firmware updates causing horrible battery life

[ChadFromWa]

So I noticed some number of months ago that my cameras started getting really bad battery life issues.  I changed the batteries and then had to change them again and again.  These are locations where the batteries used to last 30 days now lasted maybe 5 days now.  No change to the placement or the brand or even batch of batteries.  If anything with one less person in the house fewer activations of the motion sensors and fewer recordings would have been happening.  I noticed this all after the base station hung and had to be restarted (several ways after contacting support).  I pay for up 10 cameras but could now only keep 2 or 3 on before the base station would hang.

Is this the normal quality of the arlo system or should I expect to get my month+ long battery life back?  And be able to use all the cameras I pay for?

[TomMac]

Have you reset the base and resynced the cams ?

[mhnatt]

Regardless if the firmware is the cause, I'd prefer for Arlo/Netgear to not push firmware out without the user interviening.

For example, most products like routers, computers, phones, etc. will simply notify the user with a badge or some indicator that a new firmware or software updates are available, letting us choose a convenient time to agree to the update.

With devices like security cameras, pushing updates out without our consent, can cause great headaches for example when we are away from home (the time when we need security cameras most) any bugs that they cause can and do result in a crippled system when we cannot be physically present to for example, "resync the cams".  I for one visit remote properties that are thousands of miles away, only on a monthly basis and these kinds of things cause me and I'm sure others grea grief.

[JamesC]

ChadFromWa,

Are all the cameras on the latest firmware? If the signal strength is poor for some of the cameras, they may fail to complete the firmware update (and continue trying to receive it) which could be causing issues with battery life. Check your firmware versions and make sure they are on the latest, if some are not, bring those close to the base station (temporarily) to allow the firmware update to complete.

JamesC

[ChadFromWa]

Yes, I have reset it and resynced the cams several times.

[ChadFromWa]

The camera were getting much better battery life without being moved or any changes to the network.