App and chime don’t respond to doorbell button, motion notifications and recording still work

[AlexWhi]

My Arlo doorbell’s motion detection and smart notifications work perfectly. However, when someone pushes the button, it rarely triggers a call to my phone or sets off the chime. I know people are pushing the button because I get a notification of their movement and a recording or even video of them doing it! So clearly there is no connection problem. The doorbell is definitely responding to the button because it makes its little confirmation noise outside.

I’ve been working with the support team on this for a month and all they did was run me through the same basic connection troubleshooting as the web site, then send me a free replacement doorbell. The replacement has exactly the same problem. They had me send in some logs but they haven’t actually looked at them as far as I can tell, because they refuse to say whether anything seems amiss.

My doorbell is connected via a base station.

Anyone else have this problem? Were you able to get it resolved? If I hadn’t put two screw holes in my wall to fit this doorbell I would’ve given up and returned it already but I want to make it work.

[ShayneS]

Is this still occurring? I see you have another thread here with James C: https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Video-Doorbell-Wire-Free/Can-t-dismiss-doorbell-call-from-Lock-Sc...

It sounds like you are receiving the doorbell calls? 

[AlexWhi]

I receive the doorbell calls maybe one time in ten at the moment. As I mentioned, “rarely”. 

[ShayneS]

Which model phone/OS does this occur on? Have you tried logging in to anther phone and testing the SIP calls there? 

[AlexWhi]

When the problem occurs, none of the four iOS devices attached to the Arlo account ring*, and nor does the Arlo Chime 2 paired to the system. When a ring is successful, every device rings. The problem is very clearly not on the receiving device side.

*Two iPhones 13 running iOS 16, an iPhone SE running iOS 15, an iPad Mini 2 running iOS 10 or something, and as mentioned an Arlo Chime 2.

What does “SIP” mean in “SIP call”? None of the support staff seem keen to relate any technical information (eg the data contained in the logs) but this term keeps coming up.

[StephenB]

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@AlexWhi wrote:

What does “SIP” mean in “SIP call”? 

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"Session Initiation Protocol".  This is the dominant protocol used by voice over ip (VoIP) calls, and is also used for mobile calling.  It's a complicated set of standards, but RFC 3261 is a place to start if you want to learn more how it works.  

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Session_Initiation_Protocol
• https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3261.txt

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@AlexWhi wrote:

When the problem occurs, none of the four iOS devices attached to the Arlo account ring*, and nor does the Arlo Chime 2 paired to the system. When a ring is successful, every device rings.

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Which kind of sounds like the doorbell button isn't working quite right, or that the wifi connection to the doorbell has dropped.

Are you seeing any issues when you livestream the doorbell?

[AlexWhi]

Thanks for the explainer! I don’t know why the support staff are referring to it by the underlying protocol rather than the nomenclature in the user documentation.

Nope, no problems with live streaming and I’ve actually had it notify that someone has entered the field of view, and shown the live stream of them walking up and pressing the button, all without a call coming through. At least in that instance I can manually jump in and activate two-way audio.

So the connection is absolutely fine at the time the call fails.

The button is electronically fine because it makes its little happy chirp and lights up when the visitor (or me) pushes it. That’s actually what I listen out for these days, although it’s obviously less useful when I’m out of the house.

[AlexWhi]

Unfortunately, this still isn't resolved. After a good deal of troubleshooting, technical support have closed my ticket saying it's being caused by the same underlying issue that is preventing SIP calls from working over cellular networks, which I already have a ticket about. I was informed that there is no expectation that the SIP cellular calls issue would be fixed, so I think it's safe to assume this unreliability is just how these devices behave. 

[StephenB]

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@AlexWhi wrote:

technical support have closed my ticket saying it's being caused by the same underlying issue that is preventing SIP calls from working over cellular networks, which I already have a ticket about. 

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That must be an issue with your specific carrier, not with cellular networks in general.

FWIW, SIP is the dominant VOIP protocol for both landline VOIP and mobile calls, so you are almost certainly using it every time you call someone from your mobile phone.  It's more likely that your carrier is blocking over-the-top SIP calls (carried over the cellular data connection).

[AlexWhi]

Apparently Arlo’s engineering team disagree with you there. They say that the issue with SIP not working over cellular has the same root cause as intermittent failures of SIP calls over Wi-Fi.

[StephenB]

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@AlexWhi wrote:

Apparently Arlo’s engineering team disagree with you there. They say that the issue with SIP not working over cellular has the same root cause as intermittent failures of SIP calls over Wi-Fi.

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FWIW, while I don't work for Arlo, I have been professionally working with SIP protocols for over 20 years.  SIP definitely is the dominant mobile protocol  - the robocall stuff being mandated by the US FCC (SHAKEN and STIR) are extensions to SIP, and don't work with older protocols.  Basically every VOIP and mobile call you make is using SIP.

"Same root cause as intermittent failures of SIP calls over WiFi" doesn't actually mean much, as they are not saying what that root cause is.

[AlexWhi]

Again, you’d have to take this up with Arlo’s engineering team. It’s their diagnosis and insight.

[StephenB]

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@AlexWhi wrote:

Again, you’d have to take this up with Arlo’s engineering team. It’s their diagnosis and insight.

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Not my problem, so I'm not going to do that. But I strongly suspect that they don't actually know why their SIP calls don't connect.

While we do often see posts from people having trouble with the SIP calls (often connecting w/o video), we'd see a lot more posts on this if the calls always failed with every carrier when away from home.

[AlexWhi]

It’s entirely possible they’ve misdiagnosed the issue, although that leads to the same conclusion that this behaviour will not be fixed.

[Johnph]

I have the same problem with my android phones in the uk.  On an inconsistent basis the door bell when pressed does not activate the chime nor ring our phones.  I can see from the recording that the bell is being pressed and can hear the alert to the caller from the door bell.  I can also see this from a pro camera as well.  I have missed many callers because of this.

My door bell is connected via a hub.  Clearly the hub connectivity is working and my wifi has not been down.

I have provided log files as requested and have no response to these.

There is a new 1.6xx firmware release availabe fixing stability and bus issues, but that this may not be availabile in some regions.  I have 1.5xx and am told the no update is available.  I have opened a ticket, asking when I will get the release.

[Johnph]

The response from tech support is that the firmware should be a.vailable now or very soon.  That I should remove the device and re-onboard the door bell which will force an update check to update the firmware.  Came back on-line after a few attempts and I am still on the old firmware.  The chime is not working and I have removed it and reinstalled it, but it is stuck in a Please Wait state on the App.  I'm sure this will time out soon and let me try again