GEOFENCING Defect

[XJW]

Can someone with an Arlo Ultra System please test this defect ?

1. Setup Custom Modes. For example CustomHome and CustomAway.

2. Setup Geofencing and set Home to CustomHome and Away to CustomAway.

3. Select the mode Geofencing.

4. Select the Mode tab and you should see that the mode is CustomHome if you are home.

5. Select the Disarm Mode.

6. Select the Geofencing Mode

7. Select the Mode tab again. If the mode is now Disarm then the Geofencing Home and Away configuration has been corrupted.

This defect has been open for 10 months on the Arlo Pro.

Is it a defect for Ultra also ?

[luongk]

Yes, I can reproduce this issue with my Arlo Ultra - geofencing defaults to "disarmed" regardless of the setting (even when I set home mode to "armed").  This persists even if I remove/reinstall the hub/cameras.

Very frustrating.

[luongk]

Resetting the base station and manually setting everything up again seemed to fix it - bit of an annoying workaround though.

[XJW]

Many thanks for confirming the defect.

This defect has been open for 10 months and Arlo Support have done nothing.  No fix, no progress, no communication.  The same is true for other product issues that have been open for years.

Arlo Support is the biggest issue with the Arlo product.

It is a good product, but poor support is destroying the brand. 

Are they poorly managed or is it the leadership team that will not prioritise and resource them adequately ?

[snip3rboy]

Hi @luongk,

Which app did you use to onboard the Ultra smart hub that led to the issue - iOS or Android?

[snip3rboy]

Hi @XJW  - Do you still have this problem on your base station or have it been resolved by following @luongk 's recommendation? If the former, I'd like to get some additional information through DM to help troubleshoot.

[luongk]

Android.

Haven't tried reproducing the steps again (I'm a little paranoid about having to reset everything again) but the issue was definitely as described (schedule mode not working, geofencing home mode defaulting to disarmed despite changing setting).

[luongk]

So I restarted my hub and the same issue has recurred - home mode is stuck on disarmed regardless of the setting 😞

[pinkoos]

Arlo geofencing is inconsistent and unreliable and, as such, a joke I've gone through multiple troubleshooting steps over many months with my Pro 2 and now with my Ultra and it will work for awhile and then, for no apparent reason at all, it stops working I've decided to give custom schedules a shot, though I'm having issues with that too now (I'll post about it separately)

[snip3rboy]

Hi @luongk ,

Thanks. We are investigating an Android Geofencing issue related to Disarmed persistence. If you have a ticket opened, could you PM me the case #? If not, could you PM me nonetheless to get some info about your setup?

[snip3rboy]

Hi @pinkoos ,

If you ever get back to trying Geofencing again, please PM me. I'm hopping on most recent Geofencing threads to hopefully get feedback and root cause reported intermittent geofencing issues. I posted how the Arlo geofencing app works in this thread: https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Pro/Geofencing-not-working/m-p/1691858#M55946

[XJW]

@snip3rboy 

I spoke with a member of the Arlo Support team and sent him a lot of information and screenshots.  This should all be available in the ticket.

He promised to get back to me but he did not.  That was a very long time ago.

The defect still persists.

It looks to me like you have confused Home/Away with Disarmed/Armed.

Have you tried following the steps above to reproduce the defect ?  Others have reproduced the defect.  Have you tried ?  If you can reproduce the defect why are you chasing your customers for more data ?

Provide us with an update on your progress......

[pinkoos]

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@snip3rboy wrote:

Hi @pinkoos ,

If you ever get back to trying Geofencing again, please PM me. I'm hopping on most recent Geofencing threads to hopefully get feedback and root cause reported intermittent geofencing issues. I posted how the Arlo geofencing app works in this thread: https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Pro/Geofencing-not-working/m-p/1691858#M55946

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thanks

[XJW]

@snip3rboy 

You can fix the corruption by clearing and setting up the Geofencing Home/Away modes again. 

Geofencing will work until the next time you select Disarm.  This will immediately corrupt the Home/Away modes again.

Geofencing Home/Away don't appear to have changed, but when you select the mode Tab you can see that the basestation is set to disarmed when it should be set to whatever custom mode you are using in the Home parameter.

Just follow the instructions above to reproduce the defect as others have done.

[luongk]

I'm still testing, but my issue seems to have resolved itself after I removed some static routes in my router settings (relating to a smart DNS service I use - which is now running on a separate subnet)

[XJW]

@snip3rboy    Have you tried performing the procedure in the original post ?

Case # 40658772 was raised for this defect.

[luongk]

Tested again - whilst definitely more stable after changing the static routes, changing from geofencing to disarmed as described in OP leads to persistent disarmed/home mode. Other modes (including schedule) are working, but not gefencing

I got geofencing working again by:
Changing geofencing home to disarm
Set hub to disarm
Reboot hub
Change geofencing home to schedule
Set hub to geofencing mode

[XJW]

Defect open for 12 months and no progress or communication from Arlo.

Geofencing is getting worse.  I am seeing 70% battery drain on my wife's phone for Arlo.  And she never opens the Arlo app.  She spends a lot of time browsing and on messaging apps but it is Arlo that is draining the battery.

Arlo  either have the least capable support engineers in the industry or a leadership team that gives no priority or resources to product issues and has no regard for customer care or customer loyalty.

[michaelkenward]

Hard to know what is going on at your end with so little information to go on – no idea which app, what the hardware is or anything else that might help – but Arlo's battery consumption on my Androids is barely measurable.

[JamesC]

The development team is working on a new app release that addresses several geofencing issues being reported by users. We hope to have that app update available soon. I will post an update in this thread when I have more information on this release.

JamesC

[XJW]

Many thanks @JamesC
At last some communication.

The lack of any comms from Arlo has been infuriating.

It would be great to know if this specific defect has been resolved.

@michaelkenward the defect is described in the original post.

[michaelkenward]

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@michaelkenward the defect is described in the original post.

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That said  nothing about batteries, which is the bit that I replied to.

Stuff gets confusing when throwing new issues into a discussion.

That's the first time I have seen anyone tying battery use on a mobile to the state of geofencing.

But I haven't seen any problems with either.

[XJW]

@michaelkenward Are you using Geofencing ? If you are and you have barely measurable battery drain then that would be interesting to know.

[XJW]

@michaelkenward Geofencing requires location updates which if implemented poorly can result in significant battery drain.

Let me know if you are using Geofencing and getting no drain. It may help me debug.

[michaelkenward]

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@XJW wrote:
@michaelkenward Geofencing requires location updates which if implemented poorly can result in significant battery drain.

Let me know if you are using Geofencing and getting no drain. It may help me debug.

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I do, indeed, use geofencing. On two Arlo systems at the same time. (Don't ask.)

Battery use negligible.

Android 8.0.0 on a Samsung A5 2017

Production Arlo app version 2.7.9.25600