How to set up automation to turn off cameras "when I arrive"?

[W__R]

When I leave the house, it can automatically change the mode to Arm Away. Fine, but when I arrive home, it NEVER change to Standby or Arm Home.

What am I doing wrong. Someone give me a guide or something because this new update is so FUC KING unintuitive and user unfriendly that I can't believe something like this is actually approved to be released.

[StephenB]

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@W__R wrote:

When I leave the house, it can automatically change the mode to Arm Away. Fine, but when I arrive home, it NEVER change to Standby or Arm Home.

Generally this means the automations aren't enabled correctly.  If you post screenshots of your automations, we can help troubleshoot.

[W__R]

No schedules enabled.

[StephenB]

Normally "Arrive" is enabled only in "Arm Away",  That is assuming that "Leave" is changing the mode to "Arm Away".

FWIW, geofencing doesn't work perfectly on my own iPhone.  So I suggest keeping an eye on it for a while, before you decide you can fully trust it.

[W__R]

"Normally "Arrive" is enabled only in "Arm Away", That is assuming that "Leave" is changing the mode to "Arm Away"."

Please clarify. Why should Arm Away be enabled in Arrive and not Arm Home? Because that doesn't make sense to me. 

Leave is already changing mode to Arm Away by itself without my input. 

[StephenB]

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@W__R wrote:

"Normally "Arrive" is enabled only in "Arm Away", That is assuming that "Leave" is changing the mode to "Arm Away"."

Please clarify. Why should Arm Away be enabled in Arrive and not Arm Home? Because that doesn't make sense to me. 

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The automations need to be enabled in the current mode in order to run.  The system is in "Arm Away" mode when you return, because Leave put the system in that mode when you left.  But you HAVE NOT enabled Arrive to run when the system is in "Arm Away" (in other words, you are not allowing it to run).

It's best not to enable Arrive in "Standby" and "Arm Home", as this can result in the automation running more than once if you are using geofencing with multiple phones.  Similarly, you don't want "Leave" enabled in Arm Away.

So in your case, "Leave" is correctly enabled, but "Arrive" is not.

[W__R]

Okay, ignore all the settings I have done previously, so I'm gonna do this from scratch just in case I missed a step.

Arm Away: ALL cameras motion and audio detection ON

Arm Home: ONE camera (front door) ON, the rest OFF

Standby: ALL cameras OFF

Automation/Geofencing

Base (Arrive): When: People Arrive (My device) -> Then: Standby

Base (Leave): When: People Leave(My device) -> Then: Arm Away

Is this correct?

When I leave, it correctly changes to Arm Away.

However, Base (arrive) disables. It greys out itself. <- This stops it from turning off the cameras and I don't know why.

What I am doing wrong here?

[StephenB]

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@W__R wrote:

When I leave, it correctly changes to Arm Away.

However, Base (arrive) disables. It greys out itself. <- This stops it from turning off the cameras and I don't know why.

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Go into the "Arm Away" mode settings, and make sure Base (arrive) is enabled in that mode.

Also, go into the settings for "Arm Home" and "Standby", and make sure Base (arrive) is NOT enabled in those modes.

Similarly, make sure that "Base (Leave)" is enabled in both "Arm Home" and "Standby", and that it is NOT enabled in "Arm Away".

[W__R]

Now it doesn't activate Arm Away when I leave...

[StephenB]

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@W__R wrote:

Now it doesn't activate Arm Away when I leave...

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please post screen shots of your automations.

[W__R]

 

 

 

 

[StephenB]

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@W__R wrote:

 

 

 

 

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These look correct.  Does "Leave" fail every single time?

Also, try changing "everyone leaves" to just your phone, and see if that makes any difference.

FWIW, sometimes extraneous devices gets added to the geofencing list.  You can check this by pressing the profile icon in the upper left, then "privacy center", and then available "geofencing devices"  I just checked mine, and my ipad was somehow added.  Since I don't carry this with me, then "everybody leaves" won't work.

[W__R]

My phone is the only device paired with the Arlo sysytem.

Been testing this since the last message and I've discovered what could be the issue.

After adjusting the settings, BOTH Arrive and Leave are activated at the same time. One of them needs to be deactivated depending on whether you are home or not at the time. Only then will the automation work properly.... 80% of the time. 

I am unable to determine why sometimes it won't change modes when leaving or entering the geofenced area.

I have also come across another issue from this. I do NOT receive any notification when the system changes arm/disarm/standby mode.

I do receive notifications when a camera is triggered during Arm mode.

[StephenB]

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@W__R wrote:

Only then will the automation work properly.... 80% of the time. 

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FWIW, I also see that it sometimes doesn't trigger.  Like you, the app is running on only one phone (and iPhone 12 mini in my case).  I agree it needs to work reliably to be useful. 

It would be useful to get notifications when the phone enters/leaves the geofence area (whether the mode changes or not), but that doesn't work with the new "Feed" interface.

[W__R]

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@StephenB wrote:

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@W__R wrote:

Only then will the automation work properly.... 80% of the time

It would be useful to get notifications when the phone enters/leaves the geofence area (whether the mode changes or not), but that doesn't work with the new "Feed" interface.

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It’s ironic — I used to get mode-change notifications back when geofencing only worked when I left the area. Now that geofencing actually works about 80% of the time, the notifications have stopped completely. Shrugs.

I also want to apologize for my initial outburst in the original post. This app update has honestly pushed me away from Arlo. The older version still feels superior in both features and functionality, and knowing that this update was released a year earlier in other regions yet still arrived in a half-baked state for me makes it hard to trust the platform anymore.

At this point, Arlo just doesn’t feel reliable for my needs.

Thanks StephenB for the assist along the way.

[W__R]

I read that reinstalling the app & rebooting the phone may help with the geofencing but now I can't log back in the app after inputting the code for 2fa. I get a "invalid factor data" after entering the 2fa code.

Now what?

[StephenB]

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@W__R wrote:

I read that reinstalling the app & rebooting the phone may help with the geofencing but now I can't log back in the app after inputting the code for 2fa. I get a "invalid factor data" after entering the 2fa code.

Now what?

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Can you log in on a PC (my.arlo.com)?  Or does that also fail?

[W__R]

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@StephenB wrote:

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@W__R wrote:

I read that reinstalling the app & rebooting the phone may help with the geofencing but now I can't log back in the app after inputting the code for 2fa. I get a "invalid factor data" after entering the 2fa code.

Now what?

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Can you log in on a PC (my.arlo.com)?  Or does that also fail?

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Yes, it's fine logging in on PC

[W__R]

Ok, I found an old post advising that I need to turn off the Mobile Data, using only Wifi in order to log in, then then turn Mobile Data back on after logging in... and it worked!

This... app update truly is something else huh...