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 ?

[XJW]

An example from this morning.  This is without opening the Arlo app. 

I will try turning off Geofencing and see if battery improves.

LG G6 on 8.0.0 VMB3000 + Arlo/Pro Cameras.

App 2.7.9_25600

@JamesC any thoughts on working this one out ? I will try battery optimisations, but as Geofencing barely works at the best of times I am concerned this will make it worse.

[XJW]

I switched from Geofencing to a Custom Mode. With Geofencing off I am seeing no battery drain.

I will switch it on and off over the next few days to confirm.

[XJW]

@JamesC do you have any specific information on the defect fixes for Geofencing that are in development ?

[XJW]

Approaching 12 months and no update. Arlo demonstrating the level of priority they give customer care.

Are Arlo developing a fix for the home/away corruption defect ????

[JamesC · Accepted solution]

A new Android update for the Arlo Mobile app was just released addressing a bug specific to Custom modes and Geofencing. Please make sure to download the latest Arlo Mobile app and test again to see if you are still experiencing this issue.

Arlo Android App - 2.7.10 - 16th May 2019

More updates and improvements for Geofencing are slated for release in the very near future. Stay tuned.

JamesC

[XJW]

Thanks James. As with my other post - Arlo must look at resourcing for defect resolution if they want their customers to advocate for the brand. This took too long to resolve.

Please see if you can get Arlo to focus on the product gaps we have been complaining about for years.

Activating the system (changing modes) is tedious / slow. Give us shortcuts to activate modes with a single touch.

IFTTT support is useless for many of us without Custom Modes. Arm/Disarm are useless if you leave your outdoor cameras on when you are home.

[JamesC]

XJW,

I'm glad to hear you're no longer experiencing issues with custom modes and Geofencing. I certainly understand the frustration surrounding this feature and your perspective. More improvements are coming for in the very near future. I'll keep you updated.

JameC

[XJW]

Good to hear.

I have been close to abandoning Geofencing altogether.  It remains unreliable when detecting in/out of zone and it uses much more battery than any other app on my phone.

In its current state it is of questionable value.

Let's hope the two issues above are resolved.

[joron]

Geofencing still not working for me. Worked fine since installation but suddenly stopped working; no changes to settings. Called customer support and they said it was on Arlo's end and they would let me know when it was fixed. Received e-mail that the problem was solved, but still not working. Responded to e-mail and then received a link to imore website regarding refresh and background settings that was supposedly the solution. No indication of how these settings should be configured. Tried them all and geofencing still not working. When I change to geofencing mode system becomes armed even though phone is still in zone. Very poor and slow support on this issue. 

[pinkoos]

Mine also still not working (nor have I received any kind of "survey" from Arlo)

My wife had been out of town since Thursday, so I couldn't really test the 2 device geofencing, but she came back this morning and everything is still broken

One device geofencing was working during the time she was gone and her device was correctly showing as being "out of zone"

But now that she's back home, all heck has broken loose again

Thanks Arlo

[Mayne72]

I think its actually got worse with the update, this function is now very unreliable, if you manually disarm and and then reactivate geofencing it will detect in/out of zone correctly - otherwise its pretty useless.

disspoainting as its the one handy function of the whole system.

[JonKong]

I too am having geofencing issues. 

The support engineer first sent me details of enabling background activity for the app on iOS, even though I told them that both phones are Android. 

The next "solution" described how to enable auto updates in the Google Play store (no idea why).

The most recent is to try other phones.

There is clearly a problem their end,  when both my wife and I leave the zone it doesn't arm, even though the app shows both devices out of zone,  and the inverse for when we are in zone.

If I change to another mode and back to Geofencing, it then shows the correct mode.

[wldrns1]

2 iPhones. When both out of Large Zone, MODE shows location icon only...does not ARMED or DISARMED. When returning ENABLE DEVICES shows IN ZONE yet system remains ARMED, motion is recorded and system notifies of motion events. PROBLEM IS NOT FIXED. CUSTOMERS ARE NOT INFORMED OF FIXES BY ARLO. WHY IS THIS TAKING SO LONG TO REMEDY?????

[XJW]

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@JamesC wrote:

XJW,

I'm glad to hear you're no longer experiencing issues with custom modes and Geofencing. I certainly understand the frustration surrounding this feature and your perspective. More improvements are coming for in the very near future. I'll keep you updated.

JameC

---

I did not say that Geofencing was working.  I thanked you for your update that is all.

I gave up on Geofencing.

Arlo has failed to fix Geofencing and other fundamental product gaps for years.  Arlo do not listen to their customers.

If Arlo would implement a real IFTTT solution that supported more than the useless ARM/DISARM modes then I would implement my own reliable Geofencing Solution.  Without causing battery drain.

[beneserv]

I am having the same issue and it’s extremely frustrating considering how much was spent on these devices. Geofencing is a necessity or this product is pointless. This is unacceptable. Please respond with some sort of explanation ASAP.

[Paul-AU]

I have also had countless problems with Geofencing. How do I get someone from Netgear to sendx through basic trouble shooting?

I am about to go ask for a full refund

[XJW]

I tried it for a couple of days. Not enough to test whether Geofencing is working. From experience you need to test Geofencing for a couple of weeks to confirm that it is working.

I stopped testing because the Arlo app drains the battery many times more than any other app on my phone when Geofencing is enabled.

I implemented a Geofencing solution using Tasker that has almost no battery impact at all.

It can be done if you know what you are doing.

[XJW]

I tried Geofencing again for a couple of days. Not enough to test whether Geofencing is working. From experience you need to test Geofencing for a couple of weeks to confirm that it is working.

I stopped testing because the Arlo app drains the battery many times more than any other app on my phone when Geofencing is enabled.

I implemented a Geofencing solution 2 years ago, using Tasker that has almost no battery impact at all.

It can be done if you know what you are doing.

[XJW]

How to make Geofencing work with little impact to battery.

1. I use wifi connected to trigger the start of location updates.

2. I have two zones for location updates and change the frequency of updates when closer to the house.

If you added an option for WiFi connected to your Geofencing solution it would help significantly.