I’m glab you mentioned this “motion detection” issue @wolfewl It’s been on my mind for a while to post this also. I too have been seeing this happen regularly (atleast 6 months or more). I have a camera in my driveway for example. When I leave or come back home I notice on random occasions that the camera does not pick up my motion and alert me. I have to go into Arlo app and turn the cams off and on for the motion to start working.
To explain my use case in detail:
I’m using Arlo Pro 2 cameras (2 cams inside and 2 outside) with V3 Hub. I’m using the new ST app and have not been migrated to the new Arlo schema (still on Arlo Connect).
My cameras are in use for serious home security purposes (like us all). I have motion triggers setup in ST to do stuff when motion is detected.
STHM - Alarm Away
When I leave the house I turn on all cameras (inside and out).
If I detect motion on the outside cameras I just alert my phone (just giving me an FYI incase it’s a delivery person)
If I detect motion inside (eg. a break-in) I start recording on all cameras, trigger an alarm, turn on all my lights etc etc
STHM - Alarm Stay
At night, an automattion kicks in to turn the outside cameras on
If motion detected, it just alerts me on my phone
I also trigger a large security light above my car
What concerns me is I currently have no idea if the cameras are detecting motion until it’s too late (eg. someone breaks in, comes to my doorstep late at night). Super concerning for a home security setup.
To @wolfewl’s point , it happens randomly. And sometimes just one camera, not the other, or sometimes all etc etc.
Finally, I use smart notifications within Arlo, hoping it would filter through into the ST motion detection. Eg. ignore pets (I have a dog). This used to work (6-12 months ago) but I feel it’s stopped working (as reliably as it was).
I’m providing this info to hopefully help ST and Arlo make their products better. I’m a big fan and it’s great to see them working together and listening to a passionate community.
I only have Pro 3 cameras, but @DazBaz80 comments he’s seeing it on Pro 2. Keep in mind that it happens randomly and sometimes it will only be one camera when others it will be all five cameras.
This morning all cameras show offline in ST… Appear to be fine in the Arlo app. They were working yesterday.
Hi @mejifair@wolfewl my cameras are online and on (in both Arlo app and ST app). The motion detection in Arlo is not working and not being sent to ST.
When you look at the camera in Arlo, all icons suggest motion detection is on and ready to fire. It’s not until you physically test the camera by walking past it and notice the orange motion icon doesn’t turn on.
It sounds more like an Arlo issue, but ST definitely has something to do with it as it’s the one turning the cameras on. How do I know? I tested it by just turning the cameras on and off directly in Arlo and motion worked every time (yes, this is not a full blown test)
100% agree. that’s why it’s so unnerving. They show armed, but they aren’t.
If I don’t turn them on/off with ST and use geofencing in Arlo they are reliable and trigger on motion every time. The difference is I don’t turn them on/off with geofencing in Arlo, just arm/disarm (When using ST for control I have geofencing in Arlo app turned off and mode set to Armed). I wish I could arm/disarm them through ST… That would be a more comparable test. But that’s the difference I see. I’m experimenting with manually turning them on/off in Arlo and seeing if motion events produce the same results as the ST on/off. It’s early, but to this point they trigger on motion every time. I’m no expert, just more data for troubleshooting.
My cameras are still offline in ST. Working fine with Arlo app. When I go to linked services, I get this:
When you check your Arlo app’s mode, are you disarmed? Today I noticed my Arlo cameras are on while at the same time the mode is in disarmed. Usually when I’m in disarmed mode the cameras automatically turn off.
I tried some of the suggestions here numerous times and things are completely messed up with my integrations. I deleted the ‘Smartthings mode’ from Arlo. I deleted the Arlo cameras using linked services ‘Arlo’ from the new ST app. Then I logged out of the ST app, deleted the app, reboot and then re-installed the app.
Added Arlo cameras back with new ST app using Arlo credentials. The ‘smartthings mode’ in Arlo app does not appear. I am able to turn the cameras on/off using the ST app, however they always remain disarmed, i.e. motion sensor still doesn’t work.
Hi Chares,
Thanks for clarifying. I realized just a few minutes ago that ‘smartthings mode’ doesn’t exist anymore. I was in the process of setting everything up and things are looking good again.
I did some verification over a day with my pro 3 and was able to get the motion events after turning the camera on or off
I took a video of my experience to show my setup but unfortunately the comminity portal doesnt accept the video files
Here is my setup
Using the new integration and onboarded the cameras. Please navigate to linked services to delete any old integ if you still have it. There should only be one arlo entry in linked services
Used scene to turn camera on or off and also tested with turning it on and off using the on off button on the device card . Did some manual motion around the cams then .
3 . Arlo app - the camera is armed with arlo provided mode and not smartthings mode
Motion events consistently appeared in st app when the camera was in the armed mode.
Could you kindly try the following
Re start the arlo router if in case something is cached there
In linked services there should only be one arlo entry and it should be the one that’s linked to the new integration
Optional - remove all instances of arlo from the linked services section of the app and reonboard fresh to check if that helps . This is an incovenience and we apologize for that as it renders your scenes and automations setup with he existing cams ineffective and you would have to resetup them again
If none of these work , there could be other niche aspects causing the camera to not send motion events .in that case the following will help us to narrow down the case
is this happening only to your pro 3 camera . Do you have other cameras where you see this issue?
Does arlo app indicate motion at all times when motion occurs and just the st app doesn’t show the motion being detected as many times as arlo app showed ?
The only ‘issue’ I see is that once there’s an alarm trigger, regardless of camera status (off), it will turn all cameras ON if you selected them all, and it will not turn them off once the alarm has been dismissed.
Ok because when I go to STHM in the app. My Arlo cameras do not show up. I think I prefer it like this though because you can’t view the Arlo videos in the smart things app anyway.
On a side note after using the new integration for around a month,
I’ve seen rare cases (I think only two times) where the camera shows as either on or off, but is not in sync with the status on Arlo (SmartThings says is On, Arlo says its off).
Doing the “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” fixed the sync discrepancy in status.
The following is mostly for @arlo_eng, since I’ve seen adding complexity to Arlo makes it become more unstable (I priorly had a geofence, with schedule, with different custom arm modes all in Arlo).
The following is mostly an Arlo problem (Not a SmartThings problem, but ST can influence complexity) to be aware of, I’ve seen cases where if a camera is tied to another for movement, the second one will fail to record.
Example:
If movement on camera A, record A and B (B fails)
If movement on camera B, record B and A (A fails)
with the on/off , the proactive update is not received as an event in the ST app. if the action is done on the ST app , then the state is correctly reflected.
if the action is taken directly on the Arlo app, then the updated state of the on/off is only attained during the periodic poll that ST cloud does which is ever 6 hours or if the user visits the linked services of the ST app and taps on Arlo icon to refresh the state of the cams.
for the 2 times where it showed the wrong info, was it that even after 6 hours or more the state didn’t update?
This is a good usecase and thanks for notiying us and we shall reproduce the issue and get back here on the next steps
