Geofencing is completely broken in the new APP

[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 

[wenklaw]

My automations and schedules worked fine Sunday evening 2359 and then at 0500, so its without doubt an Arlo issue as its working MOST of the time now.

Pretty sure my setup is as you suggest, although how you word it is confusing, as everyone is finding it

[TomoNZ]

Hi @Jeffi 

This all seems fine, except for schedules not re-triggering again until their set time next occurs.

In a nutshell, this is how I had things setup in the old Arlo app:

1. When at home between 7am - 6pm, I want Standby running (doorbell only active). When at home between 6pm - 7am, I want Arm Home active (all devices active).
2. When I go out I want Arm Away active, then when I return home between 7am-6pm I wish for the mode to change back to Standby, and when I return home between 6pm-7am I wish for the mode to change to Arm Home.

It's action set 2 that I don't think is possible in the new app. If you wish to use a single mode when someone's at home (i.e. just Standby or just Arm Home), then your method works, however, I don't want my system armed during the day when we're awake and at home.

If you can think of anyway to get the Arlo app to work for this scenario, then I think you'd make a lot of people very happy, as it's this regression of functionality that have got people (like me) really frustrated with Arlo's new app.

[Dragonfly88]

Support is not all that helpful. Support only sends links in the chat. They refuse to walk you through and figure out the misstep. If you persist, they will have you email a screen recording to identify the issue - but never respond.

[ShayneS]

@TomoNZ Thank you for the feedback, I will let the team know of your desired schedule and information you have shared. I will provide any additional feedback when received. 

[wenklaw]

Arlo decided to geofence arm away when only one device left the property. It works then doesn’t work!!

Its near going on eBay as pointless having Arlo above for example eufy or blink and they are a lot cheaper

[StephenB]

---

@wenklaw wrote:

Arlo decided to geofence arm away when only one device left the property. It works then doesn’t work!!

---

Did you set up your "leave" automation to do that?  Mine is set up to "everyone leaves".

[wenklaw]

My leave automation is set to 2 devices. 

my current automations that involve a schedule and geofencing work the majority of the time BUT fail on a fairly regular basis too rendering the entire system pretty useless as a reliable security system.

they need to rollback to the old app without delay as that would resolve all these issues people are having, is absolutely ridiculous that Arlo haven’t done this already!!!

[StephenB]

---

@wenklaw wrote:

My leave automation is set to 2 devices. 

---

Sounds like it is a bug.

Is it practical to remove the devices you never want to include in geofencing from the privacy center?  Then use "everyone leaves"?

[wenklaw]

That’s not going to work as the Arlo geofencing isnt recognising intermittently that devices are leaving, setting it to all won’t make any difference as it hasn’t seen that device transition by way of geofencing in the first place

[StephenB]

---

@wenklaw wrote:

That’s not going to work as the Arlo geofencing isnt recognising intermittently that devices are leaving, setting it to all won’t make any difference as it hasn’t seen that device transition by way of geofencing in the first place

---

I thought you said the issue was that it was triggering when either person left, not when the last person left.

[wenklaw]

Sorry I confused myself!

what I meant to say was the Arlo armed away mode via geofencing when only 1 of the 2 devices left.  It does this periodically it would seem but far too often.

changing to arm away geo leave/arrive all wouldn’t make a difference as Arlo geofencing isn’t seeing one of my devices in the above example. It’s without doubt an Arlo bug as the automation as it stands does work the majority of the time

[Jeffi]

Hi Tom

my schedules seem to trigger fine and switch between standby during the day and fully armed over night (except for indoor cameras). If I leave and return any time day or night they still change and revert correctly and I don’t need to wait for the next daily time schedule to trigger a change. 

I’ve also tested with one person remaining home while I leave and the geo fence doesn’t trigger. If the other person leaves it then activates and reverts to home mode when either of us or both of us return. 

[Jeffi]

I did have this issue and it seemed to be on the iPhone’s side. Rebooting and toggling location settings corrected it. 

[Jeffi]

I effectively did this to remove iPads from the privacy centre to avoid them confusing matters. I disabled location services on the iPads at the Arlo app level. Only our iPhones are able to trigger geo fencing now. 

[Jeffi]

I think things may have become buggy after updating to app to version 5.00. 

Geofencing status of both phones being away was not detected yesterday when the night time schedule activated and deactivated this morning. However the phones were out of signal reception for 24 hours which may be contributing to the fickleness. I had to manually change modes to away this morning.

This was possibly not a test I tried before ie staying away for more than one over night schedule change. so it’s possible there needs to be more schedules for different geofencing scenarios as was suggested. 

[StephenB]

---

@Jeffi wrote:

Geofencing status of both phones being away was not detected yesterday when the night time schedule activated and deactivated this morning.

---

Did you notice if "Leave" activated when you left home?

I'm running 5.00 also, and so far either "Leave" nor "Arrive" are being acted on.  The app definitely knows my location, as when I go to the edit screen for "Leave" or "Arrive", it is showing that I am out of the radius for the geofence.

[Jeffi]

I think the issues were with the other household member's iPhone again. So I revoked their shared access and they deleted the app and rebooted and did a clean install. I then added them as a shared account and they installed the app and acknowedged the invite email. They also deleted the two spurious device entries in their privacy geofence settings. Launching the app looked fine. On my phone, their geofence device entry was now correct and not  spurious iPhone name. We both left home and the away mode triggered and when we returned the home mode triggered. 
So maybe the fact they were on the old or a corrupted app version or their device was being fickle all along was stopping the geofencing from working reliably with two people. 

Will monitor over the next days - it could be a bug where it works for a while then degrades into random behaviour. 

[alex_loo]

---

@StephenB wrote:

---

I'm running 5.00 also, and so far either "Leave" nor "Arrive" are being acted on.  The app definitely knows my location, as when I go to the edit screen for "Leave" or "Arrive", it is showing that I am out of the radius for the geofence.

---

how many users/devices do you have?  Are they iPhone/Android?

Just keen to copy your configuration, if that has been running without issue.

Alex

[alex_loo]

---

@StephenB wrote:

---

I'm running 5.00 also, and so far either "Leave" nor "Arrive" are being acted on.

---

I have received and updated to version 5.0 (5.0_28726) at my android here.

Do we know what issues it is fixing?

Alex

[StephenB]

---

@alex_loo wrote:

---

@StephenB wrote:

---

I'm running 5.00 also, and so far either "Leave" nor "Arrive" are being acted on.  The app definitely knows my location, as when I go to the edit screen for "Leave" or "Arrive", it is showing that I am out of the radius for the geofence.

---

how many users/devices do you have?  Are they iPhone/Android?

---

Just one iPhone 12 used for geofencing.  But I mistyped the comment above - NEITHER "Leave" nor "Arrive" are being acted on, even though location services are enabled, and the app knows my location.

FWIW, I normally just leave all the cameras on.  But I thought I'd like to test the geofencing+schedule use case, in order to confirm @Jeffi's solution.  I can't really do that properly without "Leave" and "Arrive" working.  I can use the "Test automation" to simulate geofencing, but of course that might also be buggy.  

[alex_loo]

---

@StephenB wrote:

---

But I thought I'd like to test the geofencing+schedule use case, in order to confirm @Jeffi's solution.  

---

I just won't bother doing these tests FOR arlo --- these various tests have been repeated by many disappointed users here (like myself), who haven't received even appropriate interaction from arlo support.

(I suppose as superuser, you are not speaking on behalf of arlo)

Alex

[StephenB]

---

@alex_loo wrote:

---

(I suppose as superuser, you are not speaking on behalf of arlo)

---

Definitely not.  Superusers don't work for Arlo, and are not authorized to speak on their behalf.

---

@alex_loo wrote:

---

@StephenB wrote:

---

But I thought I'd like to test the geofencing+schedule use case, in order to confirm @Jeffi's solution.  

---

I just won't bother doing these tests FOR arlo -

---

I'm not doing anything FOR Arlo on this.

[Jeffi]

I have two iPhones in this household. No Androids so I cannot confirm how they behave. One phone is limited access to just the doorbell and participates in geofencing, where as the other is full access to all cameras and defined the automations and schedules. 

I had to delete the arrive and leave automations again and re add them a couple of days ago as geofencing stopped for both and iPhone reboots didn’t resolve this. The schedules were working though and the geo was working for other apps. It’s been fine since with normal day to coming and going, separately or together triggering fine. However we have not been away for more than 24 hours which may have been a scenario that trips the phasing logic. I can live with that as the works around is to manually set to away in the evening. 

Maybe Arlo has been fixing some cloud bugs behind the scenes with geofencing as the v5 app seems stable for me now. Will be interesting to see if it degrades over time again. 

[Jeffi]

Ok so it’s been working fine this week with two users leaving and arriving at random times, and geofencing has been working. Night time standby schedule works. The only thing not tested is what happens to the sequencing if no one is home for over 24 hours ie the full standby period and if the mode then changes at 7am from standby to arm home rather than arm away if no one has returned and triggered geo in the last 24 hours. 

I think when the geofencing plays up, yet location settings haven’t changed on the phones, it’s worth rebooting all phones and relogging back into the Arlo app on all that participate in geofencing. As a last resort, delete and re create the arrive and leave automations. 

[wenklaw]

@Jeffi 

I have an automation to ‘arm home’ at 2359 and then another to change the mode at 0500 to ‘standby’

I also have a geofencing automation to ‘arm away’ when 2 iPhones both leave the property and within that automation to disable the automations at 2359 and 0500

The above works fine in most situations, if I am away for over 24 hours it stays in ‘arm away’

BUT if I return after 2359 and before 0500 that’s where the problem is as what will happen is the mode will just change to ‘arm standby’ and will ignore the fact I have a schedule stating the mode should be in ‘arm home’ during those times.  When 2359 comes around again the automations at night will reactivate and work again.

do yours do this?