Impossible set up?

[Kingof66]

Hi All. I had to add additional cameras after a burglary last year and for the last 6 months plus I've battled with the confusing settings of the new app to try to achieve the following. 
I thought it was a simple ask! I have standby and arm modes set up by my geolocation of my phone; this works fine.
I work away from home so when I return I want the internal cameras to be armed between 12 and 6am only. 
every setting I've tried seems to either disarm cameras at 6am when I'm away or remain armed when I'm home. I honestly think I've tried every combination of the enable/disable features to try to get it to work.
is it possible?  

[StephenB]

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@Kingof66 wrote:

Hi All. I had to add additional cameras after a burglary last year and for the last 6 months plus I've battled with the confusing settings of the new app to try to achieve the following. 
I thought it was a simple ask! I have standby and arm modes set up by my geolocation of my phone; this works fine.
I work away from home so when I return I want the internal cameras to be armed between 12 and 6am only. 
every setting I've tried seems to either disarm cameras at 6am when I'm away or remain armed when I'm home. I honestly think I've tried every combination of the enable/disable features to try to get it to work.
is it possible?  

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To clarify the ask:  I think you want

• all cameras armed when you are away
• indoor cameras armed from 12 to 6 am when home, and disarmed at other times

Is that correct?

What do you want the outdoor cameras to do when you are home?

[Kingof66]

Thank you for responding. 
Yes that is correct. I use geofencing to arm & disarm cameras when leaving/returning and I've tried a schedule for the cameras arming/disarming when home (12-6am) but I'm enable to get this to work for the 2 scenarios. I've tried getting the schedule to disable when away but that doesn't appear to work either. 

I appreciate your support 

[Kingof66]

PS the outdoor cameras remain armed when at home. But that's set up at an individual camera level. 

[StephenB]

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@Kingof66 wrote:

PS the outdoor cameras remain armed when at home. But that's set up at an individual camera level. 

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Do you see "Feed" and "Dashboard" in your app menu?  Or do you instead see "Library"?

[Kingof66]

Sorry. I wasn't notified of a reply. 

yes that's correct. Feed & Dasboard. Not library 

[StephenB]

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@Kingof66 wrote:

I use geofencing to arm & disarm cameras when leaving/returning and I've tried a schedule for the cameras arming/disarming when home (12-6am) but I'm enable to get this to work for the 2 scenarios. I've tried getting the schedule to disable when away but that doesn't appear to work either. 

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With "Feed" the basic approach is to reserve "Arm Away" for when you are actually away.  Then limit your schedule automations to switching between Arm Home and Standby (modifying both as needed).  The enable list for all the schedule automations should then be "Arm Home, Standby".

Then set up your "Leave" automation to switch to "Arm Away", and enable it in all modes.   Your "Arrive" automation should be enabled only in "Arm Away".

Unfortunately, Arrive and Leave are still buggy (though I think there have been some improvements over the past couple of months).  So check the behavior for a few days, to make sure they are working properly. 

But to get the behavior you want (with geofencing) you will need to modify "Standby" to arm the outdoor cameras.  "Arm Home" and "Arm Away" would arm all cameras.  Then switch to "Standby" at 6 am, and switch to "Arm Home" at 12 am.  "Arrive" can switch to either "Arm Home" or "Standby" (unfortunately the system will not resume the schedule when you get home until the next trigger time).  "Standby" probably makes the most sense for you, since I am thinking that you will normally return when "Standby" is scheduled.

Arlo has said custom modes are being rolled out "soon" - that would give you more options (likely very similar to "Library").

[Kingof66]

Thanks so much again for your reply. I really appreciate it. 
it does sound rather complex but I shall try your recommendations. 

what do you mean by library? Is there a variant of the app? 

I also want to clarify your last point. I think you are saying that if I arrive home after midnight then standby would be triggered from the 'arrive' function and the internal cameras wouldn't be triggered to active until midnight the following night. 

Thanks again. 

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

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@Kingof66 wrote:

what do you mean by library? Is there a variant of the app? 

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Not an app variant, but close...  The app actually supports two different user interfaces.  One shows "Library" in the app menu, the other shows "Dashboard" and "Feed".  Which you get depends on how Arlo has provisioned your account in their cloud.  New customers are all using "Feed" - older customers could be using either interface.

Everyone will eventually be migrated to "Feed", my guess is that will happen over the next several months.

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@Kingof66 wrote:

I think you are saying that if I arrive home after midnight then standby would be triggered from the 'arrive' function and the internal cameras wouldn't be triggered to active until midnight the following night. 

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Exactly so.  Switching to "Arm Home" is more conservative from a security perspective, since it would guarantee you get recordings.  But "Standby" would give you fewer unwanted recordings, and in some cases gives you better privacy.  So this is a tradeoff.  FWIW, this is IMO a flaw in Arlo's design.  I think the new custom mode interface they are planning to roll out will fix this.

[Kingof66]

Thanks so much Stephen. This appears to have worked! 

Great knowledge.