App keeps logging one of us out, geofencing not working

[jcrain]

My wife and I both have iPhones with the Arlo app. Both if these are listed as devices which are geofenced.

We regularly find that one of our devices has been logged out of Arlo, and therefore won't trigger the geofencing (either Home or Away), leaving our system exposed.

We will both leave home, only to find that Arlo thinks one of us is still there, and won't arm the system. Similarly, we'll arrive home, and the system won't disarm, until we both log in, change mode to arm or disarm, and then back to geofencing.

The trouble is, neither of us know when this happens. The Arlo app doesn't tell us that we've been logged out until we go into it, which defeats the purpose of geofencing. We also don't understand why either of us would be logged out when we haven't touched the app.

This is very confusing and frustrating, any tips would be gratefully received.

Jamie

[ShayneS]

Hello,

This issue has been identified and a fix to resolve this issue will be coming soon. I will provide another update as soon as possible.

[ShayneS]

The Arlo development team is currently investigating this issue. We will provide an update as soon as we have more information to share with the community.

[swordfishBob]

It doesn't even require two people. It does it to me.

I've concluded that the geofencing is useless. You'd have to open the app every time you leave just to be sure it's logged in, in which case you can manually arm it.

I've taken to just leaving it permanently armed, but silencing notifications for a period if I'm e.g. doing something in the garden.

[Simmm]

Unbelievable how they can market the Geofence service in this useless condition

[ShayneS]

@erulastiel

Thanks for providing that info, I will make sure the appropriate team Is aware of this. We do have a 15 day logout for security reasons, so I wanted to make sure this was not the cause. 

Thank you 

[Simmm]

That is a completely wrong way of thinking. Tesla never logs out its users, and with the help of the app you can start, unlock and drive the car - as well as get live access to all the car's cameras. It would not be reasonable if their car owner needed to log in every 14 days.

Situations like this are handled by offering manual logout from all active sessions through the user account via the browser in the event of a lost device

This is nothing more than a thoroughly wrong way of thinking and a disastrous user experience with customer escape as a direct consequence.

[jcrain]

"The Arlo Secure app access token expires every 15 days for security purposes. This will log the users out of the App. This is likely what you are experiencing with the app signing out."

This is incorrect. It can occur after after just 24 hours and there is no pattern to it. 

[Dannybear]

@jcrain 

This sounds like something I was experiencing earlier this year and it was @ShayneS who instigated the fix.

The symptoms sound exactly alike where every day or two I would open the app to find I had be logged out and have to sign in again, then it progressively got worse where I had to manually enter my credentials each time.

I’ll see if I can find the thread.

[Dannybear]

@jcrain 

This sounds like something I was experiencing earlier this year and it was @ShayneS who instigated the fix.

The symptoms sound exactly alike where every day or two I would open the app to find I had be logged out and have to sign in again, then it progressively got worse where I had to manually enter my credentials each time.

I’ll see if I can find the thread.

https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Pro-2/Can-t-login-to-iOS-app/m-p/1848099 

[Arques]

I doubt this will ever get fixed. Camera version/firmware/phone OS none of this matters. Asking these kind of questions is just dancing around the actual core issue. The problem is on the Arlo server side. The geofencing function being locked out after 15 days (and most often less than that) is extremely stupid and insecure. Arlo support is non-existant and is showing zero understanding of the actual issue. Even as a paying customer there is no phone number to call, at least not from Sweden. The website says personalized support can be reached from the app and the app redirects back to the website which says personalized support can be reached from the app??? The website otherwise only has a useless FAQ and links to this forum where the moderators are completely unhelpful.

I think the reviews on Arlo on trustpilot says it all: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/arlo.com

I will never buy another Arlo product again and recommend everyone I know to stay away. Fixing something like this should not take multiple years. These are just overpriced toy products, in no way is Arlo offering any real security.

[Oct2020Look]

Happens to me also in 2022.  Don't realize I'm not getting what I paid for and pay monthly for - and OOOOPS  - I may be out of town.  Decide to check and --- Session Expired.  Or I see Error.  

[Simmm]

Yes, it's a joke and Arlo completely ignores all these problems.

[Oct2020Look]

Thank you for letting me know I'm not the only one and it's not my fault.  I'm technologically dumbfounded -by expensive eqt with monthly fees being so bad.  Might take the best pictures, but if they disappear or are never taken in the first place - not helpful.

[Dannybear]

A suggestion is to set a reminder on your phone to make you logout your account and login back in to refresh the session timeout which is every two weeks.

You need to access the privacy centre/account/active sessions to logout then login again.

Opening the app will not extend the session timeout unfortunately.

[jcrain]

@Dannybear be aware the "two week" session timeout is not my experience. My sessions regularly timeout in much shorter durations. Sometimes after just 24 hours. Relying on a two week reminder may be risky.

[Dannybear]

@jcrain ,

Thanks for your input, yes if you’re experiencing the session timeout more frequently than the arlo 15 day session expiry feature then it is a pointless exercise.

We all know, except arlo what is needed for this to go away. What is frustrating is that it appears arlo do not intend to make it known. 

[Arques]

Since Arlo seems incapable of fixing the issue what they should have done a long time ago is just remove it. That can't be THAT hard... Advertising the geofencing feature in this way without documenting anywhere that you have to sign in to check if it worked every time you leave or enter the zone is really dishonest. While it works the way it does users might test it out and get a false sense that it works well initially when they are just starting out and still opening the app every day but then over time the alarm will just stop arming at all.

Adding more family members to the feature decreases the likelyhood it will work tremendously as well because its really unlikely that every member will open the app every day which will cause their devices to be stuck either in or outside the zone... Since arlo is supposed to work as an alarm a device that has stopped reporting its location should ALWAYS be considered outside the zone. False alarms are much better than no alarms. If it happens the alarm can just be manually disarmed. These are things that should be obvious to a company selling "security" devices, it's insane that our voices here just seem to be ignored and that this is even a problem they haven't found and corrected on their own...

[Dannybear]

Today I left home, got 10mins down the road and realised I had not received the geofencing change push notification. Pulled over and plugged the phone into the charger and received the change advice within a few seconds.

This means that if I go for a walk I have to carry a battery pack plugged into the phone to make geofencing work.

[Dannybear]

Got home today, push notification to say i’m In the driveway, phone connected to wifi, waiting 5mins in the car. Plugged in the phone to the charger, few seconds later geofencing pushes change of mode.

[linuxsurfer]

I'm having this issue as well, it's probably about every 1-2 weeks so my guess is it's the "security" timeout. Any way to disable this? I have many third-party apps on my phone, and only one of them logs me out every 2 weeks - Arlo!

[DannyBearAgain]

Suggested workaround is to set a reminder on your phone to allow you to manually logout the account and log back in again to refresh the session timer.

[swordfishBob]

Could you also configure the app to alert when the token expires, so we're not left assuming things are working when they're not?

[Simmm]

As expected that was NOT TRUE. After 6 days with the latest version I got logged out. Just as before. 

[DannyBearAgain]

If they forward the expiry date to the app like with the web browser it may need a expiration event to have the new expiry date updated.

Just being optimistic that’s all.

[Retired_Member]

Hello, a very short one line response to what has obviously been a major flaw and a cause for customer complaints for some time. As all replies have said, it made the product useless and your expensive subscription model, unethical. The only thing that sets Arlo apart is the geofencing capability, otherwise it is exactly the same as every other web based camera, just with a more expensive price tag. Good to see that you could bestir yourself to acknowledge a long standing customer complaint and obviously it was not too difficult when you decided to get of your arse and do something about it. Reolink is my camera of choice of now, as it is half the price, great performance and allows more cameras on a basic subscription, just no geofencing, but hey it does not work properly in Arlo anyway. Sorry Arlo, too little too late. I won't be letting you know anything because I have no faith that you would even be interested. 

[Simmm]

Unfortunately it was not like that. Today I got logged out again. This is my third logout since @ShayneS told us this was fixed in the current app version.

 

[DannyBearAgain]

Yes have had at least two login session expired events.

My optimism has expired also.

I guess I’ll go back to scheduling my account login refresh every two weeks again.