App update

[Redbear6]

Arlo completely broke their app with this latest update. 

[jguerdat]

Working here on Android.

[DannyBearAgain]

What have they broken this time?

[edhoke]

Ditto. Now I'm getting notifications but can't see any cameras. Makes no sense.

[DannyBearAgain]

@edhoke ,

sounds like you are using the new UI arlo app on your account.

If you’re expecting to get friends sharing to work then the camera owner account should also be upgraded, so you will need to have them upgrade their app. Mind you they may not consider you a friend after they upgrade.

[edhoke]

I am. I mistakenly thought updating the app was like every other app update... and I was so very wrong. My husband originated the account for our retail shop, now I'm struggling to get cameras to come back online. I'm about to ditch the whole thing and start from scratch because the whole thing seems like a mess. Even after we update it seems like getting the cameras to migrate is a journey.

[ShayneS]

@edhoke What are the error messages you see? The cameras will automatically be migrated. Also, If you re granted access you will have to have the latest UI as well to see the cameras in the devices list. 

[edhoke]

No error messages. I think the problem is that my husband started the account and he hasn't upgraded yet. So I need him to upgrade, then I can start checking things again and hopefully get the two cameras that are down back up.

Or, I need to delete the whole thing and try to start over with me as the owner. Might be easier.

[ShayneS]

@edhoke Let me know how it goes and I will be here to assist.

Thanks 

[edhoke]

Deleted everything and went to set up from scratch. Got the hub up, now I cannot get a single camera connected. I've tried multiple cameras and from both the mobile app and desktop. Is there a secret key somewhere to complete this quest?

I did get a solid blue light on one camera, but even after restarting the app etc, I see no camera.

[edhoke]

I'm ordering some new batteries in case that is somehow messing all this up?

[ShayneS]

Can you try onboarding the devices via this article: https://kb.arlo.com/000062755

[edhoke]

Why yes, I did see that article in multiple searches. The only difference is that I did not see an option to manually pair the device. 

I tried different cameras, switched out batteries, took batteries out for 30 seconds to reset, tried both mobile and desktop... nothing. Since the cameras are a few years old, my guess is the batteries are drained. We have the plugged in non-stop, but it's the only thing I know to try. 

[ShayneS]

What happens if you try to onboard while plugged in to AC power without the batteries installed in the camera(s)?

[edhoke]

Yes. I have tried with batteries, without batteries, with NEW batteries. I've tried the basic cameras I have and the xl essential. Nothing. Cannot get a single camera to connect.

Even more baffling is I can get a single camera to have a solid blue light, but they do not show up under devices on desktop or the app. Despite closing the app, refreshing etc.

I'm ready to chuck the whole system. This seems clearly to be a problem of coding somewhere deep in the system that is not allowing cameras from 5 years ago. I have tried every option. 

As a last resort I'm taking most of the system home and will see if I can reset and get it to connect at home. But looks like I'm shopping for cameras this weekend.

[ShayneS]

@edhoke I have notified my team to see if we can resolve this. I will provide another update as soon as possible. 

[edhoke]

Well let me add this to the fun.

I brought the system home. Both locations have similar internet through comcast BUT one is a business comcast acct and one is xfinity residential. The xfinity is newer router, and I live maybe 2 miles from the business location, but it is different.

Could not get the hub to connect. Tried XL Essential cam direct to wifi and... it connected but does need a firmware update. Went back to hub, did a hard reset and hub connected. And then the basic cams connected via the hub. 

So, either the problem is with the business router? Or maybe the firmware update couldn't happen there somehow? The business has the 2.4 and 5hz separated, where the home has it together (I forget the technical term, I really try to not be tech support for everyone but here we are.) Since this all worked before the app update, I'm assuming there is something in there. 

Not sure what I can do, I might try a hard reset on my business router and a call in to check the internet there. 

[edhoke]

Let me add to it...

Had comcast install a brand spanking new modem. It has dedicated 2.4 and 5 networks.

Got the hub installed. Ok. No cameras will install. fast blinking amber light of death. 

Did get the xl essential installed direct to wifi again. Somehow got a number to call after doing a network scan and got through to a human. They could not hear me and hung up (understandably but what a tease.)

internet and wifi is working fine for every other device. I have to assume this is a problem with the hub and internet and new app stuff. Because it worked before. It works at home. But will not work where I need it to work. Will a new hub solve it? We may never know....

[edhoke]

In case anyone is following this...

Had comcast out a second time. Got on the phone with Arlo support. Had comcast guy directly open ports 80 and 443 to Arlo device. Still doesn't work. Arlo suggests getting new cameras. This makes no sense to me, because the cameras work at my house, with all the same cords, connections etc. Then suggested my internet is not good enough at my business. It was good enough before, but maybe? Could internet download speeds be stopping the cameras from connecting to the hub?

The other possibility is that comcast has security bots blocking things (or insert the tech term for it), and when I updated the app and tried to re-install, for some reason the arlo hub got flagged. Since there seems to be no way to confirm what ip address arlo is using, or no way to submit it to comcast to white list it, I have no way to prove this theory right now.

I am curious if a new arlo hub would fix this, but arlo support would only offer a discount on new cameras. 

I still have no answers but my options seem to be- ditch the system and go with Wyze, buy a new hub and hope, or buy new cameras that direct connect and ditch the hub. 

[StephenB]

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@edhoke wrote:

Could internet download speeds be stopping the cameras from connecting to the hub?

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The cameras connect directly to the hub wifi, and the hub connects to the cloud with ethernet.  

Your internet upload speed might be an issue - though I suspect that's unlikely.  You can measure that with speedtest.net.

Are you using a normal home comcast router at the business?  Or is there something else (perhaps with a enterprise grade firewall)?

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@edhoke wrote:

Since there seems to be no way to confirm what ip address arlo is using, or no way to submit it to comcast to white list it, I have no way to prove this theory right now.

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Some confusion here.  The hub will get a local IP address from the comcast router - and you can see what that address is, by looking at the attached device list in the router's web interface.

All the devices on your business network will share the same external IP address - which is the one assigned to your router by Comcast.  This is done by the router using a technique called network address translation (NAT).

Neither of these addresses need to be whitelisted.  But it is conceivable (though rather unusual) that the Arlo Cloud is being blocked by Comcast.  I don't know what domain names are being used by the hub (and you'd need to whitelist the domains, and not specific IP addresses).  But you could ask comcast if they are allowing all traffic, or if they block some.

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@edhoke wrote:

This makes no sense to me, because the cameras work at my house, with all the same cords, connections etc. 

I am curious if a new arlo hub would fix this, but arlo support would only offer a discount on new cameras. 

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Since it works perfectly at your house, then it's clearly not the cameras.  It's also not the hub, so replaceing that won't help.

I am thinking it more likely is something going on with the business router.

Many routers have a "DMZ" feature, where they don't filter any traffic going to a particular device.  You might ask Comcast if your router has that, and then set the arlo base as the DMZ device.  If you do this, you'd also want to have the router assign the hub a fixed local IP address.

Also - you might want to confirm that the router has an external IPv4 address.  It doesn't need to be static (in case they ask).

[edhoke]

This is a bit of a saga, but I might as well keep it going.

First, I submitted a ticket to comcast to unblock anything arlo. This is slightly dumb and very vague so I'm guessing this does nothing.

The routers are different. It's a comcast business router at the business. BUT, remember all of this worked fine on the business router until I upgraded/updated the app and tried to re-install the whole system. It's possible that all this just coincided with the router failing, or something else weird happening.

I tried to call comcast and see about the whole DMZ stuff, but they were having unusually high call volume which means they don't answer I guess.

So I went deep into my router settings. We had tried connecting a camera to the base station without ethernet when I was on the arlo call, so the base station was offline. I did my 47,000th reset on the base station while I basically turned of or at least clicked some buttons on anything I could find. No, I cannot tell you what I did but I probably have zero security on that router now. Yes, there is DMZ feature, but all I did was look at that page. I was waiting for the base station to come online so that I could edit it to be a static IP,  and then try to figure that out. 

I do have IPv4 addresses, but I didn't do anything with that either because while I was looking through... for fun I tried to connect a camera. I have a help ticket going where they asked for screenshots, so I was waiting for the red X saying it couldn't connect to screenshot WHEN THE STUPID THING CONNECTED. I have done this process at least 17 times. I'm guessing I did the right thing in the router settings? Maybe a solar flare aligned something? I wish I could say what I did. 

So now I need to share the cameras with the general manager etc. Easy right? Should be easy. They follow the link and log in and... so far nothing. I deleted the app and re-installed on one phone. Still nothing. I'm hoping yesterday's solar flare took care of it and somehow today when they log in it will be fine.

[StephenB]

It's good that you managed (somehow) to get past the router issues.

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@edhoke wrote:

So now I need to share the cameras with the general manager etc. Easy right? Should be easy. They follow the link and log in and... so far nothing. I deleted the app and re-installed on one phone. 

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There are two different user interfaces used by the current app.  The original one shows "Library" as an option, the newer one shows "Feed" and "Dashboard" instead.  At some point in the future, Arlo will migrate everyone to  "Feed", but they haven't done that yet - because there are several bugs/issues with "Feed" that they are still wanting to address.

Generally the issue you are having is because the friend accounts (e.g., the manager) is using "Feed", and your primary account is using "Library".  So check for that.

If the two UIs are mismatched, the workaround is to force the "Library" accounts to migrate to "Feed".  You do that by going into "add device" and then adding a Pro 5s camera.  Since you don't have one, you can't complete that workflow.  But the process will migrate your account to Feed.  Then camera sharing will work.

"Feed" does work differently - there are no custom modes, and several folks here are stuggling to get scheduling to work properly for them.  And once you do migrate to "Feed", there is no way to go back to "Library".

[edhoke]

AHHHHH, yes, I remember this from when I started. I'm not concerned with schedules, so the new UI is fine.

Next problem, on the shared feed, they can only see the cameras that are direct connected to wifi. The base station cameras are only visible to me.

Hold the phone, I went back into my setting and for some reason half the cameras were off for them. Just wanted to admit the complete obvious, in case anyone else is going through this.

[Heavyuser]

Not on android 14

[Heavyuser]

December update totally crashed my entire app.  It won't even open now.  I've had an advanced support ticket in for a month!!