to fully charge it separately first, and then the wired mount only maintains it?

• If it’s truly wired-powered, why did the battery drain to zero and shut down when power to the mount was continuously available?

• Shouldn’t it operate entirely from mains without relying on battery capacity?

This makes no sense to me — especially as Arlo support previously just said “it has power, all good”, which clearly wasn’t helpful given where I’ve now ended up. It doesnt seem to be charging at present on the mount but not dropped either from around 64-65%. 

On top of that, motion detection was detecting people 6 metres away on the pavement despite multiple attempts to adjust zones — and support basically advised disabling the very intelligent-detection features I bought the system for. I’m still paying a subscription but it’s been difficult to get meaningful assistance — even now the support website won’t let me log in on desktop (says wrong password, but mobile app accepts the same password fine). Also no way to call anyone when it's a security product and to help keep an elderly person safe. 

Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who had the same issue and actually got it resolved — and from Arlo, a clear and definitive answer on how the power system is actually intended to work and why it is not working properly and teh battery ran out.

Thanks in advance — I genuinely want to get this working properly, but it’s becoming very frustrating for a security product especially as they continue to take a subscription with less than adequate customer support fr a paid subscription and a camera that can run our of battery without notification whilst on power.

I am going to go and charge it up to 100% if it will before putting it back on the wall. Where can I check in app that it is getting power, as It only shows battery 65% and there is no option in Battery power management to see if its getting mains supply as Chat GPT suggested checking but cant see where...

[jguerdat]

There's a lot there but I'll try...

- The camera is designed to allow the battery to discharge to ~60-65% and then charge to 80-90% (I forget exactly). This is to help preserve the Li-ion battery.

- Charging it first to 100% may be useful so you can monitor the discharge and charge to verify proper operation.

- Did you actually measure the voltage at the doorbell when the battery fully discharged?

- The Gen. 2 doorbell should run off the battery with no power applied - that's how it works on installations with no existing wiring.

- Zones don't eliminate detection - they just cause the servers to delete the videos of activity within the zone. Reducing motion sensitivity in the doorbell settings under Default Mode Settings is what would be required.

- Checking power is a function of using a voltmeter to measure voltage at the doorbell. That also allows you to verify the wiring is correctly attached and not broken.

However, the fact that the battery discharged sounds like either a loss of power, for any reason, or a faulty doorbell.

[alex_loo]

following this.

[PCSecure]

Thank you J Guerdat, 

Thats a great reply - appreciated. 

- I was able to dismount the doorbell and then charge it to 100% yesterday. That is what it reads at present and when back on the powered mount it is not receiving power. Unfortunately I do not have a Volt meter but will try get hold of one. The Doorbell/Camera is working fine just on battery. 

I also checked the transformer that is supplying the power. It is a 8-24V capability with 12VA so I believe according to Arlo website that is enough to cover the power supply to charge and maintain the doorbell.

I also reduce the motion sensitivity as much as was possible without it not working but it was still getting triggered by passing cars and people walking along so I've left it as minimal as possible and simply cant get the AI ID of object type working otherwise it goes too sensitive again. But I;m ok with where it is currently just a shame it isn't better to be able to adjust the area you want to be active the image rather than a sensitivity. slider that doesnt seem to correlate to a distance etc... if that makes sense, I've quite a practical thinker so an arbitrary scale doesnt male sense but a way to select which part of the image you want to trigger if movement is detected is far more logical for me, as my old CCTV system from 17 years ago and others I;ve played with recently do allow that but I liked the sound of the Arlo, and it does look nicer than competitors for Grandma!!  

I still have not heard back from Arlo which is no surprise unfortunately, It was like this last year when I tried to reach them. Which is a shame. 

Will commit back when I have managed to get a Voltage meter to test it. 

Thanks so much 

[BrookeN]

@PCSecure once you get the voltage meter if everything checks out there, I can escalate the behavior you are seeing. And have someone from support reach out to you. 

[StephenB]

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@PCSecure wrote:

I also checked the transformer that is supplying the power. It is a 8-24V capability with 12VA so I believe according to Arlo website that is enough to cover the power supply to charge and maintain the doorbell.

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It is more than enough power.  But it is possible that it might need to be replaced.  If it is exposed, it's not difficult to do that yourself.

[PCSecure]

Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions so far.

It took me a few days, but I’ve now checked everything with a multimeter. I’m getting 23.7V at the doorbell docking terminals, so the wiring and transformer (rated 8–24V AC) are definitely supplying power.

That makes me wonder — could the issue be with the camera itself or the connector on the mounting plate? Or is there something else that could cause it not to recognise or charge from wired power?

I have to say I’m quite disappointed that Arlo Support still hasn’t replied to my direct requests for assistance. I really appreciate everyone in this community trying to help, but it’s taking a long time to get any real resolution — and I honestly thought the subscription covered both support and cloud storage.

I’ll call an electrician next to double-check the wiring, but I had high hopes for Arlo and planned to expand with more units. Unfortunately, this experience has shaken my confidence a bit. Hopefully someone from Arlo or a qualified electrician can help identify whether it’s the doorbell, dock, or connection that’s at fault.

It’s frustrating because this issue has been there since installation — I even raised the dropping battery percentage with Arlo support early on as I didnt realise it was meant to say charging it just showed a battery percentage and slowly just dropped, this was back when they actually made the effort to speak by phone. No reply from Arlo to my support request via website since the date of posting the question. I’d really like to see this resolved properly, especially given the premium price and expectations of reliability. Thanks all

[PCSecure]

Appreciate that - They should have really contacted me when I made the request through website. Thank you for your assistance with this