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Forum Discussion
Solved
Orbi App has decided not to let me log in from my phone
So, it's been an uneventful month with this firmware for me, but tonight the Orbi App has decided not to let me log in from my phone. It says:
"Login Failed. Please re-enter the correct admin...
Fixed!
What I did:
- went to another computer that I use for music production and tried to login with the Firefox browser which I don't use but was on that computer - it would not accept my password either. Interesting - similar to the iPhone browser behavior. On some browsers the password works, on others, no go. WTF?
- same music computer, now I try with Chrome - it kicks me back with invalid password message and I try again, same thing, I try again, but this time I get the recovery screen asking for the Serial Number, security questions, etc - I fill all that out and set a new password - voila!
- new password works on the browser
- new password works on the Orbi App
So, these instructions https://kb.netgear.com/31016/How-do-I-recover-my-Orbi-admin-password do not work. They are the same instructions you see from the Orbi app if you tell Orbi you forgot your password. Clicking Cancel on the browser login does not work.
What does work is persistently entering some password - mine became very colorful as my irritation grew. Three or four goes at it in succession finally gets the recovery dialog going - do NOT close the browser window, just keep entering passwords until the recovery page comes up - and I have now replicated this behavior on my office computer and one of the iPads. Netgear needs to be made aware of this: the incorrect instructions and the need to have multiple successive logon attempts to get a prompt for recovery - that and why this becomes a problem in the first place.
What in the world brought all this on? And after a month of perfectly normal operations with the current firmware?
My only clue is I noticed the password requirements now must be different than they were when I set it up - it needs at least ten characters and my old one was only eight. It's still bizarre that this suddenly became a problem, but as I mentioned, the Orbi app was apparently updated 5 days ago and maybe it was unable to work with my old 8-character password that also had no special characters.
Nevertheless, the entire password reset process is crap - from the App it's not possible and from a Browser, the process is convoluted. đ
I have done a few more pointless things:
- rebooted the entire network - didn't help
- turned off the satellite to get it out of the picture - didn't help
...
I did like the idea of trying to login with the Netgear credentials BUT...the USERNAME is hardwired to admin and cannot be typed over, so DOA on that one as well.
Ensure you have Local Network enabled on the apple devices for the Orbi app. I've seen it where this gets disabled thus not allowing the app to connect to the Orbi system locally while at home.
I just set up my 8 series yesterday in AP mode behind a XR1000 router connected to a CAX80 cable modem. No issues with Orbi app on my iPhone 12 Pro Max with iOS 16
"Ensure you have Local Network enabled on the apple devices for the Orbi app. I've seen it where this gets disabled thus not allowing the app to connect to the Orbi system locally while at home."
I wish it were that simple but, regardless of the Orbi App, I cannot login to the Orbi at all from any Apple device - iPhone App, iPhone Browser (chrome or safari), iPad Browser, etc.I see in the logs:
"[Admin login failure] from source 192.xxx.x.xxx, Thursday, Sep 29,2022 14:45:29"
for every attempt, but no other good explanation comes from that
For the time being it's not a huge thing as I can manage the Orbi from my PC. Very bizarre and frustrating though. And I'm afraid to do anything crazy as far as config changes since it has been working and I have not changed anything to bring on these problems - been solid for over a month. I'm using the Orbi in AP mode and I wonder if there is something Xfinity may have done to their router that has broken things, although that still does not explain why I am only seeing this issue on Apple devices and not PCs, wired or wifi.
Recap:what works:
- Connect to Orbi from PC browser wired
- Connect to Orbi from PC browser over wifi
- Apple devices (iPhone, iPad,) connecting to any other local servers (Hue, Powerview, Xfinity xFi router, etc, and internet serverswhat doesn't work:
- Connect to Orbi from iPhone Orbi App- Connect to Orbi from iPhone Browser
- Connect to Orbi from iPad Browser
My feeling is that something has changed in the way the Apple devices are communicating over the network - some protocol issue that Orbi doesn't like. Mystery. I like the Orbi system performance but the amount of effort to deal with it's quirks is a constant bummer.
Thanks to anyone who has a clue.I do find it a bit random that the logs say "Admin" but the app forces "admin" as the username. Just a nitpick, but I prefer all the ducks to be in a row.
