Geofencing

[hardingr2000]

I now have geofencing on my app. I turned it on yesterday and my battery consumption for Arlo went through the roof. I do not have it turned on today and Arlo is still the big consummer of the battery. Yesterday Arlo did not report very many recordings (maybe 10 at the very most).I am home today and have it disarmed. What can I do?

[oillogger]

I have had mixed results with only one phone enabled for Geo-fencing with detection via GPS/WiFi/cellular and medium in-zone Geo-fencing range selected.  When leaving home in one direction the Arlo Q will consistently arm about 1-1/2 miles from home which is about 3/4 to 1 crow flying miles away.  The Arlo system will disarm after I have pulled into my carport.  Sometimes I need to wait a couple of minutes before going in for the Arlo system to disarm which is not desired.  From my results I questioned if my phone is providing GPS readings.  It appears my Arlo system is only disarming when it detects my home WiFi and arming by way of cellular.  Also from what I read there appears to be some multiple devices in the Geo-fencing mode issues.  Hopefully there will be an Arlo app update soon that may improve their Geo-fencing mode.  If Netgear gets the bugs worked out then the Arlo Geo-fencing mode will be the cat's meow.

[jguerdat]

It's at least partly due to the polling needed to determine location.  Having realtime positioning could really be a battery hog, not to mention data.  I have an August Smart Lock with geofencing and it does the same sort of thing.  I had to increase my home zone distance in order to allow the system to detect that I was at home so the lock would open BEFORE I got to the door.  Walking was generally no problem but the timing for detection that I was at home was frequently the same as the unlock when I drove home.  Now it's noted as a minute differential.

[Broilerman]

I have similar issues. Additionally my system will sometimes arm and sometimes disarm when required. Anything short of always arming and disarming when required is unsatisfactory. I agree that geofencing is a nice feature and hopefully the bugs get worked out. Multiple device issues exist as well.

[oillogger]

Since the Arlo cameras are normally all on your home Wi-Fi with the potential exception of the Arlo Q Plus it may be better to only poll within the device with the Arlo app for your just home network availability.  Your device would not have to be connected to your network but only be able see your network for the Arlo app to arm/disarm your system.  By arming/disarming by your network availability only there is not the delay of establishing the network connection.  You can always see a network before you are close enough to connect to it.

[Broilerman]

I agree. I think it would work much better than using GPS as a means to arm and disarm

[oillogger]

I briefly had a Canary camera.  It would also auto arm/disarm depending upon if you were connected to your home Wi-Fi.  My fingers are crossed hoping Netgear gets the Geo-fencing working in a usable manner.

[JamesC]

For those of you having issues utilizing multiple devices with Geofencing I will be reaching out to you in a private message to collect and escalate more information to the Beta team.
 
Also take a look at the latest article regarding Geofencing and multiple user support: How do I add and manage multiple mobile devices for geofencing?
 
JamesC

[Broilerman]

It's simple the devices don't update their location.

[Navalvet]

Geo-fencing works now on both cell phones, as long as either one is synced with the other after we leave the defined area.  However, tghe system sometimes does not deactivater when one of us returns inside the predefined area. that is ok though as it can be manually deactivated if need be.

[HPM]

For geofencing to be more useful it would be good to have a feature to only arm when using Geofencing when all devices have left the area instead of what appears to be happening today that it arms as soon as one device leaves and stays armed until all have returned to the area. 

[TerryMW]

I have been trying to find out why my Android LG-G2 smartphone has begun to badly heat up when not actively being used. 

After having an Arlo WiFi setup for just 6 months, I am now almost certain that it always occurrs after arming my ARLO system and the App remaining active in memory. If I leave it there, the heatup happens - if I kill it, it doesn't.

Geo-Fencing seems a fabulous idea but if the App has to stay in memory for it to work, the downside seems to be much increased phone battery consumption.

Love the ARLO system just not some of the apparent side effects...........

Comments anyone?