Batteries Draining Arlo Camera

[Shammy]

Why does my camera night infrared come on when I have the camera set to off?

[joedex5715]

I’m still having massive battery drain. 50% in one week. Apparently the June update did not work for my many cameras. Really disappointed in this product over the past 4 months. The 2 years prior were great with batteries lasting 6 months. and armed for multiple months. Now they last less than a month and they are not even armed!!

[BGPunggol]

Hi,
My experience with Arlo is that something is wrong but Netgear is not telling us consumers. After the software update the power drain issue remains even if you reset the base station. I even replaced the battery with a brand new one and for the first 4 days the battery remains at 100% but started tumbling thereafter with a rate of 5% a day. Video capturing set at 30s intervals but only record about less than 10 per day. I even have night mode turned off since my camera is in a well lit area. The choice of silence from Netgear could mean that they don't have a solution or are still testing the solution. I truly hope it's the latter. Arlo Pro is a fantastic product but it defeat the purpose if I have to wire up the camera myself. Netgear, please provide us a solution soon.

[dhung]

just an upate on the Arlo Pro camrea that I'm still having battery drain issues.

the last post on the 11th July is the day I charged it up to 100%, reset base station... etc done all that.

this monring I logged in to the Arlo App on my phone, it told me that camera is offline, not even last 5 days.........

I didn't even get an email saying the battery was low.

Arlo Arlo..... what u gonna do?

[dhung]

just a "minor" update, after I done another round of reset/recharge/resync.

I noticed the Base Station did an Firmware update, the versoin is 1.10.0.8_22190

so now I have two base station with different firmware

3x Arlo Pro with Base Station version 1.10.0.8_22190 (17th July)

3x Arlo Pro 2 with Base Station version 1.10.0.7_21310 (21th June)

will see how it goes

[ysu]

Thanks for reminding. Yes got the new firmware on my Pro base station too. Release notes shows it was just released this morning. Hope it works.

Btw, I re-synced that one camera that still had battery issue since last update and let’s see how it goes. Too soon to tell now.

[pc2k17]

To confirm........ I also see I have 1.10.0.8_22190 base firmware now. Mine were working perfect, so hopefully this doesn't mess anything up for me.

[megatec45]

Still have firmware dated 6/04/2018

[pc2k17]

You might be looking at the Arlo app version. My app is dated 6/4/18. Firmware shows no date and should now be verison 1.10.0.8_22190.

[megatec45]

Thanks! You were correct, I have the current firmware

[paddos]

Anyone know what the new base software is suppose to fix?

[BGPunggol]

Mine also showing 1.10.0.8_22190 now. Hopefully this update stop the power drain as mine is now down to 70% since 7 July 2018.

[dhung]

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@paddos wrote:
Anyone know what the new base software is suppose to fix?

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this is an email I got just right after I noticed the new firmware got loaded.

Hi dhung,

JamesC (Community Manager) posted a new topic in Firmware Release Notes on 2018-07-18 01:10 AM :

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Release Notes – Arlo Pro Base station, Arlo Wire-Free Base station 17th July 2018

Details: 

Pro Base Station FW 1.10.0.8_22190, Wire-free Base Station FW 1.10.0.8_22190

Recovery mechanism for corrupted modes and rules Fix for IR LED's getting activated at night when camera is off, leading to rapid battery drain Resolution for base stations going offline after recent firmware upgrade

[dhung]

okay......... that one Arlo Pro camear I have battery drain problem just died again after 9hrs after the new firmware was loaded 12am last night.

Looks like I will have to do the reset/resync/recharge all over again to test the new firmware.

[dhung]

the "new" base station firmware did not address the battery drian due to IR turning on by itself, this update made it worse than the June update.

after another reset/resync/recharge last night around 10pm, I came home about 11pm and saw that one Arlo Pro camera was emmiting red IR light.... I open up the Arlo App, guess what...... it went off-line!! @%$!@#!$!!

I took the battery out and back into the camera, check the charge of the battery is at 85%, something happend which caused the camera IR to turn on and somehow caused it to crash.

[Raider1v1]

is the process for the reset/resync somewhere in the 33 pages? I am still having the battery drain issues after i confrimed all cameras and basestations have the newest firmware.

[Wklovelace3]

My motion detection and smart doesnt work as they should. I opted to try another company and although im paying 30 bucks a month its well worth the peace of mind. I cant trust arlo to be my primary security cameras any longer. Now they are just toys assigned to do a lesser job. Done with the headaches and lost time fiddling with these issue prone cameras

[BGPunggol]

Was hopeful that the latest firmware will solve the issue but joy was short lived. For first 24 hours after upgrade was doing fine without power usage but subsequent days it revert back to 5% drain per day. Arlo Pro is suppose to be "wirefree" but with this problem unsolved, what's the point of giving us firmware after firmware upgrades with the same result? Start to wonder is there any change except the firmware number? Anyway, would Netgear provide a wire long enough to link to a power source since your battery drain issue seems unsolvable. I need at least 25 feet to my power source...

[Stunew78]

This entire situation is now beyond a joke.

No action by Netgear leaves me no choice but to bombard Arlo’s Facebook page until something is done to address this outstanding issue rendering our systems useless.

[paddos]

For what it's worth ... Matthew McRae is the new CEO for Arlo. I can't imagine he would except the performance his current customer base is experiencing. Hearing directly from his cutoner base should be helpful. May want to try and give Matthew a heads up. He is listed on LinkIn.

[Nancy_L]

On 7/20/2018 my 5 Arlo cameras firmware were updated from version 1.2.16720 to 1.2.21616.  That drained my batteries by about 24% each.  Now this morning 7/21/2018 they were reverted from 1.2.21616 to 1.2.16720 draining my batteries by another 20%.  I don't have rechargeable batteries and this is getting DAMNED expensive.  What is going on on!!!  To replae the batteries on my five cameras will cost me $31.63.  For Netgear to keep selling these defective systems and advertising them as a security system is criminal. Why the can't communicate with us, the customer is ridiculous.  If you post a bad review on Amazon it only takes them a day or 2 to respond yet months later on this issue still nothing. No apology, no solution, NOTHING!

[JPC]

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@Nancy_L wrote:

If you post a bad review on Amazon it only takes them a day or 2 to respond yet months later on this issue still nothing. No apology, no solution, NOTHING!

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Yes, at amazon they will respond right away because their image is at stake. Arlo will do everything they can to make their ratings up and have a good image in public. You put a negative one in there and someone at Arlo's or fanboy/girl will go right at it and put 4-10 good reviews and that there is nothing wrong with the product.. That's why you hardly see the ratings go down.. Sadly, you cannot count on Arlo's solution to the problem because there's none. If they do fix it, they'll come back just like this one.. If they say "Bug fix" on their firmware update release, there isn't one really coz' one Bug fix is another broken one and sometimes worse just like this one.. An Apology? LOL.. I still have yet to see that.. 

[Wklovelace3]

I doubt they will apologize. But eventually there reputation will catch up with them. Not to mention they are losing the customers they have. I for one wont buy anymore arlo products. The support is non existent. I have one for my front entry and one inside. I need at least two for my backyard and will look elsewhere rather than adding on to my account. Sucks to have to pay a monthly fee but at least i will have a more reliable product. There are plenty of wired cameras out there just not wireless like arlo which is its main attraction point. But for me im done fiddling with these cameras.

[Nancy_L]

Just got another firmware update back to 1.2.21616. I was asked if I wanted to install the firmware. There really is no choice but to click on update because you can't use the camera unless you update. So, I got the 1.2.21616 on the 20th, then back to 1.2.16720 this morning, now back to 1.2.21616 just now. Each time they send an update it costs me 10% in battery life.  I think Arlo is being run by a bunch of 4th graders!  For the 1st two years that I had these cameras they were great. Now they SUCK!!!  I have always used Netgear products but it ends today!!!

[dhung]

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@Nancy_L wrote:

Just got another firmware update back to 1.2.21616. I was asked if I wanted to install the firmware. There really is no choice but to click on update because you can't use the camera unless you update. So, I got the 1.2.21616 on the 20th, then back to 1.2.16720 this morning, now back to 1.2.21616 just now. Each time they send an update it costs me 10% in battery life.  I think Arlo is being run by a bunch of 4th graders!  For the 1st two years that I had these cameras they were great. Now they SUCK!!!  I have always used Netgear products but it ends today!!!

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Hi @Nancy_L is your Arlo system the 1st Gen Arlo HD which use 4x of the non-rechargeable CR123A batteries?

As those batteries are quite expansive to replace while their engineers "trying" to fix batteries drain issues, I would suggest you look at getting some of the Rechargeable CR123A from Amazon (presumably you reside in US&A)

There is a discussion about those batteries on this thread https://community.netgear.com/t5/Buying-Options-Tips/Nitecore-NL166-RCR123A-what-Netgear-should-ship...

In Australia, the NiteCore RCR123A with their D4 charger is very well received in the local Arlo community, plenty of eBay listing offer them as bundle sets offer for Arlo owners.

for example below.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Netgear-Arlo-Camera-Rechargeable-CR123A-Battery-D4-Charger-Kit-by-Niteco...

But you should be able to find similar listing on your local Amazon store, just search for "NiteCore RCR123A" or "NiteCore D4" 

Even Netgear(or Arlo so now they call themselves) listing this as an option for the Arlo HD Cameras on their website https://www.arlo.com/en-us/products/default.aspx, click on the link send you to Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N0DVFA7

[DocCJC]

Last Friday my base station went offline, so I rebooted it when I got home. All my cameras (H8 version) then requested an upgrade, which I performed without any issues. They are all now on 1.092.0.16_21159. I cannot find a release note for it, so don't know what issues are fixed by it. Base station is on 1.10.0.8_22190. In the last two days, I haven't seen any battery drain issues. Too early to draw conclusions, so I'll monitor until the end of the week, but it's looking positive so far.