Geofencing - further feedback

[nickmobbs]

Afternoon All,

So i have been testing the geolocation mode again and i am pleased to say it seems to be working better than before.

I have not seen it change mode to disarmed on its own as it was at the end of last week, so i can only assume there is some work going on in the background to sort out the issues.

I have come to one conclusion though, the Android app (sorry not tested ios) is not kept running in the background, so the app is constantly 'suspended' and so will not update the location until you open the app again.... making this all rather pointless as i can change modes manually if i were to open the app everytime i come and go from the house.

Will the app be updated to correct this behaviour?

Is there a setting somewhere that can prevent this?

I have read that if there is a permanent icon on the info bar of the phone then the app cannot be killed/suspended.

Look forward to your feedback.

Regards

Nick

[EarlyAdopter]

Here is what Geofencing is doing / not doing for me:

1.  I really want it to trigger off TWO phones.  

• Wife AND Husband leave zone, alarm system
• Wife AND Husband enter zone, revert to schedule (off during day, on from 10pm - 7am

Unfortuantely, the App does not offer either of these situations.

Currently, I have two enabled devices for Geofencing.  In some testing on my own, I actually select my wife's phone to trigger off of (not primary account holder) and uncheck me (primary account holder.  I set it as In Zone = Schedule and Out of Zone = Alarm.  Unfortunately when she is home / in the zone, Arlo is still recording during the day - even thought my schedule is not set to record during this time.

I realize this is a BETA version, but simple functionality to follow the schedule when in the zone by the selected / enabled user is not good.  I hope there are some App updates in the near future.

Also, when I launch the App, I see a quick flash / ghost image of the original 3 icons at the bottom of the App (design prior to 5/17/16 App update - this it quickly flashes to the newly designed 4 icon layout.  Developers need to fix this - bad first impression for the amount of dollars people have spent in this Arlo system.

[pudeshi]

I am also getting bombarded with emails when using geofence and the system is armed.  Our use case is that when both my wife and i leave for work, the system is armed so we can keep an eye on our nanny with the kids.  i don't need to get bombarded with emails, but do need recordings that we can go back and watch.  Notifications are turned off in the app, so don't know why i am getting them.  If i switch to schedule mode, i get no emails.

[nickmobbs]

I have also noticed today how despite setting 'schedule' as the 'home' mode, when i went home it was set to disarmed instead!

I am currently experimenting with automatically opening the app using 'automateit' based on location, so that the arlo app will be operational when i get home/leave home etc.

Just to prove that the 'unreliable' arming/disarming is due to the app not running in the background as it should....

JamesC - could you provide an update on this?

If it cannot be made to be reliable using geofencing then i shall have to go back to using the schedule function as i did before.

I tried to use IFTTT to arm the system based on location, but you can only arm into the 'armed' mode, and only with a single device, which is no use to me as we have multiple devices and need custom rules.

Regards

Nick

[Adewale]

i think the addition this geofencing needs is for it to 'revert' to last mode i.e. if i am (my phone) in a location, do 'A', once i leave that location, 'revert back to previous mode'... the arm or disarm only options wont cut it for most people

[JamesC]

nickmobbs,

Just to confirm. When you close the app, are you logging out of the app (Settings > Log out) or are you just minimizing the app to allow it to stay running in the background?

JamesC

[Okone1]

I'm using geofencing and its having trouble changing to the correct mode based on my schedule.  When I leave home, it does change to armed and when I come back into the home area it does switch to schedule.  That's very cool.  However, I have checked at random times while home and the wrong mode is displayed.  For example, today at 2 it showed the indside Arloq camera as armed. I was getting motion alerts while in geofencing mode that is set on schedule.  When I manually switched off geofencing to schedule, it changed to the correct mode which is disarmed. I then switched it back to geofencing and it stay as disarmed which was correct.  If there is anything I could try I would be more than happy.  I did do a full reboot of the router (r7000) and base station.  

[nickmobbs]

Hi James,

I am only minimizing the app, and for a while it does seem to run in the background ok, but if not used for a while i think the background process must be stopped somehow.

I have tried an experiment today using life360 monitoring both mine and my wifes phones, using IFTTT to look for the trigger from life360 to arm/disarm Arlo... I have to say it works really well.

If only it could arm to a mode other than 'Armed' that would be excellant, currently i have other 'recipes' setup to trigger recording on my other cameras when the others see motion.

I normally do that with a custom mode, but the IFTTT solution seems to work ok.

My experiment with life360 proves it can be done, the app needs to be running in the background all the time, I hope you are able to update the arlo app to make geofencing work more reliably and then i can get rid of the complex life360 & IFTTT setup that i have currently.

i really hope this feedback helps to point your developers in the right direction, and I would really appreciate some information on what your expected timescale is for an app update to correct this?

Kind Regards

Nick

[RodNZ]

Absolutely needs to trigger off multiple phones. 

If I leave the house for a while both my wife and I get alerts when she is still there.

Thank you

Doh - after posting this I checked through some more forums and I see my wifes phone was not an enabled device. Hopefully all sorted. Sorry about that.