Doorbell will not connect to smart hub

[zcw100]

I went to install a third doorbell cam to my Arlo setup and have had no success and tons of problems.

First off, the QR code scanner for iOS 17 is terrible. I don't think I've ever had any success scanning it directly from the device. What I've done is take a photo of the QR code and then display it on either my iPad or Mac and scan it from there. It's still *very* difficult to get it to scan but I can manage to get it to work. I'm not sure what finally gets it to scan but I have found that holding the phone very still seems to help. It seems like on of the problems with directly scanning it is the Arlo app can't switch between the three cameras (I have an iPhone pro so that might be one of the problems) If it's too close it's blurry and maybe by the time it gets far enough away to be in focus it's too far away. One of the other things that I thought might be causing the problem is that Apple added optical character recognition to the camera and it's getting confused by the text surrounding the QR code. I tried masking off the text but it didn't seem to help. QR code scanning was much more reliable on an older iPhone with a single lens and iOS 16. 

I am able to reliably connect the doorbell over WiFi but it fails to connect to the Smart Hub. The blue light on the hub flashes indicating it's looking for the device and the sync button is pulsing white on the doorbell. I've noticed that the doorbell blinks two to three times and then the smart hub stops blinking and goes solid blue at the same time as though it's connected but it's never successful.

I've tried resetting the doorbell, restarting the hub, reinstalling the Arlo app. I've even tried resetting the hub and re-onboarding everything. Interestingly, I was able to get the new doorbell to pair but one of the old doorbells that I'd been previously able to pair, wouldn't. Is the Smart Hub possibly limited to only two doorbells? 

The Smart Hub has the latest firmware 1.7.something.something. I've confirmed that the doorbell has the latest firmware after connecting via WiFi and then attempting re-onboarding. 

These are all Arlo Essential Gen1 wire-free cameras and the hub is a 4540 

[zcw100]

I can't believe how much time I've wasted here. For anyone else following along. You can only sync two wireless video doorbells to a hub. 

[zcw100]

Next question. Why would you limit it to only two?

[zcw100]

ooookay. So now I've wasted additional time and money on purchasing a second smart hub and .......nope!

Does anyone from Arlo care to comment on this? 

[Edinburgh_lad1]

Poor you, I really feel sorry for you. The limitations imposed by Arlo are quite interesting to read about. Clearly the company know better: you must have a home with two doors, because if you have a home with three, or that you want to use the doorbell as if there were three, then it's a no no. It's a strange company. 

[zcw100]

I was able to successfully connect a third camera. Two to one hub and a third to a second hub. There are so many quirks to getting it to connect I have no idea which one caused it to be successful. I tried with an older iPad mini because getting the QR code to scan was really problematic. Also rest the doorbell multiple times.