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!

[Bznight]

Just wanted to voice my frustration with the Geo fencing not working.  

I have my wife and my iphones correctly set up in geofencing and we both have permissions to all cameras, everything is set correctly as far as I can tell.  

 When we are both home we both show as in zone. When I leave it arms the system even though my wifes phone is still shows as in zone.  

 Note: In the geofencing settings, For away, I use a custom schedule. For home, I use a full custom mode. 

 I am sorry, but this is 2016.  This basic function needs to be fixed ASAP. This should be top priority for the developers.  All the competitors have this functionality.

[EarlyAdopter]

Agree with Bznight and all comments.

After enable / re-enable both husband & wife phones work as expected for 2-3 days. But then it reverts to where wife's phone does not trigger the "in-zone" status that drives recording rules.

[rotheone]

I have the same issue with our secondary phone my partner has. Works for a little while then stops.

[Joejoesing]

When that happened to me, I had my wife launch the app, log on and send it to the background. Seems like as long as the app is open and background refresh is allowed, it works

[itsbob]

I tried Geofencing, and quickly discovered didn't want it. Now I can't get rid of it. On top of that it has now taken over, AND working backwards! With system in the normal Armed mode, we drive away, and it goes Offline, and since we have left we can not reboot or fix it. If one us goes home the system usually goes back online. I believe I am going to uninstall all devices, Apps and everything and attempt to clear out this Betta software, and start over.
Any suggestions?

[JamesC]

itsbob,

Geofencing will only change the mode of your system, not cause it to go "Offline". You can disable Geofencing simply by changing to a mode other than Geofencing on the modes list.

If your system is giving you an "Offline" error message, this indicates some other issue. Are you seeing an error message saying offline?

JamesC

[rotheone]

Did some more checking. Both of our iphones show up under the geofencing setup to disarm the system when in the zone. Only mine does it. I can see that when the second phone (which isn't the primary) is in the house the app is correctly showing it as in zone but not disarming the system if the primary phone is out.

We have an alro q as well which is working properly for geofencing with the same setup it disarms for either of us. 

Seems I can't make the wirefree side of my system work is it possible to use rules so that if the arlo q is disarmed, disarm the wire free and if the arlo q is armed, arm the wire free?

[JamesC]

rotheone,

Geofencing is designed to operate on a "first in, last out basis". This means that if any device is in the Geofencing radius the "Home" mode will enable, and the "Away" mode should only enable when the last device has left the radius.

For this to work 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.

When using multiple devices, the secondary devices should be logged into the app via shared account through the "Grant Access" feature so that both devices are logged in using the mobile app. Take a look at this article for more information: How do I add and manage multiple mobile devices for geofencing?

If you are having trouble with this, consider refreshing your enabled devices within Geofencing settings. Disable all listed devices, save and then enable the devices again.

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

[bartekgr]

JamesC,

The problem is that it's not working the way you described. Only the primary device is changing the camera mode. The secondary one, even though properly loceted in or out of the home zone, is not doing so.

[Danny_M]

I just purchased the Arlo Pro 4 camera system and have the same issue.

When I enable Geofence, only the primary phone is being used even though both phones are on, the app is running on both, and the secondary phone is in the home zone.

Under Geofencing->Enabled Devices (2) it says the secondary phone is "In Zone" while the primary phone is "Out of zone", yet the Geofence is in the away mode.

[acpd]

I tried to get Geo Fencing working but running into similar issues as others.

Had lots of issues with two phones so I tried with my phone only and that didn't work either. At first it worked for few minutes and than it set the mode to away eventhough i am at home on my home wifi. I make sure my location is enabled, app is running, it shows correct location when in the app. I constantly gets mode set to Home than Away than Home and so on. Those alerts are annoying. Not sure how often it checks and why it can't find my phone's location. I am using Android Moto X.

It is so unreliable even with single phone, i wouldn't bother trying with two.

I already have two Arlo Q and looking to get 4 more Arlo Pro but if this feature doesn't work, I am considering returning Arlo Q.

[MrMason]

Why can you not get geofencing to work with Arlo Q and two Android-phones (Android 7.x and Android 6.x)?

Why is no one working on this issue?

[Michaelvr]

Please fix the Geofencing mode now!!! I have a canary device and this feature works perfect! This should be the priority issue for arlo to fix!

[ChiefMateRay]

Hi Guys

Has Arlo resolve this issue of allowing multiple user on Geo Fencing?

[ArloReallySucks]

---

ChiefMateRay wrote:
Hi Guys

Has Arlo resolve this issue of allowing multiple user on Geo Fencing?

---

Let me tell you like this.

They are allowing it, but it does NOT work as expected. .  .

Even though it is not in beta anymore. . .

[C-M]

I have 5 cameras, 2 iphones (mine and my wife). I've had them for just about a year. Had a few issues setting them up back then (I bought the cameras just before they released the first beta of geofencing). For the past 6+ months we haven't had any issues. The only time I touch anything is to go look at what's going on if I get pinged that a camera saw motion.

One thing we did do is open up the geofencing boundry from tight to medium (100 yards?). We found that if it was tight, sometimes it didn't know we were there, but that's an issue with the phones & cell towers, not Arlo.

I have an Iphone 4 (OK, so I'm cheap, but it still works fine) & it does keep saying that there's a new version of software available, but won't let me load it. There may be a compatibility issue with old Iphones. My wife's Iphone 5 doesn't have that issue.

[ArloReallySucks]

Yeah. Seems that iPhone is more prioritized then Android and actually works...

[richmurray75]

Did this get solved?

I am a new user, I set up my camera  /account etc and all great.

I am trying to set my wife up to the account so we are both using the geofencing to ensure the house is armed / disarmed relevantly..

I keep reading posts about solutions / what you need to do, first in last out, double geo fencing works etc etc and this and that but to me it seems the system just doesnt support 2 users on the same account. [which is ludicrous]

or if it does the UX is terrible and key info is hidden away..

My current situation is geo fencing works great for just me,

once I leave the area the system is armed. once I arrive back it is disarmed on a schedule and arms through the night. perfect. - 

until my wife is home with the children and the system is armed and I'm getting notifications every few minutes / seconds.

[draining the battery of the camera and sending me irrelevant footage]

I tried 100's of times to add her to my account - of which your current UX is terrible and we go round in circles.

after hours of trying various things we now have her set up on my account. [very frustrating to get this far for something that should be so simple]

but it seems like the geo fencing isnt recognising her at all - there is no ARLO option in her location services on her phone.

she is "unavailable" therefore invisible to the system

This is no use to us, so if there is no fix - then its a full refund job

Please advise of simple steps to get us to a point where we can both get set up properly,

so

 - when one of us / both of us are home the system is disarmed.

 - when we are both out the system is armed.

+ schedule overwrites our whereabouts and arms anyway

Thanks

[itsbob]

I gave up using Geo Fencing mainly because I found my wife wanted me to have a watch on her and the house, even if she was there, and I was not. My problem was that once I turned (GeoFence) on, it would not go away.
I found my problem seemed to be an older wireless router that I was running. We had some problems with Internet too, that was fixed by using Time Warners newer router. Suddenly we found all the online/offline/geofencing issues quit.
I do say, Arlo comments, suggestions mainly first point to network issues when things go wrong. Could they be correct?
Bob

[NiNiNi]

I can't even get Geofencing working for ONE user, let alone two! But I have fround a work-around for multiple users, as demonstrated at the end of this video.

The start of the video is me explaing my current issue (not revlevent to this post), the end is explaining the work around.
It uses 'Life360' and 'IFTTT' apps. It's not perfect though, because IFTTT does not allow you to set-up custom modes/scedule mode.

If anyone can help me with my issue, please let me know! 

[NiNiNi]

Update! The issue is fixed (for me!)

It was due to the name of my phone having an apostrope, messing with the system! Thanks to Moderator James C for suggesting the fix.

on iOS, just go to Settings - General - About to change your name. This worked for me.

[PeterMak73]

Need some help here please...

Purchased Arlo Pro with cameras and have setup my mobile app as primary with geo fencing enabled. Have shared my account with my wife and she has had to login using her own details, not mine but under Geofencing>Enabled Devices> i only see my phone and there is no option to add another device (wifes phone).

So, how do i do this?

I have tried on her phone but no editing options.

Thanks

[JasonCaballero]

Not to beat a dead horse... But yes, what everyone here is saying. two users with Geo-fencing is a must. I just purchased and set up yesterday and have been scratching my head wondering why when I left this morning and my wife was still home it did not recognize she was there and set the system to "armed." Why would any of us want that??? Please fix asap as this IS the deal breaker...