Geofencing shows unavailable on second device

[poloka]

My second device shows “Unavailable” in the geofencing settings for its location. Because of this geofencing doesn’t work for the second device. I have tried the tricks of disabling all devices from the setting, saved, and re added; disable location services and enabled on phones, uninstalled Arlo and reinstalled. How do I fix so second device uses geofencing?

OS: iOS 11.2.6
Carrier: AT&T
Devices: iPhone 7+ (both)

[JamesC]

poloka,

Is the app open and running on the second device and does that device have it's own account set up via the Grant Access feature?

JamesC

[poloka]

Yes and yes. Even with the app open, location set to Always, cellular data enabled, it does not detect the device.

[JamesC]

poloka,

Are there any special characters in the iOS devices name? Some users have experiencing issues due to special characters (JamesC's iPhone). Remove the special characters (JamesCiPhone), refresh your enabled devices list and see if you still get the same behavior.

JamesC

[poloka]

Hmm, both iPhones listed in the screenshot have the same version of the app and you can see “Greg’s” is working where as “Tami’s” is not.

[poloka]

Finally got device to show enabled by removing the single quote from the second device even though the primary had one and worked. But now with it enabled it rarely identifies its in the home network and disabled. Killed the app, came back in and still armed. This this system is terrible.

[RChobby]

I was on the phone for an hour today with level two tech support, they admit there are recent new geofencing problems on the Netgear side, and to be patient for a future update. My problem is with my wife’s phone not arming the system consistently as she travels in and out of the geofenced area.

[Boomer_1]

I think this just started after this last update or maybe an update to the Hub. Mine has worked solid annd automatic for the past year and just the last week or so it constant shows my wife's unavailble. And on occassion it does not pick up that we both left the house and still shows us in-zone. Before it was pretty automatic. I am leaning towards some sort of change they made to the hub. The reason being, I have 4 Arlo Pro cameras as well as 1 Arlo Go running in my app. The 4 connected the Hub have this problem with Geo-fencing not working wile the geo-fencing in the Arlo Go seems unaffected at least so far.

[Lwstack2001]

Not a hub problem particularly. Exactly the same happening on a 3 Arlo Q system. Tried every suggestion possible. My wife’s iPhone 7 always unavailable.

[Boomer_1]

As it turns out it did start affecting my Arlo Go camera as well. It is in issue with this latest app update. Has worked reliably until this last update. Now it is totally useless. Sometime is says we are both In-Zone when we are gone and other times it thinks only one of us is In-Zone. Never have to give it much of a second thought until after the last update.  Makes it pretty useless as a security system for short trips. Netgear needs to fix this sooner rather than later.

[JamesC]

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

[TommyA]

Geofencing problem after update. Suddenly, after both iPhone and Arlo app, update, Geofencing does not work. Seems to be a problem both in Arlo and iOS. When home, I can see my phone in the map, but when I check active devices, it’s out of zone. This is for all three iPhones in the family. Mix of 6 and 7...
Anyone had same issue?
Br
//Tommy

[Boomer_1]

James, ok thanks. It had gotten pretty much automatic and now it is not even usable. It seems to have happened around the last time the IOS app came out, but not 100%  sure about that. It has been in just the past couple of weeks.It is a must feature for security cameras. Hope they get it fixed very soon.

[Alksion]

I work in IT. I thought I was going crazy.

[iamcrd]

This now is not just for the secondary device. Even the primary doesn't work. And it has been more than 10days that geo-fencing has stopped working. Arlo's location tracking service doesnt follow the device(s) anymore.

[jembleton]

Geofencing continues to be a problem with this system.  I'm very disappointed.

[jembleton]

Geofencing continues to be a problem and customer support is useless.

[Boomer_1]

James, We are currently running IOS v 2.4.7 of the Arlo app on our phones with Arlo Pro with 4 cameras, plus an Arlo Go camera which operates outside the Home Hub, but is confugured in the app. I tested one of my earlier iPhones with my original Arlo wireless Hub configured with 2 Arlo Pro cameras and a couple of Wireless cameras. With the iPhone configured with IOS Arlo app v 2.4.5 Geo-Fencing works fine. Not sure what the new great eature they were deploying, but your Aboot and Costello Engineers have made this platform pretty useless as a security system.

[Lwstack2001]

Agree with previous comment. All worked fine for almost a year until very recently. (Last app update seems suspect). Also not seeing just unavailable on SE one device now but both devices. Could be unavailable or have wrong status of in zone or out of zone at random. Geosensing is completely non functional at two homes for me.

[Alksion]

As mentioned they acknowledged the issue. I am just manually arming and disarming. Hopefully they come out with a fix soon!

[jbrown111]

Same issue here.
Appears to be a recent development. Wife’s iPhone 8 shows as unavailable. Changed name of wife’s phone in her iPhone settings to remove apostrophe. Removed all devices, saved, added all devices and saved. Still shows as unavailable. Worked perfectly for months.
How about just going back to the prior version when it worked?

[iamcrd]

Netgear should really improve its customer service. We all know how pathetic their support is. I really find this forum as the only useful way. I appreciate JamesC acklowledging the issue but I think we need more than that. This issue has been there for quite some time. Netgear should be giving an ETA on when the fix is coming. They might be low on resources and might have other priorities but it should try and keep its customers informed/updated.

[jembleton]

I have a solution that's working (for now) on the geofencing issues.  My wife and I both re-named our iphones without spaces and punctuation, then unchecked enabled devices, then re-checked enabled devices with the new iphone names.  So... John Doe's iphone X changes to johndoesiphoneX.  Hope this helps.

[Boomer_1]

Thanks for the info. We did change our phones names and remove the spaces and no special characters. Unfortunately this did not work for us. We tried   resetting everything as well as logging completely out of the app on both phones restarting etc. I did perform one additional check. Under Settings on the iPhones  under the Arlo app, and scrolled down to the bottom and checked the Location/In Out Notifications.  PLEASE NOTE, this is different from the notice you get when it is actually working and tells you that you are in AWAY mode or HOME mode. It does tell you that you are leaving Geo-Fencing home mode or entering Geo-fenincg on home mode. In every case it correctly identified when we both left the house, however the app DID NOT correctly set the status of out phones under Geo-fencing. Furthermore it was inconsistent between my 2 camera groups. Under the Home Hub group it would sometimes say one was home and one was away. Under the standalone Arlo Go camera it would usually give a status of my phone and say my wifes was UNAVAILBLE. In any case it is not working.

Netgear needs to either fix this or roll back to a working app release.

[iamcrd]

Hey Guys,

My Geofencing has started to work after the recent iOS app update.