Geofencing fails to recognize new iPhone

[GaryS1969]

Geofencing is set up on both mine and my wifes Android phone. When she leaves her status changes to Out Of Zone. When I leave my status changes to Out Of Zone. When either of us returns their status changes to In Zone so Arlo seems to recognize when one or both of us is home and when one or both of us is gone. Geofencing is turned on on both phones.

Under Mode/Arlo Base/Geofencing/Select Mode it shows Away Mode = Armed and Home Mode = Disarmed. The problem is under Mode it always shows Arlo Base as Disarmed. Is this supposed to change automatically to Armed when both of us are gone?

Also under Settings/My Devices it shows Arlo Base and under that a second Arlo Base with a bell and then the three cameras. Selecting Arlo base it shows me a bunch of information. Selecting Arlo Base with the bell it just shows the name Arlo Base.

If the Mode status for Arlo base is supposed to change based on whether both of us are gone or one or both of us is home what might be the reason it is not changing?

[RubenC]

JamesC,

Yes, I have tried disabling the devices, saving then enabling again with partial success.  My iphone is recognized now, but my wife's iphone still is not recognized.  We check to make sure her phone is in discoverable mode, but the Arlo App still does not recognize her phone.

[Dn2015]

Maybe I spoke too soon. Both devices are showing as "In Zone" now. I will test out the reliability of geofence over next few days and report back if it works as it should.

[Dn2015]

Seems to reliably work now for both devices.  Both devices are consistently reporting in or out of zone.  Also, no false triggers of being out of zone while in zone anymore.

I removed apostrophe's from both iPhone names, and disabled/re-enabled the phone in the geofence settings that was having issues detecting zone location.

Has been working as it should since last week.

[Rads888]

Mine doesn’t change either, always says I’m away even when I’m home. Any update on this? How will I fix?

[GaryS1969]

I haven't tried geofencing since my last post above. As far as I know it has not been fixed as indicated by your's and others recent posts. Having to buy and setup a Smartthings system is, in my opinion, not a solution. If you already have Smartthings and geofencing works then that's great but Netgear needs to perfect geofencing if they are going to advertise it as a feature. I read somewhere that those with the latest smart phones are having better luck but my Galaxy S5 does everything I want it to so I'm not going to go buy the latest smart phone just to get geofencing to work.

I was considering buying more cameras but for now I'm on the fence. Why invest more in a system when one of the most usefull automation features doesn't work, at least not for everyone. 

[GaryS1969]

In regards to my reply above I have not contacted Arlo Support as recommended by the Moderator. I will do that this coming week and post the results.

[Rads888]

My friend uses an iPhone 5s or SE and it works fine at his place. He tried to set mine up but couldn’t get it working either.

[jguerdat]

Have you power cycled the base? Have you checked the firmware versions compared to the listings in the Release Notes section here? Old firmware does weird things. It may be that you will need to reset the system and start fresh to fix this.

[GaryS1969]

My base firmware was up to date. I completed a Power Cycle of the base. I installed the latest version of the Android app on both phones. I turned Geofencing on and it properly shows we are both in the zone. I'll see what happens when my wife or I or both of us leaves the house.

[Chillmiester]

When my wifes phone says in zone when she's not at home I have to put it in schedule mode then back to geofencing to get it to work.

[GaryS1969]

I tested geofencing today. First I left the house and I checked status and it showed me out of zone and wife in zone. Sometime later my wife left the house and I checked status again and it showed both of us out of zone and the cameras armed. My wife got back home first. The system detected she was home and disarmed without triggering an alert.  So that part of the system appears to be working however I just looked at the status and my wife shows in the zone and may status shows out of zone even though my phone is sitting on my desk about 18" from the Arlo hub. I will leave it in geofencing mode and keep watching it. 

[GaryS1969]

Geofencing failed. My wife left this morning and I was still home. Arlo armed when my wife left even though I was still home and my status showed I was in the zone. Got a nice video of me walking around. I have put the system in disarmed mode and I'm not going to rely on geofencing. A great idea that's not ready for prime time at least not for all users.

[sares]

I have (2) iPad Pro 12.9 on iOS 11.1.1  Both are setup on geofencing and work perfectly.  I have separate accounts for each of my devices.  The primary account must turn on geofencing rights as well as set the address and distance radius for all other devices.  Location services is set to always for Arlo.  Additionally, I have an iPhone 6+ that I use as my primary account.  My girlfriend uses iPhone 5.  All are setup on geofencing.

[iGoldenEye]

My wife and I purchased new iPhone X's and aside from all of the old phones still showing in the device menu, geofencing is completly broken with both new phones mever changing from "unavailable." I've tried every "fix" posted on the forums and non ework. I can't even submit a message to Arlo support as I get an error on the website. what is going on ? 

[JamesC]

iGoldenEye,

"unavailable" suggests your mobile device cannot be located. Are you leaving the Arlo mobile app signed in and running along with location enabled?

JamesC

[Roms]

Was having the same issue trying to use 2 phones for geofencing (both iphone 6's up to date on IOS) with primary phone not showing up in the enabled devices listing.  My phone (primary account) would flash on the list for less than half a second and then dissappear.  I went in the arlo app setting in the phone Settings>Arlo and toggled the "Location in/Out Notifications" switch and it seems to have corrected the issue for now.  Does anyone know if this option needs to be on or off?  what is it for?

Wife's phone was showing up as unavailable and once i did the same thing it showed up as in zone.  I guess we will see how long this lasts.  With all the random "fixes" of editing apostrophes, disabling/enabling phones on the list, and toggling settings, it seems there are just bugs that will reoccur... hopefully this will stabilize soon. 

[LotettaWm]

I’m having the same issue with new iphone8. I’ve logged in, set location, and it recognizes my phone for brief moment. How do I remove old iPhone from liist? It’s unchecked. But I’m wondering if Arlo is trying to read the old iPhone.

[JamesC]

LotettaWm,

It sounds like this could be due to special characters in the iPhone's name. By default the iPhone will be named something like "JamesC's iPhone". Some users have reported having issues with the special characters. Try renaming the iPhone to something like this: JamesCiPhone

Do you still see the same behavior?

JamesC

[BeTactical]

James,

This does *not* solve the problem (changing iPhone names). Nor do other patchy solutions in these threads. We need a *real* fix as the lack of geofencing seriously handicaps an expensive system (I have 9 cameras) for which I pay a monthly fee. When is a *real* fix coming from NetGear/Arlo!?

Until this is fixed our monthly fees should be waived. This worked decently well for nearly a year now it fails, what gives!?

-Garrett

[skolar]

I am having the exact same issues now that I got an iphone x 2 weeks ago, geofencing is not working correctly and my iphnoe only shows for a split second and my old one that is lost just says unavailable as well as my fiance and her old phone.  Very frustrated with this issue and I feel like you do, it makes this whole system garbage if this does not work as I also use it with Smart Things integration and that is  not helping either.  

[JamesC]

skolar,

Some users have had issues with their device appearing in the Geofencing list due to special characters in the iOS devices name. Try renaming your iOS device to something without special characters and try setting up Geofencing again. (example: JamesC'S iPhone -> JamesCiPhone)

JamesC

[skolar]

Thank you worked like a charm!

[AlexSans]

Geofence issue not resolved
Battery Drain issue not resolved

I would like to know how many people have paid for their cameras and expected them to work properly beyond the warranty period?

I have a new iPhone and can’t use geofencing which is essential as most of you know.

Also have 4 cameras, 2 that go offline as of recently and when I turn them on, battery is drained.

Am I the only one that thinks that someone should address the issues? And of not addressed, someone should step up and figure out a way to get compensated for the time spent troubleshooting, wasted batteries, and shipping charges?
This is no way to run a business, especially when they are bringing in new products to the market so quickly.
Make a product that works and then apply the expertise to those products.

[Dittod1]

I have the same issue. My Droid works fine, but the iPhone won't show up under Geofencing. If I log the iPhone to my main account then the iPhone shows up for a second under the Geofencing devices, but quickly disappears. I have reset the account access, reinstalled the app, changed login accounts, reset the phones, been logged in at the same time, etc... And nothing fixes it

[AlexSans]

I hear you as well as the countless others that are experiencing this issue. You’d think Netgear being such a huge company would address this as well as other issues such as the draining batteries one. But all I get is a million and one troubleshooting tips which are so time consuming and never work. I hope someone comes up with an answer for this, as it shouldn’t be that complicated.
By the way, make sure all your cameras have the latest firmware. I had to let my “troubleshooting” help person know that they should also advising that as they had not in my case.