Geo Fencing + Multiple User Support?

[jasonr704]

Very happy to see Geo Fencing supported in the latest app update!  However, the biggest missing feature in this beta release is the support of multiple users.  If I setup the account under my email address and then grant my wife access with a different email address, the Geo Fencing needs to consider the location of both users devices.

Here's some real world scenarios:

1) If I leave the house in the morning for work, but wife is still home, then Geo fencing should not arm until she leaves the house. Then whoever comes home first will trigger geofencing to disarm.

2) If we both take a walk in the evening, but I'm the only one to take my phone with me and she leaves her phone at home, I'd like to be able to have the system arm itself somehow, maybe through a notification asking if I'd like to arm or ignore.

Also, I'd love to be able to turn on the sprinklers through my Rachio app if motion is detected at night from my arlo cameras to deter potential intruders.

Finally, really wish Arlo would allow the ability to outline or draw motion zones with lines instead of having to zoom into a motion sensing area.  I'd prefer Arlo record the widest field of view, but only detect motion within a defined area.  This would prevent so many false alerts.  Imagine Arlo in a front of house setting with multiple cameras.  You'd like to be able to record your entire driveway, walkway in front of your house and the road, but I only want Arlo to record if motion is detected on my driveway or grass, not the walkway or road.  Currently, it's not possible to define these areas.  Nest Dropcam has this feature and it works great.  Arlo need to add something similar!

[JamesC]

EarlyAdopter,

Thank you for the feedback, I will escalate this information to the Beta team.

Geofencing is still a Beta feature at this time and the engineering team is working hard to improve it. We appreciate any and all feedback related to this feature.

weezmatic,

More than one user can use the Geofencing functionality. See here for more information: How do I add and manage multiple mobile devices for geofencing?

JamesC

[weezmatic]

We have geo fencing setup on both devices, but it only goes into home mode when when my device is the area. When I leave home and my wife is still there with her phone it continually alerts.

[JamesC]

weezmatic,

Consider refreshing your enabled devices within Geofencing settings. Disable all listed devices, save and then enable the devices again.
 
Also be sure the app stays logged in, is running and location is enabled on your device. If the app is logged off/not running Geofencing will not work.

Geofencing is still a Beta feature at this time and the engineering team is working hard to improve it. We appreciate any and all feedback related to this feature.
 
JamesC

[matthomas7]

"Also be sure the app stays logged in, is running...If the app is logged off/not running Geofencing will not work."

This so far is the biggest issue I have had. My phone seems to logoff from the app if it remains locked for an extended period of time, and when I leave the apartment, I have to remember to open the app so Arlo knows I've left. 

Can a failsafe be implemented so that if no device location has been found the system arms itself by default. I've left the apartment on several occasions to later realize hours later it's still unarmed because it didn't know I was away. This failsafe would help prevent unintended lapses in security.

Thanks 

[weezmatic]

i was out of town, but I think I figured out the issue ended up being that my wife's phone was only granted access to 3 of the 4 cameras. I'm not sure how I missed that, but thanks for all of the support.
Is there any way of setting Arlo to record until the motion stops like how the Canary camera records? Right now I'm just getting a lot of 10 second recordings.

[rjhenderson15]

All,

I have tried all these different tricks that people have said works to no avail.

Can somebody confirm that this actually works? In other words, can you have 2 iphones ( one being the primary and the second being a phone you give administrative rights too) that geofencing only "arms" when both iphones are outside of the geofencing boundries.

Location is enabled on both devices

I deleted my wife's access and then reinstated it

Nothing works and getting 53 alerts a day because it only recognizes my phone outside the geofencing area and not my wife's who is setting off the alerts continously is nerve racking.

Help!

Rob

[JamesC]

rjhenderson15,

Is the app logged in and running on your wife's phone? In order for geofencing to work correctly all enabled devices need to have the app logged in and running.

JamesC

[Senate1123]

JamesC,

I bought an Arlo system with 5 wireless cameras.  I have the Geofencing mode setup for away and Schedule for home.  I was able to add my wife's phone onto the account and enabled her phone for Geofencing.  However, the mode doesn't quite work right.  It doesn't always follow the Schedule when we are both home.  And it stays armed if she is home, but I am away.  Is there something that I am missing?

Thanks!

George

[C-M]

I haven't tried to use scheduling as part of geofencing. I have relatively complicated 'home' and 'away' modes (cameras triggering other cameras, etc.) and it works perfectly all the time. I also have both my phone and my wife's phone on the system & it's 'home' if either of us are home, 'away' if we're both more than about 100 yards away from the base station. I haven't had a single screw up since the second version of geofencing came out. (first release had a couple of bugs in it).

Suggestion: Set up a simple "home" and "Away" programs. (all on when away, and all off when home?). If it still screws up, it's something with the phone setup. There has been lots of discussion with people having those problems & how to fix them in this forum. You'll probably find an answer there. If that test works fine, it's probably something about using scheduling inside of geofencing. If it's that, I got nothin'. I haven't tried that at all.

Good luck, we love our system.

[JamesC]

Senate1123,

A few things to try:

Consider refreshing your enabled devices within Geofencing settings. Disable all listed devices, save and then enable the devices again.

Be sure the app stays logged in, is running and location is enabled on your devices. If the app is logged off/not running Geofencing will not work.

Try increasing the location radius within your Geofencing settings (Small > Medium, Medium > Large)

Geofencing is still a Beta feature at this time and the engineering team is working hard to improve it. We appreciate any and all feedback related to this feature.

JamesC

[larschr5]

@james C

First of all give the team a big thanks for listening and responding to the community's wishes and feedback. I'v never seen such direct involvement with end users before so it's a great comfort to know that you're this active in getting things done. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time but these updates and feedback makes a big difference. At least to me. 

I'm just beginning to try out the geofencing and from reading this thread I can understand that the app needs to be running and logged in to correctly detect "home" or "away" mode. I expect this to be the main issue to be fixed as both me and my wife has a habit of closing apps once in a while. What is the  status on the  wish that a "unknown" staus results in the Arlo going in to "Away" mode?

[JamesC]

larschr5,

With the Geofencing feature being in beta, there are still many changes/improvements coming in the future. I do not have any information on what improvements will be made but you can keep an eye on the Arlo Release Notes board as this is where they will be posted for future updates.

The beta team is keeping a close watch on all feedback from the community on this topic. If I get any new information, I will be sure to let you know.

Thank you,

JamesC

[jguerdat]

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larschr5 wrote:

@james C

I'm just beginning to try out the geofencing and from reading this thread I can understand that the app needs to be running and logged in to correctly detect "home" or "away" mode. I expect this to be the main issue to be fixed as both me and my wife has a habit of closing apps once in a while.

---

As long as you're not actually logging out, which takes a physical action, the appmis still running in the background. That said, there still seems to be an issue with how the app interacts with the OS in spite of still being logged in.

[EarlyAdopter]

Agreed.  The Geofencing is still not working well with multiple users.  We don't log out of either of our phones (husband + wife) and the zones don't recognize the actual location to drive the rules consistantly.

I'm tired of the workarounds like disable/enable, etc.

The last Arlo iOS update was 8/23/2016 so while that isn't terribly long ago, they don't seem to be getting this right.  It seems it would be a realatively easy fix as other Apps are managing geofencing well with mutiple user.  Maybe Alarm.com can provide a consult.  They just need to move this up the priority list and get it done.  You can't go BETA forever, right?

[larschr5]

Have to agree with above post thought I only tried the geofencing briefly but it didn’t work as intended. After deleting the app on both phones, and sharing admin right again it did work once. However when my wife took her phone and went upstairs her phone got listed as “out of zone” and the system armed setting of alarms in the living room where I was tidying up before I went upstairs.

I’m actually curious as to how geofencing works under the hood. Is the Arlo app polling the phone for a location to detect when it is out of zone or is it the base station doing the polling? And at what intervals are the polling made? Every 1 minute, 5 minute or? Also since it’s in BETA how are the developers actually working on improving it? Sine the BETA is public I think it would help the developers to have access to logs from end-users showing them what is actually happening when used in real life. If developers don’t get this information then the BETA should be made unavailable to end-users since it definitely is not working as intened creating a false sense of security.

[TomMac]

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larschr5 wrote:snipped-

However when my wife took her phone and went upstairs her phone got listed as “out of zone” and the system armed setting of alarms in the living room where I was tidying up before I went upstairs.

. Is the Arlo app polling the phone for a location to detect when it is out of zone or is it the base station doing the polling?

---

Sometimes , depending on the type of GPS service in use, there can be inaccuracy as to location. I had to go from a small geo-zone to a medium sized one as this was arming my phone at times.... After increasing the geo-zone size the problem went away.

As to the polling, unknown but I would guess it's more in the Phone and it's ping rate and that data going to netgear.  I do know it's time level is on the low end as if I drive away from my home it triggers right at the edge of the geo-zone that was seen.

Also the Push on iOS comes within seconds (<5) when the ios device  for geo is toggled on or off at home. ( takes a little longer if on cell service )

[Joejoesing]

I have Geofencing set up. Whenever I leave the area, the system is armed, even though I have it enabled on my wife's phone as well as mine. Arlo sees her as in-zone, so I would expect it to be disarmed, but it's always armed as soon as I leave the area.

[weezmatic]

I had the same issue, but it was my fault. I had only granted access to 3 of the 4 cameras to my wife so one of them always alerted even though she was in zone. Double check your setup within Settings --> Grant Access --> Username and make sure each camera has a check mark.

[Joejoesing]

Mine is configured correctly. I'm going to try having her log in as me on her phone and see if that works.

[Joejoesing]

Currently both phones are logged in with my account. I'm am out of zone and my wife is home. System is armed (shouldn't be). I'm going to try later with her out and me at home. According to NetGear, the system should only arm when we are both out.

[JamesC]

Joejoesing,

Consider refreshing your enabled devices within Geofencing settings. Disable all listed devices, save and then enable the devices again.

Also be sure the app stays logged in and is running on both mobile devices. If the app is logged off/not running Geofencing will not work.

Do you still see the same behavior?

JamesC

[Senate1123]

JamesC,

I've tried refreshing my devices, also tried uninstalling and reinstalling the apps.  Arlo still arms when I leave the area, but my wife remains.  The app does correctly recognizes who is inside or outside the zone.

Someone mentioned enabling each camera for each phone, but I can't find where to do that.

[weezmatic]

That was me. My Arlo was behaving exactly the way your describing yours. If your using the iPhone app from the main screen click on Settings --> Grant Access --> Username after clicking on the username it will take you to a screen displaying which cameras that user has access to. Make sure all are checked.

[Senate1123]

Thanks!  (again)

I went in and all the cameras were enabled.

[rjhenderson15]

All-

I originally posted on this forum venting my frustration regarding my geofencing not working properly. I thought I was doing everything correctly and it just had something to do with it being a beta version. The moment I followed the instructions step by step (duh!) I immediately had my geofencing working perfectly. I suspect I am not alone.

Tap Mode > Arlo device > Geofencing edit icon (pencil) > Enabled Devices.

This is where you will find your phone, your significant other's phone and any other devices that have the gps enabled.

Make sure the devices that you want to control geofencing are all checked. If this is done correctly you should be good to go!

Rob