Geofencing and schedules new app

[wenklaw]

All

Did a search and still having issues.

had geofencing and schedules working fine on old app and now I’m really struggling, hope someone can help.

all I want to do is the following 

1) when at home I want it to follow a time schedule, ie change the mode to standby (arms some cameras) at 2200 then arm

away at 2330 (arms all cameras) and then arm home at 0530 (disarms cameras)

2) I want geofencing to arm away if I leave the property and on my return I want it to go back to the scheduled timers

3) i want geofencing when i am away to over ride the times schedules, so all my cameras remained armed.

finding it impossible. It was so easy on the old app

[wenklaw]

To add to my Arlo woes, whilst I have sort of got geofencing and schedule automations working with a caveat.  Arlo this morning didnt change to standby at 0500am (remained in arm home) as it should do and has been over the last few days.

I know its not my internet dropping out as i have outage monitors in place that havent recorded any drops.

My faith in Arlo being able to provide a security solution isnt at a high point thats for sure!

Come on Arlo sort this mess out as currently you are yet again turning a decent system into one i wish i hadnt purchased.

[alex_loo]

hi @wenklaw , too bad I must report that the geofencing that I blindly copied yours are NOT working here.

So, when all devices were leaving this afternoon, it did not change to the expected ARM AWAY.  I needed to manually switch to ARM AWAY.  Just now I was driving past near my home, and I noticed it DID switch back to the expected ARM HOME, and then switch back to ARM AWAY --- which was correct.

However, an hour later when I am really driving home (all 2 devices), it did NOT change to ARM HOME --- which is wrong.  I even got caught by the cameras!  I needed to manually switch back to the (wanted) ARM HOME, quickly, to avoid more false reports.

so... no luck with your config mate. I can only wait for a proper fix from ARLO.

Alex

[wenklaw]

Apart from the schedule glitch this morning mine is working albeit not as it did before this terrible update.

been out, geo armed away. Got home geo changed mode to standby 

[alex_loo]

@wenklaw ok the only main difference from your that I am having here is that: while you choose to switch to "Standby" when returning home, I chose "ARM HOME" instead.  And I use "Standby" for something else (ie for my overnight arming, when I am sleeping)

Sounds very stupid that choice of mode may make a difference.  Very reluctant to re-configure mine here again.  Very likely it's just ARLO not working.  sigh.

@wenklaw , what is your "schedule glitch" about, BTW?

[wenklaw]

The schedule glitch was Arlo didn’t change the mode from arm home to standby at 0500am on that morning as it should have done, following day it did so i can only put that down to an Arlo server issue maybe, however i did set to arm home manually that evening before the 2359 arm home schedule so maybe just maybe that action prevented the automations from running, IMO it shouldn’t do and my understanding of how Arlo has set them to trigger also wouldn’t suggest it would prevent it BUT who knows with this new problematic Arlo automations logic!!!!  I am going to change the mode manually again this evening before 2359 and see if it fails to change the mode at 0500 again, that will prove it one way or another

My advice to anyone who sets up as i have, leave it to do its thing and don’t interfere by changing modes manually.

One of the Arlo mods on this forum has requested custom ‘modes’ is added meaning we will hopefully be able to add and customise modes as having just the 3 default modes is extremely limiting.

[alex_loo]

my schedules (2330 and 0730) are the other way round --- they have been perfectly triggered EVERYDAY.

(geofencing triggers not though)

Alex

[alex_aus1]

Hi,

I used @wenklaw  's tips to get my geofencing and schedule working for the most part, however i arrived home after my first trigger time last night and it just went back to Standby mode, so its a fail.

Ok, so i MAY be able to tweak the logic, but in reality I should not have to.

My main point to @Arlo  is this.

Most users located at home would probably have, or like to have, a setup with 3 modes (as arlo has now limited us to) these are:

1. Arm all cameras and record,send notifications etc.

2. Disarm all cameras (example would be when home during day and family is moving about)

3. Arm some cameras (example, arm outside cameras at night only when home or

alternatively arm all to record, but no notifications to wake us all up).

Add to this the Geolocation feature to switch between setting 1 and 2.

Allow a Schedule to run, say from sunset to sunrise (as arlo have provided) or specific times to Enable setting 3 BUT only when geolocation says i am home.

I shouldnt need a degree in computer logic to get to this, and the old app would do it easy as.

Add the other users here issue with mutilple users, and we will be getting somewhere.

Come on arlo, I presume to read these forums..

regards,

the other Alex

[alex_loo]

hi @alex_aus1 , (are you from Aus?)

I think ARLO has already considered ALL of your points --- but only executing them in such a buggy/messy way.

Your

mode 1 = ARM AWAY

mode 2 = STANDBY

mode 3 = ARM HOME

And within each of these mode, we have the flexibility to configure it for what camera(s) to be included, and what each is doing (say: notification or not, record or not)

"Geolocation feature to switch between setting 1 and 2" is also there: the Arrive and Leave automations that can action to switch to 1 of the 3 modes.

"Schedule to run, say from sunset to sunrise" is also there: the Schedule automation with time trigger and option to, again, switch to 1 of the 3 modes.

(it's true that the schedule automation does NOT cross check geo locations, but I think that's fine, since you can disable selected schedule automation, UNDER each mode --- making the schedule simply absent for that "ARM AWAY" situation) (and as a matter of fact, I have seen my 2330 schedule correctly NOT running, during the 4 weeks when I was ARM AWAY)

So from a (somebody call this new) user experience design, THIS IS ALL GOOD.

EXCEPT THAT THE WHOLE GOOD DESIGN WAS BADLY WRITTEN IN THE SOFTWARE.  It just needs the blxxdy fix.

The "original" Alex (from Sydney)

[lharman1]

This is the exact setup that I had in the old version and after upgrading can't get it to work in new version.  Geofencing seems to work occasionally but the scheduling never works with Geofence enabled.  After reading multiple threads(thanks StephenB), I ended up just deleting the Geofencing. Which is very sad because now my cameras will not alarm if I don't remember to "arm away "when I leave. And God forbid if I forget to disable, my cameras will rapidly drain when I'm home because they are continually recording.  Very frustrated.  

[wenklaw]

if geofencing never works that suggests something beyond the new app and automations etc. 

Have you checked all the geofencing devices in your dashboard- privacy centre - account - available geofencing devices?

also within the privacy centre you can check what devices are logged in via active device sessions and log them out.  I would log them all out and the log back in on one device and see how geofencing behaves, if okay log into another device, recheck, if okay another and so on. 

[CoDARubin]

Agreed that the new UX is terrible. The design team needs to go back to the drawing board and quickly launch a new iteration. I can’t imagine it’s very accessible with such a bad UX so I hope Arlo is prepared for potential lawsuits from screenreader users…

[alex_loo]

haha @CoDARubin , I'd say the new UX is good and making sense to me.  It was the substance that is terrible --- what's promised by the nice UX actually doesn't work most of the time.  Terrible IMPLEMENTATION of a nice UX design.

Anyway, still a big piece of crap overall.

Alex

[wenklaw]

I’ve nothing per se against how the new app looks and how it potentially should work.  The problem is it doesn’t work as it should and you end up with extremely complicated automations and routines, schedules etc.  

The Arlo design team in my view have managed to create a problem that didn’t exist before.

[StephenB]

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@wenklaw wrote:

I’ve nothing per se against how the new app looks and how it potentially should work.  The problem is it doesn’t work as it should and you end up with extremely complicated automations and routines, schedules etc.  

The Arlo design team in my view have managed to create a problem that didn’t exist before.

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FWIW, I agree with this assessment.

There are some things in the new UI that are better than the old.  But there remain bugs, and even if they were fixed, the automations would still be too hard.  Plus three modes for the system clearly aren't enough for many use cases.

[Newtonhill]

After numerous messages with Arlo support I have finally got schedules and automations to work in the new app like they did in the previous app. 

Turns out that our problem wasn’t to do with the way I’d set up schedules and automations but was instead related to the devices associated with our account.

Arlo support eventually suggested checking “Available Geofencing Devices” which is found by clicking the little profile circle in the top left corner, then Privacy Centre, Account, Available Geofencing Devices. We had 8 devices linked so deleted them all and reinstalled again. It looks like the ‘Specified People Arrive (and Leave)’ that we were linking to our automations were for devices we no longer own so it was never going to work. Pity Arlo support had me running round in circles for weeks when it looks like it was a relatively easy fix. 

[alex_loo]

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@Newtonhill wrote:

After numerous messages with Arlo support I have finally got schedules and automations to work in the new app like they did in the previous app. 

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Oh this is great news!

1.  What schedules (time triggered right?) and automations (geofencing, right?) do you have?

2.  How many users do you have?  Is your case 1 owner user + multiple "shared" users, or just 1 single user account logged in multiple times?

3.  How many devices are using these schedules and automations?  Say how many iPhones and how many androids?

4.  Since your schedules and automations working fine, how long has that been?  Days? Weeks?

Many thanks.

Alex