Activity Zone not working

[Brennan90]

Any idea on how to stop getting notifications which fall outside of the activity zone which is set. I get about 60-70 a day of stuff outside of zone. I have tried literally everything I can think of. Smart Notifications, just put it on people and I still get them of the last second of a vehicle driving past. I have deleted and added the zone again and again. One of the biggest headaches is that its draining the battery rapidly having all these notifications . I have another camera on a shared drive of which activates when the neighbours go on the drive but this doesn't seem to drain the battery anywhere near as fast as my front camera. I subscribed to the plan so I can get the zones to reduce the amount of notifications but they just keep coming. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Reallyconfused]

I keep trying, it just does not want to play nice. Movement WAY outside of my zone still gets sent to my phone as an alert.

[DisgruntledinFL]

Activity zones still not working correctly. Too many recordings outside zones. Battery ran down 10% just since setting up again 15 hours ago. Saw a new firmware update come through for the Arlo 2 Hub, now I feel like the cameras need a new firmware update as well for this to possibly work correctly. Any info anyone? My hope is running out on Arlo

[Drudolics1]

Activity zone setting not working at all. Need this fixed ASAP. Why pay for this and not working? About to get a different system!

[Ziya]

DisgruntledinFL you say you get too many recording. Are you aware the camera will still record ALL activity regardless whether inside or out side activity zones. The activity zone will only dictate when you should get notificatins. So if your not getting notifications for all the recording but only getting notifications for within your zone then the system is working.

[Reallyconfused]

You are correct Ziya. However many of us, myself included, are getting many if not all of the videos recorded well outside of the set zones sent to our phones.
So the system is still faulty. As as is the Smart Notification feature. It also does not work as it should.

[Ziya]

Reallyconfused. When you say sent to your phone, do you mean you get notifications when recordings are outside your zone? If so then you are 100% correct as you shouldnt be getting these, however DisgruntledinFL did not mention about getting notifications outside his zones. He just mentioned lots of recording outside his zones, hence my reply to him.
Nether the less its a shame Arlo team hasnt helped you with your issues. Good luck.

[shadowdiver]

Apparently there were updates made on 6/22 and the 24th.   I test right after the update on the 22nd and it still didnt work.  I just tested the update on the 24th today and it is now working.....  I'll keep an eye on things but so far so good.... looks stable. 

[ShayneS]

For those still experiencing issues with their activity zones, please take a look at the following KB articles for troubleshooting tips: 

1. How do I troubleshoot problems with Arlo activity zones?
2. What are activity zones and how do I create them?

[shadowdiver]

I spoke too soon.  They did fix the ability for me to set an activity zone. I used to get the error that I needed to plug my cameras in. That is gone.  I have set activity zones but the system is not honoring the zones and picking up motion outside the zone.   Its been months -- I dont understand why they cannot fix it. 

[AEspo]

I have been having this problem since I bought the system a few years ago. I have activity zone set up but cars and other motion outside of my activity zone always set my cameras off every single day and I cannot figure out why. What is the purpose of having activity zones if things outside of the activity zones set the cameras off. Does anybody else have this issue? Is there a fix for this issue? On two out of my four cameras I have three activity zones on each camera Because most of them came towards my street and I don’t want the camera to pick up every passing car. I’ve tried resetting my system, I’ve tried re-positioning my cameras and setting up the activity zones again, I don’t know what else to do.

[MNRinNY]

every car that passes on the front street facing camera triggers a notification and they are outside of the single small activity zone, what is the fix, as this is frustrating 😑?

[MNRinNY]

every car that passes on the front street facing camera triggers a notification and they are outside of the single small activity zone, what is the fix, as this is frustrating 😑?

[Ziya]

AEspo, i take it you have a subscription plan? When you say "sets your camera off", are you getting notifications? Or just recordings in the library?

[MNRinNY]

Hello Ziya, yes, I have a subscription, I get both notification and recordings for motion outside the very small activity zone.

[Reallyconfused]

I don’t think it will ever work properly. I’ve seen this going back at least two years. Look through the forum and you will see this is the case.
I had a open ticket for a few months with no results. I even canceled my subscription only to be sort of talked back into the new plan with the “suggestion” that an improvement had been made and “many” customers were reporting that the zones were working.
Maybe it is very slightly better? It’s hit and miss with me now. Sometimes it works, other times not. Probably more not than anything.
I think, for the good of our mental health, we all just accept that it is what it is. Obviously Arlo can not fix this as the technology is far above their heads. Unless you can still return the system for a refund....well, I’m afraid it is what it is.

[PaChic79]

The constant notifications are driving me crazy. I have the zone set to only pick up the upper part of the room and it still picks up my cat every time he passes through.  I think I am going to need to return this. 

[Reallyconfused]

Yes, this seems to be the best Arlo can come up with. It’s not new, just dig around in past posts you will see it’s on going for some time now.
I am kinda stuck with this as my BestBuy warranty will only give me a store credit now. I don’t need to buy anything for $1200 so for now I’m screwed. Two years still to go on that so who knows, maybe I’ll swap it back for a stove or some other big ticket appliance

[Lorrain]

I have the same exact issue. I've redefined activity zones. Not only does the camera pick up motion on a distant highway, but it's not picking up motion in my defined zones. I've had the camera for a month and have been tweaking it almost incessantly. Battery lasts 1 week max even with Optimized setting enabled. 

[Reallyconfused]

Activity Zones have nothing to do with battery life. All the Zones do is send all video to the cloud where it is then determined if the capture was “ in or out”. Only the video inside the Zone SHOULD be pushed to you. Your cameras are catching more than they  should. Try to re position them and adjust sensitivities. 

That being said, yes I agree that the Activity Zones do not work as they should  Probably never will. 

[shadowdiver]

I wouldn't waste your time.  Arlo support and the company is useless.  I have been trying to get this issue resolved for months.  It takes an army to get a response.  I have reached out to the CEO via LInkedin and no response, I have tried calling the main offices, no response,  I have chatted, called support and most the time we get disconnected and when we do speak there is no follow through.   The online reviews rave about the camera and might be but without the cloud service operating properly the camera's are just a hunk of junk.  I do not and will not ever recommend these camera's or this company again.

I do suggest the user community flood social media starting with facebook;  https://www.facebook.com/messages/t/arlosmarthome   

Drive them to fix this or run the company into the ground.  At this point, I don't care, I am look at other solutions and will put this crap on ebay. 

[Reallyconfused]

Everything Shadowdriver said👍

[torstengrenz]

I dont think Arlo cares anymore if their stuff works or not. I have now so many problems (activity zones, 2 camreas identified wrongy so do not function anymore, geofencing with 2 devicers not working" and NOTHING of this seems to get fixed ...

[MNRinNY]

With all the issues I had: activity zone not working at all, needing to reboot the hub every couple of days as this was the only solution to get some cameras to start recording again, mission movement motion and unrecorded event... I just returned it

[LCSG49]

Not sure if I’m in right place. Currently I have 3 cameras. One of them is not enrolled in the Smart Plan because it doesn’t need activity zones. That’s Camera3. It was the last one added to system. My first camera is enabled to use with door bell. It seems to work fine even though is not ideal (more on that, later). The second camera, camera 2 was added a day or so ago and worked fine but suddenly stopped recording. I tried turning it off, rebooting the app and adding it back but wasn’t recording still  so I removed it from the base, and synced it again. This triggered the tedious process of having to log in at the website and put it back on my account after waiting for a code on my phone. Waiting being operative word. I’ve done this 3 times and it’s getting old. After adding it and fixing the billing etc it’s showing live view on my phone. But the wind is blowing like mad and it’s not alerting. Camera3 is pointed at the same tree and it’s altering every 20 sec and that’s driving me mad.

My Mode setting for all three are identical — Motion Detected is checked, sensitivity is about 80, and push is enabled. Email alerts are off because I don’t want 300 emails a day. Device is on H6. Base is 1.16.2.5_ etc etc and says no updates available. Smart Notifications are on for all categories on both Cam1 and 2. Cam3 not enrolled.

as for the doorbell I have it set to ring chime on motion. However if a person pushes it (they rarely push hard enough for it to register being pushed) it calls my phone which it will do when I’m driving or at the dentist or asleep and I have to turn off my phone most of the time now. It took hours to get motion on doorbell paired with camera 1 to ring and I’m not willing to mess with that setting again. I’m also not seeing camera views anymore in my notifications on my phone just the text saying motion detected at etc. Can anyone help?

[JR528]

I have 90+ motions triggers per day from movement on the street - even though the activity zone is set far away from the street. 

It does not make sense that you claim that the cloud is filtering away motion that is not in the acitivity zone - the 90+ motions prove the opposite.

When are you actually going to fix this bug?