Arlo Pro 3 Geofencing

[stonna]

My wife just upgraded to an iPhone 14 Pro and now geofencing won't recognize the location of her device, only mine. Always thinks she is away from home. Her account was granted access from mine. Everything worked fine on her previous iPhone. 

I've tried most of the workarounds including removing and reading her account, confirming location privacy settings, etc. 

Any ideas? 

[kimber88]

Here you go - thanks for the suggestion.  First screen is when I go into Mode > My Devices.  I select Geofencing there just as I always have.  But the second screen shows that when I go backwards (Mode screen), it's still showing disarmed.  My two geofencing settings are armed when away, perimeter mode when I am home.  So, it should never be disarmed.  So, the second screen always showed whatever the last mode I selected was, except for Geofencing.  That just will not turn on.  I thought of deleting it and re-entering it, but geofencing is a default setting, so I can't delete it.

[Dannybear]

Can you screenshot the geofencing home and away setting when editing the geofencing?

If you also enable notifications at the bottom of the edit page you should be able to receive push notifications when selecting geofencing or when you go in or out of Zones. They will not say what mode has been selected but does confirm that geofencing is active.

BTW, what app version are you using, testing with v3.6.8 at my end.

[kimber88]

I'm on v 3.7.1 released 10/4 on a iPhone 11 Pro.  I think this is the screenshot you asked for.  Yes - the push notifications that you described were my first clue that something wasn't right.  I stopped getting them a couple of weeks ago (I was out of town and unable to test from home again until now).  That's when I started to play with the modes (which I hadn't touched in a long time since it always worked fine) and noticed the weird behavior.  I just tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app, which did allow me to "re set up" geofencing, but the same thing is happening.  It just refuses to enable that mode and that mode alone.  

[Dannybear]

I will not be able to see your snapshot until the moderator approves it.

In the interim can you try creating a new test mode with camera rule and use this in the geofencing home selection to test again.

Some weeks back arlo pushed out a firmware bug that corrupted the base station modes.

 If this has happened for you, it might require a rebuild of your custom modes to resolve it. Worst case a complete devices removal, factory reset and reinstall may be required to clear out the bugs.

Of interest is if you had cameras installed in the past that needed to be reordered in your account?

[KimberSecurity]

I just created a test mode and applied it as suggested with the same result. 

I certainly hope I won’t have to delete and recreate my whole system. I have seven cameras and don’t look forward to that much work. But I suspect if the test I just tan doesn’t work, that might be the next step as I have already tried deleting the app, etc.  If only I could delete geofencing and create a new version. 

I’m afraid I don’t understand the question about my cameras needing to be reordered. 

[Dannybear]

A thread regards the firmware bug issues below.

https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Pro-2/SmartHub-disappeared-from-Arlo-app/m-p/1879083#M56410 

[KimberSecurity]

I took a look at that article and don't think that's my problem - I can see the hub and device order is fine.

I've tried everything that I can think of.  Updated my phone's OS, restarted phone, removed app and reinstalled more than once.  I was hoping that if I deleted the app and all backups, it might allow me to start the app "from scratch" too that whatever's not working with geofencing would start with a clean slate.  Didn't work - when I reinstalled the app, it went right back to my account.  I tried approving another email address of mine as a guest and that didn't work any differently.  Signing in from the web app doesn't change anything.

So, my question now is, if I do go through all of the bother of factory resetting my whole system and reinstalling it, what are the chances that will actually work?  If the app is corrupted/ causing the issue, my fear is that I will be right back where I am now, after wasting hours taking equipment down and resetting it.  I appreciate any continued advice that you can offer.  Thanks.

[Dannybear]

Your concern is valid, the arlo server is flaky so worst case is you end up with no cameras or base being able to be re-add to your account. I see this often reported.

Problem here is that no one knows how the arlo system works, we make it up as we go based on our and others observations. E.g I recently  figured out why I can drive 10miles before the geofencing system switches to away mode. Arlo is still  stumped.

The issue I see is that you are not receiving push notifications when geofencing is enabled in the mode selection so it means that geofencing is broken at the arlo server backend or base station or in your arlo account.

Interested if going into geofencing and changing the location address to somewhere else and saving it, it should also give you a notification. Then change back to kick start it working again.

[KimberSecurity]

I am willing to try most anything at this point, so changes address, but same behavior. As you say, at this point either the app, base or Arlo is broken. I finally got someone to do a chat with me tonight. He said he was going to another level of support and will email me back. We’ll see. I hate to toss the system when I have a lot invested, but I’m about ready to. I do appreciate how you have tried to help. 

[Dannybear]

While you wait, see below a blurb on geofencing issues more operational related.

https://kb.arlo.com/000062271/Why-isn-t-the-Geofencing-mode-working 

[Exia7891]

I am also experiencing geofencing issues. I noticed it started acting up recently within the last two weeks, but it could have been going on for much longer. Interesting observation, the two devices I am having issues with do not connect to a smarthub, but rather have a direct wireless connection with my router. The cameras that are connected via the smarthub when put into geofencing mode act appropriately. No power saving mode enabled and all permissions required for location services are active. 

[Exia7891]

Removing and readding my troubled devices seems to have resolved the flaky geofencing issue, at least in my case. It's been working as expected for a couple days now. I suggest anyone having geofencing issues to take the same steps. It's a pain to have to go through that process, but it's worth a shot if it gets it working again.