Automations and geofencing configuration

[baumbachaflocka]

The old app worked great with geofencing, it would not arm unless every device left the area. Now it always arms if just 1 person leaves. My system is configuration is the following: anyone arrives> standby, everyone leaves> arm away

They are both set to always enabled and I have made sure that both my devices are setup correctly with always allowing precise location, notifications and do not have battery saver on. Its so frustrating because the old app worked great and the new one is so bad and we were forced to switch when we added the new cameras.

More info there is 1 iphone and 1 android phone used for geofencing, I have it set to the largest area and no other automations except for the geofencing ones.

[ShayneS]

Hi,

Can you try utilizing this setup for your schedules with the Arrive/Leave feature and let me know the results?

1. Select Routines > Automations > Select the (+) to create the desired schedules (When created, schedules will be listed under the Schedules section)

2. Create and enable the Arrive automation under > Select Automations > Select the (+) > Add Action > Change Mode > Select Standby > Next > Add an Action > Enable/Disable an Automation > Select the desired schedule > Next > Select Enable > Next
                             
3.  Create and enable the Leave automation under > Select Automations > Select the (+) > Add Action > Change Mode > Select Arm Away > Next > Add an Action > Enable/Disable an Automation > Select the desired schedule > Next > Select Disable > Next  > Save
                     

When completed you should see your options listed under the Arrive/Leave section under Automations

Thank you 

[Thorvald62]

Hi, I Got the same problem, do You have a solution yet?

[rmand2601]

The new app is a mess - but this worked for me:

1. In Modes setup, be sure that under Arm Home and Arm Away, click through to Device

Rules and Automations screen. Under Automations, both Arrive/Leave must be enables for both Modes. Seems non-obvious requirement to me, but that works.

Also, be sure that you have the right active devices. Settings/Privacy Center/Account you'll see Active Device Sessions and Available Geofence Devices. Be sure those are set to your active phones. 

Hope that helps.

[alex_loo]

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@Jeffi wrote:

Here's my last 24 hours of use with geofencing appearing to work but it did miss one event - Yesterday afternoon I was home but my partner left for work, with the mode continuing in Arm Home as expected. I then left to walk the dog well beyond the geofence radius, but the mode did not switch to Arm Away. My partner returned home while I was away, and then I returned home. This event where we were both away at some point was missed. But maybe it was only apparently missed, so despite there being no notification and mode change, it still entered Arm Away mode?

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hi @Jeffi , judging from my few months experience with ARLO, I'd say your "arm away" event was missed (to be triggered to) and it simply did NOT enter Arm Away.  I'd say it stayed at Arm Home while both of you were away.

When you/your wife returned, nothing happened which is "fine" (no need for any switch to Arm Home, since ARLO has been staying at Arm Home anyhow).  Your ARLO is back to "normal" (correctly at arm home), waiting for the next event (say you both "walking the dog" triggering geofencing switch to ARM AWAY; or next clock time schedule)

Alex

[StephenB]

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@alex_loo wrote:

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@Jeffi wrote:

Here's my last 24 hours of use with geofencing appearing to work but it did miss one event - Yesterday afternoon I was home but my partner left for work, with the mode continuing in Arm Home as expected. I then left to walk the dog well beyond the geofence radius, but the mode did not switch to Arm Away. My partner returned home while I was away, and then I returned home. This event where we were both away at some point was missed. But maybe it was only apparently missed, so despite there being no notification and mode change, it still entered Arm Away mode?

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hi @Jeffi , judging from my few months experience with ARLO, I'd say your "arm away" event was missed (to be triggered to) and it simply did NOT enter Arm Away.  I'd say it stayed at Arm Home while both of you were away.

If that is the case, you should be able to see that in the Feed.  At least I am seeing all the automated mode changes there both geofencing and scheduling).

[Jeffi]

It did the same again today when we were both clearly out of the geofence. We relaunched the app on our phones and tried toggling airplane mode to force the phones to resend their location. This didn't fix things. I then, on my phone, quickly changed the geofence radius from the smallest radius to largest, resulting in us both being in the geofence and then back to smallest radius where we were shown as outside and saved the change. Within a few seconds we both got Arm Away notifications. A few mins later we got Arm Home notifications as we entered the geofence and returned home.

So the Arlo cloud is either ignoring or misprocessing iPhone's geolocation pings which I assume are going via the app, or the app is not consistently checking the iPhone's geolocation. 

[Jeffi]

@StephenB 

I don’t think the feed and/or notifications are all being reported  100%. I had no notification or mode change in the feed yet a camera was triggered by a driver by, so the mode must have changed to away. Could be another app side bug.

[alex_loo]

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@Jeffi wrote:

So the Arlo cloud is either ignoring or misprocessing iPhone's geolocation pings which I assume are going via the app, or the app is not consistently checking the iPhone's geolocation. 

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Hi @Jeffi , I have the same feeling with you, regarding above.  I am overall happy with the app, except for the messy geofencing (see my other post here)

I came from a software development background, so I often jump into a "software design" mode, trying to figure out how geofencing is achieved:

• who first identifies the crossing of geofencing boundaries?  The OS (via "geofencing notification messages" to iOS/android app), or the app themselves (app keeps polling for location, and decides if boundaries have been crossed)
• how is the unnecessary switching (of ARLO modes) avoided, when devices are slowly crossing boundaries, and reported GPS locations can be jumping around?

I am *feeling* the 2nd bullet point above contributes to the issue behind the issue of "geofencing *sometimes* not working" I am facing here.

Alex

[alex_loo]

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@Jeffi wrote:

We relaunched the app on our phones and tried toggling airplane mode to force the phones to resend their location. This didn't fix things.

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Just a note that toggling airplane mode will NOT change anything on the GPS settings of phone.  As expected, this won't change/fix anything.

Alex

[Jeffi]

@alex_loo 

re: 

• how is the unnecessary switching (of ARLO modes) avoided, when devices are slowly crossing boundaries, and reported GPS locations can be jumping around?

I have loitered around the geofence perimeter and it does flip back and forth between modes but only every few mins and not every time I literally cross the perimeter. So there must be slower app polling routine that checks the phones current geolocation. This must be done to save on app notification noise. We know the phone updates more frequently, possibly every second, and some apps like Google Maps poll at this frequency to achieve a live status, where as others like Arlo don't despite the geolocation being shown in real time on the Arlo app's geofencing map in settings where you edit the radius.

Like you I get frustrated with the lack any bug acknowledgment from the likes of Arlo and Netgear (oh and Apple - another culprit for their lack of courteous updates) - just a notification on their support site from them saying they are aware of some issues and working on them would be nice. Also the vague "bug fixes" on the App Store whenever a new release comes out is pretty poor.

[Jeffi]

Further testing:

We both left the geofence and neither of us got a notification and each of our apps still showed Arm Home.

I did the following on my iPhone:

Check app background refresh, location services (precise location) and both devices in the Arlo privacy geofence settings - all correctly set

Restarted the app - no change

Changed the geofence radius so I was within and then outside - no change

Logged out and back in the app - no change (did fix the same issue earlier in the week)

Toggled airplane mode - no change

Rebooted iPhone and checked the Arlo app - no change

Then on my partner's iPhone:

Checked app background refresh, location services (precise location) - all correctly set

Checked Arlo app - showing Arm Home

Killed app and relaunched - mode changed to Arm Away on both phone's app, notification received on both.

Earlier in the week, it was my phone that needed the app kicked by logging out and back in.

Mode changed to Arm Home when we both walked into the geofence zone - pretty much simultaneous notifications on each phone and we were at that point in a 3G area (4G was a few hundred metres away).

So restarting the Arlo app or logging out and back in seems to be needed but it's not obvious which phone will need this workaround.

[StephenB]

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@Jeffi wrote:

I don’t think the feed and/or notifications are all being reported  100%. I had no notification or mode change in the feed yet a camera was triggered by a driver by, so the mode must have changed to away. Could be another app side bug.

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Do you have the notification action set in all your automations?

[rmand2601]

Yes, I do have notification actions set in all my automations.  But I only have 2 automations at this point as I troubleshoot my configuration of the app. They all seem to work. Will add more as I need, and as I can verify correct actions.

[StephenB]

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@rmand2601 wrote:

Yes, I do have notification actions set in all my automations.  But I only have 2 automations at this point as I troubleshoot my configuration of the app. They all seem to work. Will add more as I need, and as I can verify correct actions.

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FWIW, my question was directed to @Jeffi (who is thinking that his feed isn't showing all the geofencing transitions).

[alex_loo]

@Jeffi do we know if geofencing an OS service from android/iOS?

I am not referring to general GPS/location service, where an app can get GPS coordinates.  I am referring to an app getting push messages from os, regarding preconfigured geo boundaries

Alex

[SJDrew]

Also having issues with this. This is precisely what I want which was very easy in the old app. Can you tell me how to set it up

1. want the cameras on between 11 pm and sunrise whether you are home or not
2. want the cameras enabled whenever you are away
3. do not want the cameras enabled between sunrise and 11 pm when you are home 

[StephenB]

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@SJDrew wrote:

1. want the cameras on between 11 pm and sunrise whether you are home or not
2. want the cameras enabled whenever you are away
3. do not want the cameras enabled between sunrise and 11 pm when you are home 

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First double-check the three modes.  You want Arm Home and Arm Away to have the same rules, and you want Standby to have no rules.

• https://kb.arlo.com/000062777/About-Arlo-Routines-Modes-Rules-and-Automations

Then create the two schedule automations.  They should both be set to run when the system is in either Arm Home or Standby, but NOT when the system is in Arm Away.

The first automation changes the mode to Standby at Sunrise.   The second sets the mode to Arm Home at 11 pm.

The third step is to create Arrive and Leave automations.  These are set to run in all three modes.  Leave should change the mode to "Arm Away".  Arrive should set it to "Standby".

Note this isn't 100% right.  If you arrive home between 11 pm and Sunrise you will need to manually put the system into Arm Home (taking it out of Standby).  Hopefully Arlo will provide a way around that issue soon.

[SJDrew]

Thanks a lot StephenB. Think I got it - time will tell!. The previous geofencing was also very buggy but at least it was easy to understand !

[alex_loo]

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@StephenB wrote:

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Then create the two schedule automations.  They should both be set to run when the system is in either Arm Home or Standby, but NOT when the system is in Arm Away.

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Understand above works perfectly well (so hopefully I am not confusing @SJDrew here) but personally I'd make it "neater" by enabling the automation that triggers at sunrise ONLY for ARM HOME, and enabling the automation that triggers at 11pm ONLY for STANDBY.  Since the kicked-out automation is not supposed to run in respective mode anyhow.

100% agree with treatment for arm AWAY.

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@StephenB wrote:

The third step is to create Arrive and Leave automations.  These are set to run in all three modes.  Leave should change the mode to "Arm Away".  Arrive should set it to "Standby".

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again, MUST both Arrive and Leave automations be enabled in all 3 modes?

"Leave" is supposed to run under ARM HOME and STANDBY, but not AWAY, so I'll not enable it under AWAY.

"Arrive" is supposed to run under AWAY only, so I'll not enable it under ARM HOME and STANDBY.

Thoughts, @StephenB ?  Or did I miss something here?

Alex

ps: above suggestion is actually what I  have been configuring mine.  It's been working fine, except "leave" and "arrive" are SOMETIMES failing

[StephenB]

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@alex_loo wrote:

Thoughts, @StephenB ?  Or did I miss something here?

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While you can tighten up the modes in which the various automations are enabled, I prefer keeping things simple when folks are trying to get the automations working.  Then optimize later on if you feel the need.

[alex_loo]

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@StephenB wrote:

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While you can tighten up the modes in which the various automations are enabled, I prefer keeping things simple when folks are trying to get the automations working.  Then optimize later on if you feel the need.

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I remember seeing a post here before regarding "incorrectly duplicated geofencing devices" fixed.  Is true and how stable is that?

Wondering if I should resume the configuration of "main account + shared account" (in the hope of enjoying 100% working geofencing).  At the moment, I am having 2 devices (1x android, 1x iPhone) logging in the same main account (and having geofencing working only most of the time)

-Alex

[StephenB]

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@alex_loo wrote:

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@StephenB wrote:

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While you can tighten up the modes in which the various automations are enabled, I prefer keeping things simple when folks are trying to get the automations working.  Then optimize later on if you feel the need.

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I remember seeing a post here before regarding "incorrectly duplicated geofencing devices" fixed.  Is true and how stable is that?

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I saw duplicated devices show up recently when I updated the app.

There are issues with Friend accounts at the moment, so I suggest waiting for them to be resolved.

[Kgoh]

I have the similar problem too bridge schedule does not arm or disarm based on schedule, I have changed time zone, reset the bridge few times, removed and add the light all does not help.

[alex_loo]

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@StephenB wrote:

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There are issues with Friend accounts at the moment, so I suggest waiting for them to be resolved.

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@Hallelujah seems to be enjoying NO ISSUE with duplicate devices now in this conversation  (2x iPhone, owner account + "shared" account).  Could this be our end of tunnel? 😂

Alex

[HenningRBR]

Hi all,

as many people facing the schedule issue with the Bridge while normal cameras/base station are working, I´m jumping on. I also believe, many people have not realized that during the night, the schedule for Lights is not working because simply, they assume its working!

@ShayneSit might be helpful for your developers: There might be an issues with the timestamp transfer, no sure if other have the same but believe so: Once your schedule is approaching a change e.g. switching to "active", it WILL show up in the Webfrontend on Arlo via Browser, but, it is NOT changing in the app and for sure, its NOT triggering the event to set the lights active. Its just showing in the right automation in the browser base Arlo.

Please check that with your developer!!!

Thanks,

Henning

[mmurphyrepair]

I've tried multiple ways and nothing seems to work 100% in this new app. The old app I could set a schedule and then set geo fencing to override said schedule. 

What I'm trying to achieve is pretty basic on most other camera apps. 

Sunset : Arm

9 am: disarm 

If I leave arm and disable schedule until I return.

The problem I'm currently having is if I get home after sunset it's currently switching to arm home,  despite having my night time schedule  having disable the "arrive" action 

The second issue is if leave for vacation. The schedule next 9 am  disarms itself by switching to arm home. unless I disable automations manually. It's ignoring the fact I've never "arrived"  and it should disable the "daytime" schedule.

Current configuration 

Arm away - all camera record and notify, all schedules enabled, leave disabled, arrive enabled 

Arm home- only doorbell camera records and notifys, all schedules enabled, leave enabled arrive disabled

Automations is 

Schedule

"Daytime" - 9am everyday,  Arm home. Leave enabled , arrive disable 

"Nighttime" - sunset everyday, Arm away, leave enabled,  arrive- disabled

Leave- when everyone leaves switch to arm away, disable "daytime"

Arrive- when everyone arrives switch to arm home, enable "daytime

Another thing I've tried is using standby as a second arm away mode and telling my leave trigger to disable schedules and go to standbys then have arrive trigger to enable the schedule.  When you do this it doesn't switch the modes so once again you're forced to tell arrive to enable a mode but depending on the time you arrive you just possibly enabled the wrong mode. I.E setting arrive to enable arm home , but arriving after sunset.

It seems like in any configuration forcing  arrive/leave trigger to hard select a mode is the issue