Night Vision Stopped Working - 2nd Set of Cameras

[Karp30534]

The night visions on one of my 4 cameras suddenly stopped working tonight.

This is the second set of cameras this has happened with - after I spent ridiculous hours researching and troubleshooting using these forums, I finally took the first set of cameras back and exchanged them for new ones only to hit the issue AGAIN tonight.

So tonight, here I go again:

1. I have opened the battery door which fixes the problem for a short time before the night vision stops working again.
2. I have removed and re-synced the camera.
3. The new camera is in a DIFFERENT location than the original camera.
4. I have tried cutting the camera and night vision on/off via both the mobile app and desktop site.  Nothing works to force the night vision to work again.
5. The IR lights do come on but any recording is black and only captures the landscape lights or the faith glow of my phone or flashlight.
6. It's about 50 degrees tonight so it cannot be due to cold.

The camera is mounted in a location that is out of reach and requires a ladder to get to - and I can't be out troubleshooting all night again like the first time.

Is there any hope or is it time for me to just take the cameras back and switch to a different camera?  Other than the night vision issue, the cameras couldn't be more perfect.  Judging by the amount of posts that I've read in here and online reviews at Amazon this seems like a pretty common occurrence so Netgear has to be aware of the problem.  Right?  

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[TomMac]

sounds like the sensor that toggles IR on / off ( based on light levels ) is defective...

[Karp30534]

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TomMac wrote:

sounds like the sensor that toggles IR on / off ( based on light levels ) is defective...

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But what are the chances of getting two different sets of cameras both with a defective sensors?  I'd be more apt to go with that if the new camera wasn't in a different location (with more than enough ambient light).  It worked for for weeks with no problems.

[JamesC]

Karp30534,
 
Please contact the Arlo Support Team to further investigate this issue. You will find several options for contacting support in the provided link. If you have any additional questions/concerns feel free to private message me. I would be happy to help.

JamesC

[Karp30534]

When the Night Vision failed to work again on Friday, I contacted Support via Chat.  After a lot of time spent doing different things and proxying onto my camera, it was determined the root cause for the camera failing to switch to Night Vision was my ISP Upload Speed (which is less than the minimum required 1mbps).  Apparently, the camera will not flip to Night Vision if the minimum upload speed is not achieved.  Still not sure I understand what an Upload Speed has to do with the camera flipping from "day" to "night" mode beacuse the other 3 cameras never have problems but the Tech was pretty confident the camera was not faulty.  The recommeded fix was to increase my speed with my ISP so I guess I'll try that.

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Karp30534 wrote:

The night visions on one of my 4 cameras suddenly stopped working tonight.

This is the second set of cameras this has happened with - after I spent ridiculous hours researching and troubleshooting using these forums, I finally took the first set of cameras back and exchanged them for new ones only to hit the issue AGAIN tonight.

So tonight, here I go again:

1. I have opened the battery door which fixes the problem for a short time before the night vision stops working again.
2. I have removed and re-synced the camera.
3. The new camera is in a DIFFERENT location than the original camera.
4. I have tried cutting the camera and night vision on/off via both the mobile app and desktop site.  Nothing works to force the night vision to work again.
5. The IR lights do come on but any recording is black and only captures the landscape lights or the faith glow of my phone or flashlight.
6. It's about 50 degrees tonight so it cannot be due to cold.

The camera is mounted in a location that is out of reach and requires a ladder to get to - and I can't be out troubleshooting all night again like the first time.

Is there any hope or is it time for me to just take the cameras back and switch to a different camera?  Other than the night vision issue, the cameras couldn't be more perfect.  Judging by the amount of posts that I've read in here and online reviews at Amazon this seems like a pretty common occurrence so Netgear has to be aware of the problem.  Right?  

Any help is greatly appreciated.

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[Anthonyg]

Ive had my 4 cameras for over 1 year and 1 camera's Night vision also not working...unfortunately i will probably have to purchase another due to no warranty cover...poor quality cameras im thinking only ladting just over a year.

[jguerdat]

That's not a usual issue.  Poor quality?  Cars break down, refrigerators fail to cool, everything comes with some form and duration of warranty. Stuff happens. I agree it's a pain when something fails just out of warranty (or when still within the period) but it's something we have little control over.

Before you give up, try pulling the batteries, be sure to use fresh ones, remove the camera from Settings, My Devices and resync. Did that change the behavior?

[Anthonyg]

Perhaps Arlo needs to extend its warranty terms to satisfy its customers ? Actually the first yim this happened was som months ago and yes i cganged batteries and it happened again recently. If i had known the camera would not make its life past 18 months I would not spend over $1000 $AU trust me.

[Davej56]

I have the exact same issue as you Karp and my standard Arlo cameras are only 2 weeks old. I find the explanation from support really hard to believe - I think it's a cop out by Arlo support to cover faulty software. The red lights appear yet the picture is black. I too have disconnected the batteries and re-synced. 

I tested the night vision was working in the house but when I place it outside it stops. My network connection to the camera is at full strength and my Internet connection gets 24Mps. My upload speed to the Internet is 5 Mbs, 5 times that required by Arlo.
One outside camera works OK yet the other does not from  the same distance to the base station outside.

It's really frustrating me about what is causing it.

Why would night vision require lot's more bandwidth, after all its the camera creating that image via it's sensors, yet support say it won't transmit that night vision with a poor upload connection. Rubbish - It would take more bandwidth to send a full colour image compared to a grey scale image. My optimization is also set to medium meaning video is only 720 resolution, another reason to debunk bandwidth as the problem.

[jguerdat]

It's not a network issue - my night videos are generally, but not always, smaller than daytime. WHen you test the IR illuminators, can you see ALL of them in a ring around the lens or are some out?  Have you tested varying distances since the illumination is limited in the first place?  Has other external lighting changed since porch/street lights can add enough light to make a big difference?

The Pro cameras have better night vision if that's useful info for you.