GeoFencing not working with Samsung

[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]

Hi nonon,

I am using two different account (email address like you). The problem is not that the application keeps on logging out. But, the geofencing is not working. The app doesn't update the status accordingly. When the device is leaving the perimeter, it doesn't update the status to "Armed". When you enter the security perimeter, it says that you have entered the security perimeter but it doesn't change the status from "Armed" to "Disarmed" automatically and you have to manually do it which defeats the purpose of geofencing. Are you telling us that the automatic update of the status is working for you when you enters or leaves your security perimeter? 

[g3nius]

@JamesC Thank you for acknowledging this issue is on your radar and that a fix is in the works.  I can confidently say that Geofencing has worked as advertised (once iPhone's name had the apostraphe removed) since I installed my two ArloQ cameras a couple months back.  The issue of Geofencing not working has only been an issue with the latest iOS app update.  Its as though the background GPS or app stops running and the location isn't updated.  Opening the app, gets it to update my iPhone's location, and my two cameras then get the correct Armed/Disarmed status depending on where I am.

[madkiwi]

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@g3niuswrote:

@JamesCOpening the app, gets it to update my iPhone's location, and my two cameras then get the correct Armed/Disarmed status depending on where I am.

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Wish it was that good with the Android app. Sitting here in my home office right now, with my wife 6 feet from me and Arlo believes we are both out of zone, even though my location on the little map is centered on the home zone.

So it knows where I am, but Geofencing does not.

[Jefffromtexas]

To Nonon

Geofencing doesn't work for me, and the app keeps sessioning out.  I don't have anything else logged in or trying to access the app.  Workaround does not work.

[bigp0408]

The app on Android just got an update hopefully they fix it

[Snn5]

That update was only for fixing the log out error not fixing geofencing error.

[bigp0408]

Got u at least is something.. 🤣🤣🤣

[vk2gho]

Geofencing with Arlo Pro does not work. I have been on the phone talking with your tech ‘experts’ but no one has been able to solve this. It WAS working 3 months ago. No one seems to care. The whole lot is going back to the retailer for a refund.
Very poor service.

[nonon]

Hi to those who replied.

Sorry for the slight confusion. When posting I clicked "reply" specifically to the person who was mentioning the app logging out in the background, causing geo fencing to have problems on multiple devices. 
I was expecting my comments to add to that persons original post.

I should have stated, that this was in reply to that particular person. I will correct this.

Also to remind those who replied to me, that the post only addresses this particular problem (app logging out in the background, geo fencing problem, multiple devices.) on iOS devices.

[Cronqvist]

After the app update this morning Geofencing actually worked for me. Let's see what happens when I get home tonight 🙂 But the app is still not able to hold the session logged in when I choose "clear all" on my Android device, and I do the several times a day. Other app's like Facebook and Twitter does not have that issues. They are always logged in even when the app's are cleared from memory.

[jwdreams]

GeoFencing rarely works. It was okay when I got this last year... but it has gotten worse as the days go by. It has not worked in weeks.  And realyl bothered that there is no real way of letting company know. 

[chrisfeng20]

So just got off a call with Arlo support, they said engineers is currently working on it (hurry the heck up!!!) and will provide an update when it's fixed, and althought they didn't admit it openly but almost sure that was the app update broken it.

So Judging by the other replies it seems that problem is affecting both Iphone as Andorid device.

My little work around works for Iphone, go into mode -> select edit Geofencing -> click on the little find myself target. make sure it is out of your home cycle-> then go top tap done. it swtich accordingly after 1 secs or so. Painful but at least a work round.

[nonon]

Hi yes the update of the status/geo-fencing is working (although with a slight delay after entering the house).

Using 2 iOS devices(1 iPhone, 1 iPad), with 2 different accounts (name/email), with only the iPhone used for geo-fencing.

[Yank555-lu]

Well the Android app update doesn't work, and sessions still time out...

I checked the app was actually updated, which it was (that was around 7am). I even took care not to leave the app with the back key but home (keeps app running in background).

I left home at around 8:30am, now it's 9.10am and I wondered if Arlo actually did arm the system... so I took my smartphone, hit the Arlo app icon, and guess what ... "session timed out" ... I logged in again and boom, geofencing armed the system. Too little, too late ! 😞

So yay ... a 800€ system unusable still ... and it's been weeks now !

What the heck is development doing ?!

Unfortunately I can't send my stuff back in for a refund, it's been too long ago I've bought it (Arlo Pro, 3 cam) but I most certainly am regretting putting my money into this, esp. that it's hard-linked to Arlo cloud and I can't use the system as standalone without connecting to their servers.

Lesson learned, never again !

JP.

[Cronqvist]

Yeah...my app sadly also eventually timed out even after the update that was supposed to fix that 😞

[Matt_N]

Sounds like quite a few people recommend removing and reinstalling the app.

On IOS does anyone know if all the settings are reset once reinstalled? i.e. are settings held on each phone or on the Arlo servers.

It took so long to tweak my system to get it right I don't fancy doing everything again from scratch.

My system was working fine for two years with two iPhone 6 but geofencing stopped arming/disarming a couple of weeks ago. Still informs us both when entering or leaving the zone though.

Good luck everyone.

[nonon]

Hi yes, the automatic update of status/geo-fencing is working (although often with a delay after entering the house).

Using 2 iOS devices 1 iPhone and 1 iPad, with the iPad on a different account>requested through grant access on the iPhone app. Invite sent to diffferent name/email, and accepted on iPad. Then signed in on iPad with that new account.

Only the iPhone is selected in devices for geo-fencing.

[Yank555-lu]

@Matt_N: Sounds like quite a few people recommend removing and reinstalling the app.

I already tried that, no use, same as before... so given you might have a lot to reconfigure, I'd not take the risk, in my case (quite basic setup) it didn't make ANY difference (Android).

[dhung]

Geofencing was working well for me from mid Dec-17 until the the update to 2.4.8 (Android) & 2.4.7 (iOS) which somehow broke it.

I have 3 devices, a Sammy Note8 as my main account login, location tracking for Geofencing, iPhone6s+ as my 2nd devices, not active for location tracking. My wife's iPhone6s grented access with her own login and location tracking set for Geofencing.

this all start when I keep getting session expired on my Arlo Android App, so I changed the main tracking device to my iPhone6+, and Geofencing work most of the time... with just iOS devices are active for Geofencing.

I did tried the latest Android App 2.4.10 and swap the main tracking device back to my Note 8, it still not able to hold login session, thus Geofencing is still broken.

[Snn5]

I received 1 reply in 2 weeks from support. All they recommended was that I rename my "iPhone Moto X4" to "iPhone." Yeah, that's how well they are trying and listening. (You CANT rename an Android.)

[Yank555-lu]

OK, maybe progress here with the latest update (2.4.10) !

I've managed to keep the session signed in over the whole morning ! This won't allow me to test geofencing until I'm back home tonight, but at least the "session timed out" message seems gone.

What did the magic was to whitelist Arlo app in Android's battery optimisation list, set Arlo app to don't optimise (see attached screenshot).

I will report back once I'm at home later today, hoping to seen geofencing back to where it was, ok-ish.

JP.

[Snn5]

I have had Arlo set on my Android to not optimized since day one. All that does is keep the app from closing when it's in the background. Swiping away still closes the app. Until the app is updated with other app permissions and notification permissions the app will still close when swiped away. That is what I believe is the main issue with geofencing. If the app cannot stay open in the background even when swiped away then the app does not have any idea where the phone is. It needs a location always-on option.

[Snn5]

Also let's not forget we still don't have widgets for easy on and off toggle which may or may not be required if the app is updated with location and background activity permissions.

It seems This Thread is pretty much the catch-all for app closing and location and geofencing issues. Unfortunately it is still named with Samsung in mind also Android even though we have other manufacturers of Android phones and Apple iOS devices included. This now seems like the Hub thread for all things at issue with this camera system at this point in time.

[Yank555-lu]

Obviously this won't avoid you manually killing the app. I had that set as well from start on, just it got lost when I uninstalled to reinstall the app as suggested (and maybe this is the case for others, why I mentioned it).

The new app at least now, if not optimised, isn't prone to session timeout anymore. If geofencing is back to more or less working I will see tonight.

That this is not THE solution is obvious, but unless Arlo app gets done properly as you suggest, this is the only thing we as users can do to workaround so far.

A widget could be a plus, although I'd not need one if geofencing was actually doing what it's supposed to.

With the session timeout inducing geofencing not working, and being the only visible problem from end-user point of view, I'm not surprised people end up here to try to find help.

JP.

[Snn5]

I just tested geofencing on my way to work today and noticed that it is still not working. I had to go into the app and toggle geofencing to armed and then back to geofencing and it still did not arm. It clearly saw my location moving but did not recognize that I was not at the home location. At least before this version I could toggle geofencing to kick it in gear. But now I'm still back to manually arming and disarming it.