Video Doorbell - too many alerts from passing cars.

[RCobb]

I want to join the chorus of those complaining about the lack of sensitivity adjustments for the motion and audio on the video doorbell.  There are far too many alerts from passing cars.   Our front door is not that close to the street and we never got these alerts from our Arlo Camera.  Please fix this.  I have to turn off the doorbell to silence the alerts!  Not happy with this product.   

[Drahthunter]

I agree. I dialed back my activity zone to be only on my porch as it was setting off motion alerts from the street from cars driving by on street. Originally I had activity zones to cover my yard up to the street. I also restart the doorbell after changing the activity zones and it seemed to help reduce the incorrect motion alerts. Sucks because i am missing my yard. I have checked at what point it would catch motion as I am assuming it’s overly sensitive.

[scoobydooxp]

Similar issue here. The doorbell seems to get in a weird mood after seeing a person where it is over sensitive until a long break. Even with my activity zone only marking my front porch and the sensitivity turned all the way down, the doorbell is alerting on cars that go by in the street. Very very annoying!

[JamesC]

RCobb, Drahthunter, scoobydooxp

I've sent you a private message requesting more details and information on this issue.

JamesC

[RCobb]

That is my situation exactly.  Very annoying for sure. 

[JoelTE]

James-
I’m having the same problem with the doorbell camera picking up every car the drives by. Can you hook me up with any advice?
Thanks in advance,
Joel

[jguerdat]

Use of an activity zone can help but that works best by also reducing the motion sensitivity in your modes and rules. I happen to use a setting of 35 which works reasonably well but still get a few videos of cars passing by.

[MikeKolk]

We’re having the same problem with both cars and pedestrians. Utilized activity zone to eliminate the street/sidewalk and smart notifications to eliminate vehicles to no avail.

[RCobb]

I’ve given up on solving this problem permanently.  I’ve had success turning the doorbell off and leaving it off for 15 minutes or so.  When I turn it back on often the issues will be resolved for maybe a few dats up to a week.  Then it will suddenly return to being super sensitive to any motion.  It’s crazy.  

[jguerdat]

If that helps temporarily, then you should use the Contact Support link at the bottom here for a hardware nissue.

[jsaus63304]

Same problem here.  I kept reducing the sensitivity.  I am down to 17 and now get garbage trucks, vans, pickups, mailman van and large SUVs mainly.   I can live with that.  Strange though, yesterday I had an Amazon delivery on my porch and it did not detect the driver drop the package on the porch.

[Ebb98]

I can’t take all of the vehicle notifications any longer. Even with sensitivity set to 10% its non-stop. Pull off the outside of the house today and installed a ring pro. Sad, Arlo video doorbell camera is better, field of view and sound are all better. Can’t believe they haven’t pushed a software update to resolve these issues noted since the initial launch. Losing customers....:(

[Ray2]

Attention ARLO support:

I am a potential customer contemplating the Arlo video doorbell.

I have an L-shaped house where the two car driveway passes immediately in front of the front porch steps and stoop.

Hence I am concerned that if installed, I would want to limit the sensitivity/notification range to approximately 3 feet so as to capture ONLY persons stepping up to the front stoop.  I do NOT want to capture my or my wife's car going in or out of the driveway to the garage every time we do so.

These forum comments lead me to believe that this product is therefore NOT right for me?

Can any users with similar circumstance provide any additional insight? Or better still can an ARLO representative provide further understanding of whether this device and be controlled in the manner I need to be useful?

[jsaus63304]

IMO, no doorbell is going to do what you want.  

You might want to consider using a camera that can be aimed to miss your driveway.  You could buy the audio doorbell and supplement it with a freestanding camera.

Unless you have a ton of traffic in your driveway, I do not see a big problem with a few doorbell alerts.  If you have a subscription, you can use person detection to restrict alerts, although I found that not to work 100% of the time.

[KSchlawin]

Just installed our Video Doorbell the other day and I have the Activity Zone to be a thin band at the very bottom of our camera's view.  Still getting pinged with every passing vehicle from 40 feet away (street is within the top half of the camera's view, far from the Activity Zone setting.  Not impressed so far... 

[jguerdat]

My zone is larger than that but avoids the street. I also use a motion sensitivity setting of 25 which has eliminated virtually all false triggers while still getting people well away from the doorbell/porch.

[Ebb98]

That is not the case with most all. I’ve set all the way down to 5% and still get constant notifications. This issue has persisted since early on.

[jguerdat]

In your modes and rules?

[Richrpilot]

Had this issue too until I read that turning the sensitivity down in “mode” instead of under “device.” Clicking on the active mode like “armed” will bring up a list of devices under video doorbell it should say “motion is detected”. Click on that and a motion sensitivity bar will come up which seems to control the excessive alerts. Changed mine to 36% and no more vehicle alerts

[KSchlawin]

Thanks, Richrpilot!  

I mentioned my struggles to one of our sons and he also clued me in on this little tip of reducing the sensitivity on the "Mode/Devices" setting for the doorbell.  That definitely has helped.  I'm just fine-tuning it in -- appears to be somewhere around a setting of 30 for me.  Arlo could certainly use some help with device and system documentation/instructions.    Thanks for your reply!

[MikeKolk]

The issue is, Activity Zones don't work at all, and Arlo will not admit to it. I have had some success by reducing sensitivity and eliminating anything but people from being detected, but Arlo needs to fix the problem. I haven't seen any evidence that they even admit that Activity Zones do not work. Since they don't acknowledge there is a problem, I doubt they are expending any effort to make it work.

[RickyV401]

I've been on hold for over an hour waiting for support to pick up. My sensitivity setting is at 1 and it's picking up cars over 100' feet away.

So sorry I did not buy a Ring

[Ebb98]

RickyV401,
I feel your pain. I am sorry as well. I finally had enough, ditched the Arlo video doorbell and bought the ring. My Arlo video doorbell is now a paperweight.