Arlo|Smart Home Security|Wireless HD Security Cameras

Severe issue with battery life display. Fix it!!!

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cherry-pie
Star
Star

I'm very dissapointed to learn that one day the battery life on my arlo camera app shows full but the next day it shows orange and then it dies. 

 

There is obviously a lack of better programming for the app and communication between the app and camera station etc...

 

My network is excellent in my home, i always have the app updated to the latest ver. and it works fine for the most part. I've also uninstalled and reinstalled the app before as reported in another posting about lag and freeze issues that the community also expereinces with your app.

 

*** I suggest to have the App display an actual numerical percentage versus having just 3 diagonal bars to tell the user how much juice the battery has. 3 useless bars tells me nothing about how much battery life my camera has and now that i know it is completley unreliable, im concerned about the lack of the cameras monitoring my home when im gone (because they might just die one day).

 

This has to be at the top of your list Netgear Dev Team -to fix this as your product runs solely on batteries. Without the batteries, there is no cameras. I'm not the only user who has reported this. This has been an issue since the getgo. Implement a numerical number that shows an accurrate battery life on the app please! And make it reliable without bugs!

 

I along with your other customers rely on this securty system to monitor my home. This is important to us.

 

 

12 REPLIES 12
Fort_Knox
Apprentice
Apprentice

I totally agree. My system has been running fine the past month but suddenly one camera became offline in both the iOS app and the web application.

 

The day before (well, actually all days before) this particular camera had all three bars on battery status. One of the other cameras was down on one bar, due to much more recording and movement sensing. Funny thing is that now, the camera that previously was down on one bar suddenly showed full battery status (like the rest of my cameras).

 

I power-recycled the offline camera and it came back online. Only thing is that now this camera is down on red battery status and all other cameras show full battery status.

 

Magic? Don't think so. The software must, by some reason, mess up the cameras battery status so that one camera shows another cameras status. I hate to say this but the software is so buggy. I never know if I can trust the system or not. When it works it's great. When it doesn't - well, I guess you realize what I think.

 

Now maybe someone is going to tell me to restart the system - check. Then the suggestion would be to reinstall the whole system - NOT. I'm not spending another day respositioning all cameras and then reprogramming all rules and schemes. This can not be the almighty solution all the time. The ONLY solution is to make the software stable and reliable. 

Base station: VMB3010r2 x 1
Wifi Camera: H7 x 4
TomMac
Guru Guru
Guru

restart your system... no just joking. 🙂  ( you said someone would tell you to do it )

 

 

I had it happen also... My one cam was ( on PC) down 1 bar ( so 2/3 still good ) and I was running tests that took about 2 mins... taking a few snapshots.

 

After the tests, the cam went off line which was odd as I can't remember the last time one has without obvious reason.

 

Checked the cam and found the front led flashing Orange, which means low voltage. Replaced batteries and it came right back up with full battery indicated.

 

I checked the voltage of the cells to find them at 2.75v which is considered dead. ( they start at 3.2v )

 

 

So the cam went from 2/3 full to doa in ❤️ mins use... Yes, I do think there is some sort of problem with the sensing of battery levels.

 

 

On the plus side, the batteries lasted 6 months... ( I think in another post you said yrs were 4 ).  If going away for a while I would prob consider changing out batteries in the important cameras as a safety factor  ( BTW, I add the date the batteries are install to the cam name ;exp  CAM 1 03-01  )

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Morse is faster than texting!
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Fort_Knox
Apprentice
Apprentice

TomMac wrote:

restart your system... no just joking. 🙂  ( you said someone would tell you to do it )


🙂 Thanks, I earned that Smiley Very Happy

 

Yeah, I checked the batteries and they were also down on low voltage. This camera was installed 05/02/2016 with factory set of batteries. Switched them (only on this camera) and now all four cameras indicate full battery. Very strange since another camera was down on one bar and now indicates full.

 

The camera with low battery level had a maximum of two minutes recording/day. Something must have made the camera drain the batteries from three bars to empty in just one night (no recordings were made this night).

 

 

 

Base station: VMB3010r2 x 1
Wifi Camera: H7 x 4
Allentowngal
Guide
Guide

Ever since the problems back on FEB 23rd  I had battery drainage. The first batteries I had lasted 6 mths no problem. My one camera went dead about a week ago - with the other two showing they were losing bars also.  I finally had time today to order more online. Decided I would put some of the old batteries back in that I had replaced back in February.  AMAZINGLY they worked ... but I got a message on that camera saying there was an upgrade I needed to download.  I did the upgrade AND THE BARS ON THE OTHER CAMERA WENT TO FULL BARS!!  SO GLAD I DIDNT THROW AWAY THE BATTERIES I HAD REPLACES just a few weeks ago. They had only been in the cameras about 3 weeks when everything went nutty in February.  I really LOVE this system but I guess they are having some growing pains because I still see great fluctuations in when/how my cameras record, including the time of day the sun hits them, and on windy days. Sure hope it all settles down soon.

JamesC
Community Manager
Community Manager

cherry-pie,

 

While the battery meter is not currently as precise as to show exact percentage, this is a great idea. I encourage you to post this idea in the Arlo Idea Exchange where it's importance can be better exposed to the development team.

 

JamesC

gilbo2
Luminary
Luminary

I have noticed that since the firmware update to Arlo Wire-Free Base Station v1.7.3_5005 and Arlo Wire-Free Camera v1.2.4941, that the battery level indications changed. Suddenly my batteries which were less than 50% and almost 3 months old were full bars again! Clearly wrong!

 

The downside to this "over optimistic" power level means meant that this week, one camera which before the firmware update was 1 bar, was now 2 bars. BUT, this then went to 1 bar and no operation in a space of a few (7ish) hours. Although I did get an email, the calibration MUST be returned as it was as currently you get far too shorter notice of a pending dead camera.

 

Hope Netgear are listening!

JamesC
Community Manager
Community Manager

gilbo2,

 

Please monitor your battery indicators and let me know if you experience this issue in the future.

 

JamesC

tivoboy
Apprentice
Apprentice

I'm having some similar issues.. batteries showing up as low, then go to RED and DEAD at least the cameras indicate it as such.

 

If the batteries really are dying this fast, something is going on that shouldn't.  Having had the VUE system for years, with my usage profile (only when away on holidays and some days - set to motion and not sensing ANY motion) I used to replace batteries MAYBE once every 2-3 years.

 

Now, it's looking like having to replace batteries once every 4-6 months, so 3-4X WORSE as far as batter life goes.  

 

Hopefully, they will fix this or indicate it better.

JamesC
Community Manager
Community Manager

tivoboy,

 

Batteries for Arlo Wire-Free cameras are expected to last for 4-6 months under normal usage conditions. If you are having to replace batteries once every 4-6 months, this is expected.

 

What is the battery life for NETGEAR Arlo wireless cameras and how can I extend their life?

 

JamesC

 

judykathryn
Aspirant
Aspirant

I am having the same issue with the batteries on a newly purchsed system less than a month old. When Ibrought the system online it did a firmware update and the batteries showed 100% charge but within a week I needed to replace and now the batteries that were replaced 2 week ago are now low. I changed the setting to optimize  battery life without success. This is  a place with little activity  I just wanted the extra secirity being single and 60-ish. Now feeling the crunchon replaceing 4 wirefree batteries costing close to $100.00 with less than 2 weeks of use.

jguerdat
Guru Guru
Guru

First off, search for the batteries on the web. You should be paying on the order of $1.50-1.75US for them. Also, consider rechargeable batteries, although they're specifically not supported by Netgear. Lots of info in the Buying Options and Tips board.

 

Next, are all the cameras doing this? If so, how many minutes of recording and live viewing are you doing? Spec life is ~5 minutes per day TOTAL to get 4-6 month life. If it's only one camera, swap them around to see if the issue stays with the camera or stays with the location. If the location is the issue, you may need to move the base or cameras or check into interference from other 2.4GHz devices (WiFi or not) as well as distance, walls, etc.

gteague
Tutor
Tutor

i've had my eye on the arlo system for nearly two years, but was unwilling to pay the asking price. but this holiday season i took advantage of price drops to buy two cameras. all went well (except i learned to _never_ put the camera in the test modes unless i wanted to start from scratch) but i noticed that the battery meter stopped reporting in just a couple of days and locked up at 98%. i tried various things to try to reset it but nothing worked until i pulled the camera down, took out all the batteries, put them back in, then mounted the camera again. but now it's stuck at 48%.

the other camera has been up for three days now and is still at 99% although i know i've used at least 2-3% of the battery since in installed it. given that you have to climb up and unmount these cameras i think having an accurate battery report would be a very high priority. 

i've only read this one thread--is there a resolution to the problem elsewhere on the forum?

thanks! /guy