Arlo
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hallinmas · ‎2019-05-23

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!

AncientGeek · ‎2019-07-02

@RSC1 wrote:
I will say my wife works in a dead cell, but it picks up on her position when she leaves. The apps are set to always access location, so I don’t know why the app has to be open. It didn’t use to be open when it was working.

I found the developer guidance on the Apple site for the location services API. It is pretty interesting. It does appear the app can be awakened “If” the app developer leaves the “significant-change location service running”. Also we, as users, must make sure “background app refresh” is not disabled for the app or globally. So that’s something we can check ourselves. I checked and mine are both “On”, so if the app is written correctly and the iOS service is working correctly, the app should not need to be open in the background.

iOS location services.

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/LocationAwarenes...

Here is an excerp from that writeup.

If you leave the significant-change location service running and your iOS app is subsequently suspended or terminated, the service automatically wakes up your app when new location data arrives. At wake-up time, the app is put into the background and you are given a small amount of time (around 10 seconds) to manually restart location services and process the location data. (You must manually restart location services in the background before any pending location updates can be delivered, as described in Knowing When to Start Location Services.) Because your app is in the background, it must do minimal work and avoid any tasks (such as querying the network) that might prevent it from returning before the allocated time expires. If it does not, your app will be terminated. If an iOS app needs more time to process the location data, it can request more background execution time using the beginBackgroundTaskWithName:expirationHandler:method of the UIApplication class.

Note: When a user disables the Background App Refresh setting either globally or for your app, the significant-change location service doesn’t relaunch your app. Further, while Background App Refresh is off an app doesn’t receive significant-change or region monitoring events even when it's in the foreground.

RSC1 · ‎2019-07-02

I turned background app refresh on for both phones. I’ll double check that. It used to consume batteries, but it’s not an issue on newer phones.

Boomer_1 · ‎2019-07-02

You might try uninstalling the app from the iPad in question and verfying that it is removed from the accoutn owners device. Then reinstall the app on the iPad.

Boomer_1 · ‎2019-07-02

You should not need to have the app opened. This might help with some of the confusion where people have it work occassionaly. It will work in its current condition if one of 1 of 2 conditions exist. Condition 1 - You uncheck the box or remove the "granted user" from the system. Obviously that isn't what you want, but that is one condition where it will aprm and disarm as it is supposed to. Condition 2 - (The one most likely casuing the confusion). If the account owner leaves the house LAST (not together), it will arm successfully. Also, if the account owner returns (First) it will disarm successfully. If the reverse is true in either case, it will not work. If you are both in the car, it is random depending on who gets recognized first. The problem is that it ignores the "granted user" as part of the toggle to change states - even though it does recognize them as in or out of zone correctly.

85BearsFan · ‎2019-07-02

@85BearsFan wrote:

Well, this morning, Arlo would not register my older son when he left the house after me. As soon as I left the house, I received a notification that I had "left the Home Geofencing Zone." However, when my son left the house shortly after me, the Arlo never switched to show him as being out of the zone. I asked him to double-check that he never closed the Arlo app and he confirmed that he had not done so. However, he did say that he received a notifcation from Arlow about a cellular connection being lost. I'll see what happens when my wife leaves the house this morning.

I am running iOS 12.4 (build 16G5056d). My wife is running iOS 12.3.1. I'm not sure what iOS my older son currently is running; I'll edit this post when I find out.

I'm running version 2.7.10 (91) of the Arlo app, which was released May 28, 2019. Our base station is model VMB4000r3 running firmware 1.12.2.4_2772.

Does anyone else have the Homekit option in their Arlo app settings (Settings-->Arlo-->Home Data)?

My older son also is running the same build of iOS 12.4 as me.

When my wife left the house about an hour ago, the Arlo app properly switched her to being "Out of Zone"; however, it still shows my son as being "In zone" even though he is nowhere close to home.

I just asked my son to force quit the Arlo app and then restart it. As soon as he did that, I received a notification that reads, "Geofencing at Home is now Away mode." So, for some reason, him force quitting and then re-opening the app updated his location for Arlo. That is not how it should work. Also, the notification my son received this morning said, "Internet connection is lost. Geofencing in Arlo is unavailable at the moment."

On my iPhone, the master Background App Refresh setting is set to Wi-Fi & Cellular Data and the toggle for the Arlo app is set to on. I'm pretty sure my wife and son have the same settings, but I'll double-check with them.

Hopefully, this information will give the engineers some help in resolving the problem.

85BearsFan · ‎2019-07-02

@Boomer_1 wrote:

You should not need to have the app opened. This might help with some of the confusion where people have it work occassionaly. It will work in its current condition if one of 1 of 2 conditions exist. Condition 1 - You uncheck the box or remove the "granted user" from the system. Obviously that isn't what you want, but that is one condition where it will aprm and disarm as it is supposed to. Condition 2 - (The one most likely casuing the confusion). If the account owner leaves the house LAST (not together), it will arm successfully. Also, if the account owner returns (First) it will disarm successfully. If the reverse is true in either case, it will not work. If you are both in the car, it is random depending on who gets recognized first. The problem is that it ignores the "granted user" as part of the toggle to change states - even though it does recognize them as in or out of zone correctly.

Right now, I have my wife, my older son, and me all logged into the Arlo using the master Arlo account credentials so Arlo can't tell which device is the account owner. I'm still having problems, but I think they are related to location services and background app refresh.

RSC1 · ‎2019-07-02

No, you shouldn’t have to have the apps open. I’ve been told by support that you do though. When it was working, my wife’s wasn’t.

It seems to
Sometimes work when both phones leave or return together.

85BearsFan · ‎2019-07-02

My son just got home and the Arlo appropriately switching him to being "In Zone" and switched the mode to "Home."

Maybe this morning was a glitch. Or maybe it had to do with both of us being logged in as the same user and having left the house within 30 minutes of one another?

RSC1 · ‎2019-07-02

We’re logged in separately, as is supposed to be the proper way. Maybe using the same sign in eould work until you signed in on the web?

AncientGeek · ‎2019-07-02

wrote:

My son just got home and the Arlo appropriately switching him to being "In Zone" and switched the mode to "Home."

Maybe this morning was a glitch. Or maybe it had to do with both of us being logged in as the same user and having left the house within 30 minutes of one another?

Doesn’t the last login knock the other device off? That’s what always happened for us and it is why we have a different login for each of us and for our iPads and iPhones. Four logins in all...two devices registered for geofencing...both iPhones.

I would think that even though you are logged in as the same user, it is really just one user logged in, since the other one gets logged out.

Boomer_1 · ‎2019-07-02

That would probably not work if you think about it. If they both login as the same user the second one logging in would knock the first one off so they would not longer be logged in. They would still be included in the geo-fence configuration so Arlo would not behave normal. The way to test this is uncheck the geo-fence config boxes for all your devices excep tthe account owner. Have them leave and verify that the system armed and then have them return and verify that it disarms. The problem is with any "Granted" logins not being recognized in the geo-fence toggle - EVEN THOUGH IT CORRCTLY flags them as out-of-zone. I took this test a few steps further. I removed my wifes phone from granted access completely. I ran for 5 days with no problems at all. Arm and disarm worked everytime. I then uninstalled her app and reinstalled it. As soon as I granted her permission again, the syste became unstable. It will still work IF - the account owner is the last to leave or the first to return as it recognizes the need to toggle the home and away mode for this user. You would think these Netgear drones could figure out the problem after all this time, especially since they broke it in the first place.

85BearsFan · ‎2019-07-02

@AncientGeek wrote:

wrote:

My son just got home and the Arlo appropriately switching him to being "In Zone" and switched the mode to "Home."

Maybe this morning was a glitch. Or maybe it had to do with both of us being logged in as the same user and having left the house within 30 minutes of one another?

Doesn’t the last login knock the other device off? That’s what always happened for us and it is why we have a different login for each of us and for our iPads and iPhones. Four logins in all...two devices registered for geofencing...both iPhones.

I would think that even though you are logged in as the same user, it is really just one user logged in, since the other one gets logged out.

Originally, I set up a separate Arlo account for each family member and had each family member use his/her Arlo account when logging in on the app. This worked fine until late May, when we started having problems with geofencing not working. Based on some user suggestions/reports in this forum, I decided to have everyone log in using the master account. Other than the one glitch this morning, thing seem to be working; however, I've only been testing it for about 24 hours. If things continue to work well with leaving the Arlo app open (not force quitting), I'll have users log out of the app and log back in using their individual accounts and see whether that happens.

Also, Home Depot currently has a 2 camera system (including base station) on sale for $330. I was going to get a second because I want to have a couple of the cameras run 24/7 without regarding to geofencing and don't think the Arlo Pro 2 allows geofencing to be turned on for some, but not all, cameras when using a single base state. The cheapest base station I found was $50 for a refurbished model on Woot. Thus, $330 for two cameras and the base station seems like a great price. I figured I might try seeing what happens when I add a second base station. Perhaps even turning off geofencing for the old base station and turning it on for the new one.

AncientGeek · ‎2019-07-02

@85BearsFan wrote:

.

Also, Home Depot currently has a 2 camera system (including base station) on sale for $330. I was going to get a second because I want to have a couple of the cameras run 24/7 without regarding to geofencing and don't think the Arlo Pro 2 allows geofencing to be turned on for some, but not all, cameras when using a single base state. The cheapest base station I found was $50 for a refurbished model on Woot. Thus, $330 for two cameras and the base station seems like a great price. I figured I might try seeing what happens when I add a second base station. Perhaps even turning off geofencing for the old base station and turning it on for the new one.

It is true that geofencing is a global setting for the Arlo base and all devices attached to it, but if you want cameras on at all times, they won’t care whether geofencing works, since the mode for the camera will be to record motion whether the mobile devices are in zone or out of zone..,so being wrong becomes irrelevant. If it thinks you are home, those devices record. If it thinks you are away, those devices record.

You just need to set up a custom disarm mode that doesn’t disarm the cameras you want to keep armed when you are home.

Mxa75 · ‎2019-07-03

Firmware 1.12.2.4_2773

When I leave the area does not switch to Armed, although it shows correctly on the map that I am outside the area. If I go into geofencing and switch the radius from Small to Medium all of a sudden it realizes that I am outside the area and switches to Armed.

85BearsFan · ‎2019-07-03

@AncientGeek wrote:

@85BearsFan wrote:

.

Also, Home Depot currently has a 2 camera system (including base station) on sale for $330. I was going to get a second because I want to have a couple of the cameras run 24/7 without regarding to geofencing and don't think the Arlo Pro 2 allows geofencing to be turned on for some, but not all, cameras when using a single base state. The cheapest base station I found was $50 for a refurbished model on Woot. Thus, $330 for two cameras and the base station seems like a great price. I figured I might try seeing what happens when I add a second base station. Perhaps even turning off geofencing for the old base station and turning it on for the new one.

It is true that geofencing is a global setting for the Arlo base and all devices attached to it, but if you want cameras on at all times, they won’t care whether geofencing works, since the mode for the camera will be to record motion whether the mobile devices are in zone or out of zone..,so being wrong becomes irrelevant. If it thinks you are home, those devices record. If it thinks you are away, those devices record.

You just need to set up a custom disarm mode that doesn’t disarm the cameras you want to keep armed when you are home.

Thanks for the tip. I didn't think of using a custom disarm mode. I'll give that a try. I'm still thinking of picking up the two pack camera system. I discovered that Best Buy has it on a Fourth of July sale for $298.99., which slightly less than the price of buying two cameras separately (the cheapest I've see a single Arlo Pro 2 HD is $153). Before I mess with a custom mode, though, I want to see if I can get the geofencing working with the default Armed and Disarmed modes.

85BearsFan · ‎2019-07-03

When I left the house this morning, Arlo switched me to being Out of Zone. When my son left the house about 15-30 minutes after I did, Arlo switched him to being Out of Zone. We both have left the app open and running in the background and both are still logged in using the master Arlo account. The Arlo still shows my wife as "In Zone," which is correct because she's still at home, so we'll see what happens when she leaves. However, so far, I am thinking the geofencing problem has to do with the Arlo not reading a devices location when the Arlo app is closed (force quit).

AncientGeek · ‎2019-07-03

@85BearsFan wrote:

@AncientGeek wrote:

@85BearsFan wrote:

.

Also, Home Depot currently has a 2 camera system (including base station) on sale for $330. I was going to get a second because I want to have a couple of the cameras run 24/7 without regarding to geofencing and don't think the Arlo Pro 2 allows geofencing to be turned on for some, but not all, cameras when using a single base state. The cheapest base station I found was $50 for a refurbished model on Woot. Thus, $330 for two cameras and the base station seems like a great price. I figured I might try seeing what happens when I add a second base station. Perhaps even turning off geofencing for the old base station and turning it on for the new one.

It is true that geofencing is a global setting for the Arlo base and all devices attached to it, but if you want cameras on at all times, they won’t care whether geofencing works, since the mode for the camera will be to record motion whether the mobile devices are in zone or out of zone..,so being wrong becomes irrelevant. If it thinks you are home, those devices record. If it thinks you are away, those devices record.

You just need to set up a custom disarm mode that doesn’t disarm the cameras you want to keep armed when you are home.

Thanks for the tip. I didn't think of using a custom disarm mode. I'll give that a try. I'm still thinking of picking up the two pack camera system. I discovered that Best Buy has it on a Fourth of July sale for $298.99., which slightly less than the price of buying two cameras separately (the cheapest I've see a single Arlo Pro 2 HD is $153). Before I mess with a custom mode, though, I want to see if I can get the geofencing working with the default Armed and Disarmed modes.

I have purchased “extra cameras” in a set like that several times for the same reason. I have two spare base stations currently as a result. I think it a great way to expand your system rather than buying individual cameras.

I use schedules and custom modes a lot with geofencing on my systems.

AncientGeek · ‎2019-07-03

@85BearsFan wrote:

When I left the house this morning, Arlo switched me to being Out of Zone. When my son left the house about 15-30 minutes after I did, Arlo switched him to being Out of Zone. We both have left the app open and running in the background and both are still logged in using the master Arlo account. The Arlo still shows my wife as "In Zone," which is correct because she's still at home, so we'll see what happens when she leaves. However, so far, I am thinking the geofencing problem has to do with the Arlo not reading a devices location when the Arlo app is closed (force quit).

Are you on Android? There is no way I can have two devices logged into the same account at the same time on iOS. The second device gets logged out. When I just tested it again, both devices had trouble staying logged in for some reason while I had the same credentials on the login screen. As soon as I changed my phone back to my alternate credentials, all was good again.

My wife and are using different accounts on our phones and currently show “out of zone” at one of our homes, but the Arlo Cameras on the wireless Base are disarmed. We have an Arlo Q Plus at that same location that is working properly and is Armed because we are “out of zone” on that camera and it doesn’t have the same problem...at least not for my Q cameras. At least one person has reported problems with the Q cameras on this forum.

85BearsFan · ‎2019-07-03

@AncientGeek wrote:

@85BearsFan wrote:

When I left the house this morning, Arlo switched me to being Out of Zone. When my son left the house about 15-30 minutes after I did, Arlo switched him to being Out of Zone. We both have left the app open and running in the background and both are still logged in using the master Arlo account. The Arlo still shows my wife as "In Zone," which is correct because she's still at home, so we'll see what happens when she leaves. However, so far, I am thinking the geofencing problem has to do with the Arlo not reading a devices location when the Arlo app is closed (force quit).

Are you on Android? There is no way I can have two devices logged into the same account at the same time on iOS. The second device gets logged out. When I just tested it again, both devices had trouble staying logged in for some reason while I had the same credentials on the login screen. As soon as I changed my phone back to my alternate credentials, all was good again.

My wife and are using different accounts on our phones and currently show “out of zone” at one of our homes, but the Arlo Cameras on the wireless Base are disarmed. We have an Arlo Q Plus at that same location that is working properly and is Armed because we are “out of zone” on that camera and it doesn’t have the same problem...at least not for my Q cameras. At least one person has reported problems with the Q cameras on this forum.

No, we are not on Android. My son and I are running iOS 12.4. My wife is running iOS 12.3.1. I've noticed that whenever use the Arlo app on my iPhone XS Max, facial recognition is activated to log me into the account. Because my wife and son don't typically use/check the app, what is happening is that the app is logging me out after a certain period of time and not because they too are logged into the account. I would much prefer for us each to use our own specific credentials to log into Arlo, but I figured that my first step in troubleshooting would be for all of us to use the master credentials. So far, that seems to be working for us. At some point soon, I'll try going back to using separate credentials and see what happens.

I don't know anything about the Arlo Q Plus; I only have the Pro 2 HD system. Does your Q Plus use a different base station than the other Arlo cameras in your home?

AncientGeek · ‎2019-07-03

@85BearsFan wrote:

I don't know anything about the Arlo Q Plus; I only have the Pro 2 HD system. Does your Q Plus use a different base station than the other Arlo cameras in your home?

The Q and Q Plus do not use a base station at all. They are stand-alone devices that connect directly to WiFi.

Perhaps there is something about iOS 12.4 that allows multiple iOS devices to be logged into the arlo app at the same time. This was a long standing complaint by Arlo users who had to use multiple accounts due to that limitation.

85BearsFan · ‎2019-07-03

@AncientGeek wrote:

The Q and Q Plus do not use a base station at all. They are stand-alone devices that connect directly to WiFi.

Perhaps there is something about iOS 12.4 that allows multiple iOS devices to be logged into the arlo app at the same time. This was a long standing complaint by Arlo users who had to use multiple accounts due to that limitation.

I'll have to ponder how the Q/Q Plus could factor into the geofencing issue. I was thinking that the issue was either related to the Arlo app or the software used on Arlo's servers for managing the base stations. If geofencing on the Q behaves differently than geofencing on Arlos that use a base station, that throws another wrinkle into the mix.

Incidentally, I just noticed that when I log into Arlo on my PC's web browser, it logs out my iPhone's Arlo app and, similarly, logging into Arlo on the iPhone app forces the browser to log out of Arlo. IMHO, that's really dumb. Arlo should allow me to be logged in simultaneously on both my PC and my iPhone.

I know this is off-topic, but today my iPhone's Arlo app shows that I have an Arlo Smart subscription even though I have never signed up for one. However, when I log into Arlo on my PC's browser, it does not show any subscription and encourages me to subscribe. I don't think the Arlo app is accurate. In fact, when I go to Settings-->Subscription-->Manage Camera Status, it shows "Up to 5 cameras (5 with basic and 0 CVR)." Has anyone seen this behavior?

AncientGeek · ‎2019-07-03

@85BearsFan wrote:

.

Incidentally, I just noticed that when I log into Arlo on my PC's web browser, it logs out my iPhone's Arlo app and, similarly, logging into Arlo on the iPhone app forces the browser to log out of Arlo. IMHO, that's really dumb. Arlo should allow me to be logged in simultaneously on both my PC and my iPhone.

I know this is off-topic, but today my iPhone's Arlo app shows that I have an Arlo Smart subscription even though I have never signed up for one. However, when I log into Arlo on my PC's browser, it does not show any subscription and encourages me to subscribe. I don't think the Arlo app is accurate. In fact, when I go to Settings-->Subscription-->Manage Camera Status, it shows "Up to 5 cameras (5 with basic and 0 CVR)." Has anyone seen this behavior?

Yes. Lots of complaints for several years on the login issue. No other camera system I know of does that.

As for subscriptions, I have two Arlo Smart Elite subscriptions (37 cameras), so I don’t know what it looks like without one.

85BearsFan · ‎2019-07-03

@AncientGeek wrote:

Yes. Lots of complaints for several years on the login issue. No other camera system I know of does that.

As for subscriptions, I have two Arlo Smart Elite subscriptions (37 cameras), so I don’t know what it looks like without one.

Wow, that's a lot of cameras! 🙂

My son arrived home about 14-30 minutes ago and the Arlo recognizes him as being "In zone" so that's good. My wife is going out in a little bit so we'll see whether it switches her to "Out of zone."

AncientGeek · ‎2019-07-03

@85BearsFan wrote:

@AncientGeek wrote:

Yes. Lots of complaints for several years on the login issue. No other camera system I know of does that.

As for subscriptions, I have two Arlo Smart Elite subscriptions (37 cameras), so I don’t know what it looks like without one.

Wow, that's a lot of cameras! 🙂

My son arrived home about 14-30 minutes ago and the Arlo recognizes him as being "In zone" so that's good. My wife is going out in a little bit so we'll see whether it switches her to "Out of zone."

Those are just the Arlos. I also have 9 Nestcams, 15 Axis cameras, a couple of Ring products and a few one-offs. Some overkill, but this is for four locations with some multi-vendor redundancy and cameras dedicated to monitoring infrastructure.

PhilRUK · ‎2019-07-04

I also have the geofencing issue with multiple devices and called support several times. Initially they asked me to remove apostrophes from our iPhone names but that didn't help. Then they asked me to do something that made the situation worse. They asked my wife to sign in to her app with my credentials, and me vice versa on my app so we swapped logins. Now I have a new problem: On my list a geofencing devices when I open that list for a fraction of a second it shows my device name, but then after a split second it reverts to the old name of my phone and the location arrow goes light grey, and shows location "unavailable". I have tried so much to try to fix that: Re-installing the app, re-logging in with her login then mine, resetting the base station several times but the problem persists. It's as if geofencing is looking for a device that no longer exists. They raised a case number on 16 June for me and I never heard anything back despite chasing again 25 June. Zero response.

This a real shame, I think the system works very well apart from geofencing and like so many other people I absolutely need geofencing to make sure the system is always armed when I'm away.

My advice to prospective buyers would be to beware if you need the geofencing feature that Arlo advertises. Either wait until it's fixed or take the risk under advisement. It certainly doesn't work right now.

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