Arlo - assorted varieties of issues. Basically not working at all, ever.

[Robbo77]

Hello,

I will summarise my  evening yesterday and my day so far today (about 6 hours of my time).

I unpacked my Arlo cameras after about 1 year of non use (packed away last time as I couldnt get the wretched things working despite 3 hours of trying).

So last after spending 1 hour to get the base station to connect, I then moved onto the cameras. These initially connected but there was no picture transmitting (even though the IR sensors were working strangely!). During approximately 2 hours of talking with 3 members of the online support (who were respectively incompetent; rude; and polite but not much help) I had reset my base station several times, removed no end of batteries, switched off plugs at walls, uninstalled and reinstalled the app, removed and (tried to reapply cameras) and used my desk top to access the system. The long and the short of it none of this worked and I was still in a very frustrated position with a 'live' basestation, and no successfully attached cameras. My punchbag received a good 10 minute thrashing before bed so I could dispell some of this unpleasantness before my slumber.

Today, off my own research I have changed the channels in my router and this has given me progress. The cameras are at least now connecting. Why aren't the support staff trained to discuss this?

The issue now is that the camera's need a firmware update, but everytime I click on this I soon get told the camera is offline, only to get requested to update the firmware again. And yes, I have changed batteries, reset the base etc etc etc. It's like I've fallen into some awful quasi Arlo/Catch 22 nightmare. I see from these forums and reports on Amazon etc that I am not alone.

Quite frankly, as the camera's are pretty heavy, I'm close to putting them in a sock and then using them to batter the living daylights out of any intruder or burglar, as I feel they are probably much more useful for delivering blunt force trauma than as a hi-tech security instrument.

However, before I fall to the level of a neanderthal, please could someone give some advice on how to push the firmware update through, so that the three hundred notes I dropped on this equipment does not go to waste.

Many thanks.

[manfredz]

i would try putting the cam you're trying to update 3 or 4 meters from base station in case distance/interference is an issue.  If it updates, repeat with next cam.

[TomMac]

Also I would ask if you know your data truput ( speedtest.net ) as a slow data speed can inhibit the updates