Wishing this for ARLO app, given messy geofencing

[alex_loo]

Given geofencing is still messy and still not fixed, is there any way I can know what locations ARLO system is assuming with each geofencing device?  That would help me tell in what way geofencing is going wrong (say, fetching incorrect GPS location, or device NOT telling correct GPS information to ARLO, or ARLO not able to trigger for some other reasons ...)

Anyway, I know I am just dreaming here.

Alex

[StephenB]

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@alex_loo wrote:

Given geofencing is still messy and still not fixed, is there any way I can know what locations ARLO system is assuming with each geofencing device? 

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If you go into one of the geofencing automations, and then select "edit Geofence", you will see the location of your phone, and also see the radius around your location.  But you will need to do that on each phone.

[alex_loo]

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@StephenB wrote:

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@alex_loo wrote:

Given geofencing is still messy and still not fixed, is there any way I can know what locations ARLO system is assuming with each geofencing device? 

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If you go into one of the geofencing automations, and then select "edit Geofence", you will see the location of your phone, and also see the radius around your location.  But you will need to do that on each phone.

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apologies my question hasn't been clear.

Yes, I know "edit geofence" where I can tell where I am at the moment, and how I set up geofencing.  But this was NOT what I was asking.

May be I'll try asking in another way.  When all the geofencing automations have been properly set up, and it is just another normal day.  If a device is leaving home, whether "all away" triggeres will depend on whether this device is the last device, ie ARLO cloud needs to remember geo status of other devices.

Question: can we read this remembered status from the app?

Alex

[StephenB]

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@alex_loo wrote:

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May be I'll try asking in another way.  When all the geofencing automations have been properly set up, and it is just another normal day.  If a device is leaving home, whether "all away" triggeres will depend on whether this device is the last device, ie ARLO cloud needs to remember geo status of other devices.

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There's no way to directly query the cloud state.

You could attempt to set up "leave" automations for each phone that just notify you when they trigger.  I haven't tried that, so it would require some experimentation.

[alex_loo]

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@StephenB wrote:

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@alex_loo wrote:

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May be I'll try asking in another way.  When all the geofencing automations have been properly set up, and it is just another normal day.  If a device is leaving home, whether "all away" triggeres will depend on whether this device is the last device, ie ARLO cloud needs to remember geo status of other devices.

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There's no way to directly query the cloud state.

You could attempt to set up "leave" automations for each phone that just notify you when they trigger.  I haven't tried that, so it would require some experimentation.

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not sure that's a good way to troubleshoot the messy geofencing of ALRO -- by using the same messy ARLO geofencing routines.

anyhow given you have tried this, do you happen to have any idea how/why geofencing has not been working?  say cloud bug, or wrong gps info from device, or  lag time in sending gps info to cloud, or lag time in sending gps info back to all other devices ....

Alex

[StephenB]

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@alex_loo wrote:
not sure that's a good way to troubleshoot the messy geofencing of ALRO -- by using the same messy ARLO geofencing routines.

It would let you know which phones were correctly detected as leaving and which phones were not.  That can focus further troubleshooting.

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@alex_loo wrote:

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anyhow given you have tried this, do you happen to have any idea how/why geofencing has not been working?  say cloud bug, or wrong gps info from device, or  lag time in sending gps info to cloud, or lag time in sending gps info back to all other devices ....

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I don't have any strong opinions.  I do know that geofencing wasn't that reliable with "Library" either.

If your phones work well for navigation, then it wouldn't be wrong GPS information.  Lag doesn't seem all that likely to me.  I think the most likely failure modes are where some of the leave/arrive transistions never reach the cloud.  

One failure mode that is well known is that sometimes the app isn't running on one phone (or is logged out).  Similarly, if the app is not allowed to run in the background, then arrive/leave messaging won't reach the Arlo Cloud.

[alex_loo]

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@StephenB wrote:

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@alex_loo wrote:
not sure that's a good way to troubleshoot the messy geofencing of ALRO -- by using the same messy ARLO geofencing routines.

It would let you know which phones were correctly detected as leaving and which phones were not.  That can focus further troubleshooting.

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@alex_loo wrote:

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anyhow given you have tried this, do you happen to have any idea how/why geofencing has not been working?  say cloud bug, or wrong gps info from device, or  lag time in sending gps info to cloud, or lag time in sending gps info back to all other devices ....

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I don't have any strong opinions.  I do know that geofencing wasn't that reliable with "Library" either.

If your phones work well for navigation, then it wouldn't be wrong GPS information.  Lag doesn't seem all that likely to me.  I think the most likely failure modes are where some of the leave/arrive transistions never reach the cloud.  

One failure mode that is well known is that sometimes the app isn't running on one phone (or is logged out).  Similarly, if the app is not allowed to run in the background, then arrive/leave messaging won't reach the Arlo Cloud.

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if the direction is around "transitions never reaching the cloud" (and hence messing up arrive/away logic at the cloud) ...

• due to app problem --- then it's definitely something that needs to be fixed on app level
• due to app unexpectedly logged out --- then again it's something that needs to be fixed on app level
• due to app NOT running in background --- this would be interesting as to why this is happening.  something to be checked on OS-application level, instead of within application

One thing worth noticing is that for my same devices here (1x Android, 1x iPhone), geofencing is working perfectly under Google Home Automation.  As a matter of fact, as a supplement, I am now using GHA to capture "all away" situation, and instructing ARLO to switch to ARM AWAY, irrespective of whether ARLO has made the switch itself or not.  As a result, my desired "all away" result (ie switching to ARM AWAY), is now achieved without any miss.

This also leads to my conclusion that android/iOS/device are NOT to be blamed, behind the occasion failure of ARLO's geofencing.   IT IS DEFINITELY JUST ARLO'S BUG.

Alex

Alex

[StephenB]

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@alex_loo wrote:

• due to app NOT running in background --- this would be interesting as to why this is happening.  something to be checked on OS-application level, instead of within application

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Sometimes this is due to an OS setting for the app.  Sometimes it is power related (phone switching to a low power mode).

[alex_loo]

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@StephenB wrote:

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@alex_loo wrote:

• due to app NOT running in background --- this would be interesting as to why this is happening.  something to be checked on OS-application level, instead of within application

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Sometimes this is due to an OS setting for the app.  Sometimes it is power related (phone switching to a low power mode).

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if this is as simple as an OS setting for the app, then suffering users like us would be have advised to change that settings, either by ARLO or by ourselves here.

Alex

[StephenB]

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@alex_loo wrote:

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@StephenB wrote:

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@alex_loo wrote:

• due to app NOT running in background --- this would be interesting as to why this is happening.  something to be checked on OS-application level, instead of within application

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Sometimes this is due to an OS setting for the app.  Sometimes it is power related (phone switching to a low power mode).

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if this is as simple as an OS setting for the app, then suffering users like us would be have advised to change that settings, either by ARLO or by ourselves here.

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It is something we often point out here.  Arlo also lists the needed settings:

• https://kb.arlo.com/000062271/Why-isn-t-the-Arlo-Geofencing-mode-working
• https://kb.arlo.com/000062825/Why-isn-t-my-Arlo-Arrive-Leave-Automation-working

"Background App Refresh" is turned on for the app in my iPhone - I don't think I had to enable that myself.  BTW, there is also a setting there that will send notifications when the phone enters or leaves the location.

Low power mode is another matter.  There are no settings to override which apps are paused when the iPhone switches into that mode.  All you can do is turn the mode off (or on).

BTW, with "Feed", the article above says to enable WiFi.  "Library" doesn't have that advice.  That might be worth a try if you don't keep WiFi enabled.

[alex_loo]

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@StephenB wrote:

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@alex_loo wrote:

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@StephenB wrote:

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@alex_loo wrote:

• due to app NOT running in background --- this would be interesting as to why this is happening.  something to be checked on OS-application level, instead of within application

---

Sometimes this is due to an OS setting for the app.  Sometimes it is power related (phone switching to a low power mode).

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if this is as simple as an OS setting for the app, then suffering users like us would be have advised to change that settings, either by ARLO or by ourselves here.

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It is something we often point out here.  Arlo also lists the needed settings:

• https://kb.arlo.com/000062271/Why-isn-t-the-Arlo-Geofencing-mode-working
• https://kb.arlo.com/000062825/Why-isn-t-my-Arlo-Arrive-Leave-Automation-working

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I am surprised you are throwing out these articles again.

• my geofencing is NOT "not working". It IS working --- but only sometimes/intermittently.  Some 1 out of 5 times, "all away" does get triggered.  And then when either myself or wife is returning home, sometimes "anyone arrives" just doesn't get triggered.  So please let me know if I am wrong here, otherwise I think I have set each of the settings/parameters correctly, to start with
• Still, I have read these articles some 5-10 times and followed it
  • article says: "We strongly recommend that you enable only one iOS or Android device per physical user on an Arlo account".  I cannot follow this, since I have 2 devices (my android and wife's iPhone) enabled on my single ARLO account.  This was for:
    • access to local recordings by both of us
    • avoiding duplicated geofencing device issues, especially for iPhone (and given I have done this, so far, I only see 2 devices for geofencing, which I assume is correct)

What I am fearing here now is that if even @StephenB  as an experienced user thinks geofencing being a user setting/configuration, instead of an ARLO app bug.  Then apparently ARLO would consider me a mad yelling user who hasn't read those articles that they thought they have done the job to "resolve" the geofencing issue.

Or have I missed something?

I am curious now --- has your geofencing been working perfectly?

Alex

[jguerdat]

Mine failed me recently but that turned out to be due to both my wife and I getting new phones. I hadn't gone into my automations to update the specific devices to be used (I don't use "everyone"). The side note is that my old phone was nowhere to be found but my wife's old one was still there and I had some issues getting the proper phone selected (finally worked after trying to use both the app and web client - no idea which one caused the solution). I also still can't delete very old phones - the app simply doesn't work (doesn't even allow me to select them) and the web client allows me to select but doesn't actually delete.

[StephenB]

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@alex_loo wrote:
What I am fearing here now is that if even @StephenB  as an experienced user thinks geofencing being a user setting/configuration, instead of an ARLO app bug.  Then apparently ARLO would consider me a mad yelling user who hasn't read those articles that they thought they have done the job to "resolve" the geofencing issue.

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I didn't say that there were no app bugs related to geofencing.  You are reading that into my response.

That said, there are certainly phone settings that can need to be set for geofencing to work.  You said that Arlo should tell people about those settings, so I posted the links where they did just that.  I also suspect that if an iPhone is in low power mode, then geofencing won't trigger.

But that does not translate to "no bugs".