"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!

[cyberjunkyfreak]

Hi Showguy, I did not see your last post when I had just replied too.  Now, I'm wondering if maybe your reset button is stuck in some transient position?  Maybe take a paperclip and give it a few good temporary presses.

[Showguy]

Let me be clear. I am assuming it's rebooting in the middle of the night. I have never seen it do so. The only evidence is when I wake up in morning all the camera views are back to the " stream new camera" view and all custom schedules , time zone, camera settings, camera order and rules are back to default. It has happened twice in 3 months and than every day for the last 5 days.

[cyberjunkyfreak]

Ah ok, I understand now.  Not sure what the issue could be there, maybe a base firmware update that is failing or an issue with your "My Arlo" account. Have you tried to "deactivate" the base from your account and then set it up as new again to see if that helps?  Just thinking out loud here... trying to help... good luck!

[ChristineT · Accepted solution]

Good morning Arlo community,

Thank you for all of your contributions regarding this issue. We have identified a newly added server that appears to be experiencing unforeseen issues that has been taken offline for further investigation. We believe this has been the primary cause of users getting the errors of "There was a problem establishing a connection to the media server".

This issue should now be resolved. Please let us know if that is not the case for your system so we can work with you directly and engage our engineering team for further investigation.

We truly appreciate your patience and understanding in resolving this issue.

Best Regards,

Christine

Arlo Team

[jguerdat]

Christine, any word on why it happens for some and not others? I have had no problems at all with the new firmware. A possible hint is that I have both emails and app notifications disabled.

[Rudy]

Aweesome Christine, thank you for all your help earlier today.

This seems to have resolved my problems with the Issue: "There was a problem establishi​ng a connection to the media server".

I have tried several times now and all is well.

[cyberjunkyfreak]

Thanks for the update Christine!

I would imagine that some people connect to server X (problem server) while some other connect to server Y (stable server).  Just a guess of course...

[Rudy]

Thank you for all your help earlier today Christine.

The change you made has resolved the issue : "There was a problem establishing a connection to the media server"

I have been in and out several times flipping streaming on and off, and all is well.

Thank you !!

[jguerdat]

You'd think it would be a round-robin bug we can only guess. If I'm on the working one I'm fine with that. 😛

[RobertRosal]

I must have been on the working server, as I did not have these issues.

Pleae keep me on the one that is working. 🙂

[cyberjunkyfreak]

yeah we'd have no way of knowing how the load balancing / routing is setup on their end.  i've just checked all my cameras and so far... so good!

[Mage99]

Thank you for the update Christine. Just an FYI, I tried to recreate the issue I was having with the connection to the Media Server when I press "play" to view a live footage and it seemed to be resolved. I tried it several times and couldn't recreate it. Thank you again for your assistance. 

[JPC]

Showguy, I'm not getting the reboot problem you have.. But I still do get a random hit and miss recording..

Not so bad in the morning til' noon which I do get most of the recordings but I do notice it so slow coz I still get to

see the spinning wheel when I go to my library.. It might be the server problem.. so 

I set all 4 of my cameras to 100% motion sensitive.. I'm doing this to see if it's indeed the server issue.. 

This way I can monitor if hit and miss recording still exists.. Unfortunately at this time.. still is.. 

[ChristineT]

Good afternoon JPC,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I see you have an open support case regarding the issue(s) you are experiencing. I have sent you a message via our support center. I have provided my contact information there and look forward to working with you to get this issue resolved. 

Thank you!

Christine

Arlo Team

[JPC]

Hi Christine, 

Thanks for getting back to me.. I did get your message but unfortunately I just restarted my Base-Station..

when I found out here that there were server issues you guys are having.. Now, I won't restart it so I can

keep the logs and for you to see in the event the hit and miss recording happens.. I'll definitely will let you know.. 

Thanks again, 

Jon 

[ChristineT]

Thanks for the update Jon,

Our engineering team would like to know if this issue was occurring for just one or all of your cameras? If just one camera please be sure to also note the serial number of the camera affected so we can parse the logs more efficiently?

Thanks again for your contribution! 🙂

Christine

Arlo Team 

[Rudy]

Hi Christine as of today I received new base station firmware, and I am now getting the error: "There was a problem establishing connection to the camera."

It was fine for a day or so, I can provoked the error again by trying to stream, and I don't think I am getting all recorded video transmissions either. (acting the same as it did the other day, with a slightly different error)

Was something changed?

Please advise

Base station firmware is now: 1.4.2695 (seems to be a newer version)

Camers firmware is now: 1.2.2545 (as as the other day)

-R

[Rudy]

Also just this message when trying

"Error 5011: The camera failed to connect. Please try again."

[StuBee]

---

Rudy wrote:

Also just this message when trying

"Error 5011: The camera failed to connect. Please try again."

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Hi Rudy,

I'd suggest a separate Thread as your error/issues seems to be different than the Media server issue.

[darikian]

I bought and installed the system this week.  Day one, all cameras worked fine all the time, this is day 4 or 5.  Now I have this "There was a problem establishing a connection to the media server" messgae on two of my four cameras.  Both are in the wifi range with good signal strength showing.  Refreshed the screen a few times and tried re-syncing.  Not helping.  Not sure if this issue is actually resolved.

Thanks

[JPC]

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darikian wrote:

I bought and installed the system this week.  Day one, all cameras worked fine all the time, this is day 4 or 5.  Now I have this "There was a problem establishing a connection to the media server" messgae on two of my four cameras.  Both are in the wifi range with good signal strength showing.  Refreshed the screen a few times and tried re-syncing.  Not helping.  Not sure if this issue is actually resolved.

Thanks

---

It may be related to this:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Troubleshooting/Getting-Error-that-Can-t-Connect-to-Media-Server/m-...

[Showguy]

Nope it's not resolved. My has been working on and off the last couple of day. Streaming is difficult to impossible and the amount of alerts versus what's recorded in the library is inconsistent. These are the same symptoms as a month ago when a new firmware version crippled us and we were told days later it was a faulty server and had nothing to do with the firmware. What's today's excuse?

[darikian]

Ok, thank you for that info.  Doesn't seem like they know when it might be repaired.  Too bad.  

[Brett0712]

I am now having this problem as well.  I have a new 4 camera system that has been working wonderfully for the last week (installed it a week ago today).  This morning I noticed that I was having difficulty viewing live streams from the cameras on my smartphone.  Upon logging into the Arlo website from my PC, I am getting the "There was a problem establishing a connection to the media server" error.  It appears to be random and varies from camera to camera.  

[Rudy]

I had the same issue a while bac, it went away for a week or so, and it started again yesterday big time. Today its on and off working and not working "connection to media server failed" etc.

I hope netgear fixes the issue soon.