Combining Geofencing with Schedules in the app version released July 2025

[PattyPP]

I need my system to:

- Arm when both of us are away, either for a couple of hours or multiple days

- Standby when anyone is home and it’s between sunrise and 11PM

-Arm Home when anyone is home and it’s between 11 and sunrise

I was able to do this before the latest version of the app.

I've played back and forth with the settings in the new app and truthfully, I don't really know what happens when you set things to "enable" and "disable", but this is what I have so far:

In Modes:

Arm Away

   At the bottom, in automations I only have Home (Leave) enabled

Arm Home

   At the bottom, in automations I have “Night at Home” and “Home (Arrive)” enabled

Standby

   At the bottom, in Automations I have “Day at Home” and “Home (Arrive)” enabled

In Automations:

Schedules

A.  Day at home: Standby

    a. In the submenu that pops up when you click on the "Standby" text box, Away and Arm Home are not selected.  Only Standby is enabled in this submenu

    b.  When: At Sunrise, everyday -- Then:

      i)  Standby

      ii)  Send Notification

B.  Night at home: Arm Home

    a.  In the submenu that pops up when you click on the "Arm Home" text box, away and standby not selected.  Only Arm home is selected in this submenu

    b.  When: At 11pm, everyday – Then:

        i)  Arm Home 

        ii)  Send Notification

Arrive/Leave

C.  Home (arrive) Arm Home, Standby

    a.  In the submenu that pops up when you click on “arm Home, Standby”, Arm Home and Standby are enabled.  Away is not

    b.  When: Anyone arrives – Then:

        i)  Night at home (enable)

        ii)  Day at home (enable)

        iii) Standby (enable)

        iv) Send Notification

D.  Home (Leave) Arm Away

    a.  In the submenu that pops up when you click on “Arm Away”, Arm Away is enabled.  Arm Home and Standby are not

    b.  When: Everyone leaves – Then:

        i) Arm away (enabled)

        ii)  Night at home (disabled)

        iii)  Day at home (disabled)

        Aiv)  Send Notification

Am I correct to assume that if I arrive before 11PM, the system will enable Standby?

Assuming we arrive before 11, and Standby is enabled, will the automation change it to Arm Home at 11 on it’s own?

How can I make it enable Arm Home if I arrive after 11PM?

It is so disappointing that the new app makes this process so complicated.  This literally was 4 lines tops with the old app! 

Any light anyone can shed on those enable/disable pop up menus on the Schedules would be appreciated.  I’m shooting in the dark here!

[StephenB]

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@PattyPP wrote:

Thank you Stephen!  I wonder if Arlo will address this at some

point. I was able to do this with the old App.  

They are working at bring back custom modes, and I believe that will also bring back the old scheduling and geofencing.  Hopefully that will happen soon.

[StephenB]

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@PattyPP wrote:

In Modes:

Arm Away

   At the bottom, in automations I only have Home (Leave) enabled

Arm Home

   At the bottom, in automations I have “Night at Home” and “Home (Arrive)” enabled

Standby

   At the bottom, in Automations I have “Day at Home” and “Home (Arrive)” enabled

---

Focus here. 

When in "Arm Away" mode, the only thing that can switch the state is "Home (Leave)".  The problem with this is that no one is home when you are in "Arm Away".  So no one will be leaving.  What you actually want here is to have "Home (Arrive) enabled", and NOT "Home (Leave)"

By similar logic, "Arm Home" and "Arm Standby" need to have "Home (Leave)" enabled, and not "Home (Arrive)".  That is because you want the system to switch to "Arm Away" from these modes when you leave.

Now consider the schedule.  When home, you want the system to be in "Arm Home" at night, and you want it to change to "Standby" at Sunrise.  The automation that does that switch is "Day at Home".  So "Day at Home" needs to be enabled in "Arm Home".

Similarly, when home you want the system to be in "Standby" during the day, and you want it to change to "Arm Home" at 11 pm.  The automation that does that switch is "Night at home".  So "Night at home" needs to be enabled in "Standby"

So basically you are getting the enable lists backwards.  You need to identify the modes the system will be in when you want each automation to run, and then make sure each automation is enabled in those modes.

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@PattyPP wrote:

Arrive/Leave

C.  Home (arrive) Arm Home, Standby

    b.  When: Anyone arrives – Then:

        i)  Night at home (enable)

        ii)  Day at home (enable)

        iii) Standby (enable)

        iv) Send Notification

D.  Home (Leave) Arm Away

    b.  When: Everyone leaves – Then:

        i) Arm away (enabled)

        ii)  Night at home (disabled)

        iii)  Day at home (disabled)

        Aiv)  Send Notification

---

Remove these from your automations.  Enabling/disabling automations inside another automation doesn't work.  As soon as the automation changes the mode, the automations will be enabled/disabled as specified on the new mode's settings screen.

As described above, your settings in (a) are backwards.  And the settings you see in (a) match the enable/disable  that you see on the mode setting screens.

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@PattyPP wrote:

Am I correct to assume that if I arrive before 11PM, the system will enable Standby?

Assuming we arrive before 11, and Standby is enabled, will the automation change it to Arm Home at 11 on it’s own?

How can I make it enable Arm Home if I arrive after 11PM?

---

This is the flaw in Arlo's design.  Your Arrive automation will always change to "Standby" no matter when you arrive.  If you arrive home after 11 pm, you need to manually change the system mode to "Arm Home" on the dashboard screen.

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

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@PattyPP wrote:

In Modes:

Arm Away

   At the bottom, in automations I only have Home (Leave) enabled

Arm Home

   At the bottom, in automations I have “Night at Home” and “Home (Arrive)” enabled

Standby

   At the bottom, in Automations I have “Day at Home” and “Home (Arrive)” enabled

---

Focus here. 

When in "Arm Away" mode, the only thing that can switch the state is "Home (Leave)".  The problem with this is that no one is home when you are in "Arm Away".  So no one will be leaving.  What you actually want here is to have "Home (Arrive) enabled", and NOT "Home (Leave)"

By similar logic, "Arm Home" and "Arm Standby" need to have "Home (Leave)" enabled, and not "Home (Arrive)".  That is because you want the system to switch to "Arm Away" from these modes when you leave.

Now consider the schedule.  When home, you want the system to be in "Arm Home" at night, and you want it to change to "Standby" at Sunrise.  The automation that does that switch is "Day at Home".  So "Day at Home" needs to be enabled in "Arm Home".

Similarly, when home you want the system to be in "Standby" during the day, and you want it to change to "Arm Home" at 11 pm.  The automation that does that switch is "Night at home".  So "Night at home" needs to be enabled in "Standby"

So basically you are getting the enable lists backwards.  You need to identify the modes the system will be in when you want each automation to run, and then make sure each automation is enabled in those modes.

---

@PattyPP wrote:

Arrive/Leave

C.  Home (arrive) Arm Home, Standby

    b.  When: Anyone arrives – Then:

        i)  Night at home (enable)

        ii)  Day at home (enable)

        iii) Standby (enable)

        iv) Send Notification

D.  Home (Leave) Arm Away

    b.  When: Everyone leaves – Then:

        i) Arm away (enabled)

        ii)  Night at home (disabled)

        iii)  Day at home (disabled)

        Aiv)  Send Notification

---

Remove these from your automations.  Enabling/disabling automations inside another automation doesn't work.  As soon as the automation changes the mode, the automations will be enabled/disabled as specified on the new mode's settings screen.

As described above, your settings in (a) are backwards.  And the settings you see in (a) match the enable/disable  that you see on the mode setting screens.

---

@PattyPP wrote:

Am I correct to assume that if I arrive before 11PM, the system will enable Standby?

Assuming we arrive before 11, and Standby is enabled, will the automation change it to Arm Home at 11 on it’s own?

How can I make it enable Arm Home if I arrive after 11PM?

---

This is the flaw in Arlo's design.  Your Arrive automation will always change to "Standby" no matter when you arrive.  If you arrive home after 11 pm, you need to manually change the system mode to "Arm Home" on the dashboard screen.

[PattyPP]

Thank you Stephen!  I wonder if Arlo will address this at some

point. I was able to do this with the old App.  Is there someway to ask their team to take a look at this?  Because it makes “schedules” really weak. I cannot be trusted to remember to switch to Arm Home!

[StephenB]

---

@PattyPP wrote:

Thank you Stephen!  I wonder if Arlo will address this at some

point. I was able to do this with the old App.  

They are working at bring back custom modes, and I believe that will also bring back the old scheduling and geofencing.  Hopefully that will happen soon.

[PattyPP]

@StephenB 

One more question:

What is the reason to have "enable/disable an automation" on the Geofence's Arrive and Leave?  When you go to Home(or Leave)/Then/add an action, the first option is to "enable/disable an automation".  What purpose does that accomplish?  Furthermore, the only two options to add are "Day at home" and "Night at home" (my schedules).  

[StephenB]

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@PattyPP wrote:

What is the reason to have "enable/disable an automation" on the Geofence's Arrive and Leave? 

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No idea what Arlo was thinking, but that action simply doesn't work correctly.  So don't use it.

The action you need is to change the mode.  And the mode change will enable/disable all the automations as I described above.