Integration of Arlo pro2 to Smarthings - Camera quit triggering to record when ST sends Capture

[RobMo150]

I had this working for a couple of years where I've integrated a driveway sensor to a open/close ST's sensor.   When someone came down the driveway, it triggered the open/close sensor which in turn fired off a custom rule in ST to start 2 cameras recording for 1 minute.    Worked great  UNTIL 2 weeks ago.   No changes were made by me.  I don't know of ST or Arlo updated anything.    I've restarted, rebuilt, deleted rules, added new rules, nothing.   I can see in the ST app for the camera that a "sent Capture Command to porch camera" was sent.   But the camera doesn't do anything.   I've had it in disabled mode, ST mode, armed (on arlo).    Was there an update from either company that might have screwed up this integration?   I can manually trigger the camera in ST to record, but not by a rule.    This really stinks because this was a great security feature.   If I can't find a solution I'll have to rethink my whole setup.     Thanks for any advice.    I did search and went thru this thread just to make sure I didn't miss anyting.

https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo/Record-without-motion-Smartthings-Arlo/m-p/1531162#M50207

[gabrielst]

Hi guys,

I can confirm that the some triggers are recording again. I haven't check all my cameras and sensors yet, but I believe that the base VMB4000 is working back.

By the way, the previous firmware (faulting) was 1.14.1.2_2916_1fdeefd. The current (updated) is 1.15.0.1_3162_d878851.

Happy New Year!

Regards,

Gabriel

[rscott09]

Finally we got our Arlo 4000 hub working again with SmartThings triggers.  Whoever was responsible for fixing this, thanks.  Thanks to all of you for your persistence in contacting Arlo and for posting your info on this forum.

BTW, after the Arlo 4000 hub firmware update, I had to delete the Arlo SmartThings device in SmartThings , reinstalled the Arlo device driver, reauthorized the Arlo device and cameras to access Smarthings, rebooted the 4000 hub, and made sure that the Arlo mode was in armed mode for each of the cameras. Everything so far seems to be working.

[RobMo150 · Accepted solution]

Based upon several posting here today, the latest firmware seems to have resolved the integration to SmartThings with the v4000 Arlo base.     Thanks all for reporting back.   It’s been a journey but all of our badgering  seems to have paid off.  Good luck and hopefully they won’t break something else.   Update is 1.15.0.1_3162_d878851.

[macmus]

It does not work for me! I have 1.15

[jsnphdrn]

I concur that the latest firmware update (1.15) seems to have finally fixed the integration with Samsung SmartThings.  I have a 4000 base, and have re-added my SmartThings triggers to record video on my Arlo Cameras, and it's finally working.  Thanks for everyone's efforts in hounding Arlo to fix this and continued testing (especially you @RobMo150). 

While I'm glad they finally fixed it, I am a little disappointed that it took so long to fix (4 months), and contacting customer support via chat or phone is often very painful and a giant waste of time.  I've only had my Arlo system since April or May of 2019, and got it specifically because it was the only "officially-integrated" camera with SmartThings... yet the integration has been broken more months than it has been working for when I've owned the system. 

For you seasoned Arlo customers... is Arlo often this slow to respond with a fix, or is it something I should get used to (and possibly look to switching to a different camera system if I can sell this "old" one that's less than a year old)? 

[Gron]

OK So I have deleted a camera from ST as someone mentioned this was a good idea. It was to start fresh.

It can not be seen anymore by ST and can't be re added so I might have to do a complete reset of it. But all other things are working. Oh apart from seeing a live picture in ST app. I have fully moved to the new ST app now. IFTTT works as a trigger "Yay" but there are still buggy things. I guess that is life in the home automation world.  Happy ending, 4 months of waiting is not at all ideal. I will be wary of Arlo from now on and will most likely look at alternatives. Good camera, great system, sleepy support. Not inspiring.

[Mavrrick]

This may not be a popular opinion but i actually dont have big issue with it taking 4 months to fix. Could and should it be better, yes. The reasons are pretty simple.

1. This appears to be firmware related and not a backend server issue. Since the firmware is on my device in my home i really dont want them to break anything else in the process of a fix. I suspect a firmware update is allot more of a pain in the butt to deploy then a simple backend server fix.
2. The VMB4000 could have been considered obsolete and we were simply advised to buy a new base. No tech company has a requirement to support everything for ever. I think this would of been really crappy to do, but considering the VMB4500 is technically avaliable it was a possibility.
3. Working in IT i see how complicated this is to get done. One of the systems i work on gets software updates almost weekly. It is a massive system with allot of moving parts. Just because of its size and what it does dictates this kind of schedule. With that said most updates go through atleast a few months of testing and validation. Unless something is so critical it litterly breaks the system in some way that pretty much never changes. This even includes things that break in feature updates that are found even before the upgrade. Software is great but as it gets more complicated bugs happen.

Unfortunately we as Smartthings users aren't the critical customers and as such probably dont have the pull we feel we should.

Don't get me wrong i dont like how long it took, i am just saying i understand. Now should you look at other solutions depends a bit on you honestly. Everyone is subject to software updates going bad. I would expect unless you manage every part of the system from install to when updates get applied pretty much all systems are the same especially from the big ones that focus on cloud based services. A home NVR system is probably a middle groud, but how you would roll back a update could be tricky.

[RobMo150]

Waiting 4 months is long for broken existing functionality. But the kicker was the crappy responses and lack of communication. I gave them ample opportunities to just communicate. But even last month they tried the its SmartThings not us on me. As a 30 yr software eng/exec in a large IT shop, I called bs on them repeatedly. The handling and communication was poor. In the end it got fixed. But certainly a 1 star rating for customer communication and care. IMO.

[Mavrrick]

I 100% agree communication was horrible. This method though is unfortunately typical of this kind of thing though. Mainly for 2 reasons.
1. If you dont create expectations you can't let someone down
2. The important information frequently doesn't get to the folks that are on the front lines. I bet the mods on here didnt know until it happened and we reported it resolved. At best they new the day of.

What they should do is create a know current bug section on the forums. Have sub sections for each camera. When a bug is found move the thread to that area and provide weekly updates until it is marked as resolved. It wouldn't take much to do and possbly make the community much happier when big issues occur. It also allows users that aren't effected to know what is going on from the hourses mouth. Transparency is generally better for all. It would take one call a week with a mod and the right person on the internals systems side to do and make a hige difference with custome confidence.

[isuat960]

So finally it looks like integration for ST initiating Arlo captures is working but  having some troubles with two different implementations

Option 1 - ST motion sensors initiating the trigger

This is what broke in Sept and is now working for all of my indoor cameras, but I have 1 outdoor camera and im not aware of any outdoor ST motion sensors so wanted to use the native Arlo motion detector for this one outdoor camera.  Thus I created a custom mode in Arlo app to only enable motion detection from the 1 outdoor camera.  All other indoor cameras are successfully triggered from ST motion sending a request to corresponding indoor Arlo cameras for video capture. This works but for some reason whenever the Capture command is sent from ST to Arlo, it seems to change the Arlo mode from my "Custom" mode to "Disabled".  The result is all my indoor cameras still work with the ST capture but the lone outdoor camera has its motion detection disabled.   Why does the mode change to "disabled" on its own?

Option 2 - leave Arlo app always "ARMED"  and have ST turn camera sliders On/Off

The ST rules with Home/Away/Night successfully turn the camera sliders On/Off as I desire, and I leave the Arlo app ARMED..  However,  when the sliders are turned from Off to ON, and even though the mde remains "ARMED', the native Arlo motion detectors are only working on 2 of my 5 cameras.  Yet if i manually toggle back to Disarmed then back to Armed, essentially "refreshing" the mode, it all works fine and each native arlo motion detector works fine.  I have a 4000 base and a mix of Arlo Pro and Pro2 cameras but i cant find a pattern of why some work and some dont.

[isuat960]

i observed the same issue.  Classic app can have ST sensor initiate capture command sent to Arlo camera but new ST app only appears to be able to toggle the Arlo camera On/Off slider.  Does this mean they are expecting Arlo to remain in ARMED mode all of the time and ST rules just toggle individual Arlo camera On/Off sliders as appropriate?  i can get the sliders to work based off ST rules but when they toggle from Off to ON, despite the ARMED mode remaining untouched and the cameras icons showing that native Arlo motion detection is on, it isnt woring on all my cameras.  Yet if I manually toggle Arlo mode fromArmed to  Disabled and back to Armed, they work fine.

Do you know a way for ST to change the Arlo mode to Armed, or Disarmed, or Even a custom mode?  The only thing I see that ST can do is turn the Arlo camera slider toggles On or Off.

[Mavrrick]

There is something that gets out of wack sometimes on the arlo side that causes smartthing initiated actions to make the mode change to disarmed. When this happens the only solution I have found is to completely remove the Smartthings integration, Remove the smartthings mode and start from scratch. I would suggest you try that. 

As far as methods to record I would suggest you check the Smartthings forums for different options. 

[dki378]

I've played with both the classic ST app and new ST app and still can't quite figure out how to get the Arlo cams to record on a ST motion trigger. I have been following this thread because it never worked for me due a firmware issue. Now that it appears to be fixed I don't know how to validate it works for me. Can anyone help me or guide me to a link that shows the step by step method for getting this functioning?

Right now, my motion sensor alerts me of motion on the ST app but I can't get that motion to trigger a record on the Arlo cams.

Thanks so much in advance. I appreciate any help!

[isuat960]

The way I've done it is marketplace, smart apps, safety and security, smart home monitor security, custom, then choose motion detector and camera you want. This works fine but it always causes my arlo app to go to disabled mode. This is ok if you exclusively what ST to do the initiation. However im trying to do a hybrid of ST and native Arlo motion detection as the initiation and when it switches to Disabled obviously all the Arlo cameras motion detection shuts off.

[RobMo150]

Just to add to that, as I use the custom as well.  I have the arlo cameras schedule to arm and that is the mode I put arlo in.   When schedule time hits cameras are armed via arlo rules.   I have that set for night time.   I will see the mode set to disarm during the day, but it does the ST triggers fine, then switches automatically to scheduled /armed at night.    If I leave town I just but in armed mode on arlo.  It still activates for ST triggers.     

[isuat960]

Hmmm..something doesnt make sense to me. The Arlo app mode "Disabled" and "Schedule" are mutually exclusive. If you manually set it to "Scheduled", then when a ST event happens and ST sends Arlo the capture video event, the Arlo mode then gets automatically set to "Disabled", meaning "Schedule" is no longer in effect. Unless you manually set it back to schedule which manual intervention defeats the purpose of schedule?

What am I missing?

[RobMo150]

I have arlo triggers defined.  They work.   I have a schedule built in arlo for night time motion detection.   I set my arlo to schedule mode.    Then I don’t touch it again.  During the day if I checked the Mode it says disarmed.  But that’s because it’s not during my scheduled time.    It will automatically go armed at night based upon the schedule.   ST triggers don’t effect the mode.   So no I don’t manually set it each day.   I set it once to schedule.  That’s it.   NOW if I go out of town I do set it to armed so that it’s full time armed, not just at night based on schedule.   When I return back, I set it back to scheduled.    

[Mavrrick]

Sometimes the integration will get screwed up and any action from Smartthings will cause the cameras to go into Disarmed mode. The only solution i have found for this was to fully remove the cameras and integration and the Smartthings Mode and then set it up again all from scratch. The Smartthings mode will be recreated after you link your setup again to smartthings.

[ShayneS]

Hello Community, 

We have released an update on Jan 2nd, this update should address the issue with the Pro 2 & SmartThings not triggering recordings. Please contact the Customer Support Team if the issue continues. You will find several options for contacting support in the provided link. Arlo Tech Support

[kouchimk]

Good evening. I’m writing in regards to a defect that’s been going on for over six months now. I was going to write a very long defect write-up, but starting simple below and hopefully Arlo and/or SmartThings can run a debug to see what is going on. I can provide more detail as well.

Setup

I have my Arlo Pro cameras connected in SmartThings

I simply turn Arlo Pro cameras ON or OFF based on SmartThings routines

I only use SmartThings to turn the cameras on or off based on two SmartThings routines

Routine 1 

• Whenever one of us arrives home (based on SmartThings phone location), SmartThings routine runs to disarm and turn Arlo cameras OFF
• Whenever both of us leave home (based on SmartThings phone location), SmartThings routine runs to arm and turn Arlo cameras ON

Routine 2

• At 11pm at night, SmartThings routine runs to arm and turn Arlo cameras ON
• At 6am, SmartThings routine runs to disarm and turn Arlo cameras OFF

Arlo Pros always stay in ARMED mode (do not do ST mode in Arlo). Therefore if cameras are on, they should detect motion and record video. If cameras are off, they obviously they’re not detecting motion or recording video

This worked fine for a few years, but then after a few firmware updates (I believe Arlo), it has stopped working correctly.

Current Defect

In either routine mentioned above, when the cameras are turned OFF from the SmartThings routine, they turn OFF as desired. But when the are turned ON from a SmartThings routine, the cameras DO turn on (I can see that in the Arlo app), but only one of seven cameras actually detects motion and records. I’ve checked all Arlo settings and all looks fine. This is a scenario that should actually never happen (Arlo cameras are ON, armed, but not detecting motion or recording video).

Attempts to Fix

I’ve tried about everything, and have tested this extensively. Deleted routines, removed Arlo from SmartThings, re-added, have taken batteries out, reset, etc. The only thing I haven’t tried is nuking Arlo back to factory settings. Have been in ST IDE as well and checked everything. Both Arlo and SmartThings are updated to latest firmware and software versions.

What DOES temporarily work is if I do a reboot of Arlo. So then all motion/recording works. But as soon as one of those routines from SmartThings triggers Arlo cameras ON, then it gets back in that cycle of not detecting motion or recording (even though they’re ON and armed).

Would LOVE some help on this, it’s super frustrating, and basically makes the cameras useless if they can’t detect or record.

Note: I do NOT want to use Arlo’s geolocation in this case, because the camera is always ON killing battery life.

Thanks!

Arlo firmware 1.15.0.0_3162_d878851

Arlo hardware VMB4000r3

Cameras firmware 1.092.0.24_985

Six cameras have H8 hardware, one has H11 hardware

Arlo app 2.12.3 (1927)

SmartThings hub firmware 000.028.00012

[kouchimk]

Another update…I thought I’d go ahead and factory reset Arlo just to start completely over, assuming that would fix it (unfortunately didn’t). Took these steps…
1 - Removed Arlo from SmartThings routines
2 - Removed wife in Arlo access
3 - Removed Arlo cameras from SmartThings
4 - Removed Arlo hub from SmartThings
5 - Removed batteries from cameras (about 10 minutes)
6 - Factory reset Arlo hub
7 - Set up each camera one by one
8 - Added wife back to Arlo access
9 - Added Arlo to SmartThings
10 - Added Arlo back to routines
11 - Tested routines, still same issue (turns on cameras, but only 2 actually defect motion and record, even though they’re ON and definitely in ARMED mode in Arlo

One thing that I found odd was when adding the cameras back to Arlo individually (step 7 above), after finding a camera and asking me to name it, it detected motion in my hand and sent the push notification with the old camera name. In theory, after a factory reset, you would think it wouldn’t know what the name of the camera was (so leads me to believe the cameras are still holding on to some setting).

Very frustrating to do a full factory reset of base and find out cameras are holding onto settings.