Geofence

[madkiwi]

Hi Netgear,

If you could please replace the trained chimp in charge of the app with some people who actually know what they're doing that would be terrific. I have installed, uninstalled, deleted enabled devices, re-enabled them, deleted the cache, deleted all files, checked all the permissions, disabled battery saver, enabled High accuracy GPS, changed modes, changed modes again etc. etc. etc.

None of this works, because you broke Geofencing over 5 weeks ago. Right now on the setup summary for Geofencing my phone is displayed in the very center of the green geofencing radius. But on the enabled devices page it says my phone is Unavailable.How can both things be true? Either my phone is available and showing on the map, or it is unavailable and then it should not show up.

But my wife's phone is showing as "In zone" which is great because she's out working in the garden. But that's not great because it always tells me she is in zone, EVEN WHEN SHE IS 30 MILES AWAY.

Asking for a friend.

[Arlo123]

You may try calling the Arlo support so that they can assist you. Because the Geofencing works for me. Maybe they need to check it.

🙂

[Lunchbox0419]

It's hit or miss for me too.
To get it to work 100% of the time I have to open the app after I leave and return home.
I've called support before and was advised to delete and reinstall the app. Needless to say, it still doesn't work as advertised.

[madkiwi]

I'm just going to post my observations here until Netgear fixes this.

Today the problem was my wife's location was solidly Out of Zone all day (unlike yesterday when she was in zone ALL DAY. She got home 30 minutes before me, and moving around the house Arlo kept sending me notifications that motion was detected. Literally 5 minutes before I arrived the system changed to showing her in zone. When I got home it showed me switching from out to in. Fantastic.

Ten minutes ago (an hour after I got home) the system switched to Away mode. I look at the app, and it is showing both of us as Out of zone. Still is.

Both of us have Samsung Galaxy S7 phones with latest Android. I took her phone off her and verified that all her system setting were EXACTLY the same as mine.

Netgear you turds. Fix your useless and horribly expensive pile of steaming crap.

[madkiwi]

Got tired of hearing the "Motion detected" alerts so I switched modes to Disabled.

Let's hope I remember to enable Geocaching when I leave the house tomorrow, because that's an important step when you use Geocaching.

[madkiwi]

Good morning.

Noticed a new version installed itself overnight. Checked my status and I am still out of zone, even though on the map I am clearly still sitting at home. Phone knows it, Arlo app is still broken.

Decide to delete all Arlo storage files and restart the phone. After loggin back in... fail.

Deleted the app and reinstalled it. Restarted the phone. Logged in to the app and...I am still out of zone. I deselect my phone, save, change modes to geofencing, edit settings, look at enabled devices.........

... and now my phone is "Unavailable". EVEN THOUGH IT IS CLEARLY SHOWING UP ON THE GEOFENCING MAP.

What will it take for Netgear to get this fixed? Who knows? Buehler? Anyone?

[madkiwi]

Good evening,

I am sure you all are waiting with bated breath to hear that the Arlo Geofencing has started working properly for me.

Don't hold your breath.

Under enabled devices the app has been showing both my wife and I as "Unavailable" all day. I decided to turn on Geofencing, now I am in zone, my wife is out of zone. Even though she just walked into the kitchen.

Sweet! Only a 50% error rate! I'm so happy I could puke.

[Cyclist_Steve]

+1
Geofencing is at best, working 30% of the time for me. Like the OP, I have tried a myriad of things to remedy, but no lasting positive change. It's frustrating beyond belief.

[madkiwi]

Another day, another Arlo fail. Had nothing to report yesterday, didn't try anything with Geocaching.

Today, well, there's a story. Enabled Geocaching this morning when we were both home. Both showed as in zone. Wife left for work, checked status she's now out of zone and I am in zone. Awesome! A while later I left, and about 300 yards from the house got the System armed chirp. What the hell! It's working!

Wife got home before me. I know because the alarm system notifies me when it is turned on or off (you don't think I would trust Arlo only do you?). Arlo starts notifying me of movement every damn minute. Sure enough, look at status and we are both out of zone. I mean I can see her in the recordings, must have been an optical illusion. System disarms when I pull up to the house.

We go out this evening, Arlo arms. We are in the same car, I check status, I am out of zone but she's Unavailable. We get home system disarms, status show us both home.

So here's what that tells me: Arlo only sees she is at home if I am actually there with her. If she is here by herself, well she's not in zone. Some magically awful program logic that defies rationality.

Well, until tomorrow. We'll see if the coding elves fix it overnight.

[madkiwi]

Well yesterday was a waste. Geofencing seemed to work, the wife was home with me and we were both in zone. We went out together, both out of zone. So we figured the whole thing is working now.

Wrong. Today I went out she was home, had us correctly located. We then went out together, Arlo armed. Excellent. Just came home- Arlo still shows her out of zone and we've been here for half an hour. But the system disarmed because it recognized me, so that's a plus(?).

Getting real tired of having to monitor, check and manually set stuff that is supposed to be something I don't have to think about. It should just work.

[madkiwi]

Yesterday was more head-desk fun.

Geofencing was all over the board. In the morning I went out, wife was home, Arlo stayed in home mode, but I was out of zone. Good.

In the afternoon we went out together, system armed. While visiting my father 20 miles away the system disarmed, so I checked status. Wife was home allegedly.

Later we went out for the evening, system didn't arm. Looked at the app, now wife was out of zone, I supposedly was at home.

Here it is Sunday morning, I am at home and App tells me my wife is out of zone. Pretty sure she just walked past me heading for the kitchen, but I may have been mistaken.

Hey Netgear- identical Samsung Galaxy S7 phones with Verizon. I have gone through all the settings on both to make sure they are identical. How hard is this really?

[rob170]

I called about this issue this morning and they just told me to set my “home” mode to “disarmed”. I explained that I need to be able to keep my outdoor cameras armed while I am home and just got a shrug off answer along the lines of “you have a conflict in your settings.” To which I replied..”then why did it work as of a few months ago?!” Only to get the original point reiterated...”set your home mode to ‘disarmed’”. Damn. I was a huge HUGE Arlo supporter up until this. Don’t advertise something as having that capability if it DOESNT. Ugh

[madkiwi]

Different problems- with us Geofencing isn't recognizing our two enabled devices properly. Sometimes I wonder if the system just randomizes in zone and out of zone. Right now I am in zone, but the Arlo app thinks I am out of zone. However on the map I am clearly home. Luckily the wife is home and recognized as such, so the system is in home mode. It seemed to be working perfectly yesterday, obviously today it is back to random functionality.

For the Geofencing we have Armed (out of zone) and Schedule (in zone). Added a mode (we called it "Safe") with only the outside cameras selected to record and alert. Then set up Schedule so that Armed is in effect between midnight and 8 am, the rest of the day it uses Safe mode (inside cameras disarmed).

If we are out of zone all cameras are armed. If we are in zone then all cameras are armed at night, only outside cameras armed when we are active.

So in your case you don't need Disarmed, you need to add a custom mode. There are FAQs to guide you through that.

[JamesC]

madkiwi,

Do you have WiFi turned on or off on your mobile device? Do you often solely use mobile data (no WiFi connection)?

JamesC

[madkiwi]

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@JamesC wrote:

madkiwi,

Do you have WiFi turned on or off on your mobile device? Do you often solely use mobile data (no WiFi connection)?

JamesC

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Our data plan sucks, so I always have wifi enabled (we have 3 people sharing 2 GB a month). So it connects to our home wifi automatically, plus other safe networks (wifi at my dad's assisted living etc).

From my understanding Geofencing does not require wifi anyway. But Arlo app is allowed to use our mobile data without any restrictions.

[rob170]

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For the Geofencing we have Armed (out of zone) and Schedule (in zone). Added a mode (we called it "Safe") with only the outside cameras selected to record and alert. Then set up Schedule so that Armed is in effect between midnight and 8 am, the rest of the day it uses Safe mode (inside cameras disarmed).

If we are out of zone all cameras are armed. If we are in zone then all cameras are armed at night, only outside cameras armed when we are active.

So in your case you don't need Disarmed, you need to add a custom mode. There are FAQs to guide you through that.

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That is almost exactly what I had. I had it set to "arm" when I was "away" and a custom "schedule"  mode for "home" where it would just notify me if anyone was caught on my outside cameras during the day but record if they were caught at night. I was instructed to take the cameras off of that custom schedule and just disarm them completely whenever I was home because I "hadn't set up the system correctly." But this is not the case, it used to work. My app is also doing the same thing where it shows me as being in the green "home" zone when I load the app but it won't change my camera modes or recognize me as being "home."

[madkiwi]

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@rob170 wrote:

That is almost exactly what I had. I had it set to "arm" when I was "away" and a custom "schedule"  mode for "home" where it would just notify me if anyone was caught on my outside cameras during the day but record if they were caught at night. I was instructed to take the cameras off of that custom schedule and just disarm them completely whenever I was home because I "hadn't set up the system correctly." But this is not the case, it used to work. My app is also doing the same thing where it shows me as being in the green "home" zone when I load the app but it won't change my camera modes or recognize me as being "home."

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So did setting Home to Disarmed fix anything with Geofencing? I am thinking I know the answer but figured I should ask...

[madkiwi]

Well it's been a few days. Nothing new to report. My wife is home continuously now, no matter where she is, Geofencing can't tell.

Pretty sure the app is working on her phone, if it wasn't then Geofencing would show her as "Unavailable", but she is "In zone".

So, it's working just as well as before. That is- Not.

[madkiwi]

If only it was consistently broken. Don't get me wrong, it is never "not broken" but figuring out the pattern is **bleep**ing impossible.

In my update yesterday I stated that wife's phone was continuously "In zone". That was before I checked later in the evening. It showed her out of zone, even though by then she was at home.

This morning, both home, she is still showing up in the app as out of zone. In about 30 minutes I will be going out for a while, she'll be home, and I am pretty sure Alro will arm the system- because of course she is already "Out of zone".

Sure must suck to be a Netgear employee if nobody can be motivated to fix this. Seriously, between September and the beginning of April Geofencing was working perfectly. Now, it is awful.

[trustno1foxm]

Same here (Galaxy S7 Edge).... Dear Netgear, fix it pls. It's useless at the moment!

[Qldking]

Arlo on iOS phones, running iOS 11.  I have 2 phones connected to the system - mine and my wives.  But the geofence is not picking up when one or both are back inside the zone, and therefore staying active.  Is there a setting I am missing as it does work occasionally.

[madkiwi]

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@Qldking wrote:

Arlo on iOS phones, running iOS 11.  I have 2 phones connected to the system - mine and my wives.  But the geofence is not picking up when one or both are back inside the zone, and therefore staying active.  Is there a setting I am missing as it does work occasionally.

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You nailed it- it works "occasionally".

As near as I can tell Geofencing is still Beta- no matter the lies Netgear tries to spin. If you purchased your system recently you should consider returning it. I (and many others) are long past return dates and have to live with the failure that is Arlo.

Geofencing WAS working quite reliably from about September until mid-March. Since then despite 2 further app updates it has been a frigging nightmare. I thought they fixed it recently, but then they did a firmware update on the base station that broke something else.

With these morons it's always one step forward, 2 steps back.I just wish they would not automatically update our devices and apps, and let us choose to do so. Once we discover all the horror posts here nobody will update.

[Qldking]

Thanks for the response.  I was starting to think that I couldnt figure out this simple thing - it was just out of my control.  

I have DND driving activated on the iphone. I am wondering if thats causing an issue with the location tracking?  Only thing that does not make sense though is when the phone disconects from the car it should refresh the location and work accordingly.  Just a thought.