I am not receiving low battery alerts by email

[MichaelJ81]

Why are there no alerts sent anymore for low battery? I don't expect daily updates, but a 25% left alert (or something) like we used to get. I see so many feeds on this site that say it used to exist but doesn't now, or has been turned off or something - that's ridiculous. I only found today that my front door camera batteries were completely flat, when I got an alert on the app that they required replacement - at 0%. That's mighty helpful - WHY IS THERE NO PRIOR WARNING!? I bought this system to protect my home - not to have it unprotected ALL DAY while I'm at work until I can get home. Also, having cameras go randomly offline because of being overseas and no prior warning of low battery (70% when i left) so for two weeks I had no coverage. I am considering returning this entire system and demanding a full refund - this is just simply not good enough. YOU SHOULDN'T BE TAKING FEATURES AWAY! And no, my email system is not blocking your emails either before you say it. I would like a non-scripted genuine response from someone at Arlo.

CAMERA FIRMWARE: 1.2.16720

BASE STATION F/WARE: 1.9.8.0_16666

[57A]

It has been months now and, as many people have indicated in this thread, I'm not receiving e-mails when my batteries run low.  I believe the last time it worked for me was April 2019, although it may have been working later since my next low battery should have been around October.

Post 56 (Moderator) was over 3 months ago and still no resolution. Also post 89 from Moderator. I've checked my spam folder (I get all my other Arlo motion detection, notices and ads via e-mail).  I didn't get a low battery "notification" on my iPad or iPhone either, so that mustn't be working (I do get notifications of camera activity when it detects motion)

It appears that this happened when the New  Arlo Software came into play (around summer 2019?) and perhaps the changeover didn't bring low battery notifications with it?  I'd be happy with notifications on my i-devices, but no luck there either. 

I've checked my settings in my setup and I've also rebooted.  Tried everything mentioned in this thread, but was waiting to see if anything ever developed. Anyone else? This thread has been pretty dead lately, so I guess people just got tired of banging their heads against the wall?

[Visitor01]

It is getting ugly now, Arlo needs to respond and solve this issue right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[michaelk381]

I'm getting my notices now.

[Jjimenez]

I have now figured out why arlo is no longer sending out alerts.

the low battery threshold is 15%.  Once I replaced my batteries with rechargeable batteries the alerts no longer went out.  Rechargeable batteries when drained act differently than regular batteries.  Rechargeable batteries are going from 25%+/- straight to 0%.  So the battery never hits the 15% threshold to send the email.  It is not an arlo issue but it is an inherit problem with all rechargeable batteries. 

The Solution would be for arlo to increase the low battery threshold to 30% for rechargeable batteries in the cameras.  Software on their end can fix this issue.

[gobuddygo]

I have always had rechargeable batteries in mine and they don't drop to 0% all at once, I used to get the alerts even with rechargeable batteries so it's not that ☹️☹️

[DOTTAT]

Unless they behave that way in cold environments. This problem crept up in winter. Who else with the issue is in cold land?

[Visitor01]

I do not use rechargeable batteries!

Always the same (new) normal batteries that I use about 3,5 years now, the Arlo software creates the bug, all users on the same date have gotten this problem after that date bit had not changed something

And if so also then the hardware has to know by software to notify, or that the user can adjust the setting to get a message at an other percentage

No , not cold here, warm almost hot winter here and problem is already from summer

[MikeHab]

This is not correct.  I have only ever used re-chargeable batteries and I used to get the low battery notifications absolutely fine until a s/w update broke the notifications.   I have some brand new re-chargeable batteries and they don't fall off a cliff when the batteries run low - they drop gradually and I can see 10% or even 5% in the arlo app when they are running low, however I never receive any low battery notifications any more.

We used to get low battery notifications fine even with re-chargeable batteries but a software update well over a year ago has broken this for many, many people.

Arlo really needs to fix this now since it has been outstanding for many, many months and is well beyond a joke.

[57A]

I agree that even if it goes to zero, there is a threshold that is crossed and that should trigger the notice.  

My notices used to say "Your Arlo Battery is Tired" as the title of the e-mail and then the following appeared in the e-mail:

"Your Arlo "ABC" is running low on battery. You’ve still got about XX%  of juice left, but in order to maintain uninterrupted peace of mind, we recommend charging up the device as soon as you can."  

So even if it went to zero, it should indicate 0% left after it crossed the threshold. 

My low battery e-mails (up until Summer 2019) came from "alerts@arlo.com".  This is the same e-mail address from which I get my motion alerts.  I always get motion alerts (so this confirms they are not filtered out by my service provider).  I'm not sure why we're not getting low battery alerts.  I PM'd one of the mods and he stated that he'd look into it next week...

I don't use rechargeables but I too have found that my batteries sometimes drop pretty quickly near the "end of life".  When they do this, I take the batteries out, check the voltage and if the voltage is still near 3V, I put them back in. After I put the batteries back in, I sometimes see a totally different number - like say 40% or 50% and sometimes get a significant amount of time (weeks or months) before they are eventually useless.   

Sometimes when I put in new batteries the battery indicator starts at 100%, but quickly drops to 60% (perhaps due to a drop in temperature). I checked the battery voltage if this happens and they were like new voltage and when I took them out and put them back in, the indicator was back to 97%. So, the battery indicator is certainly not very accurate, but only gives you some idea of the condition.  Perhaps the latest firmware/algorithm could use some tweaking?

I get roughly a year out of my batteries (Energizer, Panasonic, Streamlight) because of the way I utilize the system (only activated when on vacation or away for a long period), so there are not many times that motion is detected and then it's only my house sitter checking in.  My cameras are all inside the home or garage so there is no "false motion" detected.

Cold weather can come into play (for me).  If I put new (warm) batteries in my garage camera and the temperature drops significantly, the battery indication drops as well.  I then take the batteries out, put them back in and I'm again close to 100%.  I'm located in Toronto, Canada.  

[DOTTAT]

Part of the problem here is when I posted about this starting as a new issue they lumped my new thread into a 2018 thread.

Look if this issue really started and is the same as what happened in 2018 this company has huge problems and doesn't deserve repeat sales.

The other problem is that Arlo seems to keep breaking the same stuff. Over and over again. No beta testing. No change management. Just the wild wild west.

I think all of us posting agree this happened a couple months ago and likely started with the new/old Arlo app switch timing. Right?

[57A]

---

@DOTTAT wrote:
1. Part of the problem here is when I posted about this starting as a new issue they lumped my new thread into a 2018 thread.

2. I think all of us posting agree this happened a couple months ago and likely started with the new/old Arlo app switch timing. Right?

---

1. Agreed

2. Agreed.  The new App was September 2019, however, I believe it was the ownership change that caused the problem.  The apps shouldn't affect e-mails and I still get my motion detection e-mails fine, and they come/came from the same e-mail address.

[Jgarrison64]

I am still not receiving low battery emails.  Some people mentioned that their batteries were at some value above 15% and then dropped quickly to below 15%, which seems more likely to happen with rechargeable batteries.  The speculation is that Arlo is supposed to send a low battery email somewhere around 10-15 percent, and that if it never spent any time in that range, you wouldn't get the low battery message.  I would say if that speculation is true, Arlo should change it so the low battery email message gets sent the first time a camera percentage goes to any value below 15%, rather than only in that narrow range.  Lastly, in my case, I am using non-rechargeable batteries, and my experience has been that the batteries in my cameras, usually hang above 50% for a long time, then drop suddenly to between 10 and 15 percent.

One other possibility why people are not receiving the low battery messages may be because Arlo has some sort of software code designed so the user does not get continuous low battery emails, but once that code is triggered, it never gets reset after the camera's battery is replaced or recharged.

It sure would be nice if Arlo support would respond.

Cheers!

[gobuddygo]

We have been through this many times the firmware has obviously been changed and now Arlo cant be *rsed to fix it simple as that.

[ant]

Finally, I got an e-mail about low battery from an Arlo 2 Pro camera at 15%. Sheesh!

[ant]

Maybe not? An original Arlo camera's RC123 battery status went down to 2% earlier, and I got no e-mail notification about it. 😞

[ant]

It seems like only original Arlo cameras don't notify of their low RC123 batteries. Arlo 2 Pro seems to do so. I'm waiting for a couple cameras that are at 25%.

[ant]

One of my Arlo Pro 2 camera's battery went to 15% this morning and notified me in both iOS app and e-mail. So, it seems like this issue is only happening on the original Arlo systems like from 2015. Does anyone else have this problems with their original/old Arlo models?

[57A]

Yes, I'm running the old (original?) Arlo cameras using non-rechargeable 123 batteries and the problem affects me.  We were supposed to see a response from the mods in early February, but I haven't seen anything.

[Visitor01]

It is at least incredible how extremely bad the Arlo support is. Never Arlo products for me or suggest to other's.

[Parsoram]

Same here. I use both original and Pro2 versions and Pro2 cams do send out notifications where and when needed automatically. Original ones do not send anything. I think it is related to the integration of the new base stations and original cams. My original cams also have connectivity problems where they randomly drop out for no reason and I have to remove and re-add them to the base station. 😞 

[DOTTAT]

Problem is the base units do not keep a heart beat with the cameras. They only check in for battery etc if they need to wake up the camera for video or a detection method is triggered. A camera pointed at a quiet area and no wake up will die or can be stolen without a single user notification.

[Visitor01]

I think you could be right that Arlo cameras do now have this software bug and not Arlo 2. Witch would make the lack of support even more understandable. Than it is even more worse than it is already.

[ShayneS]

Hello community,

The Arlo Development Team is currently working on this issue. I will provide another update as soon as it's received.

[ant]

Thank you, ShayneS. Please kindly keep us posted.

[cheese_za]

Is there any update to this matter?

I only get alerts after I restart my base station.

The last organic response I got was May 9th 2019.

I restarted my 2 base stations and got 2 alerts.

It is clear that Arlo is not suitable for any critical monitoring based on this and the slew of other issues I have faced.