Geofencing not working with 2 devices on Android app 2.7.11

[hallinmas]

I have Arlo Pro cameras and just today my geofencing is not working. I am home and the app says that I am "In Zone", yet it is saying that the system is armed. I also noticed that Arlo Smart is not filtering, and it is allowing all motion for one of my cameras to come through when it should only be People. Is there a bug? Any help would be appreciated. I already tried unplugging the base station and restarting. Thanks!

[Jim_C]

I have a combination of base stations and cameras in 2 different physical locations. One base was purchased as an Arlo Base and has 2 Arlo cameras and 1 ArloPro camera. The other base is a Pro with 3 Pro cameras. I setup geofencing with 2 devices and everything was working fine for a few days. Now, everything appears to be working with the geofence piece, ie arming and disarming, but doesn’t pickup and record or notify any events.

[shoustonnz]

It's rubbish. Just does not work. Have recreated accounts, followed all suggestions. It just does not work with 2 phones. Both Android.
Just give me a widget to arm, disarm, schedule, and custom modes. And I will arm it myself.
If you can't do that give permission to IFTTT. They can geofence better.

[RSC1]

I deleted applications and reset the hub. No easy task having to fetch 4 cameras and bring them to the hub to do so.

It sees our phones, but does not reliably arm/disarm. Not sure whether wife’s app has to be running. My doesn’t.

[AncientGeek]

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@RSC1 wrote:
I deleted applications and reset the hub. No easy task having to fetch 4 cameras and bring them to the hub to do so.

It sees our phones, but does not reliably arm/disarm. Not sure whether wife’s app has to be running. My doesn’t.

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The app needs to be running, but it can be in the background, so you would notice it, 

[LiCi]

Still doesn’t work. Now have my phone (main) enabled for geofence and wife phone also enabled. Went out of zone but didn’t arm....

It detected both are out of zone ...

[michaelkenward]

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@LiCi wrote:
Still doesn’t work. Now have my phone (main) enabled for geofence and wife phone also enabled. Went out of zone but didn’t arm....

It detected both are out of zone ...

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From that message, it is not possible to understand which device was where during this experiment.

Have you read this?

How does the first in, last out principal work with geofencing mode for my Arlo cameras?

One interpretation of your account is that it is working as designed.

[LiCi]

Let me make it clear. Both our iPhones have geofence enabled. My phone is the primary and my wife phone is granted access.

So we both went out and system detected that we are out of zone BUT didn’t arm. AND coming home it also detected as in zone BUT didn’t do any sh$t.

Is this clear enough for you????

[Gregav8]

I had hoped that the firmware update that came out last week on the base station would have included a fix. But nope, still not working here. Must be something wrong with the app logic. Two iPhones activated, both will correctly show in or out of zone, but geofence will not change the mode. It seems for some it’s working and for some still broken. Has anyone successfully found a workaround or preferably a FIX? Resetting everything to factory reset and all that seems to be a last resort, but if I’m reading correctly even that seems to not be working for everyone. TIA

[LiCi]

Gregav8, It will work if you reset everything and setup as new on your phone and resync all your cameras which is pain in the a## for me since some of mine are mounted high.

However it wont longer work the moment you add second phone for geofence and have both active. It will detect correctly when we zone out/in but will not change mode.

[AncientGeek]

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@LiCi wrote:
Gregav8, It will work if you reset everything and setup as new on your phone and resync all your cameras which is pain in the a## for me since some of mine are mounted high.

However it wont longer work the moment you add second phone for geofence and have both active. It will detect correctly when we zone out/in but will not change mode.

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In prior threads on this community forum, it has been explained that once a camera has been associated and operated with a base station, it can be reassociated after removal without the need to bring the camera within 3-5 feet during the synchronization process.  I have successfully synchronized cameras from their normal positions, so that makes it much easier.

However, it is still a ridiculous requirement.

[hjalmeida_PT]

Hi,

Has Arlo found a way to definitely fix the Geofencing issue?

I have had this working temporarily until 3-4 weeks ago just to have it not working again.

I have already updated to v2.7.11 and still not working. This is not acceptable in anyway. The Geofencing feature should not be dependent only on the App but also on the base station ability to track mobile devices withinth the wifi network for additional redundancy.

I have bought Arlo Pro 2 due to supporting Geogeofencing for Arm/Disarm. I was completely unaware that Arlo was not meeting this advertised feature.
How can you have a Geofencing enabled security system that is completely unaware that i have left my home and will not arm itself leaving my home exposed to bad actors without any additional warning!

Why do i have to keep going to the App and forcing the Geofencing recognizing that i am no longer at home to arm the system? That is not an acceptable workaround as it is highly dependent on the user and not the system? How can Arlo call this Smart?

When will Arlo solve this issue? Fortunately i have only bought a base system with 2 cameras to try it out first. I will no longer invest in the remaining cameras if this is not solved asap (or given a specific deadline) as i am not willing to wait for years to have this working probably.

In the meanwhile i will try to return what i have already bought as i consider the Geofencing feature fundamental and basic requirement for any Smart Home enabled Security Cameras that other brands are meeting with success.

I truly hope to get clear and concise feedback from Arlo around this neverending issue?

Regards.

[Roaddog359]

I am right there with you. Totally agree. Now it wont even recognize any of my connected phones as being in zone.

[Fu416430003]

After fixed, it worked for few days but not disarming tonight again!!!! Please get this fixed!!

[Frostbach]

I'm seeing effectively the same thing.

If I have the main owner account device enabled for geofencing, it works. As soon as I add a second device using a granted access account, it stops functioning properly. I never tried actually factory reseting my system, but I don't think you actually need to do that - by virtue of just removing the granted access account from the enabled devices, it will work again.

I noticed 2 main things with the granted access account:

• If you change the mode from geofencing to something else, and then back to geofencing, it doesn't actually change the mode to the home nor away mode defined in the geofencing settings. (Doing the same thing on the main phone account works).
• This phone doeesn't appear to get the home/away push notifications anymore even though they are enabled.

[Talktotone]

OK so i have been doing some testing over the past few days.

Firstly based on earlier commentary, i deleted the iOS apps from my devices. I deleted the icloud back ups on all devices. I then did a factory re-set of the base station and set up as new.

I have 2 iOS devices linked to my account neither have any special characters in the name. 

Low and behold. Geofencing DOES NOT WORK. It will recognise when I leave my home, when my wife leaves, it will show her and I as OUT OF ZONE, yet it will not arm.

Clearly ARLO have broken the firmware in the last 2 updates. It was working OK prior to the late May update. Therefore, @Arlo please fix the problem you have created. 

[BrianP53]

I 100% agree with this post.
Before the late May update everything worked fine.
So Arlo team please restore to that earlier software version so we can all enjoy the product we expected and payed for.
In New Zealand we have the Consumers Guarantee Act which protects consumers from suppliers products not living up to the specifications they were sold as. The remedy is a legally binding complete refund.
The endless barrage of dissatisfied customers out there could end up as a very expensive recall and refund for Arlo so please get your act together.
How hard is it to reinstate a previous working software version no matter what bugs you were trying to fix before this latest round of geofencing dyfunctionality?

[AncientGeek]

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@Talktotone wrote:

OK so i have been doing some testing over the past few days.

Firstly based on earlier commentary, i deleted the iOS apps from my devices. I deleted the icloud back ups on all devices. I then did a factory re-set of the base station and set up as new.

I have 2 iOS devices linked to my account neither have any special characters in the name. 

Low and behold. Geofencing DOES NOT WORK. It will recognise when I leave my home, when my wife leaves, it will show her and I as OUT OF ZONE, yet it will not arm.

Clearly ARLO have broken the firmware in the last 2 updates. It was working OK prior to the late May update. Therefore, @Arlo please fix the problem you have created. 

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I was on a long trip when geofencing was most recently broken, so I wasn’t able to do any testing until the past two days and I continue to test.  I have a complicated Arlo system monitoring four locations comprised of Arlo, Arlo Pro, Arlo Pro 2, Arlo Q and ArloQ Plus cameras.  This includes four Arlo Pro base stations and one original Arlo base station.  The original base station seems to have the most difficulty keeping track of our geofencing devices (iPhone X and XS).  Yesterday those devices registered as “unknown” location on that base station.  I rebooted it remotely (I have my Arlo bases on smart plugs, so I can do this from anywhere when needed).  My phone locations then became correctly identified by the base and the system appeared to disarm when my wife went to that location and I was at another location.  This morning our device locations were once again unknown to that system and it was disarmed.  I power cycled the base again and it now correctly recognizes both devices as out of zone, but the system remained disarmed.    I manually armed it and and then returned it to geofencing mode.  The system stayed armed after that and recognized the changed back to geofencing mode.

Some of the recommendations for “solving” this problem appear to me to be more superstitious than scientific in origin.  It is unfortunate that Arlo appears to have designed and built a system for which they have no real understanding nor control of the core functionality and no effective design and testing methodology.  I feels like the system is run by a bunch of independent, off-shore developers who have no clue how the total system works and no effective communication with each other nor customer service.  This is an inconceivable and unsustainable business model.  I have cameras from Nest and Axis to augment my monitoring capability, but no normal person would ever want nor should ever need to do what I have done to ensure reliable monitoring of their properties.

Unfortunately, I have found no single system supplier that does it all well while giving me peace of mind that my video is secure and my information is not “monetized” in some way.  I like, but don’t trust Nest ever since Google procured it.  I’m concerned about Ring now that Amazon owns it.  I refuse to use voice assitants from either of those companies and would not conceive of allowing anything Facebook offered...like the portal, into my home,

Tech is out of control and we helped by buying poorly conceived or insecure systems from companies that pretend to be rigorous or offer us the proverbial “free lunch” in exchange for our loss of privacy.

[thehartzells]

We have had Arlo for several years now and the last year we have been having a roller coaster with the geofencing. One minute it works the next it doesnt.

Right now its not and there is no rhyme or reason to it.

I have deleted phones, added them back, restarted base station. Everything says it should be working - both phones out of zone, system set to arm, etc but it doesnt.

It wont automatically go into armed mode when both of us leave; it will sometimes go into armed mode when one of us is still home; when one returns it wont disarm.

It is becoming VERY frustrating.

For the money we have spent on 6 cameras and countless others people we have encouraged and recommended this product to ....it would be fantastic if ARLO support could provide a response as to what is going on? What they are doing to fix?

[Nephs03]

Exact same problems. All phones show as out of zone but system doesn't arm. If I manually change mode to say disarmed and then back to Geofencing, it then recognises the phones are out of zone and arms the system. However, once back in zone, the system fails to disarm so get alerts and have to change mode and back again to get it to disarm.

Also, it is supposed to arm my camera's at 1am on a schedule when using Geofencing and that also fails.

I understand that this started happening to lots of users after an app update but clearly it hadn't gone through a thorough Q&A before release.

Why can't Arlo get Geofencing working reliably??? Other companies seem to be able to make it work successfully.

This needs to be fixed ASAP as I have effectively paid for a security system that is not working as expected.

[azarloGuy]

You got that right.  We have two base stations and only one arms/disarms, the other doesn't unless I log into the account with the second basestation and toggle disarm and then back to geofencing then It recognizes that we are home.  Since when do I have to log into an account to toggle the state to get it to recognize where I am.  This is totally broken again, but no one at arlo will acknowledge that fact.  As a matter of fact they think it's Fixed.  WAKE UP ARLO.  Is it too much to ask for you to acknowled the problem and tell us you are fixing it.   Maybe they are too busy pushing other new products that eventually will wind up on here with users frustrated because they don't work.  Like Arlo Smart.  I have A LOT of technology in my home and no other company is as poor as this one when it comes to customer support and promptly fixing problems.  No One.  Arlo is in a league of its own.

[sward6368]

So they seemed to make it worse.  Prior issue was when left zone would change to away mode, when returned never returned to home mode.  Now experiencing the opposite.  Both phones leave zone and status in the Arlo app shows out of zone on both devices, but Geofencing mode remains in home mode.

COME ON ARLO - you have said you fixed Geofencing 2 or 3 times in the last 2 weeks but you havent fixed ANYTHING, you only altered what was broken.  TEST your updated before saying it is fixed - rather you keep pushing out faulty code and asking your users to test and discover what is and is not working.  FIX IT!!!!!!!!!!

[PhilRUK]

I've just purchase an Arlo Pro 2 kit and am also having geofencing problems. , ALSO WITH 2 USERS TRYING TO USE GEOFENCING - IT DOESN'T WORK!

I've added one other trusted device to the account, it is set to be Armed when we are both away, and scheduled when one of us is home. I  have the following problems:

- When both devices are home, the system will behave as expected to start with.

- When both devices leave home, the system stays in scheduled mode, until I toggle between scheduled and geofencing, whereupon it then works out it should be armed.

- When my device is first to arrive home, the system disarms and moves to scheduled as expected, however

- When my wife's device is first to arrive home, the system stays armed but in a weird way - it gives a motion detect alert, and says the siren is activated but it actually isn't.  Toggling modes rectifies but only temporarily.

I've tried JamesC's suggestion to remove both devices from geofencing, then save, then re-enable them, then save again.  It works but only temporarily, like toggling modes.  The system will get confused immediately again.

Both devices (iphones) are sharing location all the time, not just when using the app.

Clearly geofencing isn't working for a lot of people, and it isn't right that so many of these threads are being closed down as "solved".  This needs to be resolved properly as the system isn't behaving as described.

[ForzaMotorsport]

I just wanted to post this in case it might help someone else. I was having the issue of the geofencing not re-arming when entering back into the home zone since late May like everyone else on here. Everyday when I got home I would have to disarm the system and then put it back in geofencing mode and then it would recognize I was back in the home zone. The system would stay disarmed and would arm when I left the home zone but not disarm when I returned. Then a few days ago when Arlo posted on here that this was solved I went into my geofencing settings and both of the enabled devices showed in grey text 'not available'. So then I was thinking things got even worse.

I have 2 base stations and I disarmed both of them (this was while being out of the home zone but I'm not sure if that matters). While the base stations were in disarmed mode I went into the geofencing settings (selected the pencil beside Geofencing) and unclicked each enabled device, I then repeated this for the other base station. I then went back into the geofencing settings on each base station and re-enabled both devices. Then I put the settings on both base stations back to geofencing and the phones both showed up as out of zone as they should have. Since then the base stations both automatically disarm when I return into the home zone. I only did this process on one of the devices. The only thing I did on the other device was change the name to remove the ' symbol in the name back in late May to try to fix the broken geofencing.

Just thought perhaps the order that I did things might work for someone else or maybe I just got lucky with geofencing starting to work properly again (for now).

[Jt100]

Geofencing stopped working for me several weeks ago.  IOS 12.3.1

[RickWNich]

4 camera system. Still broke after a week on my system. Wife is insisting we go back to ADT.........