My Camera Keeps Defaulting To Do Nothing In SmartThings Mode

[TRinaldi]

My camera keeps defaulting to do nothing in SmartThings mode. I’ve tried resetting the camera, deleting the SmartThings mode and unplugging/ plugging in the camera.

I see others people have had the same problem in the past, but I don’t see a fix. 

[brh]

@TRinaldi

This problem started a long time ago with firmware updates from both Arlo and Smartthings. The root of the problem is that both systems are fighting for control of the cameras. Even when the Smartthings Mode is deleted Smartthings is still controlling the cameras.

Good news, ( I hope), is that you do not need the Smartthings Mode at all and you can delete it. You simply keep the Arlo base station in the Armed Mode all the time and allow Smartthings to completely control the cameras. If you edit your rules for each camera in the Armed Mode and save them they should stay the way you set them up, ie, to record video. The cameras will be activated/deactivated with Smartthings Routines or Scenes.

Let me explain the concept to you - each camera has an on/off slider button. Even though the system is in the Armed Mode, if the sliders are set to off, the cameras will not detect motion, record, send notifications or allow Live View. The Smartthings routines or scenes are simply turning the slider switches for the groups of cameras you set up to either be on or off. So with various routines or scenes you can group the cameras however you need for that scenerio to activate/deactivate each group as needed. One routine could possibly activate all of your outside cameras. Another routine could activate all the inside cameras. Or you could activate all the cameras when your home is empry and another routine could deactivate all the cameras when someone arrives home.

Leaving Arlo in the Armed state will not drain the camera batteries any faster when Smartthings has them deactivated.

Brian