Geofencing. not working

[kimskev]

I would expect this from other companies but from netgear????  Think it's time to get my money back!!!

OK so we finally get Arlo which we were excited about.  We have 3 people in our house and well this system should be able to be armed and disarmed when anyone of us comes and goes.......or so you'd think.

 NoHelp, SayWhat?

Set up IFTTT:

IF first family member arrives HOME then disarm arlo (Using life360 and arlo)

IF last family member leaves HOME then arm arlo (using life 360 and arlo)

3 IPhones set up with life 360 which have been working for the last 2 years 

Member #1 comes home alone - Arlo disarms

Member # 3 comes home alone - Arlo disarms

Member #2 come home alone (the member that set everything up) and we have motion alerts going off left and right.

Yes, I set up everything the way it should have been set.

Search for Support number.... can't be found but find "Live Chat"

First support person is of no help and disconnected

Second support person gives me phone number and advises me to set up Geofencing and walks me through steps.  Tells me THIS WILL WORK!

Call Support (Speak to someone in the Philippines ....... WHAT?? No USA Support????) And after being on hold get disconnected

Member #1 comes home alone - Member #3 gets 14 motion alerts even though the app says that member #1 is "IN THE ZONE" which means the system should have disarmed.  Nope, Not my Arlo!

Look online for the Support chat and it's nowhere to be found but today, the phone number is there (crazy)

Call Support again.... yes, another person in the Philippines (nothing against Philippines but why no USA support???)  This person knows nothing about how to fix this and suggests that I (member #3) remove myself from the system all together (Take my name, number, everything off the website, take the app off my phone) and this should help...... Ummm..... WHAT????

So I have to completely remove myself from everything just so I won’t get any alerts on my phone? Instead of someone coming up with a way to arm and disarm this system when different members of the family come and go???  Nope, not working for me!!!!!  Support person asks me if I mind being put on a 5-7 minute hold?  Um.... again... WHAT????  No. Im not going to wait 5-7 minutes.  

Yes, Support person puts me on hold anyway and there I sit for about 15-20 minutes listening to some horrible music when CLICK....... Disconnected!

Can you even imagine how happy I was at that moment????  Yea, not very happy.

So here I sit, with all three members in the house and my phone flashing on and off.

GEOFENCING AT HOME IS NOW HOME MODE

GEOFENCING AT HOMOE IS NOW AWAY MODE

MOTION DETECTED ON PORCH

MOTION DETECTED IN LIVING ROOM

MOTION DETECTED IN BASEMENT

GEOFENCING AT HOME IS NOW HOME MODE

GEOFENCING AT HOMOE IS NOW AWAY MODE

MOTION DETECTED ON PORCH

MOTION DETECTED IN LIVING ROOM

MOTION DETECTED IN BASEMENT

MOTION DETECTED ON PORCH

MOTION DETECTED IN LIVING ROOM

MOTION DETECTED IN BASEMENT

[ilioni]

Exact same issue too with Andriod device. It is so unreliable! Keep on getting the below message and the device is a Samsung S8 Plus and tried reinstalling the app multiple times. Any  advice to make it work on the Andriod device is most appreciated. It works on my other device which is iPhone. 

Here's the notification:
Geofencing needs an internet connection. Open the Arlo app when your connection becomes available.

[soyee7]

I have the exact same issue with my S8.

[ilioni]

Hi,

With regards to Netgear's response towards these geofencing issue on Andriod, their engineering team really need to get their act together. It shows how incompetent their (product engineering) Android developer team is. The Android development team in the Arlo Netgear really need to show that they can come up with the product that works or they are not doing their job right especially the person who is leading the team. This problem is easily reproducible and it is consistently not working and it's been reported by multiple people and I don't think i am the only person facing the problem. 

Netgear, how can you have a feature that is not working for so long for the Android based mobile? The only reason why I bought Arlo is because it has the geofencing capability. 

We are still seeing these messages below everyday on the Andriod device (Samsung S8 plus) - updated to the latest Android version recommended by Samsung using the autoupdate. 

"Geofencing needs an internet connection. Open the Arlo app when your connection becomes available."

[Buts]

I to am getting extremely frustrated about the geofencing sytem working sometimes but not most.

On the forum it states "problem solved"

I dont see a soultion anywhere and have tried all the suggested fixes many times.

I still get " system in home mode and visa versa, when clearly it is not.

What is the solution and when are we users ( there appear to be many with the same erratic issue) going to be told what the fix is?

The only true fix I see on this site is the guy that sent his system back and replaced it with a "Nest" system!

[madkiwi]

Pretty fed up myself. Wife and I both have Galaxy 7S phones, geofencing never works. Right now the system is in home mode, because we are both home. System shows we're both "In zone".

But 10 minutes ago I was out of zone. Although I have not moved.

My wife came home before me last night, system kept telling me movement was detected. But when I checked geofencing, it told me she was "In zone". So she was home, Arlo knew it, but it would not turn off the Armed condition?

Before anyone says to try all the standard BS troubleshooting- had this system since May. I know all the steps to take. I have tried them all in the last week. Uninstall Arlo app. Reboot Arlo. Reboot the phones. Made sure the Arlo app is not turned off by battery saver (Arlo is set up as "unmonitored" by Battery optimization, never sleep and allowed unrestricted data access) and yet it either doesn't work or I keep getting the "Arlo needs an internet connection" message.

This is as dumb as it gets. Why don't they use the home WIFI as an independent verifier? That's got to be pretty easy isn't it?

[cr8v_nrg]

Have you tried removing special characters from your device (phone) names? That was what did the trick for me. My phone’s name was “Tom’s iPhone” but when I changed it to “Toms iPhone” geofencing started working. No problems since.

[madkiwi]

My phone was called SAMSUNG-SM-G930V (exciting, I know). Now called Marks S7.

Not improved yet.

[cr8v_nrg]

On the iPhone, Location Services have to be On and set to Settings>Privacy>Location Services>Arlo>Always. Anything similar in your Android?

[THamilton]

I'm have had the same problem with Geofencing for the last few weeks. Two cameras/Arlo base station, iPhone 6s and iPhone 5 carrying the mobile app. Arming doesn't seem to be too much of a problem, but when my wife and I come home it often doesn't recognise our presence and we wind up with a stream of motion detection messages.

@JamesC I have an issue with the "check the devices in geofencing setup" comment, I go to Mode, Arlo Base Station, but the Geofencing mode isn't selectable, so I can't check if our devices are being enabled.

[heisian]

I would very much like to see this addressed.

[heisian]

Everyone, here are a bunch of other users having similar issues with Geofencing:

• Geofencing Does Not Stay On
• Geo Fencing Armed when I am in Zone
• Geofencing Issue
• Geofencing set up 32 character error

It seems pretty obvious that at this point NETGEAR has no desire to solve this issue that is being experienced by many, many users. Unless it is shown otherwise with confirmation that issues exist and have a plan to be fixed.

[bigp0408]

when i go to my devices iphone appears and right away disappears... cant activate it..thats tha only reason why im not using my iphone.. ive been using my s8+ no problem..but now cant get notification on my s8

[JamesC]

bigp0408,

It sounds like this could be due to special characters in the iPhone's name. By default the iPhone will be named something like "JamesC's iPhone". Some users have reported having issues with the special characters. Try renaming the iPhone to something like this: JamesCiPhone   Do you still see the same behavior?

JamesC

[denglish88]

Geo Fence does not work on my Samsung S7. It tracks me outside the radius and will not arm inself. I repeatedly get an error message that I do not have an internet connection when I do. This feature is compleetely useless. I bought it on Amazon and plan on returing with a 2 star review. It's too bad, the product works well other than that. Netgear had known about this problem and chooses to ignore its non iPhone's customers. A fatal mistake.

[scottb08]

I had a similar problem with my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. I completely uninstalled the app and reinistalled it and it magically started working. Works pretty good now. Might be worth a try before returning it.

[vanessalo]

I was having the problem of 2 phones not working with the geofencing.  I did the live chat via the support page and they were able to help me with a very wierd solution.  I thought I would share although it may not be your problem.

My husband was adding me as a user with admin status but his phone could not "see" my phone in order to select it on his phone.  I also did not have the "arlo app" under the locations services in settings.  When i first installed the app, it never asked me if I wanted to allow locations services for the app either.

Turns out the Name of my phone (found under settings, general, about, name)  was "Vanessa's iphone".  The support guy had me remove the apostrophe from the name stating that arlo did not recognize the special characters.  As soon as I did that, my phone showed up on my husband's device list and the locations services question popped up.

Very finicky programming.  I asked if they know of this silly problem with the code, why don't they just fix it.   Apparently, its harder that it sounds.  

Anyway, thought maybe this might help someone else.  

[JTDK]

The geofencing option is not working similar to all other messages in this forum. We have two phones attached which not are detected unless we manually disconnect and connect the phones back into the geofencing option. If not fixed it will be delivered back to Power in Norway where it was bought within the 30 days return option we have.   

[Joanlay]

I only have one phone set up for geofencing location identification and haven’t installed the Arlo app on any other devices but the location is listed as unavailable although I’ve allowed for location services for arlo in my iPhone settings.

[crazyitalian]

This was very helpful - I was losing my mind with this exactly same fact pattern. Seems like a silly limitation.

[Saluki00]

@JamesC - I think there seems to be a disconnect here between Netgear and its users.  I contacted Support regarding my challenges with GeoFencing and this was the conversation (below). What I am looking for, is an ETA on when this feature shoudl be working flawlessly? It seems this feature set has not worked for some time and many of your users are expressing thier frustration. The Arlo 2 system is an amazing system, but this feature set needs to be fixed soon.  

( 2m 39s ) Guiller C: As I understand, your Geo-fencing is not working properly, is that correct? 
( 3m 30s ) Guiller C: Thank you. I will be glad to clarify the reason for this problem to you today KBS. 
( 3m 54s ) Guiller C: There is actually a known issue with this feature. 
( 4m 45s ) Guiller C: The Geo-fencing mostly work flawlessly only if the Enabled Device is just one. Not when there are more . 
( 5m 57s ) Guiller C: The symptoms you are seeing is not actually a problem with your system or with the network devices. It is a problem with the cloud's integration with the GPS system. 
( 6m 9s ) Guiller C: The engineers are already working on this problem. 
( 7m 19s ) Guiller C: The feature actually worked fine before KBS. But something went wrong when the Arlo code was changed way back few months ago. So they are nw working on it. 

[Jefffromtexas]

Same issue.  Samsung Galaxy S7 and I get this message; "Geofencing needs an internet connection. Open the Arlo app when your connection becomes available".  Half the time when I open the Arlo app even  when I am not in GeoFencing mode Arlo thinks I don't have an internet connection. 

I was going to add to my system, but now I am thinking I may need to replace it. 

[veener79]

I will say after the last couple of app updates my system has been good for the most part.  Know also having to set the App to be on noted on "Power Saving Excusions" in Android settings is a must.  

[scottb08]

Good suggestion about setting the app to be excluded on Power Savings. I tried this myself but I keep getting the error that the app needs an Open Internet Connection, which I seem to do but still throws that error all the time. Seems like Netgear is not listening to their customers about these issues OR there is an underlying reason in Android OS that keeps them from implementing it the way they way. Either way, they should be open with their customer base about the issue.

[Picturepainter]

Not just Android, I have an iPhone 6, and Geofencing continues to be an issue. Works some times, but very unreliable. 

[brh]

For anyone still following this thread, Make sure any phone names do not have any special characters in the name. For example: Use John Phome in the name rather than John's Phone.

This seems to solve a lot of Geofencing problems.

Brian