this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2026
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315
Pet owners say smart pet feeder outage led to furry ones going unfed (arstechnica.com)
submitted 2 days ago by new_otters_raft@piefed.ca to c/technology@lemmy.world
123 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

This feels like bad design

Smart pet-feeder company Petlibro suffered an outage on Tuesday, giving users a harsh reminder of the risks of relying on smart devices.

Petlibro makes pet feeders that connect to Wi-Fi and, for setup with Petlibro’s mobile companion app, Bluetooth. Users can set the feeders to automatically dispense food at scheduled times, which is handy for pet care when the owner is out of the home.

In a statement to The Verge, Petlibro CEO York Wu said this week’s outage was “related to how the Petlibro app communicates with devices through its online servers.”

Some user reports have also conflicted with Petlibro’s claims about offline functionality. As The Verge pointed out, various users online claimed that during the outage, their devices did not perform any scheduled feedings, performed some feedings but not others, or performed feedings late (examples here, here, here, here, and here).

(page 3) 26 comments
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[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Stupid

[–] Thrawn@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 days ago

We have some and in our case it isn't about the timer function but the RFID tags on the cat collars because one will steal from the other two.

I can't speak for anyone else but they kept working for us. Only possible difference I can think of is that we did make sure to put in the optional D cell batteries.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 3 points 2 days ago

There's no reason these need to be "smart". I had a pet feeder with a timer over a decade ago. It just needed batteries.

[–] the_q@piefed.social -1 points 2 days ago

Oh for the love of god... If you're too busy to feed your companions you don't need a companion.

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