Geofencing not disarming when I arrive home after iOS app update 2.7.9

[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!

[RSC1]

The number of people participating does matter. I’ve been around it enough to see how response levels react to situations.

[dbrasco]

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@RSC1 wrote:
My son is a QA tester, so I know testing isn’t foolproof. Some things affect a very small population and get through testing. Heck, if this were a global situation, there would be a ton more responses here.

I’m an early adopter and can’t tell you the number of Nikons I bought the day they hit the market that had undetected issues. It took about 6 months for Nikon to resolve them, but they did and their cameras are top notch.

I want geofencing to work correctly for everyone as much as the next person, but it’s icing on the cake for me. I’m enjoying my system and just trying to report my issues, so Netgear knows what’s broken. I’m looking forward to the fix...believe me...I am. It’s annoying.

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I appreciate the commentary and the backing of the product.  I appreciate the examples from your camera (although you keep referring to a new product and this geofencing feature worked for years, we came to rely on it, and now it's broken.  It's not a new service/product).  I appreciate that it doesnt really make or break your use case.  

I am also in IT.  We develop software. We have bugs, too many, but it's a fact of software development that it is going to happen. The problem I have is you keep saying they are working on it. Show me where they have acknowledged this specific problem and are working on it.  If you can show me that, I stand corrected and will be patient.  In my day job, transparency and communication is key.  If there is a bug discovered we let them know we heard them and are/are not working on it.  Transparency is key to building trust and patience. 

[RSC1]

It’s new in that it’s intertwined. I “think” the release of the Ultra threw some issues into the mix. All of these systems must be playing together?

There are posts in here indicating that they’re working on it. Give them a call. They might quite be too busy working on the issue to spend their time participating in the forum.

The new firmware released this morning indicates they’re doing something.

[Steve-M]

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@dbrasco wrote:

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@RSC1 wrote:
My son is a QA tester, so I know testing isn’t foolproof. Some things affect a very small population and get through testing. Heck, if this were a global situation, there would be a ton more responses here.

I’m an early adopter and can’t tell you the number of Nikons I bought the day they hit the market that had undetected issues. It took about 6 months for Nikon to resolve them, but they did and their cameras are top notch.

I want geofencing to work correctly for everyone as much as the next person, but it’s icing on the cake for me. I’m enjoying my system and just trying to report my issues, so Netgear knows what’s broken. I’m looking forward to the fix...believe me...I am. It’s annoying.

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iShow me where they have acknowledged this specific problem and are working on it.  If you can show me that, I stand corrected and will be patient.  In my day job, transparency and communication is key.  If there is a bug discovered we let them know we heard them and are/are not working on it.  Transparency is key to building trust and patience. 

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Exactly, or you are trolling... @RSC1.

Post links were they (re: Arlo staff) have acknowledged the ongoing issue with geofencing, and are working on it.  Not a link where they have directed someone to try this or point them to the FAQ.  That is not acknowledgement.

[Bpoling7]

I have been following this thread because I am just as frustrated as everyone else, but I wanted to respond with a possible work around. I had read in a previous post that someone had their wife sign in with the same account that he had so that both phones were using the same account rather than having to shared accounts use the geofence setting. I just tried it and had my wife sign into my account with the same username and password and when I got home from work today it sensed that I was home and disarmed the cameras. That's the first time it has worked in a while. I know it's not a great work around and Arlo still needs to do something about this, but this might work in the meantime.

[RSC1]

Read them for yourself. I’m not going to do your homework. There was a post after the early June “fix” where they said a handful of customers were still experiencing the issue. I don’t have time to hunt it down on a mobile phone for you.

[Cance]

Hi. Still having our phones “not available”. Firmware updated ten hours ago to 1.12.2.3_2762.
Mmmmmh!

[Frostbach]

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@RSC1 wrote:
Read them for yourself. I’m not going to do your homework. There was a post after the early June “fix” where they said a handful of customers were still experiencing the issue. I don’t have time to hunt it down on a mobile phone for you.

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That isn't exactly what they posted.

On June 4th, they posted that there was an issue.

https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Pro/Geofencing-not-disarming-when-I-arrive-home-after-iOS-app-upd...

On June 6th, they posted that it is now working for "most" customers and that they are going to host some survey that hasn't appeared yet. This is the post that they marked this as "solved".

https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Pro/Geofencing-not-disarming-when-I-arrive-home-after-iOS-app-upd...

On June 12, they subsequently posted a link to a FAQ for how to make sure your phone is configured properly, which was not very helpful for those of use that have been using geofencing for over a year prior.

https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Pro/Geofencing-not-disarming-when-I-arrive-home-after-iOS-app-upd...

I haven't seen any additional posts after this or any that specifically state they know there are people still experiencing issues and they are working on it.

I don't think anyone here is really asking for much. Just a simple post clearing stating they are aware people are experiencing this issue and they are investigating it (i.e. the same as what they posted on June 4th above).

[RSC1]

We’ll, I agree but they’re probably working long hours. I interpreted “most” to mean not all. That’s an acknowledgment to me. I guess I figure their not going to just ignore it.

[RSC1]

My Smart Hub for Ultra updated about 11:00, but mine’s 1.12.2.1_2815.

[AncientGeek]

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@Cance wrote:
Hi. Still having our phones “not available”. Firmware updated ten hours ago to 1.12.2.3_2762.
Mmmmmh!

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As I mentioned this morning, my "East" base station at this location updated as I was watching this morning and both of our iPhones' locations showed up as "Unavailable".  I got into my Arlo app and my iPhone soon showed up as available.  This afternoon, both of our iPhones showed up as "In Zone" on the East base and my phone showed up as "In Zone" on the West base, but my wife's was "Unknown". I grabbed her phone and opened the Arlo app.  After that her phone showed up as "In Zone" on the west base.  I checked all of our systems that use geofencing and saw that three Arlo Pro bases, one standard Arlo base, 1 Arlo Q and 5 Arlo Q-Plus cameras all show the correct location for our two iPhones.

Only one of us left the house today and the system did not arm...which is correct.

[Frostbach]

Release notes for the update have been posted.

The listed changes have nothing to do with geofencing.

[AncientGeek]

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@Frostbach wrote:

Release notes for the update have been posted.

The listed changes have nothing to do with geofencing.

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Bummer.  But then their previous changes didn’t say they broke it either, so maybe there is hope!

[RSC1]

Yeah. I was hoping. There might be changes they’re testing though and would mention.

[Steve-M]

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@RSC1 wrote:
We’ll, I agree but they’re probably working long hours. I interpreted “most” to mean not all. That’s an acknowledgment to me. I guess I figure their not going to just ignore it.

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Exactly what many of us have been saying, and  have made the point on a few occasions. You are assuming too much, especially that they are working on it.  They have failed to communicate or acknowledge that there is still an issue.

All they would need to do is that, and it would settle down the masses.  Advising people they are working on it, and there is no issues with devices or eqpt.

[RSC1]

I don’t know, maybe. I’m thinking they’re working their butts off managing other issues as well.

[Rusty6]

Same issue... it knows our location but not arming and disarming.  Very frustrated and disappointted with Arlo.

When will we see a fix...

[KoniniKid]

I got all excited yesterday when new firmware was pushed out but unfortunatley it's still broken. Even more fustrating I got an email from Arlo support wanting to know if I had followed the general setup guides and got it working. I pointed out that there's a wider issue and linked to a bunch of twitter and community threads and asked if they can confirm they are working on the issue & have a time frame for resolution. No response.......

[RSC1]

The optimistic point of view is that they’re working on it. They probably want to know if you followed the suggestions to help isolate problems .

[KoniniKid]

LOL. I hope you're not holding your breath. With all honesty 20 something days into a major issue and to have both online chat and email support tell me in the last 4 or 5 days that there isn't an issue and I need to follow an online guide to setting up Geofencing best tells me that they are sticking their heads in the sand.

If they are working as hard as you say then they'd have it sorted in a day. They have a decent sized team and they know what it takes to make it work as it was working perfectly before this update.

[RSC1]

Why hold my breath? I’m not in a hurry over a minor issue. Geofencing is a known developers nightmare. They’ll get it.

Activity zones are much higher on my wanted, but not vital list.

[mamarcac]

^^ They can't even get video quality to 720p, good luck on your activity zones.

Looking forward to when you stop defending Arlo like you own a bunch of their stock...

[AncientGeek]

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@RSC1 wrote:
Why hold my breath? I’m not in a hurry over a minor issue. Geofencing is a known developers nightmare. They’ll get it.

Activity zones are much higher on my wanted, but not vital list.

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It doesn’t seem like geofencing should be a “nightmare”.  First, they had it working, so clearly they know how it should work.  Second, it isn’t architecturally complicated.  If the OS provides a location service that includes an event notification when a device goes in or out of a specified location envelope, the app just needs to be awake to receive it and send off a message to the cloud service.  Then the cloud service needs to look at its list of devices it has been told to track and decide if this is one of them (or the mobile app could check the list on that side before deciding to send the message).  Then the cloud service sends a message to the devices that says set away mode or set home mode. With proper handshaking to make sure the messages are received or retransmitted, it should not be rocket science.

[KoniniKid]

That's the thing. They don't need to get it as they had it. For the 7 months Ive had Arlo it's worked just fine. Plus it's not a minor issue. I paid the Arlo premium for Geofencing. With my wife coming home and the kids getting home from school and playing in the yard and driveway my phone goes crazy with notifications plus it sucks the batteries when it's pretty much recording non stop from after school till dinner.

[RSC1]

That’s not what I hear from the IT community with other companies that deal with geofencing. We’re probably not a large group with this problem, so I’m happy they appear to be working on it.