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!

[RickWNich]

They being Arlo aren't working on it! Unless you have inside information. Arlo Support hasn't even commented on this post!

I can provide, great news, that I had my wife sign in with my same email address and password on her phone. Then Arlo senses both phone locations,independently, and Geofencing does in-fact work this way.

[Freman2]

Currently Geofencing is showing both phones as in the zone correctly for me. Unfortunately it’s failed to switch the system to home mode.

Can I please ask why Arlo representatives have marking this topic as ‘Solved’. Clearly it is not solved.

[michaelkenward]

---

@RickWNich wrote:
They being Arlo aren't working on it! Unless you have inside information. Arlo Support hasn't even commented on this post!

---

It is easy to sere why someone makes that mistake, given that this messy conversation has been going on so long, with a very low signal-to-noise ratio.

Here is a link to just one message from an Arlo minder:

Solved: Re: Geofencing not disarming when I arrive home af... - Page 19 - Arlo Communities

there is also this from the same person:

Re: Geofencing not working with 2 devices on Android app 2.7.11

It is possible for you to see all of the messages that @JessicaP has posted.

Here is another one that you may have missed from someone else:

Re: Geofencing Issues - Page 5 - Arlo Communities

[Dannybear]

michaelkenward wrote:
It is easy to sere why someone makes that mistake, given that this messy conversation has been going on so long, with a very low signal-to-noise ratio.

Yes I agree that arlo’s signal is far too low for the customers noise.

I find it interesting that arlo’s recommendation not to use multiple devices on a single account is the only workaround that actually worked.

For me geofencing has stopped working after one day on a single device on a single account.

Regarding support help, I recently received a update request for an open case that will be closed and when I went to update it a hour later, it was already closed.
Arlo can’t be helped.

[AncientGeek]

We returned to our lake home today.  Both devices showed “in zone”, but the two Pro bases stayed in Away mode.  I deselected our iPhones from geofencing tracking and saved it.  I then went back and selected the same two devices for geofencing.  Both devices then showed location was unavailable for both iPhones.  Now, two hours later, one of my two base stations shows both iPhones “In Zone” and one of them still shows the two devices as having unknown location.  After changing the geofencing status for geofencing, the Arlo app logged me out twice in succession and it does this every time I change the geofencing status.

Geofencing for wireless base station based camera systems, is clearly still fubar.

[RSC1]

My son, a QA tester says his IT friends tell him that geofencing is problematic. I’m hoping it gets sorted out and trust it will.

[Monkey_501]

@AncientGeek Aren't all our settings in the Cloud on Arlo servers? isnt that how this whole thing works.. They should have access to all settings etc to do there own trouble shooting.

[AncientGeek]

---

@Monkey_501 wrote:

@AncientGeek Aren't all our settings in the Cloud on Arlo servers? isnt that how this whole thing works.. They should have access to all settings etc to do there own trouble shooting.

---

Let me consult the detailed system architecture and design guide for the system...oh wait...no system manufacturer provides those, so we have no clue what is stored where.  I certainly think it should be totally possible for all of those settings to be stored on the cloud servers, but many may just pass through that infrastructure without being stored there.  Clearly some information is stored on base stations for wireless cameras and some in the wireless cameras themselves.  Wired cameras like the Q and Q-Plus must have the functionality that is in the wireless bases station, stored in the wired camera, since there is no base station associated with those.  App settings may be stored in a combination of our mobile devices, in the cloud and on the camera system, depending on where it is needed for camera/system function.  Given the length of time it takes to get camera status and the desire to have “current” status, it seems likely some information is only on the camera system itself.  In a quiescent state (all cameras turned off, using my MR1100 as a mobile base station) , it appears the cameras only talk to the cloud every few hours.  Presumably when active they send data on an as needed basis, in quasi real-time.  Smart notifications seem likely to not be stored on the camera system, since that processing happens on cloud servers, the camera system may not “know” anything about that.  Geofencing ...who knows.  Clearly the mobile device needs to track our location and send a location change packet to the cloud servers when we enter and exit a zone.  I have three zones, so the app and cloud servers need to be able to associate zones with camera systems, so these events trigger the right status on the right system based on the cloud servers informing the correct system of the status change while ignoring the systems for which the status change has no impact.

I actually had the same thought when I mentioned the “system report”.  All of that data “could” be stored and/or mirrored in the cloud and therefore readily available for analysis and troubleshooting.  One might think it could even track certain types of usage and failure data and be used in aggregate for analysis of the population of systems to inform the overall design and operation of the Arlo system in total.

[AncientGeek]

I visit my third location that uses geofencing today.  While mowing the lawn, I saw Arlo alerts coming in from the cameras.  I checked the status and found I was known to be “In Zone” and my wife is correctly “out of zone”, but the Base station (original Arlo Base) did not disarm, though my Arlo Q Plus disarmed as it should.  I manually disarmed my Arlo wireless Base station and then selected Geofencing again as the mode.  This time the mode stayed in disarmed mode as it should when one of us is on site.  I checked my Arlo bases at my nearby location (about a half mile away) and found one of the two base stations still shows my geofencing status as “unknown” while the other base shows both of us “In Zone” which is incorrect.  I am out of that zone.

Arlo Q cameras work just fine.  Arlo wireless Base stations don’t!

[madkiwi]

---

@AncientGeek wrote:

I visit my third location that uses geofencing today.  While mowing the lawn, I saw Arlo alerts coming in from the cameras.  I checked the status and found I was known to be “In Zone” and my wife is correctly “out of zone”, but the Base station (original Arlo Base) did not disarm, though my Arlo Q Plus disarmed as it should.  I manually disarmed my Arlo wireless Base station and then selected Geofencing again as the mode.  This time the mode stayed in disarmed mode as it should when one of us is on site.  I checked my Arlo bases at my nearby location (about a half mile away) and found one of the two base stations still shows my geofencing status as “unknown” while the other base shows both of us “In Zone” which is incorrect.  I am out of that zone.

Arlo Q cameras work just fine.  Arlo wireless Base stations don’t!

---

Of course the base stations don't work. They broke the firmware on May 21st.

It's only been a month, and there was a national holiday in there too, what do you expect? You think they'll actually have someone working 24/7 to fix what they broke?

[AncientGeek]

I forgot to mention that once again when I changed from geofencing mode to “disarmed” and back again, I was logged out of the iOS app.  I logged back in and was logged back out a second time.  This is a consistent new annoyance.  It always logs me out twice when I change modes like this.  I have not tried a simple “Armed” to “Disarmed” change, but a change to and from geofencing logs me out.  There are no other devices logged in to that same account.

[Cance]

Today geofencing did not correctly individuate my position.
Now I am at home and it says my phon is out of zone, my wife too.
I deselected both from geofencing and then rese left.
Now our phones are both not available

[Cance]

Today geofencing did not correctly individuate my position.
Now I am at home and it says my phone is out of zone, my wife’s too.
I deselected both from geofencing and then reselect.
Now our phones are both not available

[BruceTh]

I’ve found the same issue starting today where it is now not knowing where the phones are, let alone not arming disarming properly!

[Cance]

Now the complete system seems don’t running. Geofencing not available. Modes not available. It write info retrieval. No camera available. I am actually out of home, and Arlo seems dead...

[AncientGeek]

---

@Cance wrote:
Now the complete system seems don’t running. Geofencing not available. Modes not available. It write info retrieval. No camera available. I am actually out of home, and Arlo seems dead...

---

One of my base stations (in the location with two base stations) just updated to firmware version 1.12.2.3.2762.  This morning when I checked, the second base station was already at the new version.   Both are hardware version VMB4000r3.

While updating, the system associated with that base station showed as Unavailable and there was no indication it was in the middle of an update.  It is back online now, but my wife’s iPhone geofencing status still shows as unavailable.  In another hour or so, I’ll check her phone to be sure the Arlo app is running.  My iPhone correctly shows “In Zone” as it eventually did yesterday.

I’ll play with geofencing and see if anything improved.

Nope.  I changed my mode on the East base (which was the most problematic base yesterday) to geofencing and as I navigated through the app, I was logged out as has recently been the case.  I logged back in and when I went to “Mode”, all Devices reported “getting information” for an extraordinarily long time.  I finally closed and reopened the app.  This time, the device modes showed up in a timely manner.  However, when I checked the location of our two iPhones, my XS had changed from “In Zone” to “Unavailable”

oh...wait...now both iPhones correctly show “In Zone”....perhaps this update did help.  Fingers crossed.  I wrote the first update to this post and then checked my iPhone.  That’s when I checked back on my iPad and found the locations of the two iPhones were now correct.  I did not touch my wife’s iPhone X...just my XS.

[Frostbach]

My base station also appears to have updated to 1.12.2.3_2762. Hardware is also VMB4000r3.

I’m not seeing release notes posted for this yet, so no idea what it is supposed to be for. Fingers crossed....

[dbrasco]

---

@Frostbach wrote:
My base station also appears to have updated to 1.12.2.3_2762. Hardware is also VMB4000r3.

I’m not seeing release notes posted for this yet, so no idea what it is supposed to be for. Fingers crossed....

---

Unfortunately, i dont think it's fixed.  It failed to recognize my wife leaving the home zone this morning.  She's the secondary account.  What's the best way of getting Arlo to respond with some positive news that they acknowledge the issue and are looking into it?  Do we need a new thread?  This one is "Solved" - maybe they arent paying attention to it?

[RSC1]

They are most likely breaking it in order to fix it. Isolating bugs can be very difficult, especially with geofencing.

[mamarcac]

^^ This guy is obviously an Arlo employee. Just read that post, he can't be serious.

[RSC1]

LOL. Nope not even close, but I am patient. Their undoubtedly trouble shooting. Wouldn’t you?

[AncientGeek]

---

@RSC1 wrote:
LOL. Nope not even close, but I am patient. Their undoubtedly trouble shooting. Wouldn’t you?

---

I was a VP of IT (CIO) for 20 years.  Code is properly debugged in test environments, not in production.  So the answer is yes and no.  Yes it has to be debugged and no, we should not be witnessing the debugging process on our systems.  That should happen on Arlo systems and once proven, it should be rolled out to customers.

That isn't to say that bugs don't get past the test environments, but it isn't part of the plan.  Way too much bad code makes it out of the Arlo shop and onto the customer platforms.  Their entire platform history is littered with bad releases.  Some were absolutely crippling.

[RSC1]

I do know a camera went down a moment ago, so I tried to restart my hub, but it lost internet connection. The system woke up with new firmware for my hub. I’m squeezing my thumbs.

[RSC1]

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.

[mamarcac]

The number of people who post on this forum does not reflect the number of people affected. I kept out of this for the first year I owned Arlo for example, only popping in to monitor and see if my system went crazy or nope nope nope Arlo realeased another bad firmware. I gather there are many more like that out there.

This new firmware did nothing for me FYI. Same old same old.