topic Re: Arlo Ultra Active Zone in Arlo Smart

Arlo Ultra Active Zone

RSC1 — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 20:27:25 GMT

For the life of me, I cannot get an active zone to work. The manual suggests that you can activate or deactivate zones, but those options are not on the web or in my iOS app.

Is this a known bug? My dog is forever moving about outside the zone, but he triggers the camera.

Re: Arlo Ultra Active Zone

jguerdat — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 00:42:50 GMT

You need to either have the camera plugged into AC power or subscribe to Arlo Smart to have zones work.

Re: Arlo Ultra Active Zone

RSC1 — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 01:13:20 GMT

Ah... Thanks!!! Support was not aware of that.

Re: Arlo Ultra Active Zone

RSC1 — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 01:42:41 GMT

I think I am subscribed to Arlo Smart Premiere for a year. Do you mean something else?

Re: Arlo Ultra Active Zone

brh — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 09:34:22 GMT

@RSC1,

I could be wrong, but I believe the zones are for notifications only. I believe that the cameras will still record every event, but you will not be notified if activity happens outside the zones. Are you seeing this, (all my cameras are on battery power, so i cannot test my theory - just based on what I have read from other users)?

Re: Arlo Ultra Active Zone

RSC1 — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 11:45:10 GMT

I’m getting notifications, every time the dog moves in the inactive zone, along with video. He’s 13 years old and doesn’t move much, maybe 3 times a day.

I do have Arlo Smart, but I am on batteries. There are no radio buttons to activate/deactivate zones as the instructions suggest, so maybe it’s a work in progress?

Re: Arlo Ultra Active Zone

jguerdat — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 12:48:01 GMT

You can't choose zones in your modes, just create/delete them in the camera video settings.

If you're getting notifications outside of the zone, try deleting and recreate them. It might also be worth deactivating the camera in the Smart settings and then reactivate them. Worse case, you could try removing the camera and resyncing, followed by the creation of zones.

Re: Arlo Ultra Active Zone

RSC1 — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 13:06:40 GMT

I have deleted and recreated the zone several times. I’ll have to try to figure out how to re-sync. And then delete as a last resort.

Thank you,

Re: Arlo Ultra Active Zone

Jdubbs4131 — Sat, 20 Apr 2019 00:37:54 GMT

I second this. I don't think the active zones are working with the Ultra cams. I didn't seem to have an issue before with my Pro 2 or Pro cams. I had to tilt my camera as close to the ground as possible to eliminate traffic from setting it off even though I had activity zone set up.

Re: Arlo Ultra Active Zone

Orygun — Sat, 20 Apr 2019 15:52:05 GMT

I’ve been having issues with vehicle movement outside my Activity Zones as well. I purposely set the. Up to avoid the car traffic in front of my home. My understanding with the Ultra; and the reason I bought it versus Arlo Pro was that you could use Activity Zones on battery with the subscription provided when you buy an Arlo Pro system.

I did delete my zones and rebuild them which has reduced the alerts considerably.

I’m curious if putting them on constant power will ultimately solve the problem but I bought this system because I wanted to use cameras on battery power.

Re: Arlo Ultra Active Zone

Jdubbs4131 — Sat, 20 Apr 2019 15:53:40 GMT

Unfortunately my Ultra that I was trying to use the zones on is hooked direct to charger.

Re: Arlo Ultra Active Zone

JamesC — Mon, 22 Apr 2019 17:46:41 GMT

The engineering team is currently investigating some issues users have reported with activity zones due to specific shapes not resulting in accurate motion detection. If possible, try recreating your zones using square/rectangular shapes and test again to see if you get better results. Alternatively, try adjusting the angle of your camera to eliminate areas where you do not want motion detection events to occur.

JamesC

Re: Arlo Ultra Active Zone

RSC1 — Mon, 22 Apr 2019 18:25:19 GMT

I will try both in that order until it’s sorted out. Thank you for the update.

Re: Arlo Ultra Active Zone

RSC1 — Fri, 26 Apr 2019 12:23:20 GMT

The software says you can enable or disable the zone. That selection is not available in the app or Webb.

Perhaps it defaults to disabled?

Re: Arlo Ultra Active Zone

RSC1 — Fri, 26 Apr 2019 23:04:09 GMT

Update:

I deleted the activity zone and created a new one delimiting the “ inactivity zone”. My dog no longer triggers a recording, but my wife does when she gets home.

Maybe a programming test or flag is incorrectly set?

Re: Arlo Ultra Active Zone

Arlosaregreat — Tue, 07 May 2019 02:06:32 GMT

Any news if activity zones are working now for ultra? Thank you

Re: Arlo Ultra Active Zone

Jdubbs4131 — Tue, 07 May 2019 07:27:20 GMT

Honestly I haven't had one car set my camera off and it is facing the road. I did tilt it down some but still at a good angle with no vehicle alerts.

Re: Arlo Ultra Active Zone

RSC1 — Tue, 07 May 2019 11:39:50 GMT

The problem is that it’s working backwards now. The area my dog walks in is in the zone and he doesn’t trigger the camera anymore. When my wife comes home every camera triggers, because she’s in the zone that isn’t delineated.

The manual states that zones can be set as active or inactive, but I have no such opinions on the Webb or on my iOS app. I think it’s a bug.

Re: Arlo Ultra Active Zone

jguerdat — Tue, 07 May 2019 12:49:36 GMT

The wording is misleading. A zone is inside the box and that's where motion should be detected. Also, remember that people are generally bigger than dogs so detection will work differently based on the object.

Re: Arlo Ultra Active Zone

RSC1 — Tue, 07 May 2019 12:56:46 GMT

I get that. I truly do. My dog is old and doesn’t move a lot. He was triggering it daily when outside the delineated zone. So I made his area the activity zone and it stopped triggering. When my wife gets home the cameras start triggering like fireworks in what is now the area outside the activity zone.

I believe it’s a bug.