Stay away from new app

[razrback99]

Unless forced, do not upgrade to the new app. It is so buggie, even a programmer like myself can’t tell what the heck it’s doing. Geo fencing seems to only work one way, if it works when you leave, it won’t work when you return or it won’t work when you leave but works when you return, which is stupid because it never armed to start with. You can’t tell who it thinks is still in geofence anymore.

 Hate to say it but after 7 years with it working very well, may be time for me to look at other providers. I can’t believe they implemented something like this. I would fire the whole damn bunch, revert everyone back to old app and start over.  

[StephenB]

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@razrback99 wrote:

I thought I could have settings by Mode and Camera. However, it seems to be the same camera settings, at least Arm Away and Arm Home. My use is I'm home but I want my outside camera to only alert if animal, and nothing else. But if I'm gone, I want that camera to be on full alert. Am I confused about functionality of the app or is this not possible?

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It's not unfortunately not possible.  Arlo separated the objection detection settings from the rest of the video sttings and the rules in the mode, and so there is no way to have automate changing the object detection settings for a camera.   Personally I think that is a conceptual flaw in their design.  

[razrback99]

Unfortunately, it’s still unpredictable as to what it will do when leaving gps fence. I left one location twice and it never changed mode to armed. It did set to standby when I returned    The app tracked me fine in automation’s geo so it knows I’m moving. What causes the app to check and how often does it do that check?

[alex_loo]

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@razrback99 wrote:

Yeah, that’s what’s so weird, it shows me exactly where I am on the edit geofence map, but it will not trigger when I leave or return, at either location. Of the 4 phones (3 shared), 2 of those work fine, 2 do not. 

I am exactly one of those who have been trying to enjoy ARLO's geofencing capabilities from app --- but in vain, unfortunately.  Guess I can share some of my views here.

Firstly, even though "edit geofence map" is showing your location correctly, the ARLO logic behind triggering on leave/return is still incorrect sometimes.  I used the word "sometimes", because yes you may see it working today but you are not sure next time --- it's only working somewhere 50-75% of the times, per my setup of:

• 1x android + 1x iPhone (single device is much simpler, and ARLO geofencing seems working more reliably)
• both devices logging into same ARLO account (eliminating issue of duplicate geofencing devices)

The way ARLO geofencing for multiple devices is working unreliable to me has simply forced me to stopping using it --- after waiting for fixes and trying different "suggestions" over at least 9 months.  I do encourage you trying again, though --- since I am genuinely looking for a reliable setup that I can copycat 😉

Alex

[alex_loo]

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@razrback99 wrote:

OK, we have a small victory. For the first time on the new app, it recognized when i left zone and enabled Arm, which is correct. It also, went into Standby when I returned. So, hopefully that part is working. 

Good to see your small victory with single device.  I'd suggest trying this single-device geofencing for at least a few days (with real arrivals and departures in practice).  Then change the geofencing routines to trigger on "any one arrives" and "all leaving" --- which is the setup for multiple device scenario.

And if you are fine with multiple device scenario for say a week --- please let me know! 🙏😉

Alex

[razrback99]

Yeah, I have no good news to report at this point. The sad part of all of this, I don't know if the new app will allow me to do what I need, even in a manual mode. Several years ago, it worked fine in the 2 location - multi-person - setup, but something changed about year ago and it's been harder to manage. Sad to hear you've been dealing with it as well. 

[razrback99]

Hi, since I havent heard back from you, just checking to see if you are still out there

[alex_loo]

@razrback99 , how's your single device geofencing going?   Have you now moved on to multiple device geofencing?

Alex

[razrback99]

Man, no discernible difference. Back to shared and more or less running manually. It’s odd how it seems to work better (geofencing) for some shared users than others. I can’t quite crack the combination, to make it work the way it used to or at least run in auto again. 

[alex_loo]

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@razrback99 wrote:

Man, no discernible difference. Back to shared and more or less running manually. It’s odd how it seems to work better (geofencing) for some shared users than others. I can’t quite crack the combination, to make it work the way it used to or at least run in auto again. 

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my advice is don't waste your time, since I did already 😅

for geofencing, I am feeling that they are intermittently missing the geo location and/or status change of each device.  Making the geofencing routines working only intermittently.

Alex

[StephenB]

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@alex_loo wrote:

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for geofencing, I am feeling that they are intermittently missing the geo location and/or status change of each device.  Making the geofencing routines working only intermittently.

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I've suspected that also, but my simplified test setup hasn't missed any triggers for 3 weeks now.  So not something I am seeing on my own phone at present.

The simplified setup 

• disables the schedule
• enables arrive and leave in all three modes
• configures arrive and leave for one specific phone

I intend to put back my usual setup this weekend, to see how well that behaves.  Note my usual setup still only uses one phone (and no friend accounts), so it won't fully cover your use cases.

[alex_loo]

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@StephenB wrote:

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@alex_loo wrote:

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for geofencing, I am feeling that they are intermittently missing the geo location and/or status change of each device.  Making the geofencing routines working only intermittently.

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I've suspected that also, but my simplified test setup hasn't missed any triggers for 3 weeks now.  So not something I am seeing on my own phone at present.

The simplified setup 

• disables the schedule
• enables arrive and leave in all three modes
• configures arrive and leave for one specific phone

I intend to put back my usual setup this weekend, to see how well that behaves.  Note my usual setup still only uses one phone (and no friend accounts), so it won't fully cover your use cases.

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how do you leave and arrive?  drive or walk?

Alex

[StephenB]

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@alex_loo wrote:

how do you leave and arrive?  drive or walk?

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Mostly driving, thanks to the winter weather in New England.  -8°C outside at the moment (-14°C if you add in wind chill), so not great for walking.

But there was at least one leave+arrive when walking.  

Not sure this matters, but the radius is set to "small'.

[razrback99]

Same, walk, drive doesn’t make any difference. For me, it’s more reliable on the Arrive side, but still not perfect. Rarely does it pick up on the leave side, again for me. It seems to work better on both, arrive/leave, for others in our group than for me. 

[alex_loo]

I am strongly feeling that ARLO's intermittent geofencing behaviour has something to do with the transitioning between home wifi and mobile data --- on both leaving and arriving.  There can be interim loss of any internet connnectivity, during this transitioning.  To make it worse, the mobile data coverage in my area is simply pretty bad.

If geofencing information is somehow lost out on its way from device to ARLO cloud, then of course the anticipated trigger that should have been generated from the cloud side will never appear.

Alex

[StephenB]

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@alex_loo wrote:

To make it worse, the mobile data coverage in my area is simply pretty bad.

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Even with the small radius, the trigger happens a couple of blocks away from my home (well beyond my home wifi range).  So this could easily be the main cause in your case.  While Arlo should make sure the trigger is communicated to the cloud as soon as your connection allows it, it is possible that there are some bugs there.

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@alex_loo wrote:

There can be interim loss of any internet connnectivity, during this transitioning. 

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I think that would be unusual if the phone is normally connected to both networks.  You could try turning off wifi before you leave as a test.  Though if your mobile coverage is bad, then that might not tell you much.

Setting the radius to large might also be a good test.  That would allow more time for the network to re-stabilize after your home wifi drops.

[alex_loo]

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@StephenB wrote:

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@alex_loo wrote:

To make it worse, the mobile data coverage in my area is simply pretty bad.

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Even with the small radius, the trigger happens a couple of blocks away from my home (well beyond my home wifi range).  So this could easily be the main cause in your case.  While Arlo should make sure the trigger is communicated to the cloud as soon as your connection allows it, it is possible that there are some bugs there.

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Well I am sure there is a bug with ARLO geofencing.  Since it is failing sometimes, and google automation geofencing is NEVER failing (on the same devices).

I think that would be unusual if the phone is normally connected to both networks.  You could try turning off wifi before you leave as a test.  Though if your mobile coverage is bad, then that might not tell you much.

Setting the radius to large might also be a good test.  That would allow more time for the network to re-stabilize after your home wifi drops.

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I have already done radius size tests back ages, and won't do that for ARLO again.  Not too sure what turning off WIFI can achieve for me, so I won't blindly try whatever unofficial testing for ARLO here.  (afterall, they should have done these testing)

Alex

[StephenB]

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@alex_loo wrote:
Well I am sure there is a bug with ARLO geofencing.  Since it is failing sometimes, 

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I don't think anyone is denying that.

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@alex_loo wrote:
I have already done radius size tests back ages, and won't do that for ARLO again.  Not too sure what turning off WIFI can achieve for me, so I won't blindly try whatever unofficial testing for ARLO here.  (afterall, they should have done these testing)

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Your choice of course.  FWIW, I wasn't suggesting that you do any testing for Arlo. Just suggesting some things to try that potentially could improve the reliability for you. 

In this specific case you were thinking that the transition from wifi-> mobile was causing your problem.   The two suggestions were targetted at that idea (and likely would make a difference if that is part of the problem).  But if you're done with making changes like that, then that's perfectly fine with me.

[alex_loo]

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@StephenB wrote:

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@alex_loo wrote:
Well I am sure there is a bug with ARLO geofencing.  Since it is failing sometimes, 

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I don't think anyone is denying that.

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@alex_loo wrote:
I have already done radius size tests back ages, and won't do that for ARLO again.  Not too sure what turning off WIFI can achieve for me, so I won't blindly try whatever unofficial testing for ARLO here.  (afterall, they should have done these testing)

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Your choice of course.  FWIW, I wasn't suggesting that you do any testing for Arlo. Just suggesting some things to try that potentially could improve the reliability for you. 

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Not too sure if turning off wifi could improve reliability for me.  Even if it does, it doesn't make sense for me to turn my mobile's WIFI off, just for this ARLO bug.

Alex

[razrback99]

Turning off WiFi made no difference on my departure, didn’t trigger. It did on my arrival but it’s does that with WiFi on, so not a solution for me anyway. 

Has anyone done a wipe and reload? Wondering if would work. 

[alex_loo]

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@razrback99 wrote:

Turning off WiFi made no difference on my departure, didn’t trigger. It did on my arrival but it’s does that with WiFi on, so not a solution for me anyway. 

Has anyone done a wipe and reload? Wondering if would work. 

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don't waste your time, and hope for something that's simply not happening.

Alex

[razrback99]

So if arlo is never gonna work correctly again, any ideas if any of the other brands have geofencing capabilities that is functioning correctl? I hate moving , but I need a system that works correctly. 

[StephenB]

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@razrback99 wrote:

So if arlo is never gonna work correctly again

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I don't think that's the situation, but obviously the problem (along with some other issues with Feed) have been out there for too long.

As I've said earlier, my own system has been reliably triggering on both Arrive and Leave for a month now.  But that is a simplified setup (no scheduling, and automations enabled in all modes), and of course only applies to my specific phone at my specific location.  Still, it wasn't reliably triggering before then, so I think some fixes have been applied by Arlo.  Clearly there is more they need to do.

[razrback99]

Yeah, I understand what you’re saying, but I can’t run in manual nor a slimmed-down version while Arlo tries to either fix or go a different direction from their past. Since the GF issue has been around for awhile and managing my system overall has changed in the last year or so, starting to think it’s more than just a software defect. Don’t know, time will tell.