Arlo|Smart Home Security|Wireless HD Security Cameras
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eric-m
Tutor
Tutor

Hi,

I’m using regular Arlo Cameras and basestation, and an Amazon Echo Show.

I recently setup my cameras, and they work great with the arlo app. However, they are extremely inconsistent when I use them on my echo show. When I say “Alexa, show me the back yard”, she replies “okay” and the “waiting for Netgear...” shows up. After about 3 seconds, it returns to my home screen. No error messages at all (most of the videos I’ve seen while trying to troubleshoot display some sort of error message).

To let you know what steps I’ve done so far:
- Restarted Arlo base station
- Restarted Echo Show
- Restarted cameras
- Uninstall / reinstall Arlo Skill on Echo Show
- Devices have been synced (each camera has worked exactly once with the Echo Show).
- The first camera showed the live feed after the second attempt
- The second camera showed the live feed after about 20 attempts
- Each camera has now failed to show the live feed after ~30 attempts, but works fine in the arlo app

What at am I missing? Any help is appreciated.

Eric

116 REPLIES 116
Twistedneck
Tutor
Tutor
this is hilarious i even directly emailed the corporate vice president and the software engineering director

what you are seeing is a company with almost no US manufacturing. almost everything is built and programmed in china (some in vietnam)

they have no idea how to fix the alexa issue because they not only do not monitor this board they don’t even check any email. they have financial deals in place and make shipments in time. they don’t know any more about the arlo alexa fix than we do.

this is a san jose company in name only. you are using a chinese camera designed in china by chinese engineers. they don’t give two **bleep**s
Ruskin
Star
Star

It’s amazing how different they are from other companies I’ve had to deal with regarding tech issues.  Ring is phenomenal as is Amazon. Great customer service, great support. They call me to trouble shoot etc. Arlo/Netgear? Not so much. In fact, I have a better 

chance at Bigfoot sighting then a Arlo Customer support rep. 

SCOTTFL68
Initiate
Initiate

Just bought an ARLO 3 camera system.  Everything is setup and works  fine, but having the same issue as others.  When I ask ALEXA to show the camer she just says "Hmmm the camera is not responding".

calstripe
Initiate
Initiate

Just purchased echo show gen 2 and tried to hook up my arlo system to it with no luck. I hope this is just a glitch, I purchased the echo show for the connectivity to the arlo the salesperson told me. I bought the arlo from them as well.... Any help would be appreciated.

Mark

Showguy
Virtuoso
Virtuoso
Here is the problem. The Arlo camera system takes so damn long to respond to live feed that the Alexa times out. You will need to repeat the command at least twice or so before Alexa shows the view. Sucks but true. I have had the Arlo system for 4 years. Read the threads. The response time to live view sucks. It’s not an Alexa problem.
Daniel2silver
Tutor
Tutor
Experiencing the same thing. Any resolution?
ddalder
Guide
Guide

Yes, get rid of the trash and buy another brand. This has been ongoing for two or three years now. If Netgear hasn't fixed it by now, I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for a solution. This whole thing has been a disaster and colossal waste of time and money. Seldom have I been so disappointed in a product. I bought two Ring Video Doorbell Pro devices (these are hardwired to existing doorbell wiring) because I'm tired of battery swapping. These work just fine with the Echo Show/Spot, as do other Ring non-doorbell cameras. I also installed a PoE wired camera system for other locations on the property. Unfortunately, these don't integrate with the Echo. I figured that if I was going to lose the Arlo junk, I wanted cameras that provided very good quality video, were reliable, attached to a recorder and I could access from my smartphone. One year in so far and I don't regret my decision at all. What's the point in having video surveillance if it doesn't work? Aside from the Echo integration fiasco, I also had too many problems with Arlo cameras simply dropping off with no notification.

Showguy
Virtuoso
Virtuoso
I was an Arlo preorder way back when. If I didn’t have $1,500 invested in a 10 camera system this junk would have been gone long ago. After 4 years of agonizing firmware upgrades that do nothing but wipe out new batteries you would think they would have fixed having to wait minutes ( if your lucky) to view a live feed. My Rings are instant. And no the new improved Arlo cameras have not improved this situation. And don’t insult my intelligence and tell me it’s my WiFi ( gig over gig) or the location of the Arlo base. It simply does not work and is useless with Alexa because Alexa requests time out within a reasonable time. JUNK !!!
Fredziff
Initiate
Initiate

Does not work with Echo Show.

 

Last product I will purchase from this company

kobach
Aspirant
Aspirant

Not sure if I have Pro or Pro 2

 

Arlo does not work with Echo Show. Error message: "Sorry, something went wrong".

 

Reset and restarted Arlo base.

Deleted all cameras, reinstalled them.

Deleted skill, Restarted skill.

 

No success.

 

Checked the reviews on Alexa for Arlo. Close to 1 out of 5 points. Hundreds of complaints that system does not work properly.

 

I assume there is no way to make it working.

 

Please fix the problems asap! As you advertise with the usability Alexa, this is not fair for customers.

kobach
Aspirant
Aspirant

The same problem for me. No help so far.

VRW
Star
Star

The problem continues...  The cameras don't reliably connect with Amazon Show.  After all this time and many complaints and it still doesn't work....obviously Netgear doesn't care.  

 

Christopher_L
Initiate
Initiate

I purchased these cameras specifically because it was advertised to be compatible with Amazon's Alexa. I have the Arlo Baby for a nursery that I intended to be able to access from my firestick in my bedroom. It will work for maybe 5 minutes and then it will drop the connection. I have an Alexa Show that was intended to access the nursery through the kitchen. When I ask to see the nursery, it won't even connect because for some reason it is saying the battery on the Arlo baby is too low. (It's plugged in...) Very fast internet speed of 50 MB/S in my small home. All devices are up to date as well... I am not impressed by the performance of this product and do feel mislead as a consumer. Adequate testing was not done before parading this out to the public as an Alexa enabled device. I cannot in good conscious trust this product to watch over my newborn.

IO10
Aspirant
Aspirant

Any update on this? The baby monitor is pretty much unusable, this is basic functionality.

 

Ive returned mine and will discourage every new parent from buying it.

 

Such a shame.  Feature-wise its an excelent baby monitor.  This flaw makes it completely unreliable and very dangerous to use for looking after a newborn.

goldshep
Aspirant
Aspirant

Must unlink then relink camera to restore functionality with Echo Show.  Open Alexa app, go to all devices, select device that is not working, click trashcan icon (top right), click +(upper right), click Add Device, click Kasa (to connect your TP-LINK Kasa device to Alexa, click discover devices at bottom right, discovery should detect the device you wish to add.  FInish selecting it.  You haven't reset anything so you shouldn't need rebuild routines etc.  This restored all of my cameras to working with Echo show seemlessly as they had been since purchase in Jan 2019.  Present date Jul 13 2019. 

 

Symptoms-Cameras and app worked perfectly with my phone but would not display on echo show.  

errors alexa said 

"something's wrong"

"<camera name> isn't working"

"waiting on Arlo"

 

Solution:  remove devices in error, discover, and reload

 

 

 

 

purplenurplecam
Aspirant
Aspirant

I have an Echo Show 5 and Arlo Baby is inconsistent with being available when asked. I'd say it connects 1/5 times at this point. I've disabled and re-enabled the skill, checked to make sure the Echo and Arlo Baby cam were up to date, rebooted my network, signed out and signed in on each device, power cycled each device to no avail. This seems like a network connectivity issue on Arlo's side and I'm way past the return period so I'd like to get some benefit out of this camera since the whole point of the Echo Show was to view our Baby Cam.

 

If Arlo support is watching please correct this issue. Your Alexa skill is 2 out of 5 stars for a reason - LOTS of people have issues connecting Arlo cameras to Echo-Screen devices.

marsh240sx
Tutor
Tutor

I have the same issue with the Alexa Show. Some times it'll connect right away other times it won't. When this happens it also doesn't connect using the Android app on my phone either. Even though it's not connecting the video, it shows all the other info like temp, battery level, etc. I've found that when this happens I can go to the device settings for the Arlo Baby and toggle it off and then back on and then it will work on the Alexa Show and the video will work on my phone again. 

67346692_1233503506855071_8299220152793169920_n.png

 

I also have issues where when I have it actually working on the Alexa Show and then tell Alexa to turn on my light, Alexa will then return back to the home screen instead of going back to the Arlo camera and when I try to tell Alexa to show the camera again it says it's not responding, even though it just was. Almost seems like a network connection is being held open on Arlo's server that's preventing the Alexa Show from reconnecting. If I toggle the device off and back on, screenshot above, it will allow Alexa to reconnect again. Many times it will disconnect after a couple of minutes and then I have to tell Alexa to reconnect again. This typically happens a few times before it will actually stay connected for an extended period of time.