Video doorbell activity zones not working

[Elboydo]

I have activity zones setup on my new video doorbell in an attempt to stop cars going by sending notifications. However the app keeps flagging motion in the non-active area. Is there an update or a work around for this issue?

[JamesC]

Elboydo,

Can you provide a screenshot of your zones screen so we can get a better understand of your camera facing?

JamesC

[Elboydo]

Hi, 

for some reason i couldnt upload directly from my iphone, but here are some screen grabs

[Elboydo]

and another screen shot

[JamesC]

Elboydo,

Are you able to share a video clip that shows a trigger that should not have occurred?

JamesC

[Elboydo]

The forum will only let me upload files with the following .jpg, .gif, png pdf, extensions. Is there a trick for uploading a .mov file? can I email it to you?

[JamesC]

Elboydo,

I will reach out to you in a private message to collect this information.

JamesC

[G_Frog]

I have the same issue with the Doorbell ignoring the activity zones. 

The activity zones seem to worked intermittently. Some days, they appear to work correctly, other days they record and send notifications for everything.

I also noticed that the zones do not appear to be tied to one's zoom settings.  The recordings are to the full screen even though the zones setting interface uses the zoomed image for setting zones.   

I have attached screenshots of the various settings to show what is occuring. 

[StephenB]

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@G_Frog wrote:

I have the same issue with the Doorbell ignoring the activity zones. 

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FWIW, mine aren't working either.

[JamesC]

The development team is currently investigating reports of this issue. We'll provide an update as soon as we have more information.

JamesC

[Jsmitty66]

I am having the same issue with activity zones and motion warnings triggered outside the zone. I’ve been shrinking the zone over the last day to no avail. See attached screenshot. 

[G_Frog]

Update to my previous post:

I have completely reset my Zoom setting, re-created my zones and adjusted my camera sensitivity. This seems to have helped.

To adjust the camera sensitivity:

- Select Settings:

- Select Device Utilities

- Select Motion Detection Test

- Adjust the slider appropriately.

The default is 80 which may be too sensitive for most people.  I dropped my to 50 initially and it was still detecting people and vehicles 60 ft away.  After some testing and adjusting,  it is now set to 20.  From my environment, 20 seems to work best. 

There are still a few bugs/issues, but its getting better.

Good luck with your devices.  

[Jsmitty66]

It sounds like you have developed a workaround but that takes accountability off of the function of activity zones. I should be able to set sensitivity at 100 and get no notice when movement happens outside the box. We are going to be charged for this core feature after the first 3 months.

I have gotten over a dozen false warnings outside the activity zone today.

[Elboydo]

A couple of things.

1. If you set the sensitivity via setting/device utilities/motion detector test you are only changing the sensitivity during the test. To change the true sensitivity of the camera, it need to be changed via the modes function. As my doorbell camera is always on its modes/doorbell/edit mode/rules. i have had better success with this

2. the other item that helps is that my original activities zones were set after the camera had been zoomed. I went back and zoomed out to the default setting and then re-set the activity zones. While this didn't solve the issue, it certainly cut down on the number of nuisance notifications.  

i am hoping Alro can give us a bit more into on the root cause and corrective action for this issue soon. I too am inclined not to pay for a subscription if this feature isnt fixed.

[G_Frog]

Thanks for the tip. I had not seen the sensitivity settings under Mode.
I agree with all of you about having to pay for something that doesn't work correctly.
When I purchased the doorbell camera, I expected that it would integrate with my Arlo Pro 2 base and I would benefit from the free 7 days which I now have. I may have to look into what the competition has to offer.

Thanks again for the tip Elboydo.

[Clendinning]

I am dealing with a similar issue. However when I first got the camera the detection zones appeared to work. Now they do not. I wonder if there is some sort of 'cloud' configuration setting that has gone wrong.

[JamesC]

The development team is looking into these reports of inconsistent/inaccurate behavior with activity zones on video doorbell. I will provide an update when we have more information to share on this issue.

JamesC

[Jsmitty66]

James, you gave this same response on 12/20 - nearly 3 weeks ago. This is a critical feature of the video doorbell and Arlo is not treating this with urgency. In the meantime, the free period of Arlo Smart notifications is passing and we will soon be charged for a feature that is not functioning properly.

I am turning off notifications on my doorbell in the meantime rendering it simply an electronic doorbell until Arlo provides a solution.

[Jsmitty66]

Has there been a change?  My activity zones have functioned much better the past few days. 

It would be nice to hear from Arlo so threads can be marked as solved. 

[iSmartTinting]

ANY UPDATES?

[rdeclerk]

I am having the same issue.  No matter what I do, I keep getting triggers from cars passing by.  At least 3-4-5 per hour.  I've set the motion sensitivity to 15 and have reduced the size of the activity zones significantly.  Is Arlo close to a fix?

[Jsmitty66]

My system has deteriorated again and I am getting several motion notifications outside of my activity zone every day. 

I called the support phone number, 408-638-3750, yesterday and created a support case. Anyone here who is not receiving resolution for their issue should do the same.  A Sense of urgency is not being shown by Arlo for this issue. This is a core function of the video doorbell and we will soon be charged for the activity zone feature every month. I refuse to pay for a feature that does not work. (I also don’t understand the monthly charge for activity zones for the video doorbell while this feature is present in my Arlo Pro 2 camera at no charge, but I go off topic.)

[Clendinning]

Please refer to the thread concerning sound triggering a video recording and alert. I've noticed quite a few times that an empty image, that had a loud sound in it triggered the alert. Given that motion is almost always accompanied by sounds, the inconsistency in the activity zones may be due to sound triggers that have been unintentionally enabled by a firmware update. 

[Clendinning]

I wonder if sounds are actually triggering my alerts. I have had quite a few empty videos, but all had loud sounds recorded.

[Clendinning]

I have a theory that perhaps sound triggering has been inadvertently enabled via a recent firmware update. I have several examples of empty videos, except for loud sounds.