Smart hub offline. Tried ALL suggestions to bring it back online with no luck.

[Red15Baron]

For no apparent reason my Smart Hub VMB5000 has gone offline. I’ve tried ALL suggestions to bring it back online with no luck. Any help would be appreciated.

[Dannybear]

What is the base station LEDs showing?

[Red15Baron]

When I click on My Devices it says “Your Arlo device appears offline". So, I click on “Need help?” and it says “If the internet LED is blue or green, the Base Station is online”. So, is it online or offline? I seem to be getting mixed messages. The light on the Smart Hub is solid blue, no flashing.

[Dannybear]

Is this error via the arlo web portal on browser or using the mobile app?

Will power cycling the base station resolve the issue?

[Red15Baron]

I don't have access via my iPad or my computer.

[jguerdat]

What about the power cycling? Unplug the hub, wait a few seconds and then plug it back in. You may also want to reboot your router.

[Red15Baron]

That didn't help. Do you think I should remove the Smart Hub and re-stall it from scratch, would that do the trick?

[jguerdat]

While that's a brute force method, it does generally tend to fix things that aren't a true hardware/firmware issue. After removing all devices, you may want to also hold the reset button until the LED starts flashing amber before trying to onboard it.

[poeinator]

Same exact problem here. Started 5/30/2022. It was working fine most of the day and then suddenly went offline per the Android app. I have tried resetting the base station with the button on the back, removing it from my account, cycling power. Nothing works.

[jguerdat]

Give us all details as to what you've tried and see. Have you also rebooted your router? That has fixed issues many times.

[Red15Baron]

I’ve tried disconnecting the cable from the router to the hub, and even tried a different cable. I reset the hub by using a paper clip in the back of the hub. The device says “Your Arlo device appears offline". So, I click on “Need help?” and it says “If the internet LED is blue or green, the Base Station is online”. I don’t understand how the information it’s giving me can be correct. How can it say in one place that it's offline and in another that if the light is blue, it’s online? The light is solid blue. Nothing that I can remember happen around that time that would have caused this problem, it seemed to happen for no reason.

[StephenB]

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@Red15Baron wrote:

I’ve tried disconnecting the cable from the router to the hub, and even tried a different cable. I reset the hub by using a paper clip in the back of the hub. 

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Did you try rebooting the router?

[Red15Baron]

Yes, and I’ve just done it again to see if it worked, with on luck. On the weekend, when I have more time, I’ll remove it from the system and re-install it to see if that works.

[StephenB]

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@Red15Baron wrote:

Yes, and I’ve just done it again to see if it worked, with on luck. On the weekend, when I have more time, I’ll remove it from the system and re-install it to see if that works.

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I don't think reinstalling the router is necessary.  I think it does make sense to look at the attached devices list in the router, and making sure the VMB5000 is in that list.

When you reset the hub, did you first remove it from the account, and re-add after the reset?

Also, did you try logging into a PC browser (my.arlo.com)?

[Red15Baron]

I think it does make sense to look at the attached devices list in the router, and making sure the VMB5000 is in that list. 

Where would  I  go to get information on how to do this? When I disconnect the hub, the light on the router for the hub goes out. Does that indicate that it's attached?

 When you reset the hub, did you first remove it from the account, and re-add after the reset?

No, I simply pressed the button on the back of the hub. 

 Also, did you try logging into a PC browser (my.arlo.com)?

Yes, I've tried accessing it from the iPad and from the computer.

I removed the SD card from the hub to check when it last recorded a video and it was 05/29/22. 9:35am. Not that it make a difference, but I thought I'd just add that info. 🙂

P.S.  I'm not very  savvy when it comes to computers and ARLO, so you may have to talk down to me 🙂

[StephenB]

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@Red15Baron wrote:

I think it does make sense to look at the attached devices list in the router, and making sure the VMB5000 is in that list. 

Where would  I  go to get information on how to do this?

This is in your router's web interface, so the exact details depend on the router model.  Have you ever logged into your router's web interface?

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@Red15Baron wrote:

 When you reset the hub, did you first remove it from the account, and re-add after the reset?

No, I simply pressed the button on the back of the hub. 

Then you might need to remove the smarthub and cameras from your account, and then on-board them again.

• https://kb.arlo.com/1057976/How-can-I-reset-my-Arlo-SmartHub-or-Base-Station

[Red15Baron]

SUCCESS!! 🙂 I removed the Smart Hub and camera and re-installed them, it’s now working again. Thank you for your time in helping me with this problem.

[poeinator]

After trying many things, I also solved my problem.

Earlier in the day I switched my router's DNS to Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1. At the same time I enabled DNS over TLS (DoT), which proved to be the key issue.

I could use the new DNS but every time DNS over TLS (DoT) was enabled on my Asus router, Arlo said the base station was offline. This was especially odd since all other traffic to/from non-Arlo devices worked fine. So DoT is now disabled and Arlo is back online.

Apparently this issue has been found before with Arlo, here's the community discussion:
https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo/No-alerts-or-video-saved-from-motion-Motion-detection-test/m-p/17...

[StephenB]

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@poeinator wrote:

Earlier in the day I switched my router's DNS to Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1. At the same time I enabled DNS over TLS (DoT), which proved to be the key issue.

I could use the new DNS but every time DNS over TLS (DoT) was enabled on my Asus router, Arlo said the base station was offline. This was especially odd since all other traffic to/from non-Arlo devices worked fine. So DoT is now disabled and Arlo is back online.

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Thx for following up - I'd forgotten about this particular issue.