topic Re: Pro 4 cameras in Arlo Pro 4

Pro 4 cameras migration

mtngary — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 23:09:30 GMT

I've just updated to the latest s/w on Android (released 2/15/25, v5.5.2). How in the world do I setup a simple schedule to control 3 cameras such that they all are motion enabled to record at 7:30 PM but then 2 cameras are disabled at 7:30 AM (while the 3rd camera remains enabled).

Was working fine with the old s/w since I could set up an on and off schedule, but this new s/w doesn't seem to allow me to turn off a camera at any point. What am I missing?

Re: Pro 4 cameras

jguerdat — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 12:58:07 GMT

Unlike the old interface, you now just use 2 schedules - 1 to start a mode and another to start a different one.

Schedule 1 - use Arm Away at 7:30PM

Schedule 2 - use Arm Home with only those cameras needed having rules at 7:30AM

https://kb.arlo.com/000062777/About-Arlo-Routines-Modes-Rules-and-Automations

Re: Pro 4 cameras

mtngary — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 03:45:25 GMT

Thanks for your help and I apologize for my delayed response but I was reading through the link, trying different setups, and waiting for my schedules to role over to see if it works. (I also artificially compressed the schedules to try and debug a few things more quickly.) The short answer is it now works so I appreciate you steering me in the right direction.

I have to say that my brain apparently doesn't work in the "Arlo way" because I don't find the s/w intuitive but I don't want to debate that issue. A stumbling block for me that I still don't understand (and I can't seem to find decent examples even after watching the videos) is the enabling/disabling of Automations under device rules. I'm uploading a screenshot and it seems to work with everything enabled. It seems circular or redundant that I have "beginning nights: Arm Home" enabled when I'm already in Arm Home mode, just don't get this. Shouldn't I just care about an automation that switches me out of this mode when a schedule is hit?

Re: Pro 4 cameras

StephenB — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:41:34 GMT

@mtngary wrote:

It seems circular or redundant that I have "beginning nights: Arm Home" enabled when I'm already in Arm Home mode, just don't get this.

It's not circular. But it is redundant. If "beginning mornings" switches to "Arm Away" mode, then you don't really need your "beginning mornings" automation enabled in "Arm Away" mode. It only has to be enabled in "Arm Home" and "Standby". Similarly, "beginning nights" only needs to be enabled in "Arm Away" and "Standby".

However it does no harm to enable the schedule automations in both modes. And doing so ensures that the automation run time is still shown in the feed even if the automation "changes" the mode from "Arm Away" to "Arm Away". That provides some confidence that the automations are actually running properly, and it can help in troubleshooting.

Re: Pro 4 cameras

mtngary — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 22:14:48 GMT

I understand, thanks.

It may be that this Arlo user interface is consistent with general home automation systems and other devices. I don't really come from that world so I don't know and it's tricky to wrap my head around it. But I get it, so I'm good to go (for now at least 😉).