Customers began reporting a Petlibro outage Tuesday that disrupted scheduled functions on some connected pet devices. The Petlibro outage smart feeders reports included missed meals from some food dispensers, a particular concern for owners away from home and relying on schedules to run as set.
Petlibro said the service issue affected some functions in its app. The company said settings and schedules stored locally on a device would continue operating as programmed. But users posting on Reddit reported that some of Petlibro’s RFID and Granary feeders did not dispense food at their scheduled times, according to The Verge.
Those customer reports are not independently verified, and the available information does not establish how many devices, owners or pets were affected. Still, the gap between Petlibro’s stated local-schedule fallback and reports from owners is the uncomfortable part of this outage.
What did the Petlibro outage affect?
The reported problems went beyond food dispensers. Some users said Dockstream smart fountains stopped pumping water, while others said Luma litter boxes stopped performing cleanings. Some also reported that the Petlibro app was not functioning properly, The Verge reported.
Connected pet devices can use scheduled settings to perform recurring tasks such as dispensing food. In this case, Petlibro said those locally held schedules should keep running during the service interruption, while some users said their devices did not do so.
Petlibro says service is being restored
In its Tuesday status message, Petlibro said it was restoring service, checking stability and returning functions in stages. In an update posted Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. ET, the company said much of its service had been restored and that it was still returning the app to full operation.
Recovery reports remained mixed after that update. Some users said their devices had come back online, while others said they could not reconnect devices to the app, according to The Verge.
The Verge said it requested further information from Petlibro and did not receive an immediate response. Petlibro’s published updates described the restoration effort but, in the reporting available, did not explain the underlying service issue.
- Petlibro said locally saved settings and schedules should continue to work.
- Users reported missed scheduled feedings on some RFID and Granary feeders.
- Other reported effects included fountain, litter-box and app problems.
- Petlibro said Wednesday that much of the service had returned, though some reconnection problems persisted in user reports.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.
