unable to connect to media server and no motion detection

[aaronawk]

hello, i'm not sure where to go for help. i've been troubleshooting for hours and also have looked extensively online for help. our cameras are not working at all, no motion, no going live. i've reset the arlo base, removed batteries, reset wifi, removed a device and then added it back. NOTHING HAS WORKED. firmware version is 1.3.314 and there are no available updates. we bought our cameras a few years ago so I believe we have the original Arlo wireless cameras.

[mikej04]

2 days after opening my Arlo support case they e-mailed me telling me to power cycle all of my equipment and closed the case.  This did not resolve my issue.  I still have the same problem.

[mikej04]

2 days after opening my Arlo support case they e-mailed me telling me to power cycle all of my equipment and closed the case.  This did not resolve my issue.  I still have the same problem.

[mikej04]

2 days after opening my Arlo support case they e-mailed me telling me to power cycle all of my equipment and closed the case.  This did not resolve my issue.  I still have the same problem.

[mikej04]

2 days after opening my Arlo support case they e-mailed me telling me to power cycle all of my equipment and closed the case.  This did not resolve my issue.  I still have the same problem.

[mikej04]

2 days after opening my Arlo support case they e-mailed me telling me to power cycle all of my equipment and closed the case.  This did not resolve my issue.  I still have the same problem.

[Angelo_K]

I got stuck in a firmware update loop that resulted in about 48 hours of my cameras being offline. Basically I'd..

1. Get a notification that firmware needs updating over my preview feed
2. Start the update from the app
3. Leave it alone for about 30 minutes
4. Come back to everything being some state of disconnected or offline
5. Restart/Power cycle everything
6. See Step One

I decided I was going to try essentially resetting everything, but before that committment, I started just trying stuff..

1. I clicked add new device. (I did not remove any current device).
2. I selected a new camera (not sure if this matters)
3. the next step is for the system to check if there is an update to the base station before continuing, and it automatically began the update (I put the phone down walked away)
4. Update completed, I abandoned the process since I didn't actually have a device to add and everything was WORKING!

This was my solution, thought I'd share, maybe it'll help for someone.

[milton_mike]

---

@TomMac wrote:

As others have stated...if running a Pro/Pro2 with base, check the USB backup as they have had recordings there.

( which is how the system is supposed to work if internet is down )

---

i used the phone app to undock the external USB harddrive.  The status was Ready then for a half-second I saw a screen that said something about Formatting then it showed disconnected. I unplugged the drive from the Arlo base and connected it to my laptop. Windows didn't respond like it has in the past (showing up as a drive letter).... I went into device manager and manually assigned a drive letter.

You can probably guess what happened next.... no files are on the drive and the drive not only says 0 used but 0 available.

So it looks like Plan A failed due to a media server problem in the Arlo/Netgear cloud and Plan B failed because of who knows what...

I've surely lost faith in this system.

[alan-v]

I just got off the phone with customer support (9:40 AM CST).  I told him my system has been inoperative for the last 3 days with the "cannot connect to media server message."  I told him that I have re-synched, power cycled, and totally re-set the system with no success.  He told me that the engineers are aware of this problem and that it is affecting many users, and they are working on a solution.  I'm not totally confident that anyone knows what they are doing, but at least I know that it's not anything with my system.  I have an active warranty with BestBuy, so if nothing improves in the next couple of days I'm going to return everything and get my money back.

[milton_mike]

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@milton_mike wrote:

---

@TomMac wrote:

As others have stated...if running a Pro/Pro2 with base, check the USB backup as they have had recordings there.

( which is how the system is supposed to work if internet is down )

---

i used the phone app to undock the external USB harddrive.  The status was Ready then for a half-second I saw a screen that said something about Formatting then it showed disconnected. I unplugged the drive from the Arlo base and connected it to my laptop. Windows didn't respond like it has in the past (showing up as a drive letter).... I went into device manager and manually assigned a drive letter.

You can probably guess what happened next.... no files are on the drive and the drive not only says 0 used but 0 available.

So it looks like Plan A failed due to a media server problem in the Arlo/Netgear cloud and Plan B failed because of who knows what...

I've surely lost faith in this system.

---

Update - I connected the external drive to an iMac and was able to see video files. The files stopped yesterday at 5:01pm ET however there was plenty of activity it should have recorded around 10pm ET. The 4:30am garage event was not recorded locally even though the system had been Armed all day. Huge concern here folks. 

[Carli2019]

I can't get Netgear back on my network

[bill55]

my cameras went down Friday at 5:08 pm. I called support they had me reset the hub and cameras. That did not work. When viewing everything from my computer screen when I went to settings and went to the hub there was a reset option they told me not to use. Well here it is Sunday and they are still not working so I hit the reset then re-learned the cameras and now everything works fine. FYI

[ElenaR]

Hello, since couple of weeks on a app notification “base needs update”. I press update, nothing happens. It tries to updates but then stops and tells bad connection to internet or smth. Made already reset. Didn’t help (( What to do? Help !

[Sanctus11]

Hi, after 2 weeks of good use . My 3 Arlo cameras won’t update to current video . They show video from three days back when they stopped working . I reset the system ,the base ,the cameras the router ,and still nothing. Resynced them but it still does the same thing , and shows the old label names i.e. gazebo etc. very frustrating ! Please advise !

[JKFAM]

Hello, I also emailed the support team and they said they are looking into it and have recieved numerous other complaints due to the same issue. Looks like the update they just sent out is causing this issue. I will update with what they say. 

[Walt7120]

Getting ,"There was a problem establishing a connection to the media server"message when trying to view cameras. Cameras stopped responding a few days ago for no apparent reason. Bought the Arlos beginning of March and up until a few days ago they worked fine. They also do not respond through the Iphone. Any thoughts on correcting this issue would be much appreciated- Thanks!

[emonlezun]

Yay.  Just got all cameras up and running and recording videos.  Thanks for all of the help.  Happy Easter.

[nfortune]

I just purchased Arlo wireless cameras and did complete install but no live view on app and cameras not working

[mprest37]

Glad I found this thread...same issue I just bought the arlo pro, everything appeared to sync properly - camera to base station base station to the router. No live feed or motion detection, tried everything and went through it all again with the textbook walk through from the arlo support tech...getting the error through the browser when trying the live view "There was a problem establishing a connection to the media server" , apps on the phone appears to time out with no error message....very frustrating after dropping this much $$ for a security system thats unusable! case has been escalated 3-5 days estimated response ! 

[Smillie]

I have just bought the Arlo wireless system with 2 cameras. I cannot get the cameras to show any pictures. They are both connected and so is the base. I have tried removing the device's, restart, reset, absolutely everything. The cameras are working as when I click on it to play live stream the light comes on on each camera however it just keeps saying loading and never shows me any live feeds. Any help would be so appreciated

[sosilv]

I did the update of my iPhone app to version 2.7.7 two days ago.

After that, whenever I go into app, it always shows “getting status” message for the various cameras. I already saw that this problem occurred last year (and earlier in 2019) for other users. So I tried to restart my Arlo base station (remotely) by selecting “restart” option in App but that did not help. I tried to de-activate and then re-activate “devices” but that did not help. I logged out and then logged back in but that did not help.

Why did they update the App? The last version was working perfectly for me. This is not acceptable to me that a video surveillance system does not work anymore after an update (especially when one is traveling and checking on their surveillance system remotely).

I wonder if anyone else has the same issue after the recent update? Can the Arlo website tecnical support please fix this immediately?
Thank you.

[sosilv]

I did the update of my iPhone app to version 2.7.7 two days ago.

After that, whenever I go into app, it always shows “getting status” message for the various cameras. I already saw that this problem occurred last year (and earlier in 2019) for other users. So I tried to restart my Arlo base station (remotely) by selecting “restart” option in App but that did not help. I tried to de-activate and then re-activate “devices” but that did not help. I logged out and then logged back in but that did not help.

Why did they update the App? The last version was working perfectly for me. This is not acceptable to me that a video surveillance system does not work anymore after an update (especially when one is traveling and checking on their surveillance system remotely). I wonder if anyone else has the same issue after the recent update? Can the Arlo website tecnical support please fix this immediately?
Thank you.

[LamX]

I was finally able to get Tech support via chat and told the same thing - reboot everything including my router. I mentioned it could be their server but they told me same thing, power cycle everything. Did not offer to email back or create a ticket.

My product is still under warranty and the tech support said replacing wouldn't gaurantee it would fix the problem and only advice was to reboot repeatedly. How unhelpful. Always thought Netgear made reliable products so was willing to spend the extra vs other system but now I will be shying away from the system. 

[Got11]

How did you manage this? Or did they just come back online?

[LamX]

I think your problem is related to this thread:

 https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo/unable-to-connect-to-media-server-and-no-motion-detection/m-p/169...

If you can return, maybe reconsider your purchase. I am upset at the tech support received so far but outside the return window. 

[emonlezun]

I unplugged the power cord only from the base and reattached after 10 seconds and did it again.  Someone earlier had done that with success and gave it a shot.  After re-syncing the first cameras, I got a live feed.  After third camera it came fully online.  Working fine now.  Guess it was just luck on my part.  Hope yours comes up soon.