New Scheduling and routines

[RetNavy]

My cameras were working just fine. I was able to quickly access the phone app and set individual cameras on a schedule that I liked i.e Living Room camera on at 12am - 6am. I didn't want to capture family walking around the house during the day it'll midnight, so I could easily set it the way I wanted...NO MORE! These crazy routines they came up with especially "Standby", "Add an Automation" and "Add an Action" are so confusing it's super frustrating trying to figure this new software out. You need to take a class to understand the way this works.  

It's SLOW to load on my iphone unlike the previous version and the pictures don't load all the time on the "Dashboard".  I'm really pissed they forced us to use this crappy app. I WANT MY SCHEDULE'S BACK. Now I have to completely turn off certain camera's when family is over to prevent the batteries from draining, do to the horrible changes in this app. PAID customers should have the option to upgrade or NOT or down grade to the previous version. I have read the help files 100 times and still don't get it. Standby is super confusing. THIS IS NOT BETTER OR USER FRIENDLY. 

[StephenB]

>>> AGAIN, with all the cameras active in the "Armed Home" mode and the indoor camera disabled, there is no way to setup JUST my indoor camera in the "Armed Home" mode >>> AGAIN, you can get your cameras to do what you want. Schedule "Arm Away" at 12 am, and all your cameras will record. Schedule "Arm Home" at 6 am, and the outdoor cameras will record, but not the indoor one.

[pontuss]

Yes but I want geofenced setup not by any schedule for the system and one of the cameras not to record while at home

[StephenB]

@Pontus - to be clear, I do not work for Arlo. The "one limitation" in my earlier post was specific to the combination of geofencing+scheduling. There are other limitations in "Feed", and I suspect Arlo will be adding back custom modes, or some other way to improve individual camera control. That said, "Library" is quite confusing wrt to camera control, as the approach for cameras connected to a base station is completely different from the approach taken for home wifi-connected cameras.

[RetNavy]

Rgr that, After beating my head against the wall for over a week, I’ll try your method and see what happens. Thanks.

[pontuss]

StephenB, all the respect to you for trying to work things out for us 🙂 I bow for you! I know you are not an Arlo employee! Still I would like to say that this must be one of the worst updates ever... I agree with some other people here, the connection to see the live stream sometimes do work and sometimes do not work now, it was seamless and smooth before the update.

[StephenB]

>>> @Pontus said- Yes but I want geofenced setup not by any schedule for the system and one of the cameras not to record while at home You are replying to a post I was directing to @RetNavy. Generally you can avoid this confusion by creating your own thread, and not pile on to someone else's. If you don't want to schedule, then set up "Arm Away" to arm all your cameras, and "Arm Home" to record everything but the one you DON'T want to record when you are home. Then set up a "Leave" automation to switch to "Arm Away", and an "Arrive" automation to switch to "Arm Home".

[RetNavy]

My apologies through frustration. Got it.

[Bkbaird]

yes, a new thread as I get all the response too. To my thread/question. Thanks to those who help!

frustrated to the max. It was the software and it still could be SO MUCH BETTER if the controls we had previously were restored. More control of all the camaras PLEASE!

[Mkword]

I have to respectfully disagree with you that this UI provides the exact same functionality as the previous UI.

While I have successfully set up a basic schedule to turn on and turn off my cameras — I also wanted to schedule just two Front Porch cameras to become active during the day while the other cameras are on Standby.

First, Support on chat and phone had no idea how to accomplish this.  A SuperUser here gave me a workable solution — but it requires using all 3 

modes.  This is far from ideal since I would like to keep Arm Away as my easy option to simply enable when leave the house (and not have to disable then re-enable my schedules every time I leave and come home).

So that right there is a clear example of reduced functionality — as in the previous UI I could easily set any individual camera on any schedule I chose.

The helpful SuperUser then had a suggestion that would fine tune my own solution.  My own solution is to simply set the Rules on Standby for my Fromt Porch cameras to be active while all other cameras in Standy are not.  His fine tuning was to create schedules whereupon I would Add an Action to customize the sensitivity to 1 to prevent the cameras from running during those 2-3 hour stretches I want them off.  Unfortunately this did not work.

i also originally tried to simply set those individual cameras to record/notify via Add Action.  The problem is — the mode during that time is Standy.  And those separate schedules to set individual cameras to record/notify simply don’t work.  Nor can you set a schedule to then add action > stop record/notify.

So while this UI does allow a certain amount of scheduling it doesn’t allow for the wonderful flexibility of the previous UI.

Ive read this thread and even tried your suggestions and they failed to work.

[Mkword]

I was given this suggestion as well — use Arm Away and Arm Home to establish different schedules for different cameras.  It’s workable.  But in the end when one leaves the house and you want to put your system in Arm Away mode — it requires you to have to disable schedules.  And then when you return home you need to re-enable the schedules.  Which not hard — but it is an annoying extra step that really shouldn’t be necessary at all.  And just overall the UI is way overly complicated.

But thanks for taking the time to share your solution with everyone!

[StephenB]

---

@Mkword wrote:

His fine tuning was to create schedules whereupon I would Add an Action to customize the sensitivity to 1 to prevent the cameras from running during those 2-3 hour stretches I want them off.  Unfortunately this did not work.

---

Can you provide more details on what didn't work?  Ideally do that on your original discussion thread.

[Bkbaird]

start a new thread, please

[Bkbaird]

I did not know that! thanks.

I agree the UI and options are sorely lacking as compared to the previous. I hope someone @Arlo is listening!

[Mkword]

Same!

as @StephenB suggested simply adding just one “Custom” mode would restore so much of the original functionality and flexibility!

Personally, I think it would work best to give the user the ability to create additional Modes on their own!  That would all users to create a mode that could cover a wide range of configurations without conflicts.  For example I work at home and need a front porch camera to come on during the day — so I could create a Mode and call it “Delivery.”  And then I could create a mode that is specific for the day the housekeeper arrived to work.  Etc, etc.

Thanks for response!

PS:  Don’t know if the mods communicate with Arlo to pass along issues/suggestions from users — but it they definitely hear what we are saying.  

[RenaW]

I've been on the phone for over an hour and still no resolution.  This is a nightmare.   I had to turn off all the cameras because they were all active and going off like crazy!  Why did the mess around with it.  I am ready to throw them in the garbage.

[StephenB]

---

@RenaW wrote:

I've been on the phone for over an hour and still no resolution.  This is a nightmare.   I had to turn off all the cameras because they were all active and going off like crazy!  Why did the mess around with it.  I am ready to throw them in the garbage.

---

Are you trying to schedule the cameras?  Or are you having a different problem?