Galaxy S8+ Geofence Problem (Blue Iris App)

[Richdem]

Hi All,

I have a Galaxy Note 5 and my wife has a Galaxy S8+ both with the Blue Iris App installed. I have been trying in vain to get the Geofence working on my wifes S8+ but no matter what I try I cannot get her phone to register when she leaves or returns to the selected Geofence are I set of 400 Metres.

I do not seem to have any issues with my Note 5.

I am hoping someone can offer some help so that we can finally have the cameras arm automatically when we are both away from the house.

Regards

Richard

 

[Richdem]

Update,

It occurred to me yesterday that I was using the same admin account on each Blue Iris app so when I got home I deleted my wife's phone info from the "Mobile Devices" tab. Next I created a 2nd admin account and then setup an old Galaxy S3. I tried several times last night and again this morning and the Geofence seemed to work perfectly. When both devices were out of the set geofence area the profile automatically switched to "Away" and the cameras armed.

My wife is working nights for a couple of days so I can't try this on her phone right now but I am hopeful this may be the fix.

 

[Richdem]

So it would appear I fixed the initial problem of my wife's Galaxy S8 Geofence issue by doing the following:

• Delete all geofence info from blue iris app on phone
• Remove device from "Mobile device" tab on blue iris server
• Create 2nd admin account on blue iris server
• Log into blue iris app on phone with new admin account
• Turn Wifi off, start google maps and get location (Sitting in the car at the end of our drive). Open blue iris app and set Geofence distance (I used 200M)
• Turn off any data saving and battery saving for blue iris app (Android settings)
• Register Geofence as current location not server location in the mobile app
• Setup Geofence for the newly registered mobile device on the server

By following this procedure both devices now report their current location properly and automatic profile switching now works based on Geofence

Hope this helps anyone else out there struggling to get this working on more than one device

Richard

 

[slodat]

Are you using a VPN between your mobile device and BI server?

 

[Richdem]

Are you using a VPN between your mobile device and BI server?

I literally set this up last night using an old Asus RT-N66U I had laying around. I decided to put my cameras on a completely separate network as my TP-Link router does not support Open VPN. I run my ISP's modem in Bridge mode and was surprised to see that I got a separate WAN IP on each router so I currently have my main router running as normal then my Asus running with just the 2.4ghz network for my cameras. Not sure if this is the correct method but it currently seems to be working

It was late when I finished so I didn't get to test if the Geofence still works

 

[slodat]

I’m not having any luck with BI’s geofence since I put my BI server on vpn. It worked well for the few days I was port forwarding.

I’m working on Geofency/PHLocation on HomeSeer to handle the geofence.

 

[Richdem]

I’m not having any luck with BI’s geofence since I put my BI server on vpn. It worked well for the few days I was port forwarding.

I’m working on Geofency/PHLocation on HomeSeer to handle the geofence.

Oh that sucks,

I just spent quite a while figuring out how to get Geofencing to work across multiple devices. I will investigate further tonight when I get home. I think though I prefer having a VPN in place to connect to my Blue Iris server.

 

[looney2ns]

I had decided to play with Geofence, but my first obstacle is the option does not show up in the app on my phone.
I'm assuming this is due to some setting I'm missing in my phones settings?
I do have location services and GPS enabled on the phone.
Latest app version, this weeks BI ver.
Any clues?
Its an Android LgG3.

 

[fenderman]

I had decided to play with Geofence, but my first obstacle is the option does not show up in the app on my phone.
I'm assuming this is due to some setting I'm missing in my phones settings?
I do have location services and GPS enabled on the phone.
Latest app version, this weeks BI ver.
Any clues?
Its an Android LgG3.

are you an admin user?

 

[looney2ns]

are you an admin user?

Yes sir.

 

[Richdem]

You need to make sure you have the external IP address and port is present in the app settings.

Sent from my SM-G955W using Tapatalk

 

[looney2ns]

You need to make sure you have the external IP address and port is present in the app settings.

Sent from my SM-G955W using Tapatalk

Well I'll be doggone. Yep, that did the trick. I didn't have anything in the WAN because of using VPN when away from home.
Thank you!

 

[Richdem]

Well I'll be doggone. Yep, that did the trick. I didn't have anything in the WAN because of using VPN when away from home.
Thank you!

I was in the same boat, I just switched over to using open VPN. I didn't have the geofence option in the settings menu. Then I went back and added the WAN address. Just make sure you stop forwarding any ports if you were previously using that method to access your cameras remotely.

Sent from my SM-G955W using Tapatalk

 

[slodat]

When I use my routable external IP address, I can’t connect via VPN. I have to use my 192.168.x.x:81 IP to connect over VPN, which makes sense from a routing perspective. Any ideas on how to use the geofence when using vpn connections from the outside?

 

[CrazyAsYou]

Anyone else find that geofence is a little hit and miss (more miss than hit) I've got everything working/setup correctly as it works (sometimes) but fairly often it fails to register I've left or come home. I'm using only BI admin account on a Galaxy S7, location setting is high, app set at 50m raduis, lastest BI andriod and PC app, no VPN all ports open/forwarding and WAN/LAN IPs are correct and static, I have no issues with the app connecting either WAN or LAN. Just seems BI app geofening is not very good. Thinking of using geofencing on IFTTT and calling a URL with webhooks.

 

[DarMar]

I am having the same problem as CrazyAsYou is having. I have everything set up correctly and the BI app works correctly if my wife, daughter and I all start our BI app after getting to work and school in the morning and restarting when we get home in the evening. We live in a rural area where we lose cell service for about 15 minutes during our drive time. I don't know if that is contributing to the app not showing the correct inside or outside status? Has anyone else had this issue with geofencing and the BI app? Any help would be greatly appreciated by this newbie.

 

[jaydeel]

It is possible that Android is preventing Blue Iris from running in the background (or unexpectedly turning it off when resources are limited)... Here’s something you might try (I have a Samsung S9 running Oreo 8.0, so the steps may not be identical if you are running a another version)... Open Settings / Apps / 'Blue Iris' / Battery / 'Optimize battery usage'. Change the toggle for Blue Iris so that it shows on the ‘Not optimized’ tab/view (you need to change to the 'All apps' tab/view to flip the toggle - I find the UI for this setting to be a bit confusing).

 

[DarMar]

I am running a Samsung S6 with Android 7.0. I already have BI as an unmonitored app under the battery settings. Under the unmonitored apps, the app can use as much power as it wants and the app power monitor will not do anything to stop it.
I even went into Google maps and cleared out the history and set the locating method to device only so that it wouldn't use my wifi or server location just in case the location was an issue. I've narrowed it down to logging into the BI app. That changes the inside/outside status when we arrive at home or work.
I suspect this issue has something to do with losing internet/cell service for those 15 minutes of drive time but I wanted to see if anyone else had this problem.

 

[jaydeel]

Here's an alternate, albeit (much) more complex, solution (I've used this for several years after being frustrated with erratic cellular connection and geofencing reliability issues in our semirural location)...

I use the Tasker app and utilize 3 Tasker "Whereami" Profiles on my Android device: "Whereami Home", "Whereami Car" and "Whereami Away". None of these are geofence-based or cellular connection dependent. The entry tasks for all 3 Profiles include an action to set the value of a global Variable named %WHEREAMI (=Home|Away|Car) that I can use in any other Tasker Profile or Task.

• "Whereami Home" turns 'on' if I am near or connected to my Home WiFi, OR inside my Home NET location zone (the later is for those rare events where my home WiFi is off for some reason and if I'm lucky enough to have a cellular connection that moment).
• "Whereami Car" turns 'on' if my device is connected via Bluetooth to any of our cars AND I am not near my Home WiFi (this avoids triggering the profile in my garage or driveway).
• "Whereami Away" turns 'on' if the above Home AND Car Profiles are both 'off'.

To be honest, my entry and exit Tasks for these Profiles are more involved and include redundancy. I'd be happy to share them via private message if there is any interest.

Also, my 'Whereami Home' Profile's Entry and Exit tasks toggle my OpenVPN connection (e.g., see my reply here Tasker and BlueIris).