"There was a problem establishing a connection to the media server"

[cyberjunkyfreak]

Frequently get the above message when attempting to connect to any of the wireless cameras, and I can't find anything about this message online.  There is no rhyme or reason as to which camera(s) get this message at any time.  I have to re-attempt in order to connect, sometimes it connects and sometimes it does not, it fails to connect more often (failure rate is about 75 percent if I had to guess).  Sometimes I'll just get a "please wait" message that 

I have 4 cameras and 1 base station, brand new batteries (just installed the system yesterday).  The system appears to have the latest firmware installed:

Base:  

FW Version

1.4.2627

HW Version

VMB3010r2

All 4 cameras are same:

HardwareVMC3030

Firmware1.1.2074

I have done a hard reset of the base and resync'ed the cameras and same issue occurs.  Sometimes it appears to be connected to a live stream however if I walk in front of a camera it does pick up the movement (as if the video is paused - although it does not show as paused in the web browser).  This does not give me a good feeling when I will be monitoring remote! 

The furthest camera is less than 40 feet from the station (between a couple walls).  All 4 cameras show as full Wifi bars and full battery life when viewing in the web browser.  I'm viewing on a Mac with Yosemite (10.10.4) and Safari (8.0.7).  I have re-installed latest version of Adobe Flash... no help.    I don't suspect any Wifi interference issues (I live in a very rural area).  The base station is set for channel 7 (not sure if I can change this? I haven't been able to figure that out yet) and is hard wired to the router.  The router has it's Wifi channel set for channel 1 (it was set at 6, i changed it 1 as part of my troubleshooting, no difference).  

One thing I do notice is the beacon interval for the base station is reportedly set at 31?  Does this sound right?

I'm wondering if it's a network issue outside of my network (ie, is the message "problem establishing a connection to the media server" refer to the cloud?).  However, I would think if this were the case, more people would be reporting the issue.  I've been troubleshooting these connectivity issues for 6 straight hours now and am running out of ideas.  I really want to like this product, however these connectivity issues have me resting uneasy at the moment.  I don't want to go thru the hassle of returning it, if there's a fix to get stable streaming connections to the cameras, perhaps a firmware update???

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

[Nabbie]

Thank you for the suggestion regarding the ISP. Me and Arlo tech support looked at that yesterday and upload speed was below 1 Mbps. Apparently for Arlo to work properly, it needs at least 1 Mbps. But where it does not add up is that I could do live feed on the same upload speed, with perfect quality. Also, if the ISP provider is an issue (which it well could be), I would expect to see impact of low upload speed on Arlo on regular basis, which has not been the case so far. In other words, I am sure my upload speed varies regularly and to date it has not affected Arlo. Anyhoo, research continues... 

[wblakebaxter]

This is the same nonsense they threw at me for two weeks. If you can record and upload videos manually without latency, then it doesn't make any sense. It wasn't until I posted a very negative review on Amazon that I received a call from someone at Netgear who was capable of doing more than running through a generic list of possible problems. They finally did something on the backend, no idea what, that seems to have fixed it for me. My internet is 2mbps down, 1mbps up, and 18ms RTT. 

[fjensen]

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wblakebaxter wrote:

This is the same nonsense they threw at me for two weeks. If you can record and upload videos manually without latency, then it doesn't make any sense. It wasn't until I posted a very negative review on Amazon that I received a call from someone at Netgear who was capable of doing more than running through a generic list of possible problems. They finally did something on the backend, no idea what, that seems to have fixed it for me. My internet is 2mbps down, 1mbps up, and 18ms RTT. 

---

Agree, agree,

i have been been back and forth with tech support for a couple of months with only stalling. I made a bad review on Bestbuy and the next day someone from Netgear contacted me and asked for more details. Since then nothing, so I am not holding much hope. My upload is never below 30 Mbs and same for upload, so this is not the problem. On paper the system is great, in reality not so great.

[Nabbie]

Thank you all, that's insightful. I'm hoping I can fast track to the fix without having to write a bad review (fingers crossed!). Will keep on troubleshooting and communicating with tech support. Will keep you posted. Thank you! 

[Nabbie]

Update: I am happy to report that the recording is now happening again automatically. I did not do any additional troubleshooting on my side. Quick summary of the touchpoints with Arlo support: On March 1, I had 2 live online chats with Arlo Support team. I created 1 ticket to follow up on the issue on March 2. On same day, I received a reply saying engineers were looking into the issue. On March 3, the auto recording was back up and running. Pretty happy with turnaround time and end results. I have no idea what the engineers did to fix the issue. To close the loop on speed/latency side of things, I did another speed test today. Results are: 8.27 Mbps download, 0.49 Mbps upload. Despite the less than stellar speeds (satellite internet ISP), the Arlo system is fully operational. Yeah! 

[fjensen]

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Nabbie wrote:

Update: I am happy to report that the recording is now happening again automatically. I did not do any additional troubleshooting on my side. Quick summary of the touchpoints with Arlo support: On March 1, I had 2 live online chats with Arlo Support team. I created 1 ticket to follow up on the issue on March 2. On same day, I received a reply saying engineers were looking into the issue. On March 3, the auto recording was back up and running. Pretty happy with turnaround time and end results. I have no idea what the engineers did to fix the issue. To close the loop on speed/latency side of things, I did another speed test today. Results are: 8.27 Mbps download, 0.49 Mbps upload. Despite the less than stellar speeds (satellite internet ISP), the Arlo system is fully operational. Yeah! 

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Congratulations, you have been very lucky.

i am still in the hole, not having heard anything and still waiting for someone in Netgear to do something. 

[kapolei]

I'm getting an error message:

"There was a problem establishing a connection to the media server"

System was working fina a few days ago...I tried adding "Arlo Q" which I bought today...cannot connect...what do I do>...do I need to reset?..bought system a year ago...not sure what to do if I have to start from scratch again.

[JEA003]

Hello All...Ok, I have just got off the phone with Arlo. For months now, since Dec2015 I ahev not been able to live stream on  my Arlo. I called Arlo and a tech began with the normal excuses..."Arlo engineers are currenlty working on the the problem" I was like "since 2014?" When is the issue going to be fixed? Well after combatting her, she took the tome to ask me about my internet, modem, and routers. We dod the speedtest at www.speedtest.net, and found that the down and upload speeds were fine. Then she walked me through the router and moden connections. My connections are as followed: I have a modem (ATT Uverse), 2 Netgear routers (Same brand) and a netgear port, which enables me to run the several routers at the dsame time. the several routers are good if you have a home full of wi-fi greedy devices (Phones, pads, TV, AC, etc). Well running all these devises on the same router can be like a traffic jam. She asked me to trace my Arlo base to the see what router I had it connected to...(Well having the same exact router isn't really smart if it's not labeled because you really don't know what devices are running on the router...then again, I also forgot the password to one of  "twins". Anyway, getting back on sublect...When I traced the Arlo to the router, it was on one of the "twins", which i would bet my house, it's the router that everything in the house runs on. So, i took the Arlo off that router and connected it into my ATT modem/router...where there is no WIFI directed to its use, and guess what community....

I HAVE LIVE FEED!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, it's only the first day, so I don't want you guys to get too excited, but it's a start to perhaps a solution for everyone.  (Do I hear applause) Well i will keep you all posted if it goes back down, but if you don't hear from me that will mean, I

m streaming baby! I'm streaming!

[kapolei]

Still problems..was able to get Arlo Q to connect, but all wireless cameras still having problems (i.e. "there was a problem establishing a connection with the media server"...Does anyone know whether Netgear tries to contact you to try to get these issues resolved or do we need to search for answers ourselves?...no idea how to resolve and not sure how to get netgear to help me troubleshoot.

[jguerdat]

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kapolei wrote:

Still problems..was able to get Arlo Q to connect, but all wireless cameras still having problems (i.e. "there was a problem establishing a connection with the media server"...Does anyone know whether Netgear tries to contact you to try to get these issues resolved or do we need to search for answers ourselves?...no idea how to resolve and not sure how to get netgear to help me troubleshoot.

---

You can search for questions/answers/issues using the green Search bar at the top of these pages and there's always the FAQs and videos.  However, if you want to contact support, just use the Support link at the top and then Contact Support where there are various methods available.  You have to initiate contact.

[JEA003]

Hello All...Ok, I have just got off the phone with Arlo. For months now, since Dec2015 I ahev not been able to live stream on  my Arlo. I called Arlo and a tech began with the normal excuses..."Arlo engineers are currenlty working on the the problem" I was like "since 2014?" When is the issue going to be fixed? Well after combatting her, she took the tome to ask me about my internet, modem, and routers. We dod the speedtest at www.speedtest.net,and found that the down and upload speeds were fine. Then she walked me through the router and moden connections. My connections are as followed: I have a modem (ATT Uverse), 2 Netgear routers (Same brand) and a netgear port, which enables me to run the several routers at the dsame time. the several routers are good if you have a home full of wi-fi greedy devices (Phones, pads, TV, AC, etc). Well running all these devises on the same router can be like a traffic jam. She asked me to trace my Arlo base to the see what router I had it connected to...(Well having the same exact router isn't really smart if it's not labeled because you really don't know what devices are running on the router...then again, I also forgot the password to one of  "twins". Anyway, getting back on sublect...When I traced the Arlo to the router, it was on one of the "twins", which i would bet my house, it's the router that everything in the house runs on. So, i took the Arlo off that router and connected it into my ATT modem/router...where there is no WIFI directed to its use, and guess what community....

I HAVE LIVE FEED!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, it's only the first day, so I don't want you guys to get too excited, but it's a start to perhaps a solution for everyone.  (Do I hear applause) Well i will keep you all posted if it goes back down, but if you don't hear from me that will mean, I

m streaming baby! I'm streaming!

[JEA003]

Day 2

I'm still streaming! I hope my fix is helping everyone else. Let me know...so i can send my bill! haha 

[Nabbie]

Hello all,

Sadly, while my issue was fixed for a few days, the issued popped up again. Interestingly, this time I am not getting the error message "There was a problem..." so I created a separate topic for anyone whose auto-record is not working but everything else is. Search the community for topic "Arlo no longer automatica​lly record video when motion is detected".

Thank you

[gopaldokka]

FW Version

1.7.1_4638

HW Version

VMB3010r2

Hello there, I am experiencing this issue suddenly for the past few weeks and tried all possible solutions mentioned on the forums but no luck. Can someone help as I am unable to do a live stream remotely by connecting to myc camers which used to work until last month. Nothing changed since except I replaced one camera which was defective and was returned back.

Thank you.

Gopal.

[jguerdat]

A quick try, which you may well have already tried, is to use the power switch on the base. Are you using the app or a browser? Have you tried the other method?

[I_Hate_Arlo]

I just got off a frustrating live chat session which ended in the support assistant dumping me back into the queue.  How frustrating?  I wish I would have never spent the money on Arlo.  It does not appear that anyone at Netgear gives a damn about fixing this problem that, from the thread, seems to have been going on for two years.

[JEA003]

How many devices do you have on your wifi router

[JEA003]

i have 3 routers but had almost all my devices running off of 1 router, including Arlo. When I moved Arlo to its own router everything worked

[jguerdat]

Sounds like you need to simplyify your network.  Maybe too many DHCP servers?  Without a complete network map, it would be impossible for us to even attempt a solution.

[Arlo-Man]

I STILL see this error VERY often.

[kapolei]

Finally got it to work...had to isolate Arlo by itself on a seperate router.  Now it works (funny...worked before without having to do this...luckily had an old router laying around)...so old router with Arlo being the only thing connected...didn't even setup wireless,,,is plugged into primary router.

[JEA003]

Glad it worked for you also!

[StuBee]

Kapolei,

What brand/model is your primary router? Maybe we can find some consistent issues with specific models.

[rao]

I am consistently reading the error message on a yellow banner background "There was a problem establishing a connection to the media server".

And I seem to be seeing a "lag" between commands and responses that has become ridiculous.

Issuing commands to enter 'position mode' and such should be rather seamless and simple to begin and end, yet there is no 'end' command for the position function and much of the software - human interface is simply not intuitive enough.

A comprehensive operation manual was obviously eschewed by Netgear as an unacceptable expense whereas I find it unacceptable that Netgear failed to inclued a comprehensive operation manual.

[JamesC]

rao,

When do you notice this error message? What feature are you trying to utilize that results in the error?

If this is a brand new system, it may be that the firmware is not fully up to date. Firmware updates are done automatically overnight. To verify your devices are on current firmware, see here: Release Notes

If you would like to reference a manual to learn about Arlo features, a digital manual is available here: Where can I find the user manuals for the Arlo Wire-Free camera and Arlo Q?

Please let me know if you are still seeing this error messaging after verifying your devices firmware has been updated.

JamesC