Issues With Routines Changing Settings & Cross-Triggering With Activity Zones

[KachinaShadow]

@BrookeN 

I'm not sure where to start because there's so many issues here...this involves two other posts of mine, that you've been involved in.

As you know, in another post  Re: Security Light Not Turning on Light with Motio... - Arlo Community  which went into the strange goings on with two Security Lights no longer turning on the light or cross-triggering the corresponding cameras. That, along with me finding actions, in routines, disappearing or turning off...which is how I found the Pro 5S "record video" slide switch turning itself off and no longer able to be turned on Pro 5S Live Streaming Issue - Arlo Community

After spending the past two full days installing/uninstalling the two lights and the two cameras multiple times along with rewriting, over & over, the corresponding routines (those lights cross-triggered the Pro 5S, mentioned in the other post & a Pro 3) I've found the following...the routine for the lights both managed to turn the brightness to low (so they wouldn't light at all) in a setting that does not appear in routines on the app but is pretty much hidden in routines on the web portal and only appears when you click on an arrow to the right of the "turn on a light" action. By turning those both up, the lights now both work, but will randomly quit and have to be turned back up...light issue partially solved.

 Here's what I've found with the videos not recording with motion sensed by the camera. As you know, from the one post, the Pro 5S "record video" slide switch would turn itself off and not be able to be turned back on (without uninstalling/reinstalling the camera) but even with the slide switch slid off the camera was still able to be cross-triggered by the corresponding light and would record...this was originally exclusive to the Pro 5S but today I found that the Pro 3, triggered by the other light, now has the same issue with the record slide switch. Now, with the issue of the videos not recording when cross-triggered by the lights and with all of the uninstall/reinstall of both the lights & camera, I found that all of a sudden the videos were recording when cross-triggered by the lights and I couldn't figure out why, until I was satisfied that the lights were now working and I put the "activity zones" back in and, you guessed it, no more video recording. Note that I've always had activity zones on those two cameras and by setting the videos triggered by the camera to 40 seconds and the videos cross-triggered by the lights to 45 seconds, I could always see that both were working. After I found this issue, I confirmed that it wasn't just these two cameras by setting up the doorbell to cross-trigger some other cameras with the same results...video recorded without activity zones, no video with. Note that if you try to set up a cross-triggering routine, after the record slide switch has slid itself to off, the device that you're trying to cross-trigger no longer shows as a selection of available devices and then you have to uninstall/reinstall that camera to get the slide switch on and set up the routine.

So, the issues here (that I was led to by the lights not working weeks ago) seem to be two things...routines changing and sometimes eliminating actions along with cross-triggering no longer recording when activity zones are set on the camera that is cross-triggered.

Seems like there's so many issues and variables that I've found in the past two days, it's hard to keep track of.

Paul

[KachinaShadow]

@BrookeN 

Thinking about this...it all started about three weeks ago with issues that I blamed on the Security Lights  Re: Security Light Not Turning on Light with Motio... - Arlo Community  when, now that I've looked at everything, it seems to all come back to problems & changes (without me doing them) in "Routines".

Same with the unusual behavior that I was blaming on the Pro 5S camera  Pro 5S Live Streaming Issue - Arlo Community  when, two weeks ago, while on vacation, I found that the record slider had turned off and couldn't be turned back on, which also seems to also come back to problems with "Routines" (record slider turning off, light flashing when set to constant, no cross-triggering recordings when activity zones are set) and it now seems to be affecting other cameras, like the Pro 3 now turning off the slide switch in routines.

I'm about out of ideas...I removed and reinstalled cameras & lights and rewrote the routines numerous times, along with rebooting the bridge & VMB5000r4 Smart Hub over and over and removed and reinstalled the app at least four times.

Also, here's something else that has to do with routines, although it has to do with the web browser  Re: Unable to Add Action in Routines on Web Portal - Arlo Community

After two days on this I'm spent ☹️...but feel free to have me try anything that might give a clue as to what's going on.

Also, is there another email that you'd like me to send that zipped log file to, other that the two that I tried where the attachment didn't come through.

Thanks,
Paul

[KachinaShadow]

@BrookeN 

First off, forget about the cross-triggering/activity zones problem. That was 100% due to my stupidity...I had brought the two Security Lights into my office to put them under the desk, where it was dark, so that I could resolve the light issue, which I did. Problem was that after two days of removing & installing everything, the last thing I did when I was done was to put the activity zones back in and doing one last test on everything, not even thinking that if there was no motion in the activity zones of the triggered camera, then it wouldn't record...sorry 🙁

That said, while hiding my head, there are the two issues which still remain...

First is the Security Lights setting in "routines"...I know the lights are at EOL but they work just fine, it's the routine that only shows on the web portal, and changes at will, that keeps the lights from lighting with motion.
Like I mentioned in the first post, the routine for the lights managed to turn the brightness to low (so they wouldn't light at all) in a setting that does not appear in routines on the app and is pretty much hidden in routines on the web portal and only appears when you click on an arrow to the right of the "turn on a light" action (pic 1). By turning that up, the lights now work but will randomly quit and the setting has to be turned back up (pic 2). I had this change on me two times today and a few times yesterday.
Also note that with the current issue, on the web portal, of being unable to add actions in routines  Unable to Add Action in Routines on Web Portal - Arlo Community  , you have to setup the routine in the app, then return to that same routine in the web portal to turn that setting to the desired brightness or the light will not light up from the get go.

Second is the camera setting in routines, the "record video" slide switch would turn itself off (pic 3) and not being able to be turned back on (without uninstalling/reinstalling the camera) but even with the slide switch slid off the camera was still able to be cross-triggered by the corresponding light and would record. Of course, with the switch off, the camera will not record when it senses motion...only when it's cross-triggered from another device.

[BrookeN]

The behavior you are explaining is already being looked into. I will reach out as soon as I get an update for you. 

[KachinaShadow]

@BrookeN 

Just a quick FYI...maybe it will help someone (or not)

This morning, I uninstalled both cameras and both lights then reinstalled only the cameras in order to eliminate any possible issues with the lights.

Ten minutes after setting up the routines, I tested the motion recording and found that the South camera (Pro 3) had already turned off the "record video" slide switch and around 10-15 minutes later the North camera (Pro 5S) "record video" slide switch had also turned off.

Thanks, Brooke, for all you do 😊

[KachinaShadow]

@BrookeN 

Hi Brooke,

Out of curiosity, I readded the two cameras which have the turn "record" slider off in routines issue, just to see if they still exhibited the same behavior. Within 10 minutes of setting them up, in routines (standby & arm away), they both turned "record" off, so I got to thinking what do these two cameras have in common that my other five cameras do not, in respect of how they are powered. Note that they still detect motion and send a notification, along with still being able to livestream.

Devices that DO NOT TURN OFF in routines...

• Doorbell - wired
• Ultra - wired
• Pro 3 - wired
• Pro 5 - battery
• Pro 5 - battery
• Ultra - battery

Devices that TURN OFF in routines

• Pro 5 - Arlo solar panel
• Pro 3 - Arlo solar panel

I can't imagine that having solar panels, to maintain the batteries, would have any effect as to why these are the only cameras that have this issue, but who knows. Also keep in mind that the Pro 5 had this issue almost three weeks before the Pro 3 developed the same issue, which is really odd.

Paul

[BrookeN]

@KachinaShadow the Pro 5 is a known behavior that is being looked into. I do not have an update on that at the moment. For the Pro 3 connected to solar I do not think that camera was associated with the behavior you are seeing. If you disconnect the solar from them for a does the same behavior happen? Or is it only when they are on solar?

[KachinaShadow]

@BrookeN 
Hi Brooke,

I've tried everything I can to try and find any kind of pattern or similarities with this multitude of issues, but I've got to tell you that I'm going crazy trying to come up with any rhyme or reason as to what's going on with these cameras & lights.

I uninstalled/reinstalled that Pro 3 (without solar), set up a routine and once again the "record video" slide switch had turned itself off within 10 minutes that, at this point, leads me to believe that there's something screwy with routines, which really leaves me confused since I have two other Pro 5's and one other Pro 3 that are setup in routines and are working perfectly. Like you said, the Pro 5 has a known behavior issue, but it seems very strange that this one Pro 3 has the same exact issue as my one Pro 5.

Also, the fact that this all started around the same time (other than the Pro 5 & Pro 3 issues surfacing almost three weeks apart), including the issues with the Security Lights. I know, the Security Lights are EOL, but the problem with them seems to be with routines and not with the lights. Note that I did find two new lights (new old stock, still sealed in the original packaging) which did update to the current firmware and onboarded just fine, but they have the same issue as the other two lights with having to go into routines, on the web portal, and set that previously mentioned "brightness" in "light settings" before they will turn on the light. Also note that when I was trying all four of those lights, even though "send notification" is turned off, they still send push notifications. I do have one other Security Light which is on "wired" power and it has the "send notification" turned off and does not send push notifications...it also turns on the light without having that brightness setting, in routines on the web portal, being set. Note that the four lights, that have to have the web portal/routines brightness slider set in order to be able to light, will totally at random turn off that brightness slider...could be within hours or days, there's no set pattern.

This may or may not be related but here's another "routines" issue that I found the other day Re: Unable to Add Action in Routines on Web Portal - Arlo Community

Paul

[KachinaShadow]

@BrookeN 

One thing I forgot in the preceding post, regarding the lights, is that the lights that are having the issues in "routines" are the al1101r3 version and the one light that has no problems in routines, and hasn't changed, is the al1101r4 version.

Something has changed in "routines" that seems to only effect the al1101r3 (as proven by trying four of them with the same results) and not the al1101r4 and regardless of which version, or if they're EOL, they should all still be compatible with the "routines" setup in both the app & web portal, since Arlo allows you to onboard the "Security Light" with no specificity of version.

Paul

[BrookeN]

I am looking into this I will update you as soon as possible. 

[KachinaShadow]

@BrookeN 

Thanks Brooke,

I did forget to mention one unusual thing with the lights, which may or may not be helpful to someone...when onboarding the lights and after setting up a routine in the app, then going back to routines in the web portal to set the brightness, the light will still not light up unless you restart the bridge. This holds true for every light upon installation.

If someone needs any further info from me, let me know and we can arrange a call.

Paul