Geofencing fails to recognize new iPhone

[GaryS1969]

Geofencing is set up on both mine and my wifes Android phone. When she leaves her status changes to Out Of Zone. When I leave my status changes to Out Of Zone. When either of us returns their status changes to In Zone so Arlo seems to recognize when one or both of us is home and when one or both of us is gone. Geofencing is turned on on both phones.

Under Mode/Arlo Base/Geofencing/Select Mode it shows Away Mode = Armed and Home Mode = Disarmed. The problem is under Mode it always shows Arlo Base as Disarmed. Is this supposed to change automatically to Armed when both of us are gone?

Also under Settings/My Devices it shows Arlo Base and under that a second Arlo Base with a bell and then the three cameras. Selecting Arlo base it shows me a bunch of information. Selecting Arlo Base with the bell it just shows the name Arlo Base.

If the Mode status for Arlo base is supposed to change based on whether both of us are gone or one or both of us is home what might be the reason it is not changing?

[JamesC]

A new Arlo mobile app version for iOS was recently released. Make sure you have the latest version of the Arlo mobile app installed: Release Notes

JamesC

[rrogan]

Yes, she has the latest version installed. She just installed it yesterday for the first time.

[JulC]

I have the same issue. Any update JamesC? Thanks.

[PawelM81]

i have the same issue, iphone 7 latest iOS and phone appears for a split second and disappears.

[Tangelle]

Same problem - new iphone 8 with latest software update will not be recongnized on the geo fencing - any solutions or suggestions? I have checked and rechecked all settings to make sure the Arlo system and the iphone 8 are setup correctly.

[JulC]

This is definitely an app issue combined with the new iPhone 8/8+. I will write a review on the app store about this.

No news... It's a shame that Netgear doesn't respond to us on this issue.

[jguerdat]

Has EVERYONE with this issue opened a case with support? Griping here won't get it fixed.

[rrogan]

Yes, I have. They told me the engineering team is aware of it and they have not received any updates about it for now.

[Dn2015]

Very frustrating. On two iPhones (7 and 7plus) iOS 10. Newest app. Also having this issue, one phone disappears.

[T369]

I can’t get geofencing to work on my iPhone 6s (11.0.2). I set it up on my iPhone and when I clicked finish the mode switched back to what I had before. It wouldn’t stay on geofencing.

I then set it up using my iPad Pro (11.0.2) as a test and this time it worked. But my iPad never leaves the house, so I tried setting it up on my iPhone again. I couldn’t start over from scratch (I could only edit what I had input in the iPad earlier). Unfortunately, my iPhone doesn’t show up in the enabled devices. It appeared for half a second then disappeared.

Now I’m stuck with a geofencing mode that is useless since I don’t really use my iPad for that purpose and I’m unable to remove the iPad and add my iPhone.

Btw, I found out on another post that you can’t remove a device once it’s been added to the geofencing (you can only disable the notification for that device). Oh, gosh!

I guess I can live with my iPad on there, but I really need my iPhone on there to use the geofencing for its intended purpose. Please advise.

[JamesC]

Do you see this behavior when connected to WiFi or mobile data? Is there any difference depending on which you are connected to?

JamesC

[jau]

No difference for me. In both cases (WiFi or Mobile), my iPhone shows up for a second and then disappears from the Enabled Devices list.

[rrogan]

Same here, no difference when I tried both.

[Dn2015]

Same problem on WiFi or cellular.  If it is worth noting at all, I did initially sign onto both phones using the same user credentials.  Then eventually I granted access to a seperate account on the second phone.  I tried resetting the base station with the reset on the back, but this did not fix anything.

What I see (below).  From two devices to one.  Second device is always "Unavailable" for the brief time I can see it.  I do get geofence proximity notification when I am in or out of the geofence on the second device that disappers from the list.

[GTunney]

I can't believe netgear still hasn't even resolved or acknowledged a problem 4 weeks later.

Arlo is useless for me without geofencing and in order to work correctly it has to work for all members of the house.

Shocking service 4 weeks on and still no app update for something I'd consider a rather big bug.

[RubenC]

Same here my iPhone 8 plus and my wife's iPhone 8 can not be added to the device list for geofencing.

Come on guys let's get your act together!!

[Dn2015]

Guys a workaround has been provided in this similar thread. Turns out it is the apostrophe in the phone name (default on Apple phones) that causes the issue with the Arlo app.

Go to Settings > General > About and change your phone's name.

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Arlo-Pro/Phone-disppears-in-Geofencing/m-p/1398510#M23567


It still says unavailable for one phone though. Was anybody able to get "in zone" for both devices?

[T369]

That’s so weird. When I initially set up geofencing it was on my iPad and it had an apostrophe and space in the name. Couldn’t get geofencing to work on the iPhones though. I guess apostrophes and spaces are a no-no on iPhones but okay on iPads. LOL.

[GTunney]

I’ve changed it to remove an apostrophe but my girlfriends phone still has no location option under settings > Arlo and shows as unavailable in Arlo app. 

Any suggestions? My phone which has an apostrophe shows exactly phone so very weird issue. 

[JulC]

Hi GTunney,

Same issue, but I was able to fix it. Try to log in with the master account (not a grant access account). Then, go to Mode > Geofencing > Enabled Devices. You should have a popup to allow Arlo app location service. Then you can logoff and log in with your wife account.

Let me know if that fix the issue.

And thank you, Dn2015, for your response.

[GTunney]

I gave that a try but still didn't get a pop up for Arlo to enable location services.

[RubenC]

I was able to add my phone after I renamed it, my wife's phone was visible after I made the change and her's was not renamed, so Not sure what is going on there.  Also, I still can not remove my older phones from the list.

[RubenC]

Well, after the renaming, all seemed to work, then a few hours later the phones are listed as "unavailable", back to square one again!

[JamesC]

RubenC,

Consider disabling your devices under the enabled list in your Geofencing settings, save, and then enable the devices again.

Do you still experience the same behavior?

JamesC

[Dn2015]

Hi @JamesC, 

I have tried enabling and disabling, but only one will ever report "In zone" or "out of zone".  And at times, both phones will report as "Unavailable".  I have yet to see an instance where both phones are recognized in a zone.  I think it may have to do with the accuracy, refresh rate of the geofencing for the Arlo app.

Even when I had one phone working for the geofence, I would arrive at home and the geofence would not update the base mode setting, and our siren would go off.

So far, using IFTTT and Life360's geofence applet is the only reliable method I can get the Arlo base to disarm when I get home.  It also does not accidentally re-arm itself when the Arlo app loses my phone's location while I am home.

Would be nice if Arlo app had a setting similar to this, where it would disarm only and not re-arm until I tell it to.  Unless geofence is improved to the point where it can precisely tell if the enabled devices are in and out of zones.

@GTunney have you tried going to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Arlo and enabling "Always" mode?