Apple HomeKit + Arlo Pro 2 Bugs

[Shellback13]

Let me first preface this by saying I am huge supporter of Apple's HomeKit Ecosystem, my whole house is HomeKit enabled. When I heard Arlo Pro 2 would be getting HomeKit, it was a no brainer for me to purchase the 4 camera system and setup the Arlo Pro 2 with HomeKit. 

Devices:

iPhone XS Max - iOS 13.1.2

Apple TV 4k - OS 13

Arlo Pro 2 VMB4000r3 - FW 1.14.1.1_2913_78b189a

The integration that Arlo put into HomeKit is by far the worst I've seen done. I've looked over the community threads and I haven't seen anyone post this particular problem in detail so I am going to lay it out below and see if anyone has a similar issue. 

The setup process to connect the 4 camera's is fairly easy and straight forward, I never had an issue with getting the basestation + 4 camera's loaded into Apple HomeKit. 

The big issue that I have and no one in Arlo Support can understand (Mostly Arlo's customer support has no idea what Apple HomeKit is and how it works) is when you are viewing your camera's via the HomeKit app or you are using a 3rd party app like "HomeCam", which puts all your HomeKit enabled camera's into one nice display (awesome on the AppleTV), the Arlo camera's become "stuck" in viewing mode when you view the camera's via Apple's HomeKit app or another 3rd party app. So, in basic terms, when you exit your viewing of your camera in HomeKit or another app, Arlo does not recognize you exited the video stream. Arlo believes you are still streaming. You can test this by trying to arm you Arlo camera's and they will NOT record or alert you because it still thinks it's being viewed on a live stream. The only physical way that I have seen is to unplug the basestation for a hard reset. You can't even reboot the camera's from the app, the Arlo app will tell you "one or more camera's are currently busy, do you wish to reboot?". You hit YES and nothing happens. If you are away from home when this happens, you have to reboot your iPhone or iPad to allow Arlo to break that false notion that you are still viewing a live stream. You will then be able to reboot your Arlo basestation remotely. 

The whole rollout of HomeKit is basically useless right now if viewing any camera via HomeKit enables Arlo to get stuck in a endless cycle of "Currently viewing" process. I have confirmed this is an Arlo issue via an Apple App Developer who even stated that Arlo's integration of HomeKit is unlike anything he's seen before from other apps. 

Arlo, please get this major HomeKit bug ironed out so folks who use HomeKit on a daily basis can actually use your camera's correctly. 

[easton022]

Are you still having this issue?  Because I am running 4 Arlo Pro2s and 2 Arlo Pros on homekit - and I can arm/disarm no problem. 

My only issue is the ridiculous amount of lag time between clicking on the camera stream and actually seeing the live feed (sometimes more than a minute waiting before the camera updates on screen)

But in terms of this endless loop you are talking about - I'm not experiencing it.  I get both Arlo notifications (motion detected) + homekit notifications -- and when I view the stream in home app - it has still recorded in the Arlo app

[Shellback13]

I have no issues with arming/disarming the arlo’s. The only issue is when viewing the live feed via the Home App or a 3rd party app (HomeCam), the Arlo’s don’t seem to know that live view has ended it no future recordings will occur even though I ended the live stream on the HomeKit side.
I’ve removed and added the 4 Arlo’s from HomeKit and still the same result. I guess my next step will be to reset factory and start all over.

So, when you view the live stream in the HomeApp and actually click on it the stream and close back out, your Arlo’s still record and send notifications?

[easton022]

Yep - I mean like I said it's incredibly slow in the Home app - I click on a camera and it just shows a still image for 30 seconds - then finally I see the feed - then it sometimes cuts out again

But in terms of recording - once I close the home app (close the cam view) - my Arlo app still records as normal.  

I actually just tested it as I typed this - I was watching my dog sleep in camera (home app) - then locked the door to wake her up - and *while still viewing camera feed* the Arlo app prompted me "motion in room"

-- However it DID NOT record this (because I was viewing the live stream)

Then I closed the Home app and did the lock again - which then gave me a Motion notification + it DID record

Hope that helps.  I agree that it should still record when I have the Home App open (because I might not be actually viewing the camera - maybe just screwing w/ the lights) - but it doesn't break functionality like you're describing on my setup 

[Shellback13]

I forgot to ask, what is your basestation that you are running? Is it: Arlo Pro 2 VMB4000r3?