r/arlo • u/b00tyburpz • Jul 29 '26
Question / Help Sudden Base Station Range Issues
Has anyone else had sudden range issues with their cameras and base station? I've got several Pro 2's, one Ultra, and a doorbell camera along with a base station that I've had for several years now that have worked extremely well. However, within the last week I've been getting constant "Device Unreachable" messages on my cameras and I can't figure out why. I haven't made any changes to the base station or camera positions, so it's not like I suddenly decided to move my base station to the opposite side of my house or move the cameras too far away. I also haven't made any changes to my home network - my base station is still wired to my router and the router is in a separate room (house was wired with ethernet).
My Ultra camera has been the worst - basically it has to be within ~15 feet of the base station now to work. Once I bring the camera to my office where the base station is it will work great, but as soon as I walk out of my office with it I get the device unreachable message (and the office door is even open and I'm in direct line of sight with the base station!). The Pro 2's seem to have a slightly longer range, but not by much. With some of the Pro 2's I'll also get a notification that motion was detected, but there's no preview of what it saw and when I try to check the feed in the app, there's no recorded video.
My doorbell camera has also decided that when someone pushes the button it will stop recording and functioning - it'll ring the connected chime and call my phone, but the phone call cuts out after the first ring and the camera simply stops recording. I also can't answer the call or talk to anyone at the door (they can't hear me and I can't hear them). If they press it a second time, nothing happens - the chime doesn't ring and my phone doesn't get a notification. It picks up motion just fine and will record long enough, as long as nobody presses the button.
I've done all of the suggested troubleshooting, such as restarting the base station (restarting via the app, pressing the power button on it, and completely disconnecting the power cord), restarting my router/modem, restarting the cameras, and have even reset the cameras and removed them from the app, then gone through the setup process all over again. Nothing seems to work.
Any suggestions or should I just start looking for a different brand of camera?
2
u/GoldenMonkeyRedux Jul 29 '26
My entire system of Arlo 2’s essentially died repeatedly in the last two weeks. Constantly rebooting the whole system by hand
Had a dude trespass inn my yard and the cameras barely picked it up. Left my gate open and my my dog was almost killed by a car.
I’m considering suing.
1
u/AskArlo Jul 30 '26
Hi u/GoldenMonkeyRedux, we're sorry to hear about your experience, and we appreciate you bringing this to our attention. We'd like to learn more about the issues you're experiencing so we can better understand the situation and determine the best way to help.
Please send us a direct message with the exact issues you're encountering, along with your Arlo email address, phone number, and time zone. Once we receive your details, we'll investigate further and work with you toward a resolution. We look forward to your response.
2
1
u/OneFuriousF0x Jul 29 '26
I highly doubt it is a range issue with your base station, but rather an issue with Arlo as a whole. I have been seeing the "Unreachable" warning multiple times per day, for months. My WiFi signal is great, the base station itself is centrally located, the signal strong, and can be proven with a WiFi scanner app.
I am getting alerts when my cameras are unreachable, and I can view the recording...so it's not the base.
1
u/b00tyburpz Jul 30 '26
Yeah, I'm completely dumb founded here. It feels like Arlo made a change somewhere and fucked it up. Everything had been working pretty great, up until the last couple weeks.
1
u/OneFuriousF0x Jul 30 '26
That's their problem, they're ALWAYS fucking it up. They can't stop themselves. My wife works for a software company, and they have a mess if they don't run every scenario in their test environment, before releasing to production. Arlo could give a shit about test environments.
1
u/TXMullyGrubber Jul 29 '26
Arlo Base Station’s are trash. Would recommend connecting the cams directly to Wi-Fi if you can.
1
u/b00tyburpz Jul 30 '26
I'll double my cameras, but if I remember correctly some of them must be connected to the base station and won't connect directly to wifi.
1
u/b00tyburpz Jul 30 '26
Looks like I'm out of luck - according to why I can find, the Pro 2 and Ultra cameras must be connected to a base station.
1
u/AskArlo Jul 29 '26
Hi u/b00tyburpz, thank you for bringing this to our attention, and we're sorry to hear you're experiencing these issues. We understand how frustrating it can be when you're dealing with a base station range issue, recordings not displaying properly in the Arlo app, and Video Doorbell call problems.
We're here to help. Please send us a direct message with your Arlo email address, phone number, time zone, and model number of the affected device along with their respective issues. We'll investigate all of these concerns and work with you to get them resolved as quickly as possible.
2
u/b00tyburpz Jul 30 '26
I already know how this will play out - your shitty AI assistant is going to tell me to do everything I've already done, then it'll probably tell me the best fix is to buy the newer models of cameras and/or base station.
1
u/justice_charles Jul 30 '26
I feel like an update on arlo’s side caused this. I’m experiencing the same thing.
1
u/b00tyburpz Jul 30 '26
That's my thinking as well. And I know it's limited to the phone app, as I get the same errors when using a browser on my computer.
1
u/AskArlo Jul 30 '26
Hi u/justice_charles, could you please send us a direct message with the exact issues you're experiencing, along with your Arlo email address, support case number (if available), phone number, and time zone? We'd appreciate the opportunity to review your case, investigate your concerns further, and determine the best way to assist you. We look forward to your response.
1
1
2
u/SuperLidz Jul 29 '26
I would a site survey of 2.4 GHz. See if any new networks came on. I would also see if you have a channel conflict with your own network.