Message says device offline, and cameras offline

[micmak]

I set up my new 3 camera system at home last night. It worked great.   Now I am in work and when I try to connect to see things look at home, the cameras all say:  "Your Arlo device appears offline   Please make sure it is powered on and connected to the Internet".  The device was lit up with three green light this morning before I left home.  I logged into my account and I found the option to reboot the device. I waited a few minutes and still I get the same message on each camera. How can I fix this now from work? 

[tkshaffer]

I am experiencing the same issue.  My system has been up and 100% reliable for a month.  This morning it cannot connect.  I tried resetting the router.  My base has the middle light amber so potentially a firmware upgrade?  The Q does not have any abnormal lights but will not connect.  I reset the router and it connected but a little while later it again had the same issue.

[micmak]

Somehow my system started working!  I logged in again and got the same message.  I found a setting to turn off one of the cameras.  I waited for a moment, and turned it back on.  Suddenly it responded and I was able to see the live feed from it.  Then the other two cameras worked without doing anything to them!  What is happening?  Why would the system do that?  Will it work in 5 minutes, or tomorrow or next week?  I dunno, but this has shaken my faith in Arlo.  I hope it doesn't repeat.  Is there anything I need to do to prevent it occuring again?

[tkshaffer]

I was trying to figure out a way to tell if the firmware upgraded.  I don't see anything posted in those forums?  Mine is working now again as well but also not confident it will stay working.  Very strange.  There had to be something pushed to them because I have never had them go down in a month...not once.

[jguerdat]

Server problem today that seems to have been resolved. OOPS- just checked again and I'm not connected.  YMMV.  we just have to wait for the AWS servers to be reachable. http://downdetector.com/status/aws-amazon-web-services/map/ - US and UK, where my servers are, are having issues.

The Release Notes forum hasn't been updated to the latest firmware yet.  That's the easy place to check.

[micmak]

Now I am at home in the evening, and the cameras are not responding again.  The message says "Arlo device is offline."   Why is this happening?  I am very displeased. I have had the system for one full day, and I have tried to use it about 7 or 8 times in total between setting up the cameraslast night, and using it remotely from work today.  It only worked twice. Can someone at Netgear please help me? What is the point in having a system that doesn't work?  If I don't get a satisfactory solution soon, this system is going back to where I bought it.  

[manfredz]

To be fair to netgear, I've had my Arlo system since beginning of January and this is the only time since then that they;ve had such an extensive server failure.

[jguerdat]

Mine is over 2 years old and this is the first major issue with the servers I've seen.

[micmak · Accepted solution]

Well this morning, the system seems to be working nicely.  Good.  I didn't want to return the system, and today I am much happier with it's performance.  I hope the issue is resolved and the system continues to respond.  I'm much less disappointed today!

[manfredz]

although far from perfect, and not ideal for every application, think you'll find you made a good choice.

As mentioned, the server outtage yesterday was a very rare occurance which hopefully won't be repeated soon.

Guess that's another advantage of the Arlo Pro - yesterday's server issues would have continued recording onthe the Pro's Base Station's USB drive if I understand it correctly.

[micmak]

Hi Guys, This is day three of my Arlo ownership!  I got it last Wednesday night.  When it works, it is great, but the system is more often not working.  I understand there were server issues for the first day or two of my experience, but now that those issues are reported to be resolved, I still have issues although not as bad as a couple of days ago.   

When I click on any of my cameras, I get a message saying “Please wait” and sometimes I get that little circle spinning in the center of the screen.  Eventually it may connect and perform normally, but most often I will get a message saying that “the Request has Timed Out”. Sometimes it will say "The Device is Offline".   This may happen to camera 1, 2 or 3, or to all, or to none of them.  If I try again it might connect and work after a few attempts, or it might not.  Early this morning, one of the cameras had that little spinning circle, and it just stayed there, spinning around and around.  I put the iPad down and went to do something else for a few minutes.  I returned about 8 or 9 minutes later, and it was still there.  I couldn’t get out from that camera and try another one.  I was stuck.  I had to exit the app, and try all over again about 15 or 20 minutes later, and it worked fine at that point.  Why is this happening?  Is there an adjustment I can make?  This problem can happen from home using a browser on my PC, it happens at work using a different browser, and it happens anywhere using the iPad app.  How can it sometimes work and sometimes not work?  Anyone know what would cause this?

Thanks.

[jguerdat]

Step 1 is to power cycle the base.  Then check your firmware versions in Settings, My Devices, your various devices against the Release Notes section here to ensure you're up to date.  If not, all bets are off until the updates occur.  You can restart all devices by reinserting batteries and power cycling the base and see if there are notifications to update or if the updates occur normally overnight.

Any luck?

[micmak]

Thanks for your comments, jguerdat. I did what you said.  I powered the device off and left it for about a ½ hour -- I unplugged it from the wall.  When I fired it up again, I looked at the firmware.  It is 1.8.8.0_11528 which is up to date. I hoped that the power cycle might have helped, so I clicked each camera.  Two came on, but the third kept sayng please wait.  Then, the first two lost their picture and also said to please wait!  Then one of them came on, and the second one said "Connection failed", and the third one said "Request timed out". A few minutes later I tried those two cameras again, and they worked!  Any other ideas?

[jguerdat]

Are your cameras' firmware up to date, too?

[micmak]

The firmware version on all three cameras is: 1.2.10342.  Apparently, the firmware is automatically updated, and I think this is the latest.   I clicked on one of the cameras a moment ago, and it said: “A newer version of Adobe Flash player is required.  Please install the latest version from HERE” and the word HERE is a link.  When I click it, it says: “Netgear wants to Run Flash” and I have an Allow or Block button.  When I say Allow, it kicks me out of the system and I am back at the log in page.  BTW, I already have the latest version of Flash on my system!  So, I went to the iPad, and it opened one camera with no problem, the second one took a long time with that spinning circle and eventually after about 3 minutes it worked.  The third camera said: “there was a problem logging in.  Please try again later”.  Meanwhile on the iPad, even when it does eventually connect to all three cameras, each of them will occasionally get that spinning circle in the middle of their screens.  Sometimes it goes away and the live feed recovers, sometimes it says: “Camera failed to connect”.  If I go to settings and come back again, I need to click each camera separately to get the live feed again.  (I presume that step is normal.)  All cameras will give me the spinning circle for about a minute, when two of them connect.  The third says: “There was a problem logging in.  Please try again later”.   

Any other ideas?

[micmak]

Now I tried the PC again.  I got connected and after about 3 minutes one of the cameras popped up a message saying:  "The request timed out"!!!!   It was working fine a moment ago!

[jguerdat]

What are both your upload and download speeds as measured by speedtest.net?

[micmak]

My download speeds range from 20mbps to 35mbps, and my upload speeds from about 8 to 15mbps or so.  A friend of mine who recommended Arlo to me has about half the speeds that I get.

[jcisneros227]

Im having the same issue and I've had my arlo system for over a year.  It just stopped working on the 30th at 12:20pm.  I have two base stations and one is working just fine.  The other I have reset and resynchronized the cameras but it doesnt work.  It will work for about a minute or two and then it gives me the offline message.  My internet speed is over 100mbps. This is the first time I've had a problem like this. Help!

[jguerdat]

What firmware on the base and associated cameras compared to the latest in the Release Notes forum here?

When you say reset, did you use the reset button?  If so, you also need to remove everything in Settings, My Devices and start fresh. That may be the best idea anyways, given the recent server issues as well as your own.

[micmak]

The device firmware is 1.8.8.0_11528 and that is the latest as posted in the Release Notes forum.  The cameras are a little more difficult to determine.  All my cameras are: 1.2.10342.  I cannot find the latest firmware version for them in the Release Notes forum, aside from it saying that the cameras are automatically updated.  

To answer your question about resetting, I powered the system off using the on/off switch.  Then I unplugged it from the wall.  I also unplugged it at about 7am this morning, and plugged it back in about 20 minutes ago at noon-ish.  I got the Flash Update message again, which kicks me out when I try to allow it to update, even though an update is not needed.

Right now, I am going to delete everything in Settings and start all over again as you suggested.  Thanks for all these suggestions by the way!

[micmak]

OK, I deleted everything, and added the device back and synched each camera as if I were starting off for the first time.  Now when I log in and click on the three cameras, they work!  They work now, but will they work in 5 minutes or in 2 hours?  Is this the end of my problems, I hope so but I have serious doubts. In four days of ownership, the system has worked successfully for just a few minutes. So, forgive my scepticism.  I will connect again in a few hours and see how it behaves.  Thanks again for your suggestions and advice.

[micmak]

Well here I am just over a half hour after hoping that my problems were gone, and I discover they are not.  I logged in, clicked on my cameras.  The first one said "Reguest Timed out", the second one came on and worked, and the third one said:  "Connection Failed". This is getting tiresome. What else can I try?

[micmak]

I just logged again after an hour and a half or so, and I get the Flash update message on all three cameras.  If I click any of them to go ahead and update, the system will kick me out to the log in page again.  This is getting ridiculous. 

[micmak]

5 minutes later, I tried again and it works perfectly on all three cameras!!!!