Revert the Arlo Secure App Upgrade

[mclaughlin-arlo]

Hello. I unfortunately upgraded my Arlo App and have had fits trying to set it to follow pretty simple schedules:

Home / Day: Turn off everything but 1 camera

Home / Night: Turn on everything

Away: Turn on everything

The new setup for schedules and automations makes my head explode. I think I've read enough community posts (which have had really thorough answers, thank you) to mostly make sense of the options, but overall the user experience of scheduling in the app is really poor, complicated, confusing, and backwards in my opinion. I don't really recall having any issues in with the same functionality prior to these changes. If Arlo has a better place to share this type of feedback please advise.

Best regards.

[JamesC]

We understand there have been several challenges with the new user experience. The feedback posted in the community is absolutely appreciated. The concerns here, amongst others, are being consolidated internally and passed up to product management for review.

As we move forward with the new user interface we will keep community up to date on future changes and plans to make the experience aligned with user expectations.

Thanks,

JamesC

[StephenB]

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@mclaughlin-arlo wrote:

I unfortunately upgraded my Arlo App and have had fits trying to set it to follow pretty simple schedules:

Home / Day: Turn off everything but 1 camera

Home / Night: Turn on everything

Away: Turn on everything

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Are you looking for tailored advice?  Or just giving feedback on how difficult scheduling is with "Feed"?

[Cmoo]

This upgrade SUX!  On top of being charged more, the app will not allow you to setup your devices individually.  The instructions are terrible and customer support is even worse.  Give us the option of reverting to the previous version until you have figured out how to fix this cluster!  

[Cmoo]

I attempted to get tailored advice and the customer support person I spoke with provided no help at all. At the very least produce a video and send it to everyone whose account was upgraded showing how to perform all of the capabilities of the previous version.  

[mclaughlin-arlo]

Ideally, I'd like the app to be reverted to its previous version. Assuming that is not an option, I am sharing feedback for the product management team and wasn't sure were best to put it. The responses to similar posts provided enough guidance, I think, to sort of make it work. The recent app/scheduling changes though are so bad that it has converted me from a Arlo Secure promoter to a detractor.

When Home: Run on schedule

When Away: Turn everything on

The above use case cannot be supported.

[alex_loo]

I think the worst show-stopper is lack of enough modes to support real-life scenarios.  Users end up struggling with setting up in the new world, still with time schedule in mind --- which makes the whole experience even worse.

Alex

[mclaughlin-arlo]

Yep. There is a 2 hour window where every dog in the city gets walked behind my fenceline. But there isn't enough Modes, to your point, for me to carve our a unique schedule during that window. We lost a lot of schedule flexibility with Arlo's changes on top of the confusion introduced. Hopefully they will consolidate the similar feedback I've found in multiple posts and recognize they need to do some usability testing and also map out various schedule patterns to support. It sucks feeling locked in given how much I invested in my cameras.

[alex_loo]

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@mclaughlin-arlo wrote:

Hopefully they will consolidate the similar feedback I've found in multiple posts and recognize they need to do some usability testing and also map out various schedule patterns to support. 

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They won't.  I can tell ARLO people are reading this forum, but they won't bother to facilate this (actually in a way helping themselves).

Alex

[jguerdat]

It would seem that your schedules are simple enough. Your initial needs were posted as:

Home / Day: Turn off everything but 1 camera

Home / Night: Turn on everything

Away: Turn on everything

That seems to indicate you want both schedules as well as geofencing although a later post talks about just schedules. Let's start with schedules:

1) Create a schedule that uses Arm Away, which has rules for all cameras in it, to start at, say, 10PM.

2) Create a schedule that uses Arm Home, in which you have created a rule for only one camera, at 6AM

There's no stop time for any schedule - a different schedule turns off the first one and starts a different mode.

As for geofencing, things get a bit trickier since the schedules can override GF settings. @StephenB has worked out a solution that I don't use for various reasons but I believe works like this:

1) Edit Arm Home so that all cameras have appropriate rules there.

2) Edit Standby so that only one camera has a rule.

3) Create your schedules as above but use Arm Home for nighttime and Standby for daytime. (Arm Away will only be used for GF)

4) Edit Arm Away to ensure all cameras have rules. At the bottom, disable your schedules so they never will work when using GF.

5) Set up GF to use Arm Away for Leave.

6) Set up GF to enable your modes via Add An Action, Enable/Disable an Automation.

@StephenB correct me if I have this wrong.

You may also want to create a schedule for that time period when the dog-walkers are in force to eliminate recordings or, at least, notifications, followed by yet another schedule to resume your normal daytime.

[mclaughlin-arlo]

Thank you. Very thorough like many responses I read to other posts.

The genesis of my feedback is this feels incredibly complicated and obtuse, unnecessarily so? It seems I could just have one schedule and Geofenching could override it to All On when gone, and revert back to the schedule when home. I think Arlo Secure before the update was much more inline with this simpler approach and took a major step backwards.

[StephenB]

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@mclaughlin-arlo wrote:

Ideally, I'd like the app to be reverted to its previous version.

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That won't happen.

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@mclaughlin-arlo wrote:

When Home: Run on schedule

When Away: Turn everything on

The above use case cannot be supported.

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Often it can.  But it depends on the details of your schedule.  If you want tailored advice, tell us what cameras you want armed at various times.

[StephenB]

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@Cmoo wrote:

I attempted to get tailored advice and the customer support person I spoke with provided no help at all. 

---

Post the details on another discussion thread.  

It gets very confusing when I am trying to help two people at the same time on the same thread.

[StephenB]

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@jguerdat wrote:

@StephenB correct me if I have this wrong.

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@mclaughlin-arlo wants all cameras armed when away.

When someone wants that, I always recommend reserving "Arm Away" for that use.  Then set up the schedule to switch between "Arm Home" and "Standby" (and never  switch to "Arm Away").  So my recommendation is not the same as yours.

I would instead modify "Standby" to enable just the one camera, and make sure "Arm Home" and Arm Away" arm all the cameras.

• https://kb.arlo.com/000062777/About-Arlo-Routines-Modes-Rules-and-Automations

Then create a schedule that uses "Arm Home" at night, and "Standby" during the day.  

Finally set up geofencing to switch to "Arm Away" when you leave, and either "Standby" or "Arm Home" when you arrive. 

I've posted (and reposted) automation screenshots - including one a couple of minutes ago here:

• https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Pro-3/Arlo-pro-new-update-automation-not-working/m-p/2434617#M171...

[mclaughlin-arlo]

Hi @StephenB , please don't take any of my critical feedback as aimed at you. Your responses have been prompt and thorough. Agree or disagree, my feedback is for Arlo Secure product management. Their recent changes introduced complexity and debatably reduced functionality (I could be wrong on this one but don't think I am).

I think I largely implemented what you suggest above and just have the gap of when I come home, my cameras are sometimes on during the day (or I could reverse the issue and have them not come on when I return at night).

[StephenB]

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@mclaughlin-arlo wrote:

The genesis of my feedback is this feels incredibly complicated and obtuse, unnecessarily so? 

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I asked initially whether you wanted help or just wanted to leave feedback ...

On the feedback, it is crystal clear that

• users are struggling to understand how automations work.  So they are just too complicated.
• many users need more modes to get the schedules they want (and Arlo removed the custom mode feature they need).
• geofencing "arrive" simply can't be made to work properly with the new interface, because there is no way to tell arrive to "just follow the schedule".

"Library" didn't have the gaps that are in "Feed", but many users struggled with the combination of scheduling+geofencing with "Library" also. 

Neither @jguerdat nor I work for Arlo - so I'm not taking any of this feedback personally.  I'm just helping folks get something reasonably close to the functionality they need.

[JamesC]

We understand there have been several challenges with the new user experience. The feedback posted in the community is absolutely appreciated. The concerns here, amongst others, are being consolidated internally and passed up to product management for review.

As we move forward with the new user interface we will keep community up to date on future changes and plans to make the experience aligned with user expectations.

Thanks,

JamesC

[AikaneKai]

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@JamesC wrote:

...

As we move forward with the new user interface we will keep community up to date on future changes and plans to make the experience aligned with user expectations.

---

In the mean time, Arlo has completely screwed their existing user base and their own reputation even further.  If they don't actually fix these issues and soon, their business is going to suffer irreparably to the point where they may no longer exist. 

This new software version never should have been released.  Once it was, since it's clearly broken, it should have been reverted immediately.

With the number of available resources for providing feedback to potential customers, users are not silent about the good, the bad and the ugly.  Arlo has clearly moved into the ugly phase.

[55Willy]

I sincerely hope SOMEONE with ARLO is reading  this as I have to say that upgrading if you can call it that was 

a huge mistake on my part,  have had nothing but problems since switching.  Had I realized I would no longer

be able to schedule individual cameras & the degree of difficulty navigating the system would be I obviously

would NOT have done it !   PLEASE PROVIDE A WAY TO REVERT TO THE PREVIOUS VERSION !!   Believe it or

not while not perfect it worked well and was a LOT easier to understand !

D Williams    

[55Willy]

Well here we are a day later after talking to support TWICE & wasting almost the entire day I still can't set the

schedule for more than  ONE camera,  after setting a schedule for the 1st camera when you go to the next,

the system will not accept it !   To anyone at Arlo;    THER'S  A SERIOUS PROBLEM WITH YOUR SOFTWARE !!

[StephenB]

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@55Willy wrote:

Well here we are a day later after talking to support TWICE & wasting almost the entire day I still can't set the

schedule for more than  ONE camera,  after setting a schedule for the 1st camera when you go to the next,

the system will not accept it !   To anyone at Arlo;    THER'S  A SERIOUS PROBLEM WITH YOUR SOFTWARE !!

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You schedule the system, not individual cameras.

Can you tell us the details of the schedule you want?  Then we can try to help.

(Note this is a user-to-user forum - I do not work for Arlo).

[55Willy]

Stephen,

Since putting in these cameras in (7) over 5yr's ago it's been no problem scheduling them individually.  I keept 3 of them armed 24-7 the others were scheduled to arm at 8pm & off at 7am so as not to have notifications blowing up my phone all day.

I have been told by two different people at Arlo support this was possible in the upgraded version and walked through the process over the phone which seemed to work but after getting off the phone I found that when attempting to program the second one exactly the way I was shown I get a message saying it can't be saved due a scheduling overlap ?   Each time you set up a schedule you are asked to select a specific camera  to apply these settings to and with no previous schedule set for that particular camera it won't accept it, but only when your trying to set up a schedule for the second camera. The first one set up with the exact same schedule was accepted with no error.

I have spent hours trying different variations other than what I was shown and honestly I was hoping that someone with Arlo was monitoring this forum. This has been frustration beyond belief !! This appears to be a software problem that Arlo seriously needs to address.  So far for me this upgrade sucks ! Wasted a lot of time

& doesn't look good for Arlo's image.

If anyone at Arlo is monitoring this forum PLEASE feel free to contact me !

Dennis   /    Targetref@aol.com

On Monday, January 13, 2025 at 06:54:10 PM CST, Arlo Community <community@no-reply.arlo.com> wrote:

[StephenB]

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@55Willy wrote:

I kept 3 of them armed 24-7 the others were scheduled to arm at 8pm & off at 7am so as not to have notifications blowing up my phone all day.

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This is certainly possible.  

I would first set up 

1. "Arm Away" to arm all the cameras
2. "Arm Home" to arm all the cameras
3. "Standby" to arm only the three cameras you want armed all the time.

Help on doing that is in this KB article

• https://kb.arlo.com/000062777/About-Arlo-Routines-Modes-Rules-and-Automations

On (3) keep in mind that if a camera does NOT have a rule in a mode, then that camera is automatically disarmed when you are using that mode.

Then set up the following two schedule automations:

Pay particular attention to the enable lists right below the automation names.  These MUST be set to "Arm Home, Standby".

These should give you the schedule you want.  Likely when you leave on a trip you will want the cameras armed 24x7.  When that is the case, you manually switch to "Arm Away" on the dashboard.  The cameras will stay armed until you manually switch the mode back to either "Arm Home" or "Standby".

The drawback with these settings is that you don't have a quick way to disarm all the cameras.  If you want to disarm the three that are normally armed 24x7,  you'll need to go into the camera settings to turn them off.  This is possible with the cameras, but unfortunately not the doorbells.

[5572020]

One of the biggest challenges I am facing  is that the 10-Jan-2025 app for android upgrade has caused repeatable crashes trying to view locally recorded video (local library, not cloud).  Additionally, when zooming in on live video the app immediately starts "panning" to the left even though all zoom and pan (tracking) functionality is turned off.  I tried uninstalling and re-installing the app but there was no change in performance.  Two identical cell phones have the Arlo secure app with different release dates.  Both worked perfectly with the software released 18-Dec-2024 (v5.3.3), but one was upgraded to the version released 10-Jan-2025 and is the one having issues.  Would like to revert that one back to the December 2024 version.  Any advice is appreciated.

[alex_loo]

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@5572020 wrote:

One of the biggest challenges I am facing  is that the 10-Jan-2025 app for android upgrade has caused repeatable crashes trying to view locally recorded video (local library, not cloud).  Additionally, when zooming in on live video the app immediately starts "panning" to the left even though all zoom and pan (tracking) functionality is turned off.  I tried uninstalling and re-installing the app but there was no change in performance.  Two identical cell phones have the Arlo secure app with different release dates.  Both worked perfectly with the software released 18-Dec-2024 (v5.3.3), but one was upgraded to the version released 10-Jan-2025 and is the one having issues.  Would like to revert that one back to the December 2024 version.  Any advice is appreciated.

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oh I am still with 5.3.3_28779 for android (release 18-Dec-2024) so guess I'll hold it against any newer updates at the moment.  By the mean time, please share your latest with this buggy 10-Jan-2025 version.  BTW what version number is that?

Alex

[FT96]

The new app is complete garbage. Reminds me of the Sonos “new app” disaster. 
I read that Arlo supports can revert users to the old app. In the meantime I lost functionality, had to pay for double subscriptions, and lost functionality that is critical to smooth functioning security 

Arlo really screwed up and screwed customers.  Classic example of messing with a good thing.