Geofencing not working after iPhone upgrade, old device keeps reappearing in Privacy Center

[DualShock]

Hi,

I recently upgraded my iPhone to a new iPhone. I used the iOS device transfer feature to move everything to the new phone.

After the upgrade, I noticed that the old iPhone is still appearing under Privacy Center as a geofence device. It appears that this is preventing geofencing from working properly, because I have automations set up that will only activate or deactivate the cameras when all devices leave or return to my house. Since the old phone is still appearing, it won't activate or deactivate properly because it thinks the old phone has not left or arrived.

I tried deleting the old phone from Privacy Center, which causes geofencing to work for a few days, but for some reason it keeps coming back.

Has anyone experienced this and/or may know of a solution?

Thanks!

[BrookeN]

Can you send me a screenshot showing the devices and circle or highlight the one needing deleted?

[Roos]

I am having the exact same issue. I have tried deleting my old iPhone from the list of active units in the app, but it keeps reappearing and geofencing then automatically looks for this, instead of the new iPhone, which breaks the geofence functionality. Please make the deletion of old units more resilient.

Rgds

Peter

Arlo Ultra 2, H10, FW 1.070.52.1_35_1bdb65f

Arlo Hub, VMB5000r6, FW1.23.0.0_1520_b69eb19

iOS 17.4.1, iPhone 15 pro max

[DualShock]

Apologies for the delay in replying to this thread.

I was able to resolve this by logging out of the mobile app, then logging in to my.arlo.com and deleting all devices from there, then logging back in to the mobile app. The old device stopped reappearing.

@Roos try this out to see if it works for you.

[DualShock]

Spoke too soon. Happened again today. Seeing 2 devices in Privacy Center both named exactly the same. Got home and the cameras did not disable.

Logged out of the app then logged into my.arlo.com and logged out of all devices, then logged back into the app. Now I see 2 devices again in Privacy Center, with 2 different names.

The one it thinks is my current device appears to be my old device, while the other one appears to be my current device.

It just doesn't make sense. Why does the old device keep reappearing? 😫

[Roos]

Was just about to reply that your suggested solution seemed to have fixed the issue, so I am sorry to read that you are back at square one.

Extremely frustrating that the old, decommissioned, devices keep reappearing.

I hope Arlo will provide a way to reliably maintain a list of current devices.

[DualShock]

Hi @BrookeN ,

Continuing the discussion from the geofencing thread: https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Secure/No-geofence-devices-listed/m-p/2079854#M7694

I arrived home today and my cameras did not disable. It appears that my old iPhone appeared again in Privacy Center.

I should note that the "old" device was labeled "iPhone 15 Pro", which is actually what my new device is. When I had gotten my new device, I had labeled it as "iPhone 15 Pro" in Arlo Secure.

I suspect that because I did a device-to-device transfer from my old iPhone to my new iPhone (a feature in more recent iOS releases), rather than restoring from a backup, the device id may have gotten messed up in Arlo's back-end. So maybe it keeps thinking that they are the same device, when in actuality they are different?

For the moment I have deleted the "iPhone 15 Pro" device in Privacy Center so that should resolve the issue in the short term. However I suspect that it may reappear again in the future.

Is Arlo aware of this issue and/or are there any plans to address it?

EDIT:

I just did a bit of testing. I logged out of the app, then logged into my.arlo.com and deleted ALL devices (including the "iPhone 15 Pro" device), then logged out of ALL sessions. Then I logged back in to the Arlo Secure app. Lo and behold, the "iPhone 15 Pro" device reappeared in Privacy Center! I removed it again from Privacy Center so hopefully that fixes things temporarily.

[kranknpop]

I have exactly this problem.  My iPhone keeps showing up twice in the list of available geofence devices.  When I delete the duplicate, sometimes it shows back up in 2 days, other times in 2 hours.  I've told Arlo that it has to do with the fact that I upgraded iPhones.  I made it to second level support, who tell me that the engineering team is and has been aware of the problem, and that I should wait for a fix.  This was weeks ago.

Please post if you have discovered a fix to this problem.  I've seen other posts relative to geofence devices not showing up at all, and this problem was fixed by completely deleting the account and starting over.  Does anyone know if doing that will fix the duplicate iPhones problem?

[j-eirik]

Exactly same problem here. DO NOT delete Your account and start over again, this does not fix the problem! We have to wait for a fix….

[BrookeN]

Can you all dm me your iPhone model and version. As well as screenshots of the duplicates when setting up Arrive/Leave, screenshot of the Privacy Center, friend's/guest access mobile devices that should appear in automation. Thank you!

[Retired_Member]

I have the exact same problem. The support people cannot help me. I raised a ticket four months ago and still nothing. I can delete the phones in the privacy centre but they always come back. It also happens with my wife’s phone who has been invited to my account. Eventually my two phones become four and GF stops working. If I delete the old phones GF works fine, until they return. 

[BrookeN]

Can you send me  iPhone model and version. As well as screenshots of the duplicates when setting up Arrive/Leave, screenshot of the Privacy Center, friend's/guest access mobile devices that should appear in automation. Thank you!

[kranknpop]

I deleted one of the duplicate phones using the web app, and perhaps selected the "right" one because things started working normally.  No duplicate iPhones, and geofencing worked as expected.  Then I changed the "When everyone leaves" automation to have no action, since I didn't want to arm the security system while workers were in the house, yet both my wife and I were away.  Now, though I see both my and my wife's phone in Privacy Center (with no duplicates), only my wife's phone shows up in the Arrive/Leave automations.  I went from 2 iPhones for me and 1 for my wife showing up there, to 0 iPhones for me and 1 for my wife showing up.  Any hints on how to get my iPhone to show back up in the Arrive/Leave automations?

[kranknpop]

UPDATE: I deleted one of the duplicate iPhones in the web app, and things started working.  But then, though I had no duplicates in Privacy Center, I only had Linda's iPhone in the Arrive/Leave automations - "Steve's iPhone renamed" was completely missing.  Then overnight, things changed, and the next morning, I once again had duplicate iPhones in the Privacy Center, but only my and Linda's iPhone in the automations (which is what one would want). I renamed one of the duplicates in Privacy Center to "Steve's 2 iPhone renamed" and the results are a) "Steve's iPhone renamed" and "Linda's iPhone" in automations as shown in mobile app, and b) "Steve's 2 iPhone renamed" and "Linda's iPhone" as shown in automations in web app.

Don't know if this sheds light on what might be going on, but I certainly don't understand it.  Anyone else have any thoughts?

[BrookeN]

@kranknpop can you please see if they are there now?

[kranknpop]

Hi @BrookeN .  I dm'ed you.  If we discover any other hints/tips on this issue, I'll post here to share with the broader community.

[MrPink44323]

I am having the same issue with the geofencing. Me and my wife are updating our phones and the app is not correctly removing the old devices. It seems arlo has an app issue. I don't understand why it doesn't delete permanently.

[BrookeN]

Can you try to edit the name of the device and see if it changes the name for the duplicate device as well?

[kranknpop]

Hi @BrookeN   I changed the name of "this device" (the only one that it will let me change) a few weeks ago, and it changed the duplicate as well.  Just now, I changed the name again, and it did not immediately change the name of the duplicate device.  However, I suspect that over time, the duplicate device name will change, just as after deleting the duplicate device, it eventually gets added back.  I will update when that happens.

[kranknpop]

Hi @BrookeN   Well, I assumed wrongly again.  After changing the name of the device, it has now reverted back to the previous name.  The name of the duplicate device did not seem to be affected by any of the name changes.