SmartThings integration failing (motion events)

[hoicju]

Hi. I have a problem integrating Smartthings and Arlo. I took a screen recording to show the problem: http://youtu.be/WscnGEcJos4. The biggest problem is that now Smarthings is not receiving information from the motion sensor in Arlo cameras and my automation no longer works.

[Arlbroke]

Mine started working yesterday.  I had to unlink and relink the Arlo account to Smartthings.  I also had to redo the smartlighting automations in Smartthings.

[ShayneS]

Thank you for providing your feedback, I have notified the Development team & we are working on a release for early next week. I will be sure to update you as soon as I hear more!

[ShayneS]

Thank you for your patience while we worked to resolve this issue. The issue with the Arlo SmartThings integration and not receiving alerts should now be resolved. You do not need to relink your devices, you should now be receiving your automation alerts.

[JBKerner]

It's been longer that that! I noticed the problem right after Thanksgiving. I've seen others complaining about the problem since mid-November. That's closer to 2 months.

[JBKerner]

I got that impression, too. I did mention that this is an issue that Arlo Support has already admitted to be working on.

[Irelandhouse]

Our has been working now for 12 hours .. probably jinxed it by posting this.

The biggest issue for us in following some of the steps outlined above was with trying to reintegrate arlo once deleted from ST. ( we kept getting error messages or it just would not work) For us 3 additional steps seemed to help. maybe only one was needed but when we did all 3 it worked. the 3 additional steps were a force stop of the arlo app, a reboot of the phone and a reboot of the ST hub. Here is what we did in the order we did it:

1. Disarm cameras in Arlo

2. delete Arlo linked account in ST

3. Force stop the Arlo app

4. Reboot ST hub 

5 Reboot the phone

6. Use ST to link Arlo

7. Restart Arlo app and Arm cameras

[hoicju]

Oh, man.. ST hub or Arlo App does not affect cloud-to-cloud integration in any way.

ST opens oauth.arlo.com and exchanges keys with ARLO.
it doesn't matter if you have install the Arlo app and it doesn't matter if you have the ST hub..

[paulmike3]

Somehow I missed the part where I signed up to beta test this integration that's been in production for years. 🙄

[JBKerner]

My understanding is that the Arlo integration is kind of like a shortcut: just a pointer within ST to the cloud-to-cloud integration (there might be some authentication keys involved, but that's about it). From what I've read, the Arlo & ST hubs aren't involved at all, and you should be able to turn them both off, and still install/remove the integration.

But I could be wrong.

[JBKerner]

I don't think we ARE beta-testing, and I think that my be the crux of the problem! I don't have any inside knowledge of how Arlo does testing. I can only speculate, based on product testing that I've personally performed. But however Arlo beta-tests their products, it's not sufficient. This kind of massive motion reporting failure should have been evident *BEFORE* it's release! If it wasn't, their testing was obviously insufficient. If it was evident, and they released it anyway, they're incompetent. I suspect the former.

[Vendor]

So, an update on my report from yesterday. It was working properly until this morning. I no longer am receiving motion or audio alerts on my cameras again. So, it definitely appears this is still not fixed. It did work for a good 12 hours or so though.

[ChadofCNC]

After you deleted the Arlo app in ST did you have to delete the cameras? Then the reboots etc

[Irelandhouse]

When we deleted the Arlo integration from ST all the cameras were deleted from ST. I did not have to do anything else to make sure Arlo and the cameras was deleted from ST.

[Irelandhouse]

Made it 20 hours.. no longer works..any idea when Arlo will announce a fix?

[ChadofCNC]

Followed your exact steps. Motion events worked for an hour. Seriously Arlo!! Maybe it would get a higher priority if everyone with a paid account canceled until it was fixed. This worked for years without fail.

[arlomike]

Wonder why people are getting different number of hours before it fails?  Could it be when it exceeds some idle time (w/o motion) when the auth token expires and refreshes when there is motion?  Sounds like a weird implementation if that's the case.  Usually a token is cached for an X amount of time before it needs to get a new token.  Sorry, what do I know...i'm blabbering since it's still broken. 

[JBKerner]

Arlo wants my phone's Arlo logs now! I created the log file, as instructed, and it generated a 3.9MB zip file. The Arlo system won't allow me to attach a file greater than 3MB.

This is the finest example of incompetence I've ever seen!

[Jeremy_Alejandr]

Your phone's arlo logs? Why? Is the arlo app on your phone communicating directly to your phone's ST app?

If I have multiple phones and tablets that have both ST and Arlo App, would they need to get all the logs from all of those device?

I do not think this is hard to replicate on their side. They just need to install ST and Arlo on a device and link Arlo in ST then Bob's your uncle.

I am a professional developer for more than 15yrs and must say, I am really disappointed on the way this is playing out. The fact that 1, they released an update near the holidays and the support on the release was non existent is just bad software practice. 2, that they keep asking users to test their broken fix shows they don't have a strong testing team if there is any. 3, that their support doesn't have a good understanding about their products and services. They keep asking users to do something on the client app when the thing that is broken is B2B integration.

Worrying because its giving me the impression that Arlo as a company is technically weak(at least on the software / support side).

Arlo's product is not a toy. Its a security system and it claimed that it works with ST. Having that integration broken is a security risk to anyone using that integration. This should be a P1 incident and Ideally an update from Arlo should be posted here regularly, at the very least an update everyday.

[ChadofCNC]

I’m a IT Engineer as well and I agree with your post 100%. It feels like the mods on here are dolling out some BS just to keep us at bay. This update should have never made it to production IE public release. It concerns me even more with all the recent threats effecting multiple systems. Is Arlo support really up to the challenge of supporting their equipment AND protecting their customers data, privacy and security we as customers have put our faith in buying their equipment. Which is one of the more expensive systems on the market.

[ChadofCNC]

To be fair I went through the removal process a second time. This time I left my ST hub off for about 5 mins. Added the Arlo integration, which took 7 attempts before it successfully linked up. Rebuilt my automations, put ST into disarmed mode. Armed Arlo system and have been getting motion detected from Arlo and my lights are turning on & off after 30 mins no motion. I will monitor and update regarding continued functionality.

[arlomike]

It'll stop after a few hours like everyone else. 

[JBKerner]

I've told the Arlo techs (and I use that term loosely) several times that my problem is the same broken integration problem that's currently being fixed. They *INSIST* on making me jump through these irrelevant hoops. They don't seem to understand that all of the details they're gathering about my phone *HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH* the fact that the cameras are not sending motion alerts to SmartThings. I've tried to be clear that the cameras are sending push notifications to my phone, just fine. What's broken is the cloud-to-cloud integration that the cameras are supposed to send to SmartThings.

[BxBillBx]

Don't they give a reference number so they can track this?
This company is a joke

[hoicju]

Support stopped responding to my messages after January 3rd. The last message was from Eric (level 3 support engineer). Interesting.. does anyone from the support come to the forum?

[ChadofCNC]

It doesn’t seem like customers are Arlo’s priority with the amount of posts regarding this integration. Update on my system, it stopped working sometime during the night. This morning in ST it states my cameras and base station are offline BUT they are working just fine in the Arlo app.

[Capsel22]

Yup, same as everyone else has said. Motions stopped coming through overnight.

[g-spot]

Same situation.  Set up cameras in the morning. Everything works as needed up until late evening.  Wake up next morning and everything has stopped working and need to go through the entire set up process again, including setting up my automations again.  Seems as though things stop working overnight here…during a time when I need my cameras the most - overnight.  But hey…at least I’ll have security footage to give to the authorities AFTER rather than preventing things from happening in the first place.

[JBKerner]

Here's my two cents, fir what it's worth: Like everyone else, Arlo probably has a staffing shortage with their higher-level Support techs. That probably also explains why my Support request is still with the entry-level techs.

Has anyone tried a factory-reset on just one camera, prior to reinstalling the integration?