ACTIVITY ZONES NOT WORKING

[BELLASMOM]

I'm about ready to toss this system in the trash. Come on Arlo! You NEED to fix this! Or at least take this product off the market. This has been going on since inception. And if I hear one more tech or representative say 'Our engineering dept is working on a fix" I'm going to explode!
This is beyond unacceptable. This is a HUGE part of this product and it DOES NOT WORK!

[BELLASMOM]

Has anyone had any luck with getting their Activity Zones to work?  After 5 phone calls to Arlo Support, all I got was "We are aware of the situation and our Engineers are working on a fix."  This has been going on since inception.  Totally unacceptable.  This feature is the ONLY reason we purchased this product.  Can anyone shed some light on this problem please?????????

[atamt]

Exactly the same issue.. I'm new to Arlo and shocked that either they don't know what's going on or they don't care! I'm very close to sending back too unless this fundamental feature starts working.

[BELLASMOM]

Yeah we're about done with this crappy product.  Changing Batteries every 2 days is pure insanity because the Zones do not work.  I'm telling all my friends and neighbors to stay away from Arlo.

[george6]

On my Arlo pro 2, activity zones are only available if the camera is charging. But is not available when not plugged in.
I wonder if it's the same with the pro3.
I hope this helps someone.

[george6]

My battery life is in range of a week when it's constantly recording all motion. If it's random motion here and there, it's in the months range of battery life. Example front door gets a battery change maybe once every three months or so. If almost no activity, almost half the year passed till I had to swap a battery.

[BELLASMOM]

I live on a very busy road.....lots of cars and people walking by.......even if I point my cameras just down on my driveway, they still pick up any car or person going by, which is about 300 a day. So my batteries last about 2 days.  This is so ridiculous.

[JamesC]

Arlo recently deployed a cloud update enhancing Activity Zone accuracy. This should improve the experience for users reporting symptoms of motion detection alerts and recordings occurring outside of their defined Activity Zones. We are continuing to monitor Activity Zone behavior and will provide additional enhancements in the coming weeks.

[BELLASMOM]

So when will this feature be 100% fixed?  Do we need to download anything from Arlo?  We are still getting bombarded with over 200 recordings a day......batteries run out every 3 days.  

[JamesC]

BELLASMOM,

Activity Zones won't help with battery drain do the motion detected events. If you're seeing hundreds of recordings a day, even with activity zones enabled the battery will deplete at the same rate due to the cloud processing that needs to take place to determine whether or not motion was within the zone.

For more information on this, take a look here: How do I set up the Arlo Smart Cloud Activity Zones?

To alleviate the issue you're experiencing with battery drain, you will need to change the camera location so that the constant motion is outside the cameras field of view.

JamesC

[Mizterz]

Throwing in the towel.  Tired of the non-response from support or the canned responses.  Nothing has been done to address the issue.  Support calls ending with "we understand your frustration, we will have this escalated to our engineers".  Two weeks later and 3 request for an update on my support ticket - NOTHING, NADA!

Boxing them up and returning them.

[shadowdiver]

Ref case 41693924

Same issue.  I have a 5 camera system and activity zones were working and now they are not.  Alerts are going off day and night, to the point I cannot arm the cameras.  I have spent countless hours in chat only to get disconnected and re-routed to another support engineer and issues a 1/2 dozen or so support cases.  We have troubleshot everything including cancelling the subscription and signing up again.  I was told it was getting escalated and I would hear something back in 1-2 days.  On day 3 I followed up to get a status.  I told the engineer there was no point in continuing with the subscription until the problem was addressed so I cancelled it.  I was told to be patient. I eventually got an email telling me they tried to call me. Nothing in the call log - no way they tried to call, total BS. 

Tonight I called the number they gave me. Sat on hold for two hours. Eventually I got an engineer, gave her my information only to be told she would put me on hold so she could read the case notes.  after 15-30 minutes, I heard a click and the phone disconnected.  I tried to call back later only to find support was closed.  Note that the email claimed they are available 24/7.  

I then went to their FB pages to lodge a complaint.  When I went back later, they had deleted my post.  Not comment, no feedback, just deleted.  Rude...

Now I am sitting in the chat queue. 

I am find with occasional problems.  What I am not fine with is a service organization that is not interested in helping its customer, gives the run around and wastes my time.  

To date, they have not admitted they are aware of the problem but I can see from the community they are well aware of the issue.  All  I want is for some clarity on what the problem is, when it will be fixed. If I cannot get that, then please take the cameras back and let me be on my way.  

A very unhappy customer... next step will be the presidents complaint office...

[BELLASMOM]

JamesC

That is the most ridiculous explanation and resolution I ever heard. Of course the batteries are draining from all the hits.......it records and tells me!  Then it shows me the person, car, dog or bicycle being recorded.  THAT'S WHAT'S DRAINING THE BATTERY.  I and the rest of us are not idiots.   I didn't pay $600 to point my camera's into the ground.

This entire thing is so not acceptable.  I cannot believe this product is still on the shelves.

[Shaun1234]

Update-
So I'm probably writing this too soon,
I noticed that my app showed the latest version was mid may, anyway I went down the route of uninstalling each camera from the account then uninstalling the base from the app then uninstalling the app.
Interestingly I reinstalled the app then whilst still in the play store once the app installed it said update, now the app says latest update was may 29th whereas it didn't say this before and there was no updates available.
Anyway once I added the Arlo hub I had to physically take the cameras down to reinstall as they was now all switched off.
It's only been today but so far my activity zones now seem to work,
I've had no false notifications,
I've had one video that still recorded too short and I had 3 duplicate videos, this is a huge improvement for what I was having as they became unusable. This is out of 70 videos, but like I say probably writing this too soon!..
I will update the forum in a few days with how I'm getting on.

[Shaun1234]

Update day 2
I am pleased to confirm that on day 2 after what I done in my previous posts, so far all my zones are working perfectly on 3 cameras,no false notifications, no false recordings and no short videos.
Only thing is a few duplicate recordings but I can live with that for now.
I will update again at the end of the week if anyone is interested.

[BELLASMOM]

Shaun1234, do you have the Arlo Pro3 System?

[Shaun1234]

Correct

[dcfox1]

Yea since they fixed it in the cloud this week Activity zones work as expected. I did not have to do anything else as it was a cloud fix. It started around 06/02 for me.  But hope your update with the app fixes other things for you Shaun. 

[JamesC]

A recent update was deployed to the Arlo cloud that should address the accuracy of Activity Zones. This should improve accuracy by more reliably sending notifications only when motion occurs within defined zones. More work is being done to improve the behavior of Arlo Smart notifications and to fix the Activity Zones error that some users are seeing when not using an AC adapter (battery only). Stay tuned for future updates.

JamesC

[atamt]

James,

It got a bit better over the past week or so and then yesterday I had over 300 notifications again outside activity ones across my 4 cameras on the same site. What on earth is going on there. 

Ive got another 5 days where I am able to return the 4 camera system so if it's not fixed before its going back. Cant understand why you are still selling this kit when it doesn't work!

Also, the customer service when issues are logged is appalling, you never hear back.

[BELLASMOM]

While the Activity Zones on my system have improved the last several weeks not picking up cars, bikes and people going by outside of my zones, there is still a HUGE problem.

My cameras are picking up every single movement of trees and shrubs waaaaay outside my Activity Zones, so if it's just a little breezy out (which is almost every day on the Gulf Coast of Florida), I get alerts every minute of the day.  It's crazy.....sometimes 700-800 alerts a day!   My batteries drain in 24 to 36 hours!!

This is 100% UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!  Why is Arlo not fixing this problem??  And if you can't, pull this crap off the market and refund us!  I paid $600 for my system!!  I'm beyond frustrated and mad.  

[BELLASMOM]

This is a picture of my Activity Zone on one of my camera's.  As you can see it is a tiny, small section.

The camera's are picking up every movement of the trees and shrubs to the left of that Zone.  It's breezy here almost every single day, and I'm getting alerts minute after minute.  The batteries run out in 24-36 hours so we are constantly recharging them.  Are you kidding me?????????????????????

$600 for a system that doesn't work as it should????????????????

I'm about ready to start a Civil Suit against this company for selling a product that is 100% CRAP!

[K80Shooter]

I cant tell from the photo and I'm not defending Arlo, I also have 600 tied up in my system. If the shadows from the trees are on the car and moving then yes it will pick up that movement as well.

[BELLASMOM]

K80Shooter

There are never any shadows on the cars from this angle.......there are shadows however on the cars on the other side of the garage and they are never picked up.  It happens in the middle of the night or it could be cloudy and it will still do this. So this leads me to believe 100% it's the movement from the trees.

[shadowdiver]

James,

Appreciate the message.  I am actually tracking in an Arlo 2 discussion but these discussions are popping up everywhere. Appears to be a fairly wide spread issue. Arlo Customer Service is finally reaching out to me directly but it took my going to the social media airwaves to get attention.  Still no resolution but I finally spoke to a like person.  

I tested again today, and its still not working.  I still see the message "AC power has been disconnected from your Arlo device. Activity Zones are currently disabled"  

Given the number of weeks this is going on I have to wonder if this is a priority for Arlo.  Can you please look into this and advise?

Thank you

Things happen, but the shear lack of communication has a large part of the Arlo Community pretty upset.