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ecArlo · ‎2015-06-20

Within a two hour period I've had 25 events/motion triggers because the Arlo Camera for some reason captures a flash of light. This is not by someone or a car passing by - It seems it might be a software or hardware issue. Has anyone run in this or know a solution?

Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Note:

Link below includes a clip of what trigerrs the motion detection over and over again - Notice first second of clip includes a flash of light.

https://arlo.netgear.com/hmsweb/users/library/share/link/4221DDF31275C91A

Best regards,

Sam

LewisIsbell · ‎2016-04-05

Okay, with the longer days, the 53% sensitivity is now too high and the number of flashing events is now over 5/day as apposed to 2 per day in the winter/ fall. I have now turned sensitivity down to 45%, but what is now happening is that the camera is not capturing any motion. It's of no use if it does not do that; so, ARLO or Net Gear please come up with a firmware fix.

Lewis

gilford · ‎2016-04-06

Exactly the same issue here, every time the sun comes from behind a cloud I get a trigger, sometimes 15 an hour!

I've gone through 8 batteries in a month, my old (cheapo CCTV) system didn't do this with the camera in exactly the same place!

JamesC · ‎2016-04-07

LewisIsbell, gilford

Consider relocating the camera to a different area to see if that reduces the false triggers. It might be helpful for you to upload a screenshot of the current location of your camera so we could offer suggestions that might produce better results.

JamesC

gilford · ‎2016-04-12

Relocating the camera to suit the hardware kind of defeats the object of a "security" camera though doesn't it?

The camera I have issues with is located underneath my covered porch (front door), every time the sun comes from behind a cloud I get a false trigger, and it isn't even summer yet so it will only get worse.

I can make it better by reducing the motion sensitivity but to a level that it doesn't pick much stuff up, so much so it didn't even trigger when the postman had been.

It's a shame as during the winter this was a great product, not so much now!

jguerdat · ‎2016-04-12

Leaving a camera in a position where it doesn't work well sorta defeats the purpose, too. Too many variables to say one size fits all.

fserre · ‎2016-05-03

I have the same issue on 1 of my 2 camera's. I don't agree that you should replace a camera for it to function, you can imagine that some people might not have multiple places where you can put the camera out of sight. Probably they are triggered by sunlight so Netgear should simulate this and find the root cause.

JH70 · ‎2016-05-05

Same problem here. One out of four cameras playing up. It's installed about six metres from another camera and both face the same way. I tried placing it on a table inside and pointing it straight at a wall. Still got false triggers. I have the sensitivity at 1. Camera firmware 1.2 base station 1.7

jguerdat · ‎2016-05-05

Well, that isn't right. I'd do two things:

1) Reset the camera by opening and closing the battery door.

2) Remove the camera from Settings and resync it.

Same issue?

Killntime · ‎2016-07-03

It's not unique when so many of us have this problem...

worshiplife316 · ‎2016-08-31

I am also having this issue, my wife and I have seen over 20+ false motion detections. Camera is located under the eave of our house, pointed at a downward angle to get our driveway. Can Netgear please fix this issue?! What's the point of having the cameras if they chew through your battery life, send false alarms, and I have to weed through all of the false alarms just to make sure we don't have an actual concern! Moving the camera is not an option, as it would then be plainly visible from the street, lowering the curb appeal, and making it obvious to would-be intruders.

jguerdat · ‎2016-09-01

While there are various options in disguising the cameras, it's hard to tell you what might work better without knowing how it's positioned. Post a screenshot for suggestions but be aware that the camera should be pointed at the actual area of interest and not a wide scene, with motion going across the field of view, starting at or near an edge. Also, detection of people is only 15-20 feet max.

Jayb5 · ‎2016-12-07

I am having the same issue today. Similar to others, my camera is located at the top of my covered porch pointing down. As user "gilford" stated, when the sun peeks out from the cloud on a sunny day, it triggers the motion detection. I tried reducing the sensitivity to 70 from 80, but still getting false alerts. Has anyone been able to solve this issue without relocating the camera?

jguerdat · ‎2016-12-07

Post a screenshot - that may give us a way to suggest solutions.

Jayb5 · ‎2016-12-07

Here are 2 screenshots of what it looks like right when the camera starts recording. Both pictures are within one second and you can see how it goes from relatively dark to bright when the sun peeks through the clouds. This part of the house is facing south (most sunlight) and from what I understand, the camera picks up changes in temperature to trigger the motion detection so not sure if it's the temperature or change in brightness triggering this. I received over 30 alerts this morning and after noon, everything is back to normal. This leads me to believe that it is definitely something to do with the sun and clouds.

jguerdat · ‎2016-12-07

It's not heat or light but IR reflection. The sun is a huge IR radiator and even mundane things will reflect it enough to trigger motion. Other than lowering sensitivity, there's only repositioning the camera to reduce the effect.

kcsecure · ‎2016-12-27

2 of my 4 cameras started detection every minute since the last software update that fixed the dark screen image issue. It happens during daylight and night time. Never had this problem till the past week. Why now? My guess is the software. Hope it gets fixed soon. Batteries are at 70 to 80% should not be a problem there. One is on the inside and one on the outside of the house.

Jdhdjdhd · ‎2016-12-28

I agree the system is useless when being motion triggered by sun reflections or tiny movements of a distant leaf. The sofware is very basic and needs to worked on. The sensitivity settings seem to be almost useless as does the ratio setting or the pan and zoom function. I dont see any brightness settings as per above comments and they are no options to create zones as one can on a Dropcam.
I have H7 units.

kcsecure · ‎2016-12-28

I recently found the brightness control after clicking on the "Live" button from the "devices" tab.

I have a dark hallway and it really helped.

Jdhdjdhd · ‎2016-12-28

Thanks for showing me the location of the Brilliance control. Lets hope that helps my situation otherwise these units are pointless.
Maybe they should place the brilliance control in the mode section as well, so that it can work with the other elements that control the image and response.
Thanks again.

Paul_FCCL · ‎2017-04-07

Jdhdjdhd wrote:
Thanks for showing me the location of the Brilliance control. Lets hope that helps my situation otherwise these units are pointless.
Maybe they should place the brilliance control in the mode section as well, so that it can work with the other elements that control the image and response.
Thanks again.

How did that work out for you, got rid of false triggers? I still get them occasionally too, more so now with brighter and longer spring days. Have sensitivity set very low and also tried repositioning camera. Not quite as bad as it was but problem still there.

Paul

jguerdat · ‎2017-04-07

The brightness control only varies the display and has no effect on the motion detection. If your scene is similar to that posted above, maybe rotating the camera down so the window in the door doesn't cause false triggers.

Target_Acquired · ‎2017-04-08

My system has 11 cameras of the original design and 4 of them do this. A LOT. It's not clouds and sun, because I can stand out of camera view and see that there is no change in lighting and no wind.

Sometimes the false alerts come so fast that my phone sounds like a rhythm section of text chimes. 🙁 There are days when I get over 150 mistakenly triggered videos, so now when I'm home I have to shut the system off just to get some peace!

Something has changed. My system didn't exhibit this behavior last summer or the year before and I have not moved them, so SOMETHING has changed. I was planning to round out this base unit with 4 new Pro cameras, but now I won't.

My cameras are not mounted in the sun and all firmware is up to date.

This is unacceptable, and I think Netgear is ignoring a problem that is being experienced by a lot of customers. Simply telling us to reset, swap, or move cameras, decrease sensitivity to unworkable levels, change batteries, etc, is not not helpful, especially when none of these things have worked for anybody who has tried them, myself included.

By ignoring this problem, Netgear is actually making it worse for themselves because we are recording false alarm videos by the thousands. This has to have a negative impact on Netgear's bandwidth and capacity planning. Oh yeah, that's right… I'm paying for it with my premium membership!

I very much want to fix this, and I think it can be fixed. But until it is, I cannot in good conscience recommend an Arlo system to others.

jguerdat · ‎2017-04-09

There are some things to try:

- Power cycle the base.

- Open and close battery doors.

- Remove the cameras from Settings, My Devices and resync.

- Worst case, remove all devices from Settings, My Devices and start fresh. Use the Add Device button on the Devices tab to add the base and sync the cameras.

Target_Acquired · ‎2017-04-09

So we need to get through the "solution tree". Very well.

- Power cycle the base. Done many times. Does not correct the flashes.

- Open and close battery doors. Done many times without success. Also, I use rechargable batteries, and replace them every 2-3 weeks, which is the normal life-expectancy for the busiest cameras at my home. The batteries get recharged and rotated around to different cameras, so the battery doors get opened and closed a lot just for battery changes. Flashing behavior continues and does not follow the batteries. Flashing behavior continues even with different batteries. Flashing continues regardless if rechargables or non-rechargables are used.

- Remove the cameras from Settings, My Devices and resync. Already tried this with one camera. What a hassle. Do you know how much of a hassle this is with rules? After resyncing, you have to rename the camera precisely the same or you mess up your rules and modes. All this trouble for 11 cameras, and this has not ever fixed the problem.

- Worst case, remove all devices from Settings, My Devices and start fresh. Use the Add Device button on the Devices tab to add the base and sync the cameras. This is an unacceptable solution for anybody like me with 11 cameras, unless you have some actual evidence that it works. If it is known to work, I'll do it. I'll even accept a forum thread or a post from a Netgear engineer as evidence of a high level of confidence in the process. Without that, however; I refuse to destroy my current Modes and Rules and make a commitment to several hours of reprogramming work just to return to the current (broken) state. So, do you know for sure that this item will fix the flashes? And will the problem stay gone? Yeah, I kind of require that before I try this.

Again, I repeat from my prior post: I believe this is a programming issue. SOMETHING changed in the firmware, either in the camera firmware or in the base unit firmware. Before the last firmware updates, I never EVER had to set a camera to 55% sensitivity to prevent flashing false alarms. This month marks the 2nd anniversary for my system, so I have something of a track record to go by.

Finally: Since this thread is already marked "solved", and I'm looking for correction of the root cause (I insist that the sensitivity is the symptom and that the root cause actually lies in the firmware logic), should I start a new thread?

Paul_FCCL · ‎2017-04-09

jguerdat wrote:
The brightness control only varies the display and has no effect on the motion detection. If your scene is similar to that posted above, maybe rotating the camera down so the window in the door doesn't cause false triggers.

Sorry that doesn't and hasn't helped any, restarting, pulling batteries out etc. haven't made any difference either. Like I said, thankfully it only triggers few (wasted) recordings per day, it could be worse and from what I read from other users, it is a lot worse for many.

Netgear should seriously really look at the issue, hopefully find a fix for it.

Thank you.

Paul

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