Making Arlo geofencing behave again
I run an Arlo-based home security setup, and most of the time it behaves as expected. A few months ago, Arlo shipped a major app update that broke the automations we depended on. I reconstructed them, only to encounter a new problem: whenever we came home, our phones would hound us with alerts that somebody was in the house. Yes. We know!
I am good with troubleshooting and logic, so I endeavoured to fix it myself. Eventually I was satisfied I was not the component at fault, and I filed a support case.
Narrowing the fault down took a while. When I came home, the system should have switched from Arm away to Standby, but the arrive automation would not trigger on my phone. The leave automation was fine. A manual test of the arrive rule worked. K’s phone triggered the arrive rule when she got home.
Support’s first explanation was that schedules and geofencing could not be relied on at the same time, and that I should pick one. This was a major regression compared with the functionality the system had when we bought the devices. Later, a support message suggested clearing old handsets from the geofence device list; sensible hygiene, and worth doing, but it did not address why the same regression appeared for so many people after a major app update.
Along the way I read enough of the Arlo community to see I was not alone. I also worked through Arlo’s own guidance on my phone - location access, the lot - without changing the outcome.
Then came a line I have kept verbatim:
Also we are pleased to inform you that this is an known issue.
Who would be pleased by such a thing?
Of course I accept that front-line staff do not ship the app. Still, letting a regression linger that long, while customers juggle armed away mode and false comfort, is not acceptable for a security product. Most engineers I know take continuous delivery seriously. In Continuous Delivery, Jez Humble and David Farley describe pipelines where bad change is rolled back quickly and fixed forward, rather than leaving users in limbo for months. I am unlikely to buy another Arlo device.
# What actually fixed it
I removed almost all of the configuration, then rebuilt the rules:
- Remove K’s granted access from my account.
- Remove my phone from the geofence device list.
- Delete every automation (schedules and geofence rules).
- Recreate them with the same intent: a morning schedule to Standby when someone is home, an evening schedule to Arm home, a leave rule to Arm away when everyone is gone, and an arrive rule back to Standby when anyone returns.
- Register only my current phone for geofencing first.
- Re-invite K with the access she needs.
After that, arrive and leave both behaved. If you are stuck in a similar loop, that sequence may be worth trying before you throw the device out.
# Alternatives considered
I looked at Shortcuts and IFTTT-style workarounds, using the phone’s own location to drive a separate action, but I wanted the vendor path to work first. Longer term, during this career break, I am also looking at Home Assistant as a place to tinker properly with home automation, on my own terms, and with tests I control.
If Arlo’s engineers ship a durable fix, I will be glad for everyone still on the platform. Until then, this post is the note I wish I had read months ago.