Auto tracking not working

[Edinburgh_lad1]

Auto tracking not working anymore. Since last firmware.

They break one thing for us to then wait 6 months to have that fixed.

[BrookeN]

What troubleshooting steps have you tried for this @Edinburgh_lad1 ?

[Edinburgh_lad1]

I've reset/removed the camera from the account. I've toggled the auto tracking switch on/off and tried with either.

Firmware: 5.0.52-27684d1

[BrookeN]

Please try these steps as well:
 

• Restarting the camaera using the app
• Unplugging the camera's power source and attaching the power again.
• Turning "Auto Track" on and off in the app
• Turning up "Motion Dectection" in the app

[Edinburgh_lad1]

I've tried all suggestions - thanks. Auto tracking is not working. It's stopped working after the last firmware upgrade/app upgrade.

[StephenB]

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@Edinburgh_lad1 wrote:

I've tried all suggestions - thanks. Auto tracking is not working. It's stopped working after the last firmware upgrade/app upgrade.

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Is it not tracking people?  Or something else (vehicles, etc)?

That's a detail that might matter here.

[Edinburgh_lad1]

Does your auto tracking work? Or is it just mine?

It's the indoor pan and tilt and so it's not tracking humans or the cat 😭

[StephenB]

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@Edinburgh_lad1 wrote:

Does your auto tracking work? Or is it just mine?

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 Both my indoor and outdoor PT cameras are tracking.  (I can't test animals).

But it does require that the PIR sensor on the camera face be pointed in the right direction.  It won't track me If I turn the indoor camera towards the wall and then turn it on.   

It also seems to depend on motion - if I start the camera when I'm not properly framed, it doesn't fix the framing until I move.

But I don't think these are new behaviours.

[Edinburgh_lad1]

What firmware are you on?

[Edinburgh_lad1]

Also, I'm talking about auto tracking in live view mode. 

[StephenB]

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@Edinburgh_lad1 wrote:

Also, I'm talking about auto tracking in live view mode. 

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That is what I checked on the indoor camera.  (on the outdoor one I only checked recordings).

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@Edinburgh_lad1 wrote:

What firmware are you on?

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Both cameras are running 5.0.52_27684d1 firmware.

[Edinburgh_lad1]

Well, clearly this is a software issue because the motion test is working ok, so it's not hardware. And as I said before, it worked fine until two or three app updates ago. 

I'm actually tired of things *constantly*  not working the way they should. I'm not impressed at all. 

[Edinburgh_lad1]

So, I've connected another one to test and it's the same - auto tracking is *not* working. 

Can we have this addressed pronto please?

By the way, there is also another issue of when you set positions. The square button to stop live view at the time doesn't always work.

[Edinburgh_lad1]

Morning @BrookeN and @StephenB 

I didn't mean to select the 'solution' button; it's just vey close to 'reply' on my phone. Would you please undo it? Thank you.

However, there has been a development. 

When a new P&T camera is added to an account, its sensitivity levels are set to 'medium' by default. From my experience, on Android and with the version of the Arlo app distributed in the EU/UK markets, auto-tracking is not working with that setting, regardless of how close the tracked entity is - I can be an inch away from the camera and nothing happens. This is the case for at least three cameras at different sites and connected to different ISPs/routers etc. 

Since I've been waiting on support to contact me and in terms of auto-tracking, have had a non-operational camera for a significant amount of time, I've worked out increasing the sensitivity level to 'high' does indeed result in auto-tracking working again.

However, since auto-tracking is a separate feature, I'm unsure what is the point of having 'low' and 'medium' options in terms of sensitivity if they don't work. My expectation would be that if the setting were set to 'low', then there would be  *some* auto-tracking, with the setting being set to 'high', even a speckle of dust would setting the camera off. 

[Edinburgh_lad1]

Or better: that there is a separate slider for auto-tracking sensitivity, since essentially both auto-tracking and the camera's motion detection sensitivity sliders are two separate features.

[StephenB]

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@Edinburgh_lad1 wrote:

Or better: that there is a separate slider for auto-tracking sensitivity

I agree that auto-tracking performance shouldn't be coupled to the motion sensitivity.

But it'd be useful to know more precisely what is meant by "auto-tracking sensitivity".  All I can think of off-hand is that it would relate to the size of the object being tracked.  

FWIW, my outdoor PT camera is tracking with the default motion sensitivity setting.  Not sure about the indoor cameras - no recent recordings there to check (most of my indoor cameras are turned off when I am home).

[Edinburgh_lad1]

I can smell a rat. Reducing the sensitivity results in auto tracking still working. So, I didn't discover a new world here, but I wonder if something wasn't working at Arlo's end? @BrookeN would you please confirm that no settings were changed at Arlo's side of things - for your UK/EU operations - because I find it very suspicious that after auto-tracking wasn't working on any of my P&T is now working well. If nothing was changed, is there some kind of sinister line in the code that under certain circumstances temporarily disables auto tracking and I had inadvertently activated it? (I don't believe in conspiracy theories and all that keech, but with Arlo, one never knows what surprises they have up their sleeve.)

[BrookeN]

There were no changes that I am aware of. I can dig a tad deeper and triple check. But as far as I know there was not. 

[Edinburgh_lad1]

Thanks @BrookeN 

Would either of you @BrookeN  @StephenB please do the following (I'm using an Android phone):

- before you do this, please have two positions saved - mine are at 180 degrees apart

- ensure no person or animal is in view of the camera

- go to Devices and activate your indoor P&T

- do not let anyone enter into view

- run a sweep to a saved position and then back to the original position

- place yourself or an animal in the view of the camera

- is auto-tracking working after you've done above? On mine, it's not. 

There may be a way with fewer steps to replicate; I just have no time to be doing this and it's not my job anyway.

Thanks. 

[BrookeN]

I tried these steps @Edinburgh_lad1 sorry it took me a few days to respond. My auto-tracking is indeed working. Has support reached out to you? This is the behavior we escalated correct?

[Edinburgh_lad1]

They have. I emailed them back on 22 May but nothing since then.

Would you like me to send you a recording showing that indeed auto-tracking is not working after I've done a check using different positions?

[BrookeN]

Yes please do. That way I can get this looked into my our development team. You can send that via Dm please.