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How to Recharge Your Arlo Pro Camera Battery
The Arlo Pro’s rechargeable battery is one of its biggest selling points, with no running wires across your house or paying an electrician. But when that battery drops below 15% and the app starts sending you alerts, you need to know exactly how to charge it without messing anything up.
The whole process is straightforward: bring the camera inside, plug it in with the right adapter, wait about two and a half hours, and put it back. But there’s one catch that trips up a lot of people, and it involves which charger you use. Here’s the full walkthrough.
Before You Start: Check Your Battery Level
Open the Arlo app on your phone and tap on the camera you want to check. The battery icon shows you roughly how much charge is left. You can also go to Settings > My Devices and tap on the specific camera to see the exact percentage.
If the camera LED on the unit itself is blinking amber about once per minute, that means the battery is at 15% or below. Time to bring it in for a charge.
A practical tip: name each of your cameras something descriptive in the app (like “Front Porch” or “Garage”) so you know exactly which one needs charging when you get the low-battery notification.
Step 1: Bring the Camera Inside
If your Arlo Pro is mounted outdoors, you’ll need to bring it inside to charge. The camera detaches easily from its magnetic mount just pull it off.
You can technically charge it while it’s still mounted outside if you can run the cable to an outlet, but Arlo recommends bringing it indoors. Outdoor weather conditions aren’t ideal for charging, and you want the process to go smoothly.
Step 2: Remove and Reinsert the Battery (If Needed)
If you’re just recharging the existing battery, you can skip this step and go straight to plugging in the charger. But if you’re swapping in a fresh spare battery, here’s how the battery compartment works:
Press the latch on the bottom to unlock, pull the door open, then slide the battery in with the contacts aligned
Press and hold the latch on the bottom of the camera to unlock the battery compartment. Gently pull the battery door back don’t force it. To insert a battery, align the metal contacts on the battery with the contacts inside the compartment, slide it in, and close the door until it clicks shut.
One important warning: never open the battery door while the camera LED is alternating between blue and amber. That pattern means a firmware update is in progress, and interrupting it can brick the camera.
Step 3: Connect the Charger
This is where a lot of people run into trouble. The Arlo Pro requires the specific 9V Quick Charge power adapter that came in the box. A regular 5V USB phone charger will not work the camera will recognize it’s the wrong voltage and refuse to charge.
Wall outlet → 9V Quick Charge adapter (from the box) → USB cable → Camera’s charging port
Here’s the correct sequence: plug the power adapter into a wall outlet, connect the USB cable to the adapter, then connect the other end of the cable to the charging port on the camera. The charging port is under a small rubber cover on the back of the camera peel it back gently to expose the port.
When you plug it in correctly, the camera LED will blink blue briefly (about 3 seconds) to confirm charging has started. If the LED blinks amber instead, that means you’re using a 5V charger disconnect it and switch to the Arlo 9V adapter.
Step 4: Wait for the Full Charge
A completely dead Arlo Pro battery takes about 2.5 hours to fully charge when plugged directly into the camera. Leave it alone and let it do its thing.
You’ll know it’s done when the camera LED turns solid blue not blinking, just a steady blue light. You can also check the battery percentage in the Arlo app to confirm it’s at 100%.
Don’t unplug it early if you can help it. Partial charges are fine in a pinch, but a full charge gives you the best battery life between charges.
How to Read the Camera LED
The LED on the front of the Arlo Pro tells you everything about what’s happening with the battery and the camera’s status. Here’s a quick reference:
Keep this reference handy the LED color and blink pattern tells you exactly what the camera is doing
The two most important patterns to remember: solid blue means fully charged, and blinking amber once per minute means low battery. If you see fast amber blinking for about 3 seconds right after plugging in, you’ve got the wrong charger connected.
Alternative: The Arlo Charging Station
If you have multiple Arlo Pro cameras, the Arlo Charging Station (sold separately) is worth considering. It charges batteries outside the camera, so you can have a spare ready to swap at any time.
The charging station holds two batteries at once. A single battery takes about 2.75 hours to charge in the station, and two batteries together take about 5.5 hours. Think of it like having a backup gas tank when one runs dry, pop in the fresh one and charge the empty one at your desk.
For anyone with three or more cameras, buying a couple of spare batteries and a charging station means you’ll never have a camera offline for charging. Just rotate them through.
How to Make Your Battery Last Longer
Under normal use, an Arlo Pro battery lasts about 4 to 6 months. But “normal use” means roughly 4 minutes of recording per day. If your camera is in a high-traffic area or recording frequently, that number drops.
These five adjustments can significantly extend the time between charges
The biggest factor is your Power Management setting. Go to Settings > Camera Settings > select your camera > Power Management. The “Best Battery Life” option reduces video quality slightly but can nearly double your battery life compared to the “Best Video” setting. The “Optimized” option sits in the middle and works well for most people.
Camera placement matters too. A camera mounted 200 feet from the base station burns through battery much faster than one mounted 30 feet away, because it needs more power to maintain the wireless connection. Night vision also uses more power than daytime recording, so cameras in well-lit areas will last longer.
Cold weather is another battery killer. If you’re in a climate where winter temperatures regularly drop below freezing, expect shorter battery life during those months. This is normal battery chemistry the same thing happens to your phone in the cold. The battery isn’t damaged, it just temporarily holds less charge.
Troubleshooting: Battery Won’t Charge
If you’ve plugged in the charger and nothing happens, work through these checks:
Make sure you’re using the Arlo 9V Quick Charge adapter, not a standard phone charger. This is the number one reason people think their battery is dead when it’s actually fine.
Check that the USB cable is fully seated in both the adapter and the camera port. The rubber port cover on the camera can sometimes prevent a solid connection make sure it’s pulled all the way back.
Try a different wall outlet. It sounds obvious, but power strips and outlet extenders sometimes don’t deliver consistent voltage.
If the battery still won’t charge after trying all of the above, the battery itself may have reached the end of its lifespan. Rechargeable batteries degrade over time after a few hundred charge cycles, they hold progressively less charge. Replacement Arlo Pro batteries are available on the Arlo website and Amazon.
This guide covers the Arlo Pro (first generation). The charging process is similar for the Arlo Pro 2 and Arlo Pro 3, though newer models may use different adapters check your specific model’s documentation.
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