Despite Petlibro's status update, some Reddit users said they were still experiencing problems as of this morning. User reports conflicted with Petlibro's claims about offline functionality. As The Verge pointed out, users claimed that during the outage, their devices did not perform any scheduled feedings, or performed them late.

Petlibro claims that at least some of its feeders can perform scheduled feedings offline. The Granary 2’s page says scheduled feedings continue if the feeder goes offline. The One RFID feeder page says scheduled meals continue even during network errors.

In response, Wu told The Verge that scheduled feedings are programmed directly onto the device and should continue, but Petlibro is aware of reports from some customers whose devices did not behave as expected. Considering scheduled feedings are supposed to be stored on devices, a firmware problem triggered by the outage might have prevented proper operation.

The incident highlights challenges of relying on smart devices for critical tasks. Some users reported not receiving an email about the outage. “I’ve lost trust,” a Reddit user said. Although companion apps provide remote control, Petlibro’s situation can make dumb automatic feeders look smart.