Needlessly complicated "Routines"?

[grillmaster13]

Today I "upgraded" from the old app to the new "Arlo Secure" app, and I no longer have the ability to setup schedules where different sets of devices are active. 

As far as I can tell, you can now *ONLY* have 3 different configurations of which cameras are active, defined the the 3 modes: Away, Home, Standby.  You can switch Modes on a schedule, but you cannot add Modes, or have different devices be activate/inactive on a schedule within a Mode.

In the previous app, you could setup an arbitrary number of modes, and each base station/hub could switch between then on a schedule.  So for example, I could have some cameras active all day, and some cameras only active at night.  I ultimately used this to have 4 different configurations. For example, say I have 4 devices.

- Armed: all devices active [1,2,3,4]

- Disarmed: all devices inactive []

- Custom: on a schedule, switched between 2 additional configurations. during the day a small set [1], and at night a larger set [1,2]

This does not appear to be possible in the new app. In the new app, because I only have 3 "modes", I can only have:

- Away: all devices active

- Home: some devices active

- Standby: no devices active

There is no way to have two different sets of "some devices active". 

What's even more frustrating is the web page about the new app claims that I can do what I need to, but this is apparently incorrect.  Check this page:

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

It says: " "Each Mode is fully customizable based on the level of detection you want. You might want to set one Mode in which some motion sensors and cameras are active, but others are not. For example, when you are sleeping, your exterior cameras can be activated based on the selected Mode, but your interior cameras will be inactive.""

This is actually not true, since you cannot add "Modes". I suppose I could maybe hijack the "Standby" mode

- Away = all cameras [1,2,3,4]

- Home = some cameras [1,2]

- Standby = fewer cameras [1]

But then I have no way to disable all cameras.

This seems like a design oversight, but perhaps I'm missing something. I would appreciate anyone clarifying where I can have more than 3 different sets of which cameras are active.

[JHallv3]

Hopefully the get it figured out for people who are deep into the Arlo world.  In the previous comments the Arlo Moderator stated that this issue was escalated to the appropriate teams but that was 3 months ago and there’s no update on it.  I’ve started my return process on my new camera and I’ve been leaving reviews on the Arlo App issues any and everywhere I can so that people aren’t duped into thinking they can schedule individual cameras for different times and modes.

To put it into to perspective, could you imagine Lutron only letting you turn on or off all of the lights in your house instead of just the room you are in, that would be nuts. 

@ShayneS 

[EdnaMake]

Also jumping in here.   I added a new camera recently to my existing 5 and yep, forced into an upgrade which trashed my scheduling.  I simply only need 1 camera active during the day (front drive fron 7am) and all active at night (from 8pm).  This does not seem possible now.  The sunrise/sunset feature does not seem to work either,  I am in GST +10.   If I was not so far into arlo I would replace all cameras but the cost is too high.  The old app and interface was perfectly fine with its scheduling and this forced app simply does not work as it should or is just badly designed.    Support team please help. 

[test2]

Tech support themselves escalated my issue months ago. This thread has been going on for a long time. We aren't the only ones that complained and Arlo has done nothing about it. They either don't care or this is all by design.

[devaja]

My case is still open a week now and I've provided a ton of details as requested and even more. It's gone dark. I did notice an Arlo Secure mobile app update came out but nothing changed on my end.

[Aiku1337]

Has anyone from Arlo contacted you? Not the other way around. I was contacted by a level 3 support tech, presumably because I created this thread. We were on the phone for about 40 mins, asked me to take some screen shots, generate some logs and he created a ticket with the engineering team. The team was able to reset something on my account and after that my devices showed up when attempting to set up arrive/leave automations.

[Aiku1337]

I was successful with Level 3 support after they opened up a ticket with the engineering department. I'd keep going with support until you're escalated to level 3. From there they should be able to open up a ticket with engineering. Level 3 had me try to clear the cache or delete/reinstall the app and verify a few things. Nothing they suggested worked.

What I did prior to even having Arlo contact me was I went to all of my devices and ensure all trusted devices were removed from each account I gave access to. If you only have one account then I guess you're done.

Hope you get your issue resolved.

[test2]

I've gone rounds with tech support. I'm not sure what level they've escalated me up to, but I know the infamous step number nine in the KB article they like to refer everyone to doesn't exist when trying to set up a schedule. Step 9 is the supposed step where you select which camera responds to a specific schedule. Doesn't exist. Are you saying step 9 now exists for you? You set up a time for your cameras to activate or go into standby and then it lets you select which camera responds to that?

[EdnaMake]

I’ve found that since the update one of my automations has started,   But there is clearly still a setup issue 

[Aiku1337]

Browsing this thread there seems to be a couple of different issues here. I had an issue with geofencing and trusted devices not showing up. I think you have an issue with certain cameras and setting up arm/disarm times. Can you link me the KB article so I can see?

[JHallv3]

You’re right but Arlo removed the basic calendar schedule and the ability to assign those schedule per individual camera. Made no sense to remove it.  I’ve already made the switch to another brand and setup so I’m good now. Thanks. 

[test2]

https://kb.arlo.com/000062942/How-do-I-add-a-Schedule-Automation-to-my-Arlo-system

If you follow the instructions in the article, you will find Step 9 does not exist. There is no ability to select which camera will respond to the schedule you created. As a result, ALL cameras respond, which for me (I have 23 cameras) is a huge problem.

[Aiku1337]

Yeah it seems like you can only target specific devices on the actions under the Control A Device section. Even looking at what each action can do it doesn't make sense why some cameras can record a video and some can only take a snapshot.

This whole UX transition sucks. It's irresponsible for a company to change features from underneath users without a clear upgrade path, or ability to opt-out, or a timeline for changes if they're trying to reach feature parity with their previous UX.

The fact that I had to figure out geofencing by finding a way to upgrade to UX 4.0 by pretending to add an Arlo security system was so stupid. These are consumer devices. I happen to be technical with a M.S in Computer Science and I spent over a year on and off trying to figure this out. How is a layman supposed to figure this stuff out.

[arlouser3434]

I have 7 cameras which have been working fine. Each camera had it's own schedule for certain days of the week and certain times of day that each camera would be motion detecting and when it would switch to standby. I recently updated to the latest app. Big mistake.

My schedules did not carry over. The new app now has "Routines" and "Automations", which are needlessly complicated. For the life of me, and 3 customer service representatives I've worked with for over an hour, we can't get individual cameras to get their own schedule any more. Any "automation" I set seems universally applied to all 7 of my cameras, but that's not what I want. I want an automation to apply to just one of my cameras, so I can set different ones for different times.

Anybody else experiencing this? Am I crazy? Any suggestions on how to re-establish my schedules? Thank you in advance.

[AncientGeek]

Definitely.

I replaced a failing Pro 4 camera with a 5 and forgot that the new UI would royally screw up everything I’ve been using for several years.  Now I’m hosed and forced to not only learn a new UI, but learn which functionality can be replicated and which cannot.

I have nearly 40 cameras on two accounts.  Fortunately, I only converted one account, but that means I can no longer see half of my devices on each of my two mobile devices that I have logged into one of the accounts.

I previously used geofencing along with schedules, so I could have certain schedules operating when we are home and other schedules operating when we are away.  It doesn’t appear that geofencing and schedules work together now.  I have both set up, but the schedule appears to ignore my home and away status.  It doesn’t help that my geofencing mobile device names are often just listed at “iPhone” or “iPad” and the identity of the device owner is no longer displayed as it was in the previous UI.  I’ve tried to prune old devices off the geofencing list, but nothing goes away after I “delete” it.

This reminds me of the last time Arlo made a huge backward evolution of their UI several years ago.  At least back then I was able to do a restore of my iPad from prior to the update and then disable auto updates for all apps on my iPad which left me doing manual app updates for all of my other apps for about a year until Arlo fixed the app.  

[arlouser3434]

Thanks for your response, and I'm glad to see from the looks of this community that I'm not the only one taken aback by this removal of functionality. It's probably most concerning that none of the tech support representatives I've worked with even seem to understand the problem, or have any awareness that the problem exists.

Extremely frustrating since I, like so many others have said, feel like I'm "stuck with" the Arlo ecosystem at this point since I'd have to invest in 7 new cameras from another brand. I'm definitely reaching out to Consumer Reports, who ranks this system highly, to let them know of the missing basic functions of a security camera.

Lesson learned. I'll wait until the cameras die and switch brands.

[test2]

And based upon my multiple useless calls with tech support and all of my experimentation, you will not be able to have independent schedules anymore. I'm still trying to figure out if it's a broken system or if it's designed this way, either way Arlo is providing no help.

[test2]

You're not crazy. I have 23 Arlo go 2 cameras and I went from being able to individually schedule each camera depending on my need to making it so now I can only have one schedule that applies to all cameras. It's ridiculous. I'm yet to figure out if it is designed this way or if this is a glitch Arlo isn't fixing.

[AncientGeek]

I’m still testing the functionality.  I now have three schedules set up.  Two that I wanted and one to test your comment about individual cameras.  I set up a 3rd schedule to make a recording on a single camera and send a notification at a specific time of day (5 minutes in the future).  That worked.  I can have several schedules.  The problem seems to be that I cannot ARM or DISARM individual cameras using a mode that is different than the three default modes that Arlo provides.  I can only change mode to one of thosethree modes, which significantly degrades the flexibility of the Arlo system.  For years I have touted Arlo as having the single most flexible and useful camera operation control models of all the security cameras I have ever used.  Eliminating custom modes, was a big step backward in this regard.  

It also appears that schedules don’t take into account my home and away status as they should.  Home/Away status and Schedules should be mutually aware.  They are not mutually exclusive.  It might be Ok to have Schedules subservient to Home/Away status, but it is not OK to have it the other way around.  If I’m home, I want my cameras to behave in certain ways depending on the DOW or TOD…and even adhoc activities (which Arlo has never done well).  If I’m away, I want the same control, but the behavior I desire is different, so schedules need to be subservient to Home & Away status.

[AncientGeek]

Also, it appears the notification action has a choice of Everyone or None.  That is hopefully just a timing issue that will be resolved in a future release….hopefully.  Otherwise why say “Everyone”….just say Yes or No.   Ideally, Everyone would be the default and if I deselect that, I should see a list of users with whom I have shared that device and I should be able to pick which users get notified.  I should at least have the opportunity to say Everyone or Just Me!  Also, if I choose everyone, it would be ideal if the other people could then control whether they want to receive the notification that I have authorized.  Choosing people to notify should be an authorization, not a mandate from me for them to receive the notification.

[test2]

When you say "make a recording" are you referring to that odd action where you can specify an individual camera to record a 10 second clip? That's the only place I've found you can specify individual cameras to do anything and it doesn't deserve the purpose of arming/disarming individual cameras based on their own schedules. That still appears to be a all our nothing option. 

[AncientGeek]

Agree completely.  A schedule needs to allow us the flexibility to arm/disarm any combination of cameras at various times of the day while also taking into account our home and away status.  Arlo clearly didn’t reach out to the right group of customers to learn about how we use their products…or didn’t feel maintaining the previous system capabilities were worth preserving.

[Retired_Member]

You will not get any satisfaction unless you delete your account and start again. Arlo support will not help you. I have noted they will often mark these issues as solved as a way of shutting down further comments. Good luck. 

[Minburn57]

"Also jumping in here.   I added a new camera recently to my existing 5 and yep, forced into an upgrade which trashed my scheduling."

Lurking about trying to get up to speed on what is available/possible in this Arlo world (I've had a 3010 base station and 5 x C3030 Arlo cams since 2016) as Ive been intentionally away from this forum for a couple years, but now wanting to add a 6th cam to this . . . 

Anyway, reading the above, I think maybe just make do with the 5 and if I need a 6th, keep the current Arlo system I have going with good scheduling and try another cam from a competitor as a single use trial.

Jesus. . . . . so quickly I'm reminded of the endless Arlo issues of years past  . . . . . 

[Merc1]

Recently added 3rd camera and new app version was changed automatically. Already returned 3rd camera due to poor battery life. So I'm back to just 2 cameras. I want both cameras to record motion at 10:00 p.m. and go off at 6:00 a.m. Can you, in layman's terms, describe in detail (step by step) how to achieve this.

I have tried to set rules, but not sure what I had done because the cameras are recording motion during 24 hrs, thus draining the batteries. So I deleted the rules, now my cameras are doing nothing recording wise. Any help is much appreciated.

[Minburn57]

I can't help with that because I have the older app, but a side note is that I have an ancient iPad that has an even older version of the app on it that I keep cancelling 'Update Available' as I'm certain it wouldn't even run on that ipad (and that would quite likely be the case).  But given the involved scheduling I have in those older apps, even more of a reason to cancel that app update.

Glad I nosed back into these forums after a two years absence . . .