Geofencing and internet notifications

[cdwight101]

I've had the Arlo pro for over a month now and everything works fine except geofencing. It seems to work ok but within 10 to 30 minutes of switching it on I get notifications for no internet connection. The system seems to be working fine, my WiFi is working, my phone is connected to either WiFi or regular data but I constantly get this message. When i get it i log in to arlo and i can view the live feed fine so i assume everything is working but I can't get the notification to go away. Ive tried uninstalling the app and redoing it but no luck.

[silverado44]

I have never had that problem but the problem I have is when Iam on Geofencing it really pulls my cell phone battery down quick compaired to not having it on.

[Addyhash]

i get the same " no internet connection"  aswell

i gave up on geofencing,  its too buggy. 

[ep3998]

I've been having the same issue as well. Periods of time when I'm switching off Wifi or having bad cell reception (entering a tunnel or underground parking structure, for instance) causes the Arlo app on the phone to temporarily lose any internet. This seems to raise a flag on the app which say "nope, can't geofence anymore" even when you rejoin any internet source (Wifi, mobile) until you re-open the Arlo app. 

Can't swipe away the notification either so I'm finding it more an annoyance than I hoped. Will turn off the feature until it's able to fix itself after rejoining the internet.

Phone: Samsung Galaxy S6 (SM-G920V Android 7.0)

Arlo App: 2.4.0_17020

[JamesC]

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Another user has provided me with a screenshot of the exact verbiage of this new error message and I have forwarded this topic to engineering for further investigation. I will post an update when I have more information.

JamesC

[Phymly]

I just installed an Arlo Q 1080p in my living room. It was driving me crazy with notifications until i found geofencing. Really liked that until I went shopping where my cell signal dropped off and the Arlo quit working and wouldn't reconnect until I got home even tho cell data came back online well before that. Using Samsung S7 running 7.0 on T-Mobile. So this problem still exists. I will definitely turn off geofencing before leaving on vacation.

[ep3998]

Hey @JamesC - checking to see if this has made any progress since the last message in May.

-Eric

[JamesC]

Many users have had success resolving this issue by checking their mobile devices battery saving settings. Some devices have battery optimization settings that close or put apps to sleep after they have been idle for a period of time. Check your mobile devices settings and be sure that an exception is made for Arlo if you are running battery saving settings.

JamesC

[kishu27]

That's not the right way to resolve this issue though. The code should wait for the internet connection to be available again and then take geofencing related actions.

Also the notification should be dismissable. A user's life doesn't revolve around what's important for arlo app. While I agree that users need to know that in absence of internet connectivity, geofencing actions couldn't be taken, but this notification needs to go away when user wants to.

[Kfern]

I have a Samsung Galaxy s7 in the states and am having the same issue.

I agree with others that telling users to simply change their battery options is NOT A FIX, only a temporary solution. Other apps with geofencing don't have static notifications that can't be cleared...the app needs to be programmed well-enough to handle the most common devices' default settings. I don't believe it's the Arlo app's job to tell the user they don't have internet, or at the bare minimum (which is more than I can say for the Arlo app) is to do a one-time notification and not a sticky one.

[kishu27]

@JamesC I'm going to summarize the issue outlined here, the UX problems that is being faced, the appropriate UX that I feel should be implemented in this message.

Before that, I'm going to express that I'm bothered by this issue multiple times in a day. This confuses me and degrades my experience from the app everyday. I am pretty active in various home automation and smart home communities over internet and have recommended the Arlo stack so many times, most of which gives credit to the app which is designed quite well. Recently, a handful of issues have bugged me, but as a person involved with mobile app development, I understand and wasn't bugged much. However, this issue is really breaking a core experience of the stack and perhaps my frustration is heightened because I recommend it so much.

Having said that,:

1. Why the notifications appear? I'm not asking for an answer but why should a user be concerned about this issue? I assume the requiremet of this notification is to tell the user that geofencing didn't work recently because of an internet connectivity issue and the house may not have changed its status recently. Good, but should the app just promptly keep complaining on every disconnection and connection stability issues? I don't think so. I believe as a resolution, only display this after experiencing repeated failures over retries and auto-dismiss the notification when the feature worked. 

2. Why won't the notification dismiss? Swiping it does nothing, tapping on it does nothing. It just gets stuck up there. Android's Notification system has a huge impact on its users. I know no Android user who gets notifications and ignores them. Having a persistent notification is not a good UX for any user, especially when you cannot dismiss it

3. Having the notification tricks me into thinking that Arlo detected a motion

4. Your code should use timed retries to deal with any error that happened for a scheduled/automated task. It shouldn't just complain to the user. Yes information is important but only when the app is sure that a success couldn't be achieved. Not on the first error, add some tolerance here.

5. User shouldn't be asked to "Launch the Arlo app", by the way that does nothing to the notification.

6. Telling people about changing battery optimization setting is the wrong thing to do. I'm not going to have my battery depleted on a daily basis by this app. My life doesn't revolve around it. I understand that battery optimizations are a very good source of help about this, but we are talking about a tradeoff here. If a user chooses to ignore the battery optimizations, good for them. If a user doesn't, your app can do 2-3 retries before throwing an error

[lewwalters]

I kepp getting the message,,,,

"Geofencing needs an internet connection. Open the Arlo application when your connection becomes availalbe".

I am connected and can view my cameras and make changes.

This message is very anoying - any way of fixing this?

Lew Walters

[kishu27]

It has gotten a little better now. The notification is at least dismissable. Earlier it was persistent and wouldn't go away.

I consider it a relief but still far from ideal.

[Binx]

@JamesC is there a fix I the works? It seems pretty terrible this I have to resort to Stringify and IFTTT to perform geolocation for cameras that cost hundreds of dollars.

[Tarabas78]

I am having the same issues with the Arlo cam and the current app. It is a really big annoyance that I cannot deactivate notifications of lost internet connections and also of the entering and leaving the geofencing area. This really annoys a lot and the App would be much better if you could use the Geofencing in a kind of "silent" Mode that does not annoy the heck out of you every few Minutes.

I would be really glad if that could be fixed in future versions of the app.

[Hamish88]

Is there an update on this? It has only been a problem in the last weeks and , my guess , linked to an OS security update . It seems to come in the switch from WLAN to the mobile network. . You can correct by disabling and enabling the device but a fix from Netgear would be better

[enjoychewy]

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@JamesCwrote:

Many users have had success resolving this issue by checking their mobile devices battery saving settings. Some devices have battery optimization settings that close or put apps to sleep after they have been idle for a period of time. Check your mobile devices settings and be sure that an exception is made for Arlo if you are running battery saving settings.

JamesC

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Nope, I can assure you that Geofencing on the latest March 2018 version of the app doesn't work reliably even when battery optimisation is switched off for the app. Also, I can assure you all that even with locations on high accuracy, it still is buggy. Would absolutely consider returning my Arlo system if there's no fix to this. I'm thoughly disappointed.