Arlo Wire-free Batteries only last a few days

[Bumbellina]

I set this up new last week and the batteries ran out in a few days (Energiser Lithium) . I bought new batteries (Panasonic Lithium) but they have now also ran out! Help please!!

[jguerdat]

This can be for various reasons.  The specification is for ~4 minutes per day (average) to get 4-6 months of battery life.  So, using live view or recording more time than that shortens battery life, perhaps to a few days if it's seemingly continuously recording.  Also, camera location relative to the base station can cause this if the camera is struggling to maintain a connection with the base.  To some degree, you can use the WIFi indicator in the cameras tab to help determine if this is the cause - 3-4 bars should be showing.  Less than that may indicate an issue.

How many minutes of recording and live viewing are you doing?  How are your camera WiFi looking?

[Bumbellina]

I am confused. I thought it was OK for the camera to be on all the time and it would only activate when motion was detected. I do not really understand what "live view" is - sorry. I have it set to "optimze" which it says balances quality and battery life. Also I only seem to have 3 bars of which two are lit up and one not. Would appreciate your advise on what settings I should be on. I bought it to monitor our drive way and see when deliveries arrived. 

[jguerdat]

The cameras are always on but in a sleep state until motion is detected. Live view is activated by logging in and clicking on the Play arrow on a specific camera. Have you been using that? Are there videos in the library? Add them up per camera and let us know how many minutes have been recorded.

 Your settings so far are fine although it's possible that aiming the cameras could be useful. First things first, though - tell us about the time recording and using live view.

[Bumbellina]

Thank you for your help. I am understanding a lot more now. Looked at the recording times and they vary from a total of 121 secs down to 18 secs over 6 days. I have been pushing the play button (will refrain in future) but it was to make it into a large screen to view it easier. Is it possible to set it to go to big screen when it detects movement? Thanks again.

[jguerdat · Accepted solution]

It's the total amount of time of recording and live viewing that's the issue.  If you have, say, 500 minutes of combined viewing/recording in a week, that's gonna take the batteries down quickly.

The use of live view when you get a motion notification interrupts the recording.  If you really want to see what's going on in real time, perhaps setting your rules to Do Nothing instead of recording would help - you'll get a notification but nothing else happens until you live view. Alternatively, wait until the running men turn black (vs. amber/orange) and then just view the recorded videos.  It's a toss-up - your choice.  Note that push notifications are immediate while email notifications are sent only after the video is stored on the server.

The only way to go to full screen is to use live view or view a video and look at the bottom right corner for the icon which will switch you between the normal size and full screen.

[Bumbellina]

Thank you for all your help