Arlo Pro2 Model VMB4000r3 Geofencing

[GeorgeP1802t]

Hi,

New to Arlo. While there are some features I like about this product, the product is NOT without its frustrations. 

I am attmepting to get Geofencing working for ALL phones involved.  I have a case open with support, and there is NO way to contact them, what a joke!  I don't think I have every seen a product that I purchased where I could not get in contact with their support areas.  I have tried the Netgear route - they routed me back to here and provided the old product cannot be registered error that others have gotten.  I have tried the Live Chat ... crickets ... "Please hold where we are connect you to an agent" ... I gave up after 15 minutes.  

Anyway, I have case open, received an email from support today saying they would close it unless I contact them.  Well, let try this blog ... community way ...

BTW, I did find ... a way to send for a case ... Arlo Support Case Update <caseupdate@arlo.com>

My email back to their support person who sent it to me states:

Hello support,

The information below is a little misstated from a customer perspective.

I am a new purchaser of the Arlo system. I purchased a Arlo Base Unit and 5 camera system. I purchased the system after careful consideration and review of the several other security opportunities. Thus, I am still within the return period of my purchase. 

The basic unit was easy to set up, and get working. 

After completing the set up and getting use to the system for a few days, I worked to set up the Geofencing. I had problems with some of the "Friends" getting recognized, but was finally able get all four (4) devices to be recognized.  The issue I see is (note zone is set to smallest size possible or about 300 yards):

- When the lead or first device I signed up, and set up the system with leaves the zone, the system works as it is supposed to .... arms when this device is out of the zone, disarms when this device is back in the zone.

- When any of the other three (3) devices leaves, or returns to/from the zone, they are recognized properly as out of zone or in zone, but their positioning does not affect the arming or disarming of the system and only reflects whether they are on or out of zone - and it should affect the arm disarm state of the unit.

Bottom line, the way I understand this feature to work is when the last device leaves the zone, the system should arm, and when any device returns to within the zone, it should disarm. 

Everything I read on your support site says this issue has persisted for more than 1 year, if this is going to continue to be the case, and you do not feel it will be resolved within 30-45 days, please let me know so I can consider returning the Arlo system and get my money back.

Also, this Geofencing feature and counting devices in a zone or out of a zone, is nothing more than an exercise is simple math and positioning, it should not be that difficult of a programming exercise.

Looking forward to see your update and a solution, which I suspect with be either firmware related update for the Base unit, and/or the Arlo App or both.

My Arlo App on the iPhone's is 2.7.4 released Feb 9, 2019, and on the Samsung android is 2.7.2_25500 release 2/13/2019, firmware level on base unit is 1.12.0.1_27940 hardware VMB4000R3.

Regards, George

In response to their email to me ...

Case Information:

Case Number: 40751267

Subject: Issue with geofencing.

Description: --Cx stated that he enabled 4 devices in geofencing mode and when he is at home it doesn't trigger device and BS always be on armed mode only.
--Told cx that geofencing doesn't work on multiple devices and need to disable other 3 devices.
--Told cx that geofencing works on a single device as expected.
--Cx agreed.
--Eoc.

 
An expert will review your query and respond to you as soon as possible. You will receive an email notification when your case is updated by our support expert.

[Dannybear]

You should be able to reply to the email from support to update the case or use the link embedded in the email to add additional information.

In my experience neither of these are reliable as the embedded link takes me to a blank arlo page and I know that when you reply to the email it will not alert your case worker. You may have to wait for weeks before someone reads it to action.

Chat can take hours depending on your time zone but suggest you seek out your local arlo contact phone number from their support page.

Some of the super users here on this forum may also be able to assist in updating the case.

My experience with geofencing is that it does not work with friends. I use it myself using only my account on multiple devices. While this works for my two iPhone 5s devices it may not work for mix of android. Others here say they have better success using IFFFT signaling.

Hope this helps.

[Dannybear]

Edit: IFTTT

[michaelkenward]

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@GeorgeP1802t wrote:

After completing the set up and getting use to the system for a few days, I worked to set up the Geofencing. I had problems with some of the "Friends" getting recognized, but was finally able get all four (4) devices to be recognized.  The issue I see is (note zone is set to smallest size possible or about 300 yards):

Is that the crux of your issue?

While I can't claim to have read your long message in great detail, most of it seems to be about support rather than "technicals", a quick scan does not tell me if you have followed the manual's instructions on Geofencing With Multiple Mobile Devices.

Perhaps you did go into that and I missed it. If I have got it wrong, just spell out what the issue really is. And someone who understands that stuff might be able to help

Knowing that Arlo is not great at providing manuals, I thought you might not have found one. So here is a link to get you a copy:

Arlo | Support | Default

Unfortunately, the design of the website frustrates efforts to provide a direct link.

As to this bit:

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I have tried the Netgear route - they routed me back to here and provided the old product cannot be registered error that others have gotten. 

Netgear and Arlo are going through an amicable (?) divorce as they split into two separate companies. They do point out that Arlo has moved on the Netgear support pages, but I agree that it is not obvious.

Everything I read on your support site says this issue has persisted for more than 1 year, if this is going to continue to be the case, and you do not feel it will be resolved within 30-45 days, please let me know so I can consider returning the Arlo system and get my money back.

---

I don't know where you have looked, but if "your support site" refers to this place then you should know that it is mostly user-to-user, with some input from the Arlo team. But on the positive side, there are more users than tech support people, so the answers might come more quickly from the fine band of volunteers who turn up here to help fellow sufferers.

[GeorgeP1802t]

Thank you DannyBear, and Michael for your responses.

I have owned this system two(2) weeks, and I am attempting to decide whether to return it or not, I have 90 days to make this decision. Other $500-$1000 systems don't advertise they can do 'x', then can't deliver. We shouldn't have to use or maintain other software/Apps for a vendors' issue, that is solveable. 

On my Support topic to my rant:

Sad to hear Arlo support is managed this way.  I appreciate the help I get from this board, but I have found without techincal diagrams or code (in the case of software) most efforts are trial and error which are time consuming and unreliable, and because you never know what the next firmware or App release will do to your solution, it mostly likely will be rendered unless.  I have been communicating with support, at least I think I have, by sending my responses to the sending email to support via (caseupdate@arlo.com) with the case number in the subject, and I am hopeful this is getting throgh and updated.  You never get a confirmation email that your update took, so you do not know. I'l be calling today to advise NOT to close my case.

On my topic and issue of Geofencing:

After much reading, and tries - before this post - I have been able to get the two(2) devices, Android and iPhone 8, connected, and two (2) other devices, iPhone 8 and X, to accept the friend requests connected. They show "in" or "out" of zone as expected. 

I do have the setting on smallest radius.  If this is too small, then why can the App pin point the phones to my eact address, location? I see there are posts that indicate to make the circle larger, which is the wrong direction.  I was hoping I could shrink it 🙂 geez, is this stuff programmed by a  grade schooler?  I am a software engineer by trade, and this effort is nothing more than and array holding the location for each device, the GPS location, and either your in the circle or out. Its a '1' or '0'. 

I have found the Geofencing works on two (2) of the four (4) devices. If the phones ensure the Arlo App is active in the background, or, sometimes the phone App has to be signed-out and signed back into the phone App. I also found that unless the devices have the "admin" equivalent they do not trigger the auto "arm" or "disarm". What is confusing is that I have the other two (2) phones set up the same way, but they do NOT auto "arm" or "disarm" when in or out of the circle. 

I have tried the toggling the select / de-select on the Geofencing --> Mode --> Enable Devices option. This "jiggling" generally gets the phone recognized by the Geofencing option, but does NOT resolve the in" or "out" of zone arm/disarm issue.

Right now ALL phones are Admin level, and recognized as connected (in/out of zone), and only (2) auto arm/disarm - this is where the App code would come in handy. Thoughts on how to get the other two phones to be recognized are welcome. 

My thoughts are to delete the App from the Phones and re-install it ...  

George 

The issue I see