Geofencing doesn’t work while on schedule

[dazednconfuzd]

I have to manually arm and disarm my system when I’m away because geofencing won’t recognize that I’ve left and arm the system. The Arlo app just updated 2 days ago but the geofencing still won’t work while I’m away and the system is on schedule.

[dazednconfuzd]

“In general, you only want the first person to arrive to trigger the Arrive automation.”

Even though I have geofencing set up to require both phones to be home?

[StephenB]

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@dazednconfuzd wrote:

“In general, you only want the first person to arrive to trigger the Arrive automation.”

Even though I have geofencing set up to require both phones to be home?

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Be careful here.  "Requiring both phones to be home" would mean setting it up so

• the first person to leave would switch to Arm Away (since then only one phone would be home)
• the last person to arrive would trigger standby (waiting for both phones to be home again before doing that).

This is generally not what anyone wants, since it arms all the cameras when one person goes away and the other remains home.  FWIW, the system won't let you set it up that way.  There is no way to ignore the first person's arrival, and only trigger on the last person's arrival.

I have it set up so that

• the last person to leave triggers the leave automation ("Everyone Leaves")
• the first person to arrive triggers the arrive automation (and the second arrival does not trigger it again).

Which is most people want the system to do.  Arm Away is active only when the house is empty.  In other words, my geofencing requires neither phone to be home.  Geofencing ends when the house first becomes occupied.

You set the system to trigger the arrive automation every time either of you comes home. I explained above why that isn't a good idea.  It doesn't do the right thing when one of you stays home, and the other person returns home. 

[dazednconfuzd]

Geofencing works hallelujah! Leave and arrive triggered just fine as we left the house and came back. Thank you for your excellent tutoring, it really helped!👍

[StephenB]

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@dazednconfuzd wrote:

Geofencing works hallelujah! 

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Great!  Glad I was able to help.

[dazednconfuzd]

Everything works! Leave, arrive, schedule, and geofencing. Thank you again!👍

[dazednconfuzd]

Just one last question, when we came home today, Arlo wouldn’t go into standby from the arm away mode. Do I need to set home arrive to arm away AND standby?

[dazednconfuzd]

Just wondering if I should turn the home arrive switch on in the standby mode to make arm away switch to standby when we come home.

 

[StephenB]

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@dazednconfuzd wrote:

Just wondering if I should turn the home arrive switch on in the standby mode to make arm away switch to standby when we come home.

 

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No.

Do you recall the structure?

The stuff at the top (including the enable list) are things that have to be true for the automation to run.  You only want "arrive" to run when the system is in Arm Away and someone comes home.  So you DON'T add other modes to the enable list

[StephenB]

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@dazednconfuzd wrote:

when we came home today, Arlo wouldn’t go into standby from the arm away mode.

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Did you leave the app running on the phones?  Also, make sure they are allowed to run in the background (details depend on the phone model).

There are some scenarios where geofencing stops working - one is if the app isn't running.  I suspect it also won't work when the phone is in low-power mode.

[dazednconfuzd]

I’m pretty sure I did not have the app running. So, I’ll try it today with the app running. Btw, this is on iPhone 16 Pro.

 

[StephenB]

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@dazednconfuzd wrote:

I’m pretty sure I did not have the app running. So, I’ll try it today with the app running. Btw, this is on iPhone 16 Pro.

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Let us know how it goes.

Note the app doesn't need to be open.  But it does need to be running (and you both need to be logged in)?

[dazednconfuzd]

Both logged in, app closed, and when we returned today it didn’t go into standby. It went into arm away just fine when we left but doesn’t want to go into standby when we return.

[dazednconfuzd]

Btw, a few months ago it was recommended to me to have my wife sign in as me with my credentials because something was broken in the app. Is this still the case? Because she is still logged in as me on her phone.

[BrookeN]

As long as you are on the same app version and she should be able to sign into her own email as a granted user. 

[dazednconfuzd]

Thanks I’ll try that 👍

[StephenB]

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@dazednconfuzd wrote:

Btw, a few months ago it was recommended to me to have my wife sign in as me with my credentials because something was broken in the app. Is this still the case? Because she is still logged in as me on her phone.

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That is not a problem, as geofencing is based on the device, and not the account that device is logged into.

Is the "arrive" problem happening when you both arrive together? If not, who is arriving when it fails.

[dazednconfuzd]

Yes, the arrive failure happens when we arrive together. I don’t think I’ve tried arriving with one phone yet.

[dazednconfuzd]

Arrive geofencing still doesn’t work. We come home and the system continues to stay armed.🤔

[StephenB]

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@dazednconfuzd wrote:

Arrive geofencing still doesn’t work. We come home and the system continues to stay armed.🤔

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The arrive automation is set up correctly, so don't change the enable list.

Is "Leave" switching to Arm Away?  Or is it switching to "Arm Home"?

It should be switching to "Arm Away"

[dazednconfuzd]

It’s switching to arm away.

[dazednconfuzd]

Here’s a shot of my arm away and standby settings in case it helps.

Note: standby does not have any device rules set. I don’t know if that matters because it just won’t go into standby to begin with.

 

[dazednconfuzd]

I just noticed the home leave button was switched on in the standby settings so I switched it off. Maybe this will fix the problem?

 

[StephenB]

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@dazednconfuzd wrote:

Here’s a shot of my arm away and standby settings in case it helps.

I just noticed the home leave button was switched on in the standby settings so I switched it off. Maybe this will fix the problem?

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The automation switches you see in the mode settings are the same ones you see in the enable lists.  They are just presented differently.

You still aren't really understanding how the enable lists work.  So you are not setting them correctly.  I think you are confusing the enable list with the action you want the automation to take.

1. Home Leave is switched on in both Arm Home and Standby.  It is safe to just enable it in all three modes.
2. Home Arrive is only switched on in Arm Away.
3. The schedule automations are switched on in both Arm Home and Standby (and NOT switched on Arm Away).

Your problem is that Home Arrive is NOT switched on in Arm Away, and is incorrectly switched on in Standby.    That is why it is not running when you arrive back home. 

Another mistake is that you have the schedule automations enabled in Arm Away.  So the schedule will continue to run when you are away on vacation.

The change you just made will prevent "Arm Leave" from running when you leave home during the day.

So apply the settings above I list above.  If you like, then post screenshots of all three mode settings, so I can double-check them for you.

[dazednconfuzd]

Thank you Stephen, I’ve set the settings accordingly and will test it out today.

[dazednconfuzd]

Unfortunately, it still didn’t go into standby when I applied your suggested settings Stephen. So I happened to think of calling phone support for this. She said all my settings were correct so she tried one other thing. That was, under specific people arrive, uncheck my wife’s phone then save. All of a sudden she could see my geofence settings and said somehow my wife’s phone got stuck on arm away and the system was following that. So then we added my wife’s phone back into the mix then hit save. Then we had to manually hit standby. She said this is a requirement when you add someone. Then after the initial manual standby, it works automatically thereafter. All I know is everything works now! Whew!👍😀 

Thank you again for all your help!