Petlibro faces backlash over cloud outage and claims of offline feeding failures
Shenzhen Libro Technology Co-owned firm apologises for August 11 disruption, promising backend audit after accusations of downplaying severity.
Petlibro, the smart pet hardware subsidiary of Shenzhen, China-headquartered firm Shenzhen Libro Technology Co., is navigating significant customer backlash following a major cloud server outage that disrupted its companion app and device connectivity. Founder and CEO York Wu acknowledged the technical failure on Tuesday, August 11, issuing an apology for the "frustration and concern" caused to users who were unable to control their feeders or access service records.
The disruption began at 5:20 am PT when a critical error triggered a backlog of data requests that overloaded system memory. Wu detailed a series of system failures throughout the morning, including a second collapse 23 minutes after initial functionality was restored. The outage rendered app-based controls, notifications, and video feeds unavailable, though Wu stated that the development team identified and patched a cache issue by Wednesday night, restoring service to pre-failure levels by Thursday morning.
A central point of contention lies in Petlibro’s assertion that scheduled feedings continued to operate offline for the "vast majority of devices" during the incident. Wu confirmed that pre-scheduled routines are designed to function independently of the app. However, multiple users reported that their devices failed to dispense food during the outage, leading to accusations that the company was downplaying the severity of the technical failure.
The discrepancy between Petlibro’s official statements and user experiences has led to accusations of "gaslighting" on social media platforms such as Reddit. Some customers claimed they did not receive the five emails Petlibro stated it sent to active users, while others criticised the firm’s communication strategy. One user in the Petlibro community argued that the company should have exaggerated the scale of the issue rather than minimising it, noting that offline failures left pets hungry and owners in the dark.
In response to the inconsistencies, Wu announced that Petlibro has increased demand capacity and is preparing an audit protocol to search its backend for similar issues. The company also created a status update page, which Wu said would remain online. While Petlibro described the offline feeding failures as "isolated reports," the incident has sparked calls for replacement hardware and highlighted the risks associated with cloud-dependent smart home infrastructure.
