Select cameras going offline, and batteries draining fast

[CML]

I have read through the countless posts on battery drain.  I have tried all solutions (except the ones that make no sense), but nothing has worked.  There have been no additions or disruptions to our WiFi, which has a strong signal (used only for Arlo, smartphones, and an occasional laptop).  All five cameras worked fine for over two years in all types of weather, but for the past couple months, one--then two--then three cameras began going offline.  Sometimes a resync would fix the problem, but not for long.

We always write the date on one battery when inserting new ones.  The same brands (Streamlight, Surefire, Energizer, Duracell) that were running for four or five months in our cameras recently began lasting just a couple weeks.  Then they began lasting a couple days.  Now it's down to a couple hours.  When I look at the battery reviews on Amazon (different brands), and I search for Arlo and sort by Most Recent, the batteries are all getting slammed lately by Arlo owners assuming it's a battery problem.

For the past week or so, some of our cameras that went offline will not resync at all--even after a base station reset.  Netgear spent a long time on the phone trying different solutions.  I really appreciate that, considering our cameras are out of warranty.  But this is clearly not a battery problem, not a router issue, not a cold-outside problem, not a base station-camera location problem, or not anything that has been suggested in any post on the battery drain issue.  This is an Arlo problem.  

The cameras offline/communication issue is clearly tied to our battery drain issue.  Once we realized this, we took the new batteries out of our cameras as we tried to resolve the problem.  But while I was resetting the base station and adding the cameras back, the batteries were completely drained (saving them just in case).  Could the system be in competition with all the new Arlo devices on the network?  The free service for our five cameras has been reliable and a great deal for the past couple years, but we wonder if it can be maintained with growing traffic. 

[jguerdat]

It sounds to me like the base station is dying. That would explain the short battery lie on all cameras - the cameras are having trouble maintaining connection to the base.

My suggestion would be to consider buying a Pro system with 1 camera. Remove all deices in Settings, My Devices and start fresh, using the Pro base. Claim the base and then sync the cameras. If things work, great - you found the problem. If not, you can return the Pro system.

[steve_t]

Download and open a Wifi Analyzer app on your phone. Just because your wifi hasn't changed, doesn't mean there's not new wifi interference in the area.

Find the clearest channel. Switch your wifi router to that channel. Restart your base station. The base will follow the channel of the strongest nearby 2.4GHz network. 

If that doesn't work, consider turning your wifi off completely temporarily to help see if that could be causing interference, if the Arlo suddenly works, you know you'll need to move the base station away from the router. Or you could try that first, I guess

[CML]

Thank you for the suggestions.  I had checked all that beforehand.  While I was on the phone with Netgear Support, I changed the channel on the router, which had no effect.  There has been no WiFi interference on our phones or laptop either.  The only possible drop in signal would be from Comcast, but our modem always appears functional.

I also asked Netgear about the distance of the router from the Arlo base station, and he said it didn't matter.  Right now the two are about 5 feet away.  Initially for about the first year, they were right next to each other, and there were no problems.  But there were no problems for the second year after the two were separated about 5 feet.

What is most disappointing is that there is no consistency or logic with all of this failure, as two cameras are still working just fine.  Even if there was a drop in WiFi signal, why would that totally knock off some cameras and drain their batteries so quickly?  There's no relationship between the cameras that dropped off and their distance from the base station.  Wouldn't a dropped signal simply knock all cameras offline periodically and then pick them back up again?  The Netgear app is typically able to reconnect with each camera after the batteries have been removed for long periods of time--even without a resync.  And why would loss of WiFi drain the expensive batteries?  The cameras aren't burning batteries trying to locate a signal.  There's also no relationship between the failing cameras and their age (some are older than others).  It's a mystery to me.

[CML]

Thank you.  I guess I could try that as my last step.  However, the base station is working fine.  All the lights are as they should be, and the sync and reset worked as it should.

I debated buying the set of Arlo cams with audio when they were about half price last December.  If I had only known this failure with our original Arlo cams was about to happen.