Batteries keep dying really quick

[anthonyr1]

I have a camera in the house and 1 outside, the camera outside records about 10 times a day and I have not had to change the battery at all (about 4 months so far) but the camera in the house that barely ever records I have had to change out the batteries twice within 4 months. I also didn't get any warnings it just goes offline and the light on the camera just blinks orange. That last time I looked at the camera was about 2 weeks ago and it was full. What can be the issue?

[Showguy]

Two things come to mind:

1- Are you cameras running the newest firmware.  There were issues with older versions reporting bad battery readings.

2- Don't believe the battery readings on the app right away.  Try opening the battery door for about 10 seconds and closing it again.  I have had many times when suddenly my camera reported a dead battery and the camera just needed a restart. The fact that your not getting the low battery email (which is pretty much usless anyway) tells me the batteries are good but the camera is not reading them right.

[plasmo]

All 4 of my cameras had full 3 green bars for about 4-5 months as well.

Yesterday, one of the cameras went down to a 1-red bar (skipping the 2 bar status) and I got an email stating that I have 9% battery left.

I know the (supplied) batteries won't last forever, but it would be nice to have a better battery gauge indicator.

[jguerdat]

Latest firmware?  It's been said that the use of rechargeables utilizes the battery gauge better, too.

[anthonyr1]

My camera just went from full to offline with no indicator change at all. Currently it's just offline with the orange light blinking. I'm currently running firmware 1.2.2688. This is the second time this has happened, the first set of batteries came with the unit and this set I purchased, so the batteries were fresh.

My second camera is still on the original batteries and the indicator is full so I'm not sure if it's the actual camera draining the battery.

Just curious, today I took out the batteries and left the door open for an hour then popped them back in and still the same results except this time the blue light went on for a second then the orange light started to blink again. One weird thing I noticed that seemed odd but might not be anything is that the magnet in the camera were holding on to the batteries pretty tight, is that normal?

Not sure what to do now, I don't want to keep buying batteries every 2 months, these suckers are expensive.

[JamesC]

anthonyr1,

There could be a couple of different things going on with this camera.  First you want to be mindful of the location and how far it is from the base station and any potential interference other devices could be causing with it. If it is struggling to maintain a connection (poor wifi signal) with the base station this could be causing the battery to drain more quickly. Second, does this camera capture more video than the other camera? If it does, the camera is more active, causing quicker battery drain. Consider getting fresh batteries and swapping the cameras locations. This way you can attempt to isolate the issue by determining if the cameras location is the cause of the battery drain. 

The blue led you noticed after opening and closing the battery compartment door indicates the camera successfully resynced to the base station.  The orange light is an indicator for low battery. The magnet will hold the batteries quite tightly, this is expected. Hope this helps! Please let me know!

Regards,

JamesC

[RF735]

CAMERA IS UNRESPONSIVE. LAST ATTEMPT TO SYNC WAS WIITH FRESH BATTERIES. ORANGE FLASH - NO BLUE, THEN DEAD. I THINK I NEED A REPLACEMENT. IT WAS SHOWN NOT TO BE CONNECTED AND COULD NOT RE-ESTABLISH CONNECTION. THEN REMOVED AND THEN ADDED. NO LUCK

[RF735]

Got one like that out of 3. Batteries died in 2 months. Replaced them and camera wont sync. Get orange sync flash - no blue and then camera is dead again. Press top btn - no lights at all.

[JamesC]

RF735,

Could you clarify the issue you are having? Are you saying after replacing the batteries with a fresh set, you get no reaction from the LED at all when pressing the sync button on the camera?

JamesC

[jguerdat]

Sounds like either a bad set of batteries, inserted improperly or the door isn't closed properly.

[CliveH]

I am having same issue and none of the above is the answer. I am not a new user. Mine seems to be a single bad camera daring its batteries (a short?).. Net gear have an issue here. These cameras are too expensive to discard.

[CliveH]

*draining

[CliveH]

I am having same issue and none of the above is the answer. I am not a new user. Mine seems to be a single bad camera daring its batteries (a short?).. Net gear have an issue here. These cameras are too expensive to discard.

[jguerdat]

A quick, easy test is to swap cameras around to see if the problem follows the camera or position.  If it's the camera, create a trouble ticket.  If it's the position, it could be a poor WiFi signal between the base and camera due to interference (2.4GHz devices) or something blocking the signal.

[CliveH]

Thanks.  I will swap - but doubt that position is a problem.  The 2 cameras are with 6 feet of each other, one outside looking out, one inside looking in.  The inside one is closest to the base station ( just maybe 15 feet away with clean sight line) and is the problem one.

[woseyjales]

Not sure this helps or not, but when I was having wifi issues, the closest camera to the base station, that showed to have the best (full bars) radar signal, was the least responsive, The ones further away, with only one bar on the radar icon, responded much quicker.

[khines2751]

I am Having the same issue as you I cannot make it a week on the replacement batteries. 1 camera says the batteries are low and the other 2 cameras just will not connect to the base station but they act like the batteries are dead this is a big issue and I think that Arlo needs to resolve.

[jguerdat]

How many minutes of record I and live viewing are you doing? 4 minutes per day gives you long life. Also, poor WiFi connection with the base will run the batteries down quickly.  What percentages for WiFi do you see in Settings for each camera?

[CliveH]

Following on the above I swapped the position of the two cameras and that fixed the issue.  Not sure why, but it did.

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[khines2751]

Putt in new batteries on July 6th and the system was on a schedule for operation between 9:00 pm until 8:00 am we went on a cruise until July 11th and the batteries where in the red by July 13 this is the second set I have the setting on best battery life but I believe that the update to live View that was put out has had this effect on the systems. The cameras are on a 10 sec timer and I believe I have a total of 25 files total on all cameras so that is a time of about 4 min for the week. Something in the system is draining them

[khines2751]

You just swapped the location of the two cameras

[JamesC]

khines2751,

Cameras dropping offline and rapid battery drain are commonly a symptom of poor signal strength between the base and the cameras. This could be due to range or wireless interference.

Are there nearby wireless devices that could be interfering? Consider relocating your base station. Try to limit nearby proximity of other wireless devices that could potentially be causing interference.

JamesC

[khines2751]

That makes no sense then why did the first set of batteries last and now they are not with no change in location or the devices that I am using

.

[khines2751]

  Should I experience battery drain with the system on disarm mode?

[TomMac]

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khines2751 wrote:

  Should I experience battery drain with the system on disarm mode?

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When the Arlo cameras are in DISARMED mode, they use almost no power, but go to a 'sleep' mode.  ( pings now and then to base so base knows its there )