How To Fix Arlo Camera Not Connecting To Wi-Fi?

Arlo camera
Arlo camera

Arlo smart cameras are great when it comes to securing your home, as they offer many features such as remote control from your smartphone or tablet, an HD camera with a colorful night vision, a battery that can last approximately 2–3 months with average use, and many more options that are good to make your house safer.

These cameras depend on the internet to work perfectly, so when it loses internet connection which is something that usually happens, you will lose a lot of features like accessing the cam remotely or storing video on the cloud, and much more.

So why Arlo camera goes offline? the answer is that this gadget may disconnect due to many issues like the Base Station is not getting good Wifi signals, or the camera being too far from the Base Station, a problem in the battery cam or the Ethernet cable or the router, your Wifi password or the firmware are not updated.

Troubleshoot offline Arlo camera.

In the following sections of this article, I am going to show you all the solutions you can implement in order to get your Arlo camera back online.

Note: The tips and tricks in this post are applicable for all cams models offered by Arlo including “Arlo Ultra”, “Arlo Pro”, “Arlo Essential”, “Arlo Go”, and Arlo “Floodlight”.

Check your internet subscription.

Before jumping into resetting your router or replacing your Ethernet cable or whatever, make sure that your internet connection is still working and your subscription hasn’t expired yet.

Also, go and do a web search on your mobile or computer to make sure that the issue is coming only from your cam.

Resolving the battery issue.

When the battery of your device is low the camera will lose some of its strength and can’t get a good Wifi signal.

Arlo recommends to their users to remove and reinsert the battery and notice the camera LED behavior when the battery is reinserted, If the LED blinks blue rapidly, that means your device is connected to your base, and the batteries are not the issue.

And if it blinks blue once, your device isn’t connected to the base, resync the camera to the base station, and when you notice that the LED blinks with an amber color, this means that the batteries need to be replaced.

Power cycle the Base Station.

If you see a solid green light on your Base Station that means it’s connected, and if you see the LED is amber that means it’s not.

I recommend starting by power cycling this Base Station, and here’s how to do it:

  1. Unplug the AC power adapter from the wall outlet.
  2. Wait up to 2 minutes.
  3. Then plug in the AC power adapter again and turn on your HomeBase.
  4. The base station will take one to two minutes to restart.

Now if you see a solid green light that means this device has been reconnected again and it’s working.

Reset the Base Station.

If power cycling the Base Station didn’t solve the problem resetting it may be the solution and here are the instructions to follow in order to reset it:

Note: Resetting the base station will remove it from your Arlo account.

  1. Make sure the Base Station is turned On.
  2. Pick a paper clip or a needle and press and hold the “Reset hole” at the back of the Base Station for 10 seconds.
  3. When the reset is completed and the LEDs stop flashing amber your Base Station reboots automatically.
  4. Then you’ll see the power and internet LEDs are both solid green, Go to the Arlo app on your mobile or enter this website.
  5. Tap “New System Setup”.
  6. Follow the on-screen instructions.

Check your Ethernet cable.

If resetting and power cycling didn’t change the situation, go and check the Ethernet cable that is linked to the router, there is a possibility that your cable is not working so replacing it may get your Base Station and camera back online.

Power Cycle Your modem and router.

If you notice that the Base Station is working properly and your camera is still offline try to power cycle your modem.

To power cycle your router or modem:

  1. Power down and unplug the modem and the router.
  2. Wait for sixty seconds.
  3. Plug in and turn on the modem and router, and allow them to completely boot up until the front panel connection lights on the modem show a steady connection.

Important: If your modem is using a battery backup you’ll need to remove and reinsert the battery.

Move the router and the Base Station.

If your camera is too far from the router, the Base Station or SmartHub. It will often disconnect because the distance is too long.

According to the manufacturer, You can place your Arlo camera a maximum of 300 feet (90 meters) from an Arlo SmartHub or base station.

So try to move them closer and if you’re connecting the camera directly to the router so you need to put it closer to the cam.

Reset the modem and router.

When power cycling and moving the router and modem didn’t solve the problem and your camera is still not connecting, you can try to reset them.

To perform a factory reset on your modem and router:

Reset the modem.

  1. Keep your modem powered On.
  2. Press and hold the “Reset hole” with a paperclip or a needle.
  3. Release the button when the modem lights start to flicker.
  4. Wait for the Internet light to turn green.

Reset the router.

  1. Make sure the router is powered on.
  2. Use a paperclip to hold down the Reset button at the back of the router for 30 seconds.
  3. Release the Reset button and wait 30 seconds for the router to fully reset and power back on.

Updates your Wifi information.

When resetting the router and modem you may change the Wifi password, so make sure to update this password on the camera and the Base Station or the SmartHub.

Reset the Arlo cam.

Factory reset your Arlo cam is also considered a good solution to implement when the previous tips don’t work.

To factory reset your camera if it is offline:

  1. Unmount your camera and find the sync button.
  2. If you have Pro 3, Pro 4, Floodlight, Ultra and Go 2 models, Release the camera from the camera housing to access the sync button.
  3. If you have Essential Wire-Free, Pro, Pro2, and other models, Find the sync button on the camera housing.
  4. Press and hold this button until the camera LED begins blinking amber (blinks 3 times).
  5. Launch the Arlo app or log in to this website.
  6. Tap Settings, then “My Devices” and select your camera.
  7. Choose “Remove Device”, the “Yes” to confirm.
  8. Back to the Devices page and choose “Add New Device”.
  9. Select Cameras and follow the prompts to connect the camera to your WiFi network, base station, or SmartHub.
  10. If needed, insert the camera back into its camera housing until it clicks back into place.

Make sure to update the firmware.

The camera may face connection issues when its firmware is not updated, so make sure to always have the latest version released by the manufacturer.

here’s how to find your firmware version:

  1. Open the Arlo app on your mobile or website.
  2. Tap Settings, then My Devices.
  3. Select your Arlo device.
  4. Click on Device Info.
  5. Then you’ll get the serial number and firmware version display.

Resolving the coverage issues.

People using their Arlo cam on a big house or office may face coverage issues and the Wifi signals can’t get all your cameras.

In this situation you have two choices, the first one is to add an extender such as NetGear to extend your Wifi signals into all your devices.

The second one is to set up a mesh network that will help provide a consistent connection throughout all your house, and I recommend TP-link Deco or Google Mesh.

Connect the cam to the 2.4 GHz channel.

SmartHub, Base Station and Arlo cameras work on 2.4Ghz, so if they’re connected to the 5Ghz channel your cam will never work.

Also, try to avoid putting devices that work on the same channel next to your camera because it will interfere with it and cause connectivity issues.

Check the internet bandwidth.

Having enough bandwidth is essential for your camera to work properly, so try to disconnect all gadgets that use the internet such as your TV, Computer, Smartphone, and check if your cam is back to work.

If it’s the case then the issue is coming from your bandwidth and upgrading your internet plan may be the solution.

Final words.

So, I showed you all the solutions that you can implement when your Arlo camera goes offline and of course one of these tips will work for you but in case you can’t solve the problem I recommend contacting customer support on their website.

Adam B