Geofencing and timeout

Tips, tricks and frequently asked questions
ubik
Posts: 152
Joined: 20 Sep 2016, 10:45

Re: Geofencing and timeout

Post by ubik »

Hi Florian,
in my case I can confirm that the location of my home is correct. Indeed it works occasionally, but not sistematically.
I understand that the "Consider people away after N hours" would be useless if the geofenciong worked fine, but I think that you shuold allow to combine both options.
Maybe if both are enable you could do some polling at the specified time interval in order to check the device position, in case it missed the exit trigger for some reason.
Since the current implementation is so unreliable I am using an IFTTT rule as a workaround. It is not perfect, but it does work better than the proprietary geofencing.
Please notice that even if it works sometimes on my phone it does not work ever on my wife's phone, as specified above.
I checked that the location of our home is correct on her phone too, that GPS and Network positioning is on and that the "This is me" option is enabled.
I hope you can help solving this issue, because the Welcome camera is great as long as it allows a "set and forget" use (no need to turn it on and off, to instruct it about who is in and who is out...)
I
mzbow
Posts: 8
Joined: 08 Aug 2017, 10:46

Re: Geofencing and timeout

Post by mzbow »

Hi,

Apologies for bumping a very old topic, but I am also suffering from unreliable geofencing.

Both myself and my partner use the security app on our iphones, and it is quite common for one or the other of us to not be recognised as 'leaving home' even hours after we left (this probably happens at least once a week on average)

Right now I'm sat at work four miles from home, but I just opened the app and it hasn't noticed that I left at all. Obviously this is a fairly major security flaw. As it thinks someone trusted is still at home, we wouldn't be notified of any motion alerts. Unknown faces yes, but that relies on Welcome spotting a face, and it often doesn't pick up our faces immediately on arriving home if we come in too quickly / just aren't quite looking right at the camera.

I've gone through every troubleshooting method mentioned. Apps and firmware reinstalled and up to date. Location services on, 'this is me' activated, home address correct.

Before Welcome I had a setup which used IFTTT to arm a camera when I left home and it NEVER failed to activate. So I don't believe this is a problem with my phone / GPS. It would be great if the reliability of this feature could be improved as a priority, as otherwise I'm very happy with Welcome.

A couple of ideas other people have raised which could make for a solution:

1) The app could 'double check' the GPS location if a user hasn't been seen recently, rather than just relying on receiving an 'out of range' signal at the time of leaving which clearly doesn't always get through

2) There could be an option have 'leaving home' triggered by the users phone disconnecting from the home wifi network, rather than using GPS

3) An option to use both geofencing AND "consider away after N hours" (may be the simplest solution ... I already have my 'N hours' set very low for times when we have visitors, don't need welcome to think they're still lingering around four hours after they went home :) )

Thanks!


Edit to add: 24 hours later and the same situation today. Absolutely no recognition that I've left for work. Not great for a home security product.
Johan_Netatmo
Posts: 309
Joined: 13 Jan 2014, 10:05

Re: Geofencing and timeout

Post by Johan_Netatmo »

Hi,

Thanks for the detailed feedback. That's quite strange the geofencing feature has already been really carefully optimised and it should work almost every times. Of course the technology used for geofencing has its limitations: there are some situations where we know it won't work because of hardware restrictions, if the battery is low or if you're using some battery saving features. But I suppose you leave home fully charged as most of us. I can ask you to double check location service permissions, this is me check box etc. but it looks like you did it already.

Some I don't understand from your post. Why did you stop using IFTTT if it used to fullfill your need ?

1) It would be very bad for the battery saving mode and I do check the feature reliabillity and it's already near to 99%
2) That can be achieve with IFTTT if you'd like.
3) It does but it's 24h.
mzbow
Posts: 8
Joined: 08 Aug 2017, 10:46

Re: Geofencing and timeout

Post by mzbow »

Hey Johan,

Thanks for the reply. Sounds like the few of us in this thread are in the unfortunate 1%!

The IFTTT method i used to use with a much simpler camera setup which completely lacked inbuilt entry/exit detection. I had to manually arm it when going out, so it was a great convenience to set up a recipe. Fine, but if i went out and someone else stayed home, the camera would arm anyway and cause false notifications etc.

Welcome, when working correctly, is a much neater solution because it manages the presence of multiple users at once and adjusts notifications accordingly. To achieve the same with IFTTT each person in the household would have to download IFTTT, setup an account, and create a recipe so that they, individually, are recognised as having left the area. Not impossible, but a little bit messy.

For now, it seems to be mainly me and not my partner who is having trouble with geofencing, so I have setup an IFTTT rule just for myself, and will hope that this helps.

Out of interest - does the geofencing take wifi network into account in any way? I ask because our flat has thick walls and we need a wifi extender setup to reach every room. This creates two wifi networks eg:

SKY1234

&

SKY1234_EXT

Welcome is always connected to the 'source' network but our phones sometimes jump to the extension as we move around the home. I did wonder whether the two devices being on technically different networks sometimes might confuse Welcome in some way.
Johan_Netatmo
Posts: 309
Joined: 13 Jan 2014, 10:05

Re: Geofencing and timeout

Post by Johan_Netatmo »

Security uses the Apple provided geofencing feature, which you can verify in the Location settings of your phone Security should be mark with a purple empty arrow. In some cases I do start the real GPS to catch up missing cases but it should only be useful in situation where you lost connexion right after leaving home, like subway near your home for example. It doesn't use Wi-Fi network.

What's your iPhone model and version ? Could you post the Location service permission page just to be sure.
mzbow
Posts: 8
Joined: 08 Aug 2017, 10:46

Re: Geofencing and timeout

Post by mzbow »

It's an iPhone 6. My partner has an iPhone 7.

For the record, it worked fine today :) Last night i restarted my phone, in case that was a missing piece of the puzzle (in fact due to internet problems at home I ended up restarting everything including my router, and Welcome, but that's another story)

Location settings as per attached.
IMG_9970.png
IMG_9969.png
ubik
Posts: 152
Joined: 20 Sep 2016, 10:45

Re: Geofencing and timeout

Post by ubik »

Johan_Netatmo wrote:Hi,
...
1) It would be very bad for the battery saving mode and I do check the feature reliabillity and it's already near to 99%
...
Count me and my wife in the remaining 1%
Firefox
Posts: 2
Joined: 20 Dec 2013, 01:06

Re: Geofencing and timeout

Post by Firefox »

Hello all,

i have the same problem on my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 in connection with the Welcome App using geofencing. When i leave my home and miles away netatmo still shows me as "at home". I also made extensive tests. GPS on, Wifi on on highest accurate Geo location mode. Its me button is active, use geo location is active. But i found out a strange thing. When i go to Settings-->myhome-->location-determination and tap the pin symbol to locate, then i become the message: the page under https://my.netatmo.com, states the following: search failed

Very strange! When i tap again the locate button it shows me my correct position at home and again and again. Then hours later i try it again at home and location works. Then i was in a shop 1km away and checked my Welcome log -> no detection that i leaved the home, still at home since 2 hours... (but iam not). Ok i go again to settings-->myhome-->location-determination and tap the pin symbol to locate me. And he shows me corrrect in place in the shop and IN THIS MOMENT! Welcome app is switching me to XXX leave the home status but with the actual time from now (in the shop). Then i test it again 1km away settings-->myhome-->location-determination and tap the pin symbol to locate me and now i got again "the page under https://my.netatmo.com, states the following: search failed". But google maps is working location is working tomtom is working.. no hardware problems. Then few seconds later i locate me again via welcome app and the location of my position works again and again and again and hours later also at home. Next morning i leave my home... and on my work welcome shows me still at home...

Very strange... on my iPhone i never had this problem. I tested it now on my girlfriends Samsung S7 Edge with Android 7.0 ... installed the welcome app (the app takes the same setting like on my phone because all data is saved on netatmo severs) so i must nothing configure. Only the 2 settings for her (thats me and enable geo fencing) and it works perfect on her phone. Every time she leave the home she is on "leaved the home" status. But iam not! Can it be that we have here a Android incompatibility?

On my Note 8 i have Android. 7.1.1 ... my girlfriend still have 7.0. And my phone says the Welcome App was written for a older Android version. Generally all functions work in the app on my phone except the leaved the home detection via GPS.
I forgot to say... the standard function (switch me to not at home after X hours when not seen) works fine. But i need the geo fence detection.

Any ideas?
QNAPDK
Posts: 7
Joined: 05 Dec 2017, 22:47

Re: Geofencing and timeout

Post by QNAPDK »

Also having issues on IOS 11.2 with the security apps location. It works around half the time. It seems the camera always recognizes me before the location service kicks in. But have often tried avoiding the camera and the IOS app doesn't seem to register that I am home.
Maybe it might be related to IOS but not sure.
jofre_netatmo
Posts: 828
Joined: 18 Jun 2014, 15:09

Re: Geofencing and timeout

Post by jofre_netatmo »

Hello QNAPDK,
This is not a bug, actually, it's just the way it works.
In order to consider you are at home, you need to be seen and recognized by Welcome.
Location services are only used to determine when you leave the home.
Hope this helps,
Jofre - Netatmo Team
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