ARLO drops offline

[Frank5660]

Hi All,

Do the components in the original wire free cameras degrade over time?  Two of my cameras have quit working and I can't get them back up.  One of them wouldn't take the last upgrade and goes offline during the process, being only 2 feet from the base.  The other one, just won't reconnect to the base after repeated attempts including removing the device and trying to reconnect.  Now I have a third that goes offline almost every day and requires the battery door to be opened and closed, or the batteries replaced before it will reconnect.  I have one other that is newer than the other three that is still working OK for now.  I changed from replaceable batteries to rechargeables when they first came out.  Seems to me, the electronoics and the signal weaken over time.  None of the cameras were ever more than 50 ft from the base, with only two walls and a window in their path.  There shouldn't be a 250 ft loss through only those objects.  Like I said previously, the first two that failed won't work 2 ft from the base.

I can tell you this, I'll never buy another ARLO product.  I could have bought and had installed, a REAL system for what I have paid for the original ARLO system, two additional cameras, additional mounts that don't come with the cameras, battery replacements, rechargable batteries, and the many hours I have spent looking for fixes and trouble shooting these cameras.

[JamesC]

Frank5660,

Where is the base station located? Is there any other devices nearby that could be interfering with the signal strength? You might try elevating, or moving the base station to see if you experiencing different results.

JamesC

[Frank5660]

Hi JamesC,

I have the base station up high.  I tried relocating to other areas in the house, but it doesn’t make any difference.  I have changed the batteries in this camera each day this week.  Yesterday I changed the batteries around 4:30PM.  The camera worked fine until about 10:30PM, then went offline.  The day before, I replaced batteries around 6PM, camera stopped working around 8PM.  There is no pattern to when the camera will go offline.  Every day it’s at different times and the batteries are never really dead.  The recharge time is normally about 30 minutes.  My last good working camera is the same distance from the base station, and works fine, for now.  It is one of the two cameras I purchased separately after buying, installing, and testing the original system.  I have switched the batteries between cameras, and the last good camera works fine.  I have even taken the batteries out of the bad offline camera and put them directly into the good camera, and they work fine.  I looked online in the community, and I’m not the only one having these problems.  In my estimation, there is something wrong with the electronics in, now three, bad cameras.  Something has deteriorated causing either a partial loss, and in two of my cameras, a total loss of signal.  These other two cameras don’t work two feet from the base station.

I believe Netgear and Arlo are hiding the issue because there are potentially thousands of these cameras with the same problems.

I bought these because of the Netgear name, reputation, quality of products, and I have used a number of their networking products over the years.  Never again.

Frank

[JessicaP]

Hey @Frank5660,

Let me create a case for you so our support team can further help you. I have sent you a PM to gather more information.