topic Re: Geofencing Issue in Arlo

Geofencing Issue

09KR0058 — Sat, 05 Aug 2017 20:40:14 GMT

I'm having an issue with Geofencing when I return home.

When I leave the house, I'll get 2 push notifications to my iPhone. The first is that I've left the geofencing zone, almost immediately followed by the message that Arlo is in Away (Armed) mode. As I'm returning home I get the message that I'm back in the zone, but I don't get the message that Arlo has swtiched back to Home (Disarmed) mode. As soon as I enter the garage, or front door, I get the message that activity has been detected. I don't get the message that Arlo has changed back to Home mode. By accident, I discovered that if I bring up the Arlo app on my iPhone, it will then change back to Home mode.

I know this used to work properly. I had a house guest for the past few months, so the system had been disarmed. Now that the guest is gone, I resumed using Geofencing and immediately noticed this problem. Could this be related to an auto matic firmware upgrade that was done over the past few months? Anyone else having this issue?

Re: Geofencing Issue

TomMac — Sat, 05 Aug 2017 20:52:17 GMT

Anything is possible , but i don't think it was the update.

Mine has glitches like this now and then as it switches from LTE to my Wifi... Seems to be better if I leave off the wifi till inside and the disarming has occured already

You could un-install and re-install the app and see it that fixes the issue

Re: Geofencing Issue

09KR0058 — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 00:46:06 GMT

I uninstalled/reinstalled the app, but still having this issue. I then checked the app settings and had the geofencing radius set to small. Based on that last post, I thought that maybe it was an issue of the phone toggling between the cell towers and my wifi and missing the geofencing radius. I then changed the radius to medium, but it still does not work reliably. I'm estimating that it only works (recognizing that I'm back in the zone and deactivating) about 10% of the time. As soon as I get home and open the app, even if its running in the background, it immediately says I'm back in the home zone and deactivates.

I'm convinced its the iPhone app that is at fault. I do remember seeing at least a couple app updates while I had Alro deactivated for all those months. Something broke during that time. This is quite frustrating, as it was working perfectly up through the first of this year!

Is no one else having this issue?

Re: Geofencing Issue

Lakehouse38 — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 15:21:19 GMT

I am also having a similar problem. I have found there are two issues. The first is with notification regarding Geofencing changing from Home to Away or Away to Home. On my system I only get notification when the system changes from Away to Home. I no longer get a notification that it has switched from Home to Away. Like you stated this seems to have changed in the last month or so. I rebooted the system, uninstalled and reinstalled the app and there is no change. Hopefully this will get back to Netgear and they will look into it.

Regarding notification when you enter or leave the zone, I have found this is a separate notification. It is controlled within the phones setting under Arlo. I have not had any luck getting this to work properly. All I seem to get is false notifications. It sends me notifications that I have moved in and out of the zone when in fact I have not moved within my own house. For this reason I have turned it off.

Re: Geofencing Issue

09KR0058 — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 20:05:59 GMT

Wow, that's just the opposite of what I'm seeing. I usually get the Home -> Away notification, but very seldom get the Away - Home one.

I have noticed that I no longer get any of the zone messages. It used to be that you get a notification when you leave the zone, followed by the one saying you're now in Away mode. Then when retrurning, you get another pair; entered the zone and now in Home mode. These were always in pairs, but not now.

When you say "I have turned it off.", where did you do that? I've been through the settings at least a dozen times and can't find where that's done.

Looks like I'll have to open a support case. This loss of functionality, especially given that it used to work perfectly, is unacceptable.

Re: Geofencing Issue

Lakehouse38 — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 21:28:31 GMT

The setting for Arlo Zone notification is under iPhone Settings. Scroll down about 8 sections to where all the apps are listed. Look for Arlo. Click on Arlo and you will get a screen that says "Allow Arlo to Access". At the bottom below "Arlo Settings" find Location In/Out Notifications. Flip the switch off (so it is not green).

Re: Geofencing Issue

09KR0058 — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 00:34:23 GMT

Ah, that's what I was missing. Went looking in Settings and none of the apps were there. That whole bottom section was missing. I know they used to be there, so I did some searching. Turns out, ever since iOS 10, there has been an issue with the apps not showing up in Settings. The workaround is to kill that app (double-click the home key, scroll to the Settings app, then swipe it up to kill it), then go back to the home screen and start it again. Sure enough, the apps show up again.

When I opened the Arlo settings, all the options were on. I was away from home when I did all this and when I returned home, I got the two notifications. First was the one saying I had entered the zone, immediately followed by being back in Home mode. So, at least for now, its all working again. I'll have to see if this still works over the next few days. Since I uninstalled then reinstalled the app, I'd not been back in those Arlo settings, so maybe it just took going in there to get it reactivated. Only time will tell.

Re: Geofencing Issue

Lakehouse38 — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 00:09:03 GMT

Let me know if you get a notification when geofencing switches to "Away"" mode.
Thanks

Re: Geofencing Issue

09KR0058 — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 15:29:24 GMT

Most of the time, I am getting the message "You have left the Home Geofencing Zone." The problem that keeps happening now is that it doesn't follow that message with the one saying its now in away mode. What I'm seeing a lot now is that about 15-20 minutes later, I get the message "Geofencing needs an Internet connection. Open the Arlo app when your connection becomes available." Sometimes that is followed about 20 minutes later with the "Geofencing at Home is now away mode."

The whole issue here is that there is no pattern or consistency to this. As I've said before, this used to work perfectly. Something is seriously broken in the app. Makes me wonder if the Netgear folks are doing any serious testing/QA on the app.

BTW, I finally got a response on the support case I opened. Its just basic, generic suggestions. No confirmation that there is a bug or known issues.

Re: Geofencing Issue

Lakehouse38 — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 15:51:52 GMT

Sounds like the same results I am getting with geofencing. I was so frustrated with Zone notifications I turned them off. I have found that I get the "Geofencing needs an Internet connection" when my wifi is on but not connected even though LTE is available. I found turning off wifi when I leave the house helps. I don't always remember. There is a post that describes a problem with android phones not setting a switch to allow the app to run in the background. I have checked and the install for the app on iPhone sets this switch on. Check to ensure Background app Refresh is on in the iPhone settings under the Arlo app.

Re: Geofencing Issue

09KR0058 — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 19:28:45 GMT

Re: Geofencing Issue

heisian — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 20:23:27 GMT

09KR0058,

You are not alone, many people are having issues with GeoFencing:

It seems pretty obvious that at this point NETGEAR has no desire to solve this issue that is being experienced by many, many users.

Re: Geofencing Issue

09KR0058 — Sun, 17 Dec 2017 19:17:29 GMT

Yes, it does seem that Netgear has not made any progress on this issue. All I keep hearing from them is "we are actively working on it." Frankly, I don't believe them. Having spent most of my life in software development, this really isn't rocket science. This should have been resolved months ago. My guess is that they don't have enough development/QA resources to fix it and they don't see this as a priority. With all the competition out there in this market segment, I would not be surprised if this product gets pulled sometime next year.

For me at least, this issue seems to be getting worse, not better. Going in and out of the zone is getting less and less dependable, and I'm seeing more and more of the "Geofencing needs an Internet connection. Open the Arlo app when your connection becomes available." error message. I'm in metro Atlanta, so its not like I'm out in the sticks somewhere where there is no cell signal at all.

I'm already looking at other products to replace this fiasco. It just sucks that I spent all this money on something, from a company I trusted, that just doesn't work reliably.

Re: Geofencing Issue

09KR0058 — Wed, 20 Dec 2017 00:02:48 GMT

BTW, last night I steered someone else away from buying an Arlo system, mainly based on the completely unreliable geofencing issue. That's 2 sales they have lost, just from me.

Over the past 3 days, geofencing appears to be totally broken. It now does not recognize leaving the home zone at all.

Re: Geofencing Issue

jay_gb — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 16:29:11 GMT

I have also had issues with Arlo Geofencing:

- does not register my girlfriends iphone as in/out of zone

- does not disarm despite registering that I am now in the home zone

It can't be rocket science as we have the Tado thermostat and since day one geofencing has worked seamlessly. Like I don't even know it's there anymore.

Will be recommending people steer clear of Arlo/Netgear until this works properly. It's essential functionality.

Also really concerning that there has been no Arlo response to this thread.

Re: Geofencing Issue

09KR0058 — Wed, 21 Mar 2018 01:04:27 GMT

This is unbelivable! Just updated the iOS app to the latest version 2.4.7, and once again, things keep getting worse. How incompetent can a company be? Over a year now and they still can't get geofencing to work. I even tried deleting the app and data and reinstalling, but still geofencing doesn't work.

Initially after the update, it worked perfectly for 3 or 4 times I left the house. Then the old pattern came back where it never goes into Away mode, or to Home mode when I return home. As usual, if you bring up the app, it then changes mode. And yes, I do keep the app running in the background all the time.

Since I recently retired, I'm now going to devote myself to letting the world know what a crap product this is. I plan to hit every social site and retailer's sites and leave brutally honest reviews and continue to personally steer people away from wasting their money on a product that just doesn't work.

Re: Geofencing Issue

J_J — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 04:46:45 GMT

Yes. I’m having the same issue. I leave the geofencing perimeter and the phone/app doesn’t avtivitate the camera system. I have to manually arm the cameras. When I get home the geofencing does not disarm the cameras I have to manually do it. This just started happening. I have not messed with any of the settings

Re: Geofencing Issue

09KR0058 — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 22:30:03 GMT

The response below is pretty much the same response we've been getting from Netgear for over a year now. With every software update, the problem just gets worse and worse. Geofencing was actually pretty reliable during the "Beta" phase, but has been going downhill ever since. I've never been more convinced that Netgear just doesn't give a crap about fixing this as long as they keep selling hardware. It is our obligation as consumers to let the world know this product is complete garbage. There are too many other options out there for security cameras that work as they are supposed to.

Engineering is currently aware of and investigating an issue with Geofencing that is affecting some users. I will provide an update as soon as I have more information.

JamesC

Re: Geofencing Issue

Kenny_B — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 14:50:13 GMT

I'm experiencing similar troubles. Beta was very good as switching modes as I would come home or leave. Now it stays in whichever was the last mode. Going into edit mode, checking the map, does not change status.
The only thing I've found, is to log out and log back into the app, then the system will update based on my phone's location. Waiting on an update restore beta functionality.

Re: Geofencing Issue

J_J — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 16:14:33 GMT

I received a reply from netgear and they are aware of the issue. They are working on it.