Short battery life

[BigBowzer]

This "upgrade" is sucking the life out of my batteries and the cameras are going offline .  Some recover, but some do not requiring me to go home and fix them.  THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!

[Minn12]

CHECK YOUR BATTERY LIFE INDICATORS.! 

Since this fix was installed, the battery life percentage indicators for my 5 standard Arlo cameras are all showing a big decrease. Overnight, the percentage of battery life left has dropped anywhere from 15 to over 25%. This is WITHOUT any camera activations.  I have one camera in an unused room that never gets tripped go from 93% to 78% overnight after this 'fix' was installed.  

Why is this happening? Has the fix suddenly resulted in Arlo cameras using up batteries faster? Are battery life indicators showing correct remaining battery life, or is there now an issue with incorrect readings? 

Please Arlo, address this battery life/indicator issue and let us know what is going on! 

[sfdfg]

A further piece of information... my H16 camera (that had been behaving on the new firmware) has dropped from 15% battery at 1pm to 0% at 7:42pm, so while it looks better I suspect it isn't completely right as my cameras usually take at least a few days to empty from 15%.

[sfdfg]

One additional point.... I do think the battery reporting might have been broken by this fix. The camera that I mentioned had dropped to 0% at around 7:30pm yesterday is still showing as 0% at 14:13 the next day - and still working fine!

[MikeBravo]

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@sfdfg wrote:

One additional point.... I do think the battery reporting might have been broken by this fix. The camera that I mentioned had dropped to 0% at around 7:30pm yesterday is still showing as 0% at 14:13 the next day - and still working fine!

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I agree. I've posted several times on the weird battery readings we have been getting with all our Arlo basic cameras. Sudden drops in battery level that don't reduce the length of service and even times when battery levels go up and stay that way for weeks at a time.

[ChinJing]

Our batteries in our arlo pro cameras have bean draining super fast since the last firmware update in May. We have 5 running on batter. They are draining super fast despite minimal recordings. I attributed this to the base station was going offline for an hour several times a day. We didn’t have any problem with the batteries before the update in May. I think it’s a firmware issue.

[BigBowzer]

It's not just the indicator.  By now you've probably noticed that your batteries have drained and your cameras are offline...

[BigBowzer]

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY latest firmware update 1.3.319 destroys camera
Since this firmware update, released on June 5, my batteries drain daily!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I want to go back to the previous version 1.3.314
THIS UPDATE HAS RUINED MY HOME SECURITY!!!!!!!!
My investment of 7 cameras and base (almost $1000) is now worthless.

If I dont hear from you at arlo@cmftek.net, I am going to update my web pages and create youtube videos that detail how crappy your latest release is.  My investment of 7 cameras and base (almost $1000)  is now worthless.

I will also update my reviews on Amazon so people know NOT to buy your cameras, especially since I cant get support except for if I stay home from work since you changed your hours.

This is totally unnacceptable!!!!

[MikeBravo]

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@BigBowzer wrote:

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY latest firmware update 1.3.319 destroys camera
Since this firmware update, released on June 5, my batteries drain daily!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I want to go back to the previous version 1.3.314
THIS UPDATE HAS RUINED MY HOME SECURITY!!!!!!!!
My investment of 7 cameras and base (almost $1000) is now worthless.

If I dont hear from you at arlo@cmftek.net, I am going to update my web pages and create youtube videos that detail how crappy your latest release is.  My investment of 7 cameras and base (almost $1000)  is now worthless.

I will also update my reviews on Amazon so people know NOT to buy your cameras, especially since I cant get support except for if I stay home from work since you changed your hours.

This is totally unnacceptable!!!!

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We're not experiencing what you are, HOWEVER, since the last update our Arlo Pro cameras which prior to this one were not affected by the previous update, NOW are suffering from degraded video resolution and stilted, herky-jerky video flow. 

We're starting as well to give up hope. This is in part because our Netgear R7000 Nighthawk router needs a security update to fend off the latest severe exploits, but the latest firmware update which we have been warned not to install remains a problem even after MONTHS of complaints with NO RESPONSE which more and more seems to be their new management style.

We too will not invest another dime in anything Netgear\Arlo until they do something positive.

[BigBowzer]

Base just went offline and then I noticed it was now at version 1.12.2.3_2762, and 5 of my 7 cameras are now offline.  The past 3 days weren't as bad as the prior 2 weeks.  But what now?  I have to deal with this crap AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Go outside, retrieve the cameras, probably have to remove them, etc, etc....  I was considering upgrading to the latest Arlo because I do like the Ap functionality and ability to view on my Windows PC via browser.  And the convenience...  But after this experience, there is only the inconvenience of babysitting a non-functional product.  VERY AGGRAVATED!!!!!!

[MikeBravo]

Yep, just checked our system and found the update. 

Not only did nothing improve, but our Arlo Pro cameras' resolution has degraded a bit more.

Ironcially, we just got an e-mail from PC Magazine that STILL rates Arlo as the best outdoor security camera.

No wonder Arlo is not breaking a sweat to fix things.

[MikeBravo]

Yet another camera firmware update has hit a few of my cameras, both basic and Pro; in fact all of the Pros.

Firmware update 1.092.0.23_32920 has once again further degraded the video. In fact, my Pros that have upgraded now has a video picture even worse than the degraded basic cameras------and to add further insult to injury apparently this update has caused at least one of the Pro cameras to sometimes record in black and white.

I'm begining to wonder if some of you guys are right and Arlo is just experimenting on us.

[ArtTab]

I just got my Arlo Base & Wire Free Camera in May and I've been frustrated.  I contacted the company while at work one day, but they informed me that I had to be with the devices and couldn't just be checking them from online. 

I thought my unit was defective from the start because it didn't pickup all the motion that occurred.  It should pickup the fact that members of my household are coming and going all the time, but it has been very selective about recording motions.  It seemed lazy and didn't want to start work until after 10AM daily.  Then within a few days, it got even lazier and was not starting until noon or 1PM daily.  It never worked for more than 5 or 6 hours.  It finally started to improve after a few weeks, but then it suddenly had battery issues by June. I was able to open the case and put the batteries back in to see a 75% battery life though.  I did this because it just wasn't working at all.  It decided to work after I fooled around with the batteries and bought new ones just in case because I was going on vacation.  Plus, someone had recently blew-up the mailbox at our house and I wanted to make sure we were covered on vacation.  At first we were good, but must be the power or Internet went out at some point on vacation because it just stopped for days, but then started working again.  Last week, I finally got 6 days of recording out of it  Not perfect because it missed a lot of things, but at least it seemed a lot better and wasn't missing as much.   However, this past weekend, after I moved it slightly (just ever so slightly) to get a better view of my driveway, it just stopped working again.  I noticed nothing recording all day Sunday. I just checked the status online to find out that it was suggesting it was offline.  I called my husband and he could get the blue light to blink, finally, but it took taking the battery out and putting it back in.  Then he moved it upstairs and it went back to amber again.  He took it back down and turned off the router, turned off the base, did the sync and still couldn't get it to work.  He took out the batteries and every time he opens the door and adjusts them, they work, but then they stop within 2 minutes. I could see him online for a few minutes, while he was doing all this. He tells me now that he can't make the device respond anymore.  I just read this and I have the same firmware now.  Maybe this whole issue is the batteries are draining too fast.  He just replaced the batteries and I'm getting messages again, but these batteries are super expensive to replace.  I haven't had my camera a month even.  That would make these devices unreasonable.  Please provide new firmware ASAP. 

We wanted more cameras, but we won't be buying Arlos if this is what we can expect - unreliable motion recording daily, battery drainage, etc.  This could be a super security system, if it was reliable, but I haven't had one good week since I purchased these devices in May 2019.

[fwlii]

I have the opposite since the V1.3.319 firmware upgrade.  Two of my 3 cameras went offline & would not connect.  I ended up removing the batteries & re-syncing both of them.  Now they are online, but have shown 100% battery life for over a week!  Now I have no idea what is their actual battery life.  Guess I'll have to wait until they disconnnect again!  Any change of going back to the previous firmware version?  

[Mypifi]

Same here, after a few hours on the online chat, climbing ladders to get to cameras I ended disassociating all the cameras, then router. Did a hard reset and had to re sync every camera and set them up again one by one. Now battery life seems to be back to what it was, however the activity zones now stops the camera being triggered if you have more than one zone. Think I will be moving to swann and spend the time wiring in all the cameras. £62 ish a year for a service not fit for use is an understatement.

PS Arlo do you all sit in a meeting and say " we haven't annoyed our customers in over a month, can we do something to really cheese them off like release an update that's not actually been tested on equipment apart from our own in lab machines that we reset each day"