Is Geofencing broken again???

[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!

[KoniniKid]

After the last round of issues my wife's iPhone and my Android have been working perfectly. Last out and first in etc.

Yesterday late morning I noticed that I hadn't received the notification saying I had gone into away mode. I checked the app and sure enough the cameras weren't armed yet the status for both devices are Out of Zone. I have rebooted the base station and both phones yet as soon as I set the mode to Geo Fencing it goes straight to Home Mode. I've tested with both phones being the last to leave and return and neither can get the mode to change to away.

Is it just me or are others having an issue again as well?

[KoniniKid]

Don't worry, ignore me sorry. I removed my wifes phone as a second device, and saved the mode and it started working. I've added her back and it's still working.

False alarm sorry guys.

[JAumiller]

I'm still having the same issues as everyone listed before. My phone (primary account on iphone 8+) works perfectly fine. My wife's phone (iphone XR on access granted account) just says unavailable at all times. I've tried all of the fixes that are listed in the MULTIPLE threads for this issue and Arlo customer supports has been completely useless to this point. I am extremely frustrated with this system not working correctly and am very close to returning it.

Does anyone have any ideas on what I can try to get the secondary phone working??

All location settings are set to always for the Arlo app and both phones are enabled and have push notifications checked off. App backround refesh is also turned on for both phones.

Thanks

[dhung]

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@JAumiller wrote:

I'm still having the same issues as everyone listed before. My phone (primary account on iphone 8+) works perfectly fine. My wife's phone (iphone XR on access granted account) just says unavailable at all times. I've tried all of the fixes that are listed in the MULTIPLE threads for this issue and Arlo customer supports has been completely useless to this point. I am extremely frustrated with this system not working correctly and am very close to returning it.

Does anyone have any ideas on what I can try to get the secondary phone working??

All location settings are set to always for the Arlo app and both phones are enabled and have push notifications checked off. App backround refesh is also turned on for both phones.

Thanks

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Have you tried logging in to your wife's iPhoneXR with your main administrator account and her authorized account on your phone before? See how it behave.

[AncientGeek]

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@JAumiller wrote:

I'm still having the same issues as everyone listed before. My phone (primary account on iphone 8+) works perfectly fine. My wife's phone (iphone XR on access granted account) just says unavailable at all times. I've tried all of the fixes that are listed in the MULTIPLE threads for this issue and Arlo customer supports has been completely useless to this point. I am extremely frustrated with this system not working correctly and am very close to returning it.

Does anyone have any ideas on what I can try to get the secondary phone working??

All location settings are set to always for the Arlo app and both phones are enabled and have push notifications checked off. App backround refesh is also turned on for both phones.

Thanks

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If you have truly “tried all of the fixes that are listed in the MULTIPLE threads for this issue”, then that’s all I’ve got.  

I would normally suggest revoking her access and having her delete the app and data from her phone, then reinstall the app and reissue her access permission.  But if you have already done that, then the suggestion is moot!

My wife and I are still seeing everything working well at our three geofencing locations subsequent to the cloud server update Arlo did several weeks ago.

[azarloGuy]

Holding my breath but Geofencing is working like it should again, so PLEASEEEEEEE don't touch it!!

[Freman2]

NO NO NO NO.  It’s stilll broken!

my house has just been terrorised by a couple of  local thugs. THE ‘FIXED’ GEOFENCING shows we’re supposed to be using ‘Schedule’ correctly, the schedule says it’s supposed to be armed.....

IS IT ARMED? OF COURSE NOT!!!! ARLO MOST LIKELY COULDN’T FIX A DOOR KNOB!

[azarloGuy]

So sorry to hear that. Wasn’t working for me either. So what I did was completely remove the devices (mine and wife’s phone) saved and exited app reloaded and set up a new geofence and then the devices. And now it works perfectly again. If you have multiple devices be sure to also open the other phone so the app can detect the device. Been working perfectly now for a couple of weeks and we’ve visited both our homes and arlo working properly at both where before it did not work at either until I tried that last desperate attempt by starting over with geofencing.

[85BearsFan]

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@Cassius wrote:

Well both my wife and I have the latest updates but Geofencing still doesn’t work.  Get in the zone, and the system doesn’t disarm.  If I leave the zone and it arms even though my wife’s phone is still in the zone.  Really frustrated based on the amount invested in Arlo.  Calling support has been quite useless and a waste of my time.  It seems like I know more about Arlo than the support agents,...yikes!  Any ideas to help me make Geofencing work properly with 2 late model iPhones anyone?

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Have you tried to leave the app open and running on the background on both phones (making sure not to force quit the app)?  I seem to have better luck when the app is left open and running in the background (but I can't say for certain that leaving the app open is a 100% cure).

[azarloGuy]

I had same issue what finally worked for me was tk start over remove the devices from both phones save and close app then setup a new fence and radius and add devices back in been working perfectly now for weeks and I have two homes and works correctly both places

[85BearsFan]

I haven't posted in a little longer than a week because I was out of town and then busy at work.  Here's my latest good news-bad news-good news-bad news with Arlo's geofencing.

The weekend of July 26th, my wife and I left town for the weekend, leaving my older son to watch the house (my younger son was still out of town at a summer camp).  When my wife and I left the house together on Friday, July 26th, Arlo correctly recognized us as Out of Zone.  Because my older son was still at work when my wife and I left, Arlo (which recognized both my older son and my younger son as being Out of Zone), changed the mode to Away and Armed the system.  When my older son returned home later that afternoon, Arlo properly recognized him as being In Zone and changed the mode to Home and Disarmed the system.  When my older son left the next morning, Arlo again properly recognized him as being Out of Zone and Armed the system (Arlo still recognized my wife, my younger son, and me as all being Out of Zone).  When my older son returned to the house later that day, Arlo correctly recognized him as being In Zone and Disarmed the system.  So, by the afternoon of Saturday, July 27th, things were looking good--Arlo's geofencing was working great.  Later that evening, we had an internet outage at the house for a bit.  However, when internet service was restored, Arlo still correctly recognized my wife, my younger son, and me as being Out of Zone and my older son as being In Zone.

I don't recall what happened when my wife and I returned home the afternoon of Sunday, July 28th.  I believe Arlo recognized us both as being In Zone, but I'm not entirely sure.  What I do know is that after Sunday, things started to go downhill.  On Wednesday, July 31, I left the house, followed by my older son.  Arlo correctly recognized both of us as being Out of Zone.  However, when my wife left the house a couple of hours later, Arlo still showed her as In Zone and did not arm the system (instead, the system was still in Home mode).  

The evening of Wednesday, July 31,  I made sure to turn off the iCloud backup for Arlo on my wife's iPhone, then made an iCloud back up of her phone, then rebooted her phone, then deleted the Arlo app (including, supposedly, all the Arlo settings), then rebooted her phone, then made another iCloud backup of her phone, then rebooted, and then reinstalled the Arlo app.  Once again, Arlo immediately logged her into her Granted Access account without me having to enter any user name or password.  I confirmed that Use Location Services was set to "Always" for the Arlo app and that Background App Refresh was enabled (they both were enabled by default to those settings).  In addition, I enabled Location In/Out Notifications.  

I don't recall what happened on Thursday and Friday other than on Friday evening my wife and I went to the airport together to pick up my younger son.  Arlo recognized my wife and me as Out of Zone when we left, but it remained in Home mode (Disarmed) because my older son was home.   However, when my older son left the house about 15-20 minutes later, Arlo correctly recognized all four of us as being Out of Zone and switched to Away (Armed) mode.  When my wife, younger son, and I arrrived home a few hours later, Arlo recognized all three of us as being In Zone and switched to Home (Disarmed) mode.  When my older son returned home over the weekend, Arlo recognized him as being In Zone.

I think Arlo continued to work properly over the weekend, but I can't recall for certain.  What I do know is that geofencing suddenly failed.  My wife and younger son left the house first today.  They left together; however, Arlo only recognized my younger son as being Out of Zone.  It still showed my wife as being In Zone.  When I left the house about 45 minutes after them, Arlo correctly recognized me as being Out of Zone.  My older son was still home, which Arlo recognized, so Arlo remained in Home (Disarmed Mode).  When I got to my office, I asked my wife whether she had the Arlo app running in the background.  As it turns out, she did not; at some point, she had force quit it.  When she reopened the app, Arlo still did not recognize her as being Out of Zone so I ended up disabling her iPhone from the Enabled Devices list, waiting a minute, and then re-enabling her iPhone as an Enabled Device.  At that point, Arlo recognized her as being Out of Zone.  We will have to see what happens when she and my younger son returne home later today (whether Arlo switches her status to In Zone).

So, to summarize:  I never seem to have any geofencing issues with my iPhone XS Max or my older son's iPhone X.  Because my younger son was out of town for most of the summer, I can't say how geofencing is working on his iPhone X.  However, we have had on-and-off issues with my wife's iPhone 7 Plus.  I am concerned that there is some corrupt settings data on her iPhone 7 Plus that is not being deleted when I delete the Arlo app from her phone.  I might have to see whether I can access that data using a file explorer app after connecting her iPhone to my MacBook Pro using a Lightning cable.  The other option is to try azarloGuy's suggestion, but I would carry it to the extreme:  I would disable all of our devices from the Arlo app, then delete the app from all of our devices, and then methodically reinstall the app on all devices, one by one.

All I know is that this shouldn't be so difficult!

EDIT:  I forgot to add that I'm going to ask my wife to leave the Arlo app running in the background on her iPhone and see what happens.

[AncientGeek]

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@85BearsFan wrote:

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The evening of Wednesday, July 31,  I made sure to turn off the iCloud backup for Arlo on my wife's iPhone, then made an iCloud back up of her phone, then rebooted her phone, then deleted the Arlo app (including, supposedly, all the Arlo settings), then rebooted her phone, then made another iCloud backup of her phone, then rebooted, and then reinstalled the Arlo app.  Once again, Arlo immediately logged her into her Granted Access account without me having to enter any user name or password.  I confirmed that Use Location Services was set to "Always" for the Arlo app and that Background App Refresh was enabled (they both were enabled by default to those settings).  In addition, I enabled Location In/Out Notifications.  

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So, to summarize:  I never seem to have any geofencing issues with my iPhone XS Max or my older son's iPhone X.  Because my younger son was out of town for most of the summer, I can't say how geofencing is working on his iPhone X.  However, we have had on-and-off issues with my wife's iPhone 7 Plus.  I am concerned that there is some corrupt settings data on her iPhone 7 Plus that is not being deleted when I delete the Arlo app from her phone.  I might have to see whether I can access that data using a file explorer app after connecting her iPhone to my MacBook Pro using a Lightning cable.  The other option is to try azarloGuy's suggestion, but I would carry it to the extreme:  I would disable all of our devices from the Arlo app, then delete the app from all of our devices, and then methodically reinstall the app on all devices, one by one.

All I know is that this shouldn't be so difficult!

EDIT:  I forgot to add that I'm going to ask my wife to leave the Arlo app running in the background on her iPhone and see what happens.

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This reminds me of the “word problems” we had in algebra class that presented s ton of information and we had to pick out which information was pertinent to solving the problem.  Ha ha..

1st...I don’t think iPhone backup has any bearing on this or any app issue unless you are erasing the device and restoring it from that backup.

2nd...I may have missed it, but I didn’t see anywhere that you have removed her device as one that is tracked for geofencing, saving, perhaps force closing the app, reopening the app and adding her device back and perhaps changing the geofencing radius setting.  If you have tried that, it would be worth trying.

3rd ...the only other thought I had was (if you haven’t already done this) to also revoke your wife’s “Granted Access” from the system after removing her from geofencing and then reinstate it.

I suppose the entire test might be to remove her from geofencing, remove her Granted Access from the system, delete the app and iCloud data using Settings > iPhone Storage > Arlo > Delete App.  And ... Settings > Apple ID, iCloud, etc > under apps using iCloud set the slider for Arlo to off...on her iPhone. (Maybe do this last part before you delete the app).  Reboot her iPhone, install the Arlo app, Grant Access to her again, have her accept that (if needed...I don’t recall) and set up her iPhone for the tracking in Geofencing and adjust the radius.  Phew!

it would seem like that should do a very thorough job of erasing and data related to her and geofencing on your system, but I’m speculating, of course.

[KoniniKid]

Something is up. It's been working perfectly since the last update but now it keeps having issues if I have my wifes iPhone as a second device. If I remove her, my geofencing works perfectly. Has anything changed as like I said it has been working exactly as deisgned up till this last weekend.

[dhung]

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@KoniniKid wrote:

Something is up. It's been working perfectly since the last update but now it keeps having issues if I have my wifes iPhone as a second device. If I remove her, my geofencing works perfectly. Has anything changed as like I said it has been working exactly as deisgned up till this last weekend.

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There is a new firmware and iOS App update few days ago, they might have broken something again....

[Goodnabr]

I returned home today only to discover that once again my system was disarmed all day.  I am the ONLY resident of the household and I have 1 enabled device.  This was broken for months and then it seemed to be fixed and now it is broken again.  This is frustrating.  If I remember to check my system during the day, it turns on as soon as I touch status.  After taking so long to fix this issue, why would anyone screw it up again?

[azarloGuy]

I sure hope it’s not broken again but so far mine continues to work correctly still correct detects both my and my wife’s device and sets modes correctly at both homes we own. Just tested it by disarming and geofencing and modes were set to away at our home we are not at and did same at home we are at currently by arming then geofencing mode and system disarmed correctly. I’m holding my breath that this doesn’t get f’d up again.

[JAumiller]

After being away on holiday for 10 days and having the system set to Armed manually while we were gone; I turned geofencing back on before we returned. Seems that the location status is finally updating properly for both of us (mine and my wifes phone). The geofencing has been working properly so far, the only combination we haven't tried yet is if her phone leaves and enters the geofence without mine being there. Fingers crossed that it is now working....

Yesterday I was in and out of the geofence multiple times and it was staying in home mode because my wife was there as it should. This wasn't properly working before we left on holidays. Since leaving for our holiday I haven't changed any phone or Arlo settings.

[aking]

My Arlo Pro 2 base station is running the latest firmware version 1.14.0.2_2776. I have geofencing enabled to arm the system when I leave home and disarm the system when I'm at home. This morning, an hour and a half after I left home, I realized I didn't receive any notification about the system arming when I left the geofenced zone. I checked the app and the base system was in disarmed mode. To arm it, I needed manually to change the mode in the app to armed and then back to geofencing and now it correctly is armed in geofencing mode.  This is a big fail. I've seen lots of posts about this problem and a similar number of announcements from Arlo saying the latest update fixes the problem.

[PrestoMagic]

When I’m miles away from my home, far away from the geofence, the camera is still disarmed. I have it set to armed while away and disarmed while at home, but it won’t arm at all. I can still connect and view the camera, everything else seems to work, just the main function I bought this camera for doesn’t work at all. Disappointed.

[lrsims91]

I have an Arlo Q installed in my home with two identical devices (Samsung S8) attached to it for geofencing. The geofencing was working perfectly until about mid/late July and since then we have had issues. Based on the forum, I believe this is about the time an update was pushed out to fix a separate geofencing bug.

The geofencing usually works for one device (phone A) detecting in/out of zone. However, for the second device (phone B), it is consistently classifying it out of zone regardless of the location. When phone A leaves the geofencing zone, the camera is armed, regardless of if phone B is still within the zone. We have attempted restarting phone B to see if it was a small easily fixed glitch to no avail.

Please assist, manually arming and rearming the camera is not an efficient solution, nor is inputting a schedule as we both work rotating bi-weekly schedules.

[JAumiller]

Yup back to the same old sh*t. After a week of working perfectly fine my wifes phone is now unavailable again.

FRUSTRATION BUILDING........

[AncientGeek]

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@JAumiller wrote:

Yup back to the same old sh*t. After a week of working perfectly fine my wifes phone is now unavailable again.

FRUSTRATION BUILDING........

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Bummer.  We have been really lucky.  Ours has worked at all three of our locations where we track geofencing ever since the cloud server fix.  Even after I mucked around with HomeKit, I didn’t seem to break it.  Though HomeKit still doesn’t work right for me.

It seems odd that yours was working and then stopped.

[Cassius]

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I gave up!   My system worked a while ago for both of our phones but now it’s been months and it still doesn’t recognize my wife’s phone.   I need to know and feel confident that the system is working as intended and advertised!  What’s the point of having a “security camera” if it’s not providing “security” ?  We should have to be spending our valuable time on this forum asking questions about how to make the system we invested in work like what they sold us.  

Anyway, we’re building a new house and when we move from this house i’ll Craigslist both 5 camera, 3 lights at both homes and cancel both my monthly subscriptions.  Luckily the system errors in the “on” mode and not “off”.  For a while at random, it wouldn’t turn on when we left, which basically rendered the system totally useless when we trusted that the Geofencing technology really worked.  Granted there’s probably million reasons why this failure “technically  would happen.  However, Netgear technically responsible and ultimately accountable for making the system work as intended!

[azarloGuy]

I feel your pain been there and still might do as you are thinking of doing but what finally worked for me and has been working now for over a month is starting over with geofencing. We also have 2 homes and two devices (mine and the wife’s phone). Removed all the devices and the geofence and saved then closed the app and setup a new fence and had the phone detect the devices. Also opened wife’s phone app ad made sure it detected her phone. Once all that was done it started detecting us correctly again . We’ve been to both homes and each home has two basestations and at both homes both basestations have correctly identifies in and out of zone. Fingers crossed that it will continue. Can’t blame you for doing what you are and in the end if the problems start up again I may do the same? I have 15 cameras across two properties so lots of money tied up as most of them are Arlo 2’s. Personally I think there should be a major housecleaning in that support / software department but I suspect it’s just farmed out to a third party.
Good luck.

[Cassius]

Thanks for the suggestions AzarloGuy.  I’ve tried starting over twice but not since the last FW update.  I basically gave up and classified Arlo as a learning experience and reference point for my next system.  Fundamentally this comes down to trust and confidence that the system will “Reliably” work when I really need it to.  Sort of like when Arlo direct debits my checking account “flawlessly” every month for the subscription fee.  If Arlo could make the camera system work as good as their ability to take my money, this forum probably wouldn’t exist!