Issues with GeoFence Notifications

Over the last few weeks, I’ve started having issues with my Arm reminder notification in the form of false triggers. The notification is set for both mine and the wife’s phone leaving the arm fence, but lately I get the notification even if I’m at home. I’ve had it happen sporadically over the years, but that’s usually looked to be either an update turned off location services, or even cell tower trouble. In those cases, it’s usually been a one time deal.

This time, it’s happening pretty much any time my wife goes somewhere and I stay home (which is a lot as I work from home :)). I’ve made sure location services are on in Android, that the app has all appropriate permissions, and that geo-services are on in the app, but nothing seems to help. I also checked the notification rules to make sure my phone was still listed in it.

Is there anything else I can check, or any log that would show why the system is either a)ignoring my phone or b) not able to localize it?

There are various reasons why Geoservices might fail to trigger when crossing a fence, in this case the problem is likely due to geoservices trouble that occurred the last time the phone re-entered the fence. How often does it leave the fence?

Keep in mind geoservices uses triangulation and phone movement to track the phone’s location. If you crossed back into the fence at a point where the phone was unable to use data this might occur. Some carriers disallow data during voice usage. You might see this if the phone was turned off, lost power, or data connection was otherwise lost.

Have you tried deleting and recreating the reminder notification?

First turn off Geoservices in your app. Then go into the Alarm.com website to Settings > Geo-Services and click on your device name if it is listed. Click on the trash icon to delete it.

Wait a couple minutes, then go back into the Alarm.com app and turn geo-services back on.

Try deleting the notification, wait a couple minutes, then make a new reminder notification with the same parameters, using the new instance of your phone as a geo-device. Does this resolve the issue?

Also, note that ADC recommends a 2-Mile radius for best results. Depending on the cell tower prevalence in your area, a smaller radius may cause problems. It looks like you are using the minimum of 1 mile. Try increasing that on the Geo-Services page.

Ooh, thanks, you just reminded me of something. I think I did shrink my arm fence down to the 1 mile range when I was playing around with the fence to set the AC, trying to figure out why it never resumes when I re-enter the fence (still working on that).

I’ll try re-expanding the fence first, see if that helps, then try fully removing the phone/reminder and re-creating.