Arlo Geofencing on friend phone always out of zone

[andrewpthall77]

Running a brand new Pro base station, Essential Spotlight camera & Pro3 flood light camera. Geofencing works fine for primary account however friend access problem. Enabled devices always shows the friend as a grey arrow, never green. As such Geofencing only works on the primary device. Friend device has Arlo Secure location setting Always, is set for Enabled User, is logged in.  Friend device receives all notifications of motion and changes to geofencing settings when made. Firend Arlo Secure app shows no footage or connection to primary account either on app or dashbaord.  Have deleted and reinstalled app on both primary and friend device. Have removed friend and reinvited. Have toggled off both Enabled devices and Push Notifications, saved and re-added to no avail. Only thing haven't done is re-booted base station.  Need help!

[jguerdat]

A couple of things:

1) Where are you seeing the gray, not green, arrows? In any case, I don't believe that causes the rest of your issue.

2) The issue of guest accounts not being part of geofencing if using the new user interface (UI) that shows Feed for viewing recorded videos is related to their phone not being listed as available when setting up GF. If you check the available phones in the GF settings, only yours shows and never theirs. The issue has been raised by myself and a few others so hopefully a fix will be coming soon.

[andrewpthall77]

Hi

1. I see the green locatioin arrow under Enabled Device for My Device but my friends phone who I live with has a grey arrow under Friends. My understanding is that both should be green if within the geofencing radius.

2. My friend gets all notifications whether changes in settings, home / away notifications, and motion detected correctly but the geofencing component doesn't seem to recognise their phone in any way despite setting up via an invitation. And secondly they can't see recorded videos on their Arlo Secure app or website dashboard - it's like they've just created an Arlo account on their own that doesn't do anything and isn't connected to the notifications generated by the primary account. 

We're both running same Arlo version and same iOS version. 

[jguerdat]

I suspect the gray checkmark is essentially the same issue I have but I don't even see my wife's phone. Go figure.

To be clear, you're using the same app version as well as the same user interface, right? It sounds like it but want to be clear. If this is true then the guest account needs to click on Home at the top and choose the bottom selection which is your Home. Each user gets a Home location and additional ones, whether because you have multiple systems set up in different locations or another user's cameras have been shared, are shown beneath. My recommendation is for one or both of you to rename Home so it's obvious which one to select. Wyour Home is selected, your cameras will be displayed.

[andrewpthall77]

I think you've narrowed down the problem to the User Interface. 

My Arlo Secure app looks different to my friends. Whilst both state they are Version 4.3 (5832) released 21 Mar 2023, they look vastly different. My Arlo Secure app doesn't look any different to the app I have had for some years - I've recently added a new location with new Hub, Essential and Floodlight and then invited my friend. 

My Arlo Secure app is green / white and runs icons on the bottom as Devices |
Library | Mode | Settings. My friends Arlo Secure app is blue / white and has icons Dashboard | Feed | Emergency | Devices | Routines. The friends Arlo Secure app seems to have no conncection whatsoever to my Arlo account despite it being downloaded as part of the invite email from the primary account in accordance with the instructions (actually the Arlo account was created first but the instructions say this is okay). So I can't seem to do anything that links my friends Arlo Secure app to the primary account. 

[StephenB]

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@andrewpthall77 wrote:

My Arlo Secure app is green / white and runs icons on the bottom as Devices |
Library | Mode | Settings. My friends Arlo Secure app is blue / white and has icons Dashboard | Feed | Emergency | Devices | Routines. 

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If the invite shows up as accepted in your account, then the next step would be to migrate your account to "feed".

You'd do this by using "add device" to add a Pro 5s camera or a home security system.  That will fail, since you don't own either.  But the process will migrate you to feed.

Note this cannot be undone, and there are some bugs (and limitations) with "feed".  The biggest limitation is that "Feed" only has three built-in modes (Armed Home, Armed Away, and Standby).  Rules in all three can be edited - but you cannot add any custom modes.

[andrewpthall77 · Accepted solution]

Thanks @StephenB @jguerdat 

I found the thread Arlo Secure 4.0 design issues shortly after I posted this and understand the issue from the detail in there from :

https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Secure/Arlo-Secure-4-0-design-issues/td-p/1898240 

Luckily for me at least, my current problem with my friends inability to join geofencing due to the interface mismatch isn't a major problem currently as when I am out of the house, 90% of the time it is at the same time as my friend - so the house is overprotected 10% of the time but never unprotected.

After reading the Arlo Secure 4.0 design thread, I think it best I wait to upgrade until I absolutely have to and hopefully experience a reduction in bugs and some fixes matching the previous version are further developed.