Video Doorbell keeps streaming in background on Android

[dham84]

Hello, I have a Video Doorbell Wire free and I've noticed lately that whenever I open the app to either see the live stream from the doorbell or a recording from the alert feed, once I close the app on the phone, the live stream keeps playing on the background.

I can move to another app and do something else, I can can hear audio coming from the doorbell playing in the background, it won't stop until I completely close the app.

I've noticed it happenes even if I press the stop button on the feed before leaving the app. it's annoying because sometimes I might not even realise if the phone's volume is down and/or if it's just quiet outside for me to hear anything and realise it's running.

My phone is running Android 13 with the latest version of the app and the doorbell's firmware is 1.7.0.0_714_ea3a7e4_e4abf14 and Hardware version is 1.4. It is connected to the Arlo Base.
Has anyone experienced this? any tips to fix it? although I'm thinking this is an app bug that needs to be patched.

Thanks in advance!

[jguerdat]

If the phone's manufacturer diddles with things, the app may not work properly. There's enough instances of Samsung users having issues that don't show up with other's phones.

And I have tons of apps on my Pixel 6 and don't have Arlo issues that some others do. YMMV - your choice.

[Steph745]

I've had the app for 3 to 4 years on my android phone with no issues. I buy a new arlo pro camera and update my app to the latest version and link it and suddenly I'm having issues. I may add that my old essential camera doesn't play in the background it's only the new Pro camera so I'm betting it's an arlo issue.

[Edinburgh_lad1]

I can now confirm that it isn't just the door bell that seems to be streaming in the background, but also my cameras (not all at once, but one at a time). I simply went to play the videos and one of the cameras (it's either one or top or bottom in the dashboard) started streaming. I don't know what triggers and frankly, that's what the Arlo team is for.

Dixit.

[JamesC]

We have seen an instance of this behavior internally that was resolved after uninstalling and reinstalling the app, if you've not tried that, I encourage you to to test to see if you still see the issue after a fresh installation.

The development team is currently reviewing these reports from some users experiencing this behavior. Please let us know if you continue experiencing the same results after reinstalling the app.

JamesC

[Edinburgh_lad1]

@JamesC This hasn't solved the issue. Please get your act together and finally sort it out.

[Ariel_r]

I just installed my doorbell camera yesterday. The audio randomly woke my husband and I up at 4 am with the very loud sound of birds chirping but I thought it was outside my window so we put earplugs in. Only to start hearing cars driving by. I thought it was my Google alarm clock till I finally realized it was the audio playing in the background. I felt dumb then I realize this is an issue with many of others. What do I do? I hate to return it but I can't have this happening.

[Jo060]

So classy

[Edinburgh_lad1]

@JamesC 

Hi James

It'd be helpful and respectful if you provided a response outlining when this is going to get addressed. I, like many others, have paid a lot of money for this system and my expectation, presumably that of others, too, is that for the price you pay for it, it'll work flawlessly. Please let us know when this issue is going to get resolved. 

Thank you.

[JamesC]

If you continue experiencing this behavior after reinstalling the Arlo app I encourage you to log a ticket with the support team by navigating to Settings > Support within the Arlo app.

The development team is actively reviewing these reports and collecting data from those experiencing this behavior in order to root cause the issue.

JamesC

[JamesC]

After speaking more with the development team about this issue, they have discovered and resolved a bug that causes these symptoms and the fix is currently being tested. I will provide another update once I have more information about when this fix will be available.

JamesC

[klooob]

So, this discussion has been going on almost a half a year, with several complaints and almost 2000 views, it took like 22 minutes from someone to actually talk to the dev team to get this fixed.

There is something fundamental to be improved with the product management process. Or the PO is not on top of things. I know it might be hard to reproduce bugs with vague reports, but ... 22 minutes! Anyway, something to discuss on the next sprint retrospective.

[Grubb-A-Dub-Dub]

Bought the doorbell back in october last year and have had this problem occur intermittently the whole time I've had it.

S23+ Android 14

Anyone had any luck with a fresh install of the app?

[Jo060]

I did, no issues since.

Galaxy S24U

[Edinburgh_lad1]

Fresh install doesn't solve the problem. I think the issue lies in when one start live playing a camera/doorbell. So, if you've not after a fresh install, it looks like the issue has been solved,  but as soon as you do, it comes back.

[Jo060]

I disagree. I had this issues for the better part of 1-year. I re-installed the app a few months ago and the issues has not repeated itself. 

[Edinburgh_lad1]

That obviously doesn't mean that the issue isn't there. It's possible that it hasn't surfaced. Have you live-played your doorbell/cameras? I have a new phone and although I was hopeful that the issue would be gone, it's not. So, my conclusion is that the issue is still there and that it hasn't surfaced on your device yet. 

[Jo060]

How does it "obviously" mean that? What's obvious about it?

Have I "live-played" (live view)? I can't tell if that question is serious or not but yes...I have...multiple times a day on all 7 cameras.

My wife also does not have the issue on her phone. 

So, my conclusion is that the issues is no longer there and will no resurface on my device.

[Grubb-A-Dub-Dub]

Is it just me or does this unprompted AI generated response just feel like the support team at Arlo really doesn't care about it's customers?

[StephenB]

---

@Grubb-A-Dub-Dub wrote:

Is it just me or does this unprompted AI generated response just feel like the support team at Arlo really doesn't care about it's customers?

---

This post isn't coming from Arlo (all Arlo employees have the Arlo badge next to their user name, this poster doesn't).  FWIW, it's the first post from the poster, so the account was likely created just so spam could be posted.

There's been a massive flood of spam posts over the past week.  Looks like Arlo has adjusted their filters, as it is actually much better than it was earlier in the week.

[shapingstuff]

I regularly have this problem on Pixel 7A. Sometimes I have not intentionally been in the Arlo app and sound plays from my camera feed. One time I could hear the neighbours through my headphones and it took a while for me to figure out what was happening, weird.

There are no cameras active when I go into the app. But to stop it I need to click play on a feed.

[Lenglee2012]

Has anyone found a solution? Its 2024 and I'm having this same issue.  I reinstall but it did not nothing. 

[Edinburgh_lad1]

The solution is to press 'stop' after you've live played your camera/doorbell, as it happens on both.

If you don't, but minimise or remove the app from the memory, the app automatically stops live playback, but somewhat will continue to randomly play at different times (why not is beyond my understanding, as many other things that Arlo does, but heyho not everyone's mind works in the same way).

A similar,  though not identical, thing happens when you play a video recorded on local storage: select go back or minimise the app in the middle of the playback and it continues to play.

Crazy, eh?

[ScrappyCoco]

Yep, hitting stop button before closing the app works. Easier than going into setting every time to stop the app from running in the background. Still a glitch that should be fixed. I imagine it drains phone and camera/doorbell batteries by playing in the background. The wind is the only reason I know it's streaming. On a calm day, I was probably streaming audio in the background for hours.

[Edinburgh_lad1]

Hey @JamesC 

When can we get this issue fixed please? Timescale please.

I'm getting a bit impatient with having all these issues and an apparently there was a fix back in March, though clearly not - my other half forgot to stop live view and I ended up with a live stream as soon as I went into the app. 

Thank you.

[JamesC]

Edinburgh_lad1,

Cloud side improvements have been made that should have alleviated these concerns. If you're still experiencing this behavior I encourage you to open a ticket with the support team using the Arlo app under Settings > Support to capture the details and pass the information on to the development team for review.

JamesC