Arlo Not Working with Home Assistant? Let's Fix It

Troubleshooting Your Arlo Integration with Home Assistant

Integrating your Arlo security cameras with Home Assistant opens up a world of powerful automation possibilities, allowing your cameras to interact with other smart home devices. However, setting up and maintaining this connection can sometimes be challenging due to authentication methods and API changes. This guide will help you diagnose and solve the most common problems you might encounter when connecting Arlo to Home Assistant.

## Common Problems with the Arlo Home Assistant Integration

Before diving into solutions, let's identify the issues you might be facing:

• Failed to Set Up: Home Assistant is unable to complete the initial setup of the Arlo integration, often failing at the authentication step.
• Authentication Errors: You receive messages about invalid credentials or problems with two-factor authentication (2FA).
• Devices Not Appearing: The integration seems to be set up, but none of your Arlo cameras, doorbells, or base stations appear as devices or entities in Home Assistant.
• Entities Unavailable: The entities for your Arlo devices exist but are greyed out with an "unavailable" status.
• Stale Sensors: Sensors, such as battery level, motion detection, or signal strength, are not updating with new information.
• Camera Streams Not Working: You are unable to view the live feed from your cameras within your Home Assistant dashboard.

## Step-by-Step Troubleshooting Guide

Follow these steps to get your integration working correctly.

### 1. Address Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) Correctly

The most frequent point of failure is 2FA. The Arlo integration requires a specific method to handle this.

1. Select the Right 2FA Method: When setting up the integration, you will be prompted to choose a 2FA method. You must have email-based 2FA enabled on your Arlo account. The integration works by having Arlo send a verification code to your email, which Home Assistant then intercepts.
2. IMAP Access is Crucial: For this to work, Home Assistant needs access to the email account where you receive Arlo s. You will need to provide your email account's IMAP server address, username, and password to Home Assistant.
   • Gmail Users: You may need to generate an "App Password" for Home Assistant to use instead of your regular password. This is done in your Google Account security settings.
   • Other Providers: Check your email provider's documentation for their IMAP server details.
3. Re-authentication: If the integration stops working, it's often because the authentication token has expired. The first step is always to try re-authenticating. Go to Settings > Devices & Services, find the Arlo integration, and click the "Reconfigure" button.

### 2. Check Your Arlo Account Credentials

A simple typo can prevent the integration from working.

• Double-Check Username and Password: Carefully re-enter your Arlo username (email address) and password during the setup process.
• Log In Separately: Try logging into the Arlo web portal (my.arlo.com) in a browser to confirm that your credentials are correct and that your account is in good standing.

### 3. Restart and Update

Sometimes, a fresh start is all that's needed.

• Restart Home Assistant: Before making drastic changes, always try a full restart of your Home Assistant instance (Settings > System > Restart).
• Update Home Assistant Core: Ensure you are running the latest version of Home Assistant. The Arlo integration is updated periodically to keep up with changes in Arlo's API, and these fixes are included in new HA releases.
• Update the Arlo Integration: If you are using a custom version via HACS (like aarlo), ensure it is updated to the latest version.

### 4. Check Home Assistant Logs

The logs provide valuable clues as to what is going wrong.

• Navigate to Logs: Go to Settings > System > Logs.
• Look for Arlo-related Errors: Search for any entries that mention arlo, pyarlo, or authentication. These messages will often point you directly to the source of the problem, such as "IMAP login failed" or "Arlo login failed."

### 5. Consider Using the aarlo HACS Integration

While Home Assistant has a built-in Arlo integration, many users find more success and features with the community-developed aarlo integration, available through the Home Assistant Community Store (HACS).

• Why use aarlo? It is often updated more quickly to respond to Arlo API changes and may offer more reliable streaming and additional sensor data.
• Installation: You will need to have HACS installed first. Then, you can search for and install aarlo from the HACS integrations repository. The setup process is similar to the official integration but may have different configuration options.

By carefully managing your 2FA settings and ensuring all components are up to date, you can establish a stable and reliable connection between your Arlo cameras and Home Assistant.