Netgear Armor Not Recognizing Bitdefender for Armor on Mobile Devices

[-SlowJoe-]

Netgear Armor has been really solid for me the last 6-7 months since purchasing my RAXE500. Before I get into the issue, my modem (CM2000), and router (RAXE500) firmware are fully up-to-date. My iOS versions are up-to-date. And my Bitdefender for Armor and Nighthawk iOS apps are up-to-date. Uninstalled and reinstalled EVERYTHING. Restarted EVERYTHING.

Within the last week, in the nighthawk app, all of my iOS devices are showing as “eligible for bitdefender security” although bitdefender for netgear armor apps are installed. I’m logged into my account within the apps and web protection is on. Nothing changed…they just went from showing as protected to unprotected. In the security tab within the nighthawk app, I also get the “you have a number of devices without on the go protection.” 

I’ve attempted logging out/in of the bitdefender for armor app, and nighthawk app. Nothing is working and the nighthawk app is just not recognizing that the devices have mobile protection. No issues on recognizing the protection on PC’s/Macs though. Also logged into my account on the Armor website to see if anything was readily apparent. It wasn’t and everything seems normal. 

Interestingly enough, I had one iPhone that was still showing as good, but when I restarted the phone, it showed it added to the “eligible for bitdefender security” list. Despite the fact that the app has on the go protection and I’m logged in. 

I recently updated the RAXE500 firmware manually (V1.0.10.86) since it wasn’t auto-updating, but that’s the only thing that comes to mind as something that changed within the last 2 weeks. Never had this issue before that and the firmware seems fine. Could it be a bug in the recent firmware? 

Anyone else experiencing this or have any ideas? Thanks in advance.

[FURRYe38]

https://community.netgear.com/t5/NETGEAR-Armor/Armor-Help-and-Information/td-p/2211063/jump-to/first...

[-SlowJoe-]

Thanks Furry. Unfortunately I took a stab at that link before posting and had no luck. Thought it may be a wide-spread issue so figured I’d give this forum a shot.

[FURRYe38]

Something to contact NG support about and see. 

[-SlowJoe-]

Update for anyone experiencing the above issue: 

Contacted Netgear support and they've clarified it's a bug in the Nighthawk iOS App. Said it'd be corrected in a future update.  

[Jeffgear]

Exactly the same issue for on the RBR50 on v2.7.4.24.

Hopefully this is the very same bug and will be fixed in a new update on the RBR50 so I won’t go to the trouble of trying a factory reset and reconfiguring from scratch as is often suggested as an option of last resort that doesn’t always work.

[-SlowJoe-]

Good to know I wasn’t the only one. Have to believe it’s something basic in the application layer so hopefully a quick fix soon.

[KellyOrbi]

The same thing is happening with the Orbi app.  I bought Armor for my Orbi and loaded bitdefender on my Iphone but the dumb app shows my iphone in the not installed list.   I'm brand new.  Has this always been an issue.  Dumb!

[-SlowJoe-]

Just started for me within the last few weeks. Seamless/easy before that.

[PM3]

I also noticed after a factory reset of firmware V1.0.10.86_2.0.40 and logging back in to armor on my laptop, iPad, and iPhone that my iPhone is being detected 3 times where the other two are twice.

[PM3]

I reset my router again this morning. This time I used my iPad and got three devices. It is a safe bet the top one in the pic below is my NH app login, middle detected wifi connection from the router, and bottom my Armor app login.

[Jeffgear]

You can try deleting all of the same device entries in the Armor console and then relaunching the Bitdefender app on the device so it’s re detected. Armor will eventually rescan it and may reconcile its entries for that device. For me this removed an extra duplicate device entry but didn’t fix the original issue with Orbi app thinking Bitdefender wasn’t running on the device. I even tried deleting the app from my device, deleting the entries in Armor console, resetting the device’s network settings and re-associating with my wi-fi and starting as if it’s was a new device as far as Bitdefender was concerned - all this did was give me a new MAC and IP for my device but Orbi app still thinks it’s not running Bitdefender. I’d like to be able to flush the Armor settings on the router from a CLI other than just disabling it and then re-enabling in the app, or rebooting which don’t fix the issue. I’m reluctant to spend the day recovering from a factory reset if the backup won’t restore only to find the issue is not resolved. I’ll wait for the next router firmware update or Orbi app update to see if these fix it.

[-SlowJoe-]

Haven’t fully dived into the armor web-based GUI much, but netgear support reached out and said they were escalating the original post to engineering so hopefully the iOS device protection-recognition issue will be addressed in both the NH and Orbi apps.

[estudivan]

I have the same issue as well as constant drops in the network.

Running latest version on modem (CM1200) and router (RAXE500) with Windows 10 64 bit and ipads/iphones running 15.6.1 with Xfinity 1.2gbps internet plan. Had been working fine and just started dropping, rebooting daily.

[-SlowJoe-]

Had this marked as solved but not hearing much out of netgear support and unsure it will be fixed. Re-marked as unsolved 😬

[Jeffgear]

Having updated my household's two iPads and two iPhone 12 Pros to iOS 16, all four are showing as eligible for Bitdefender in the Security tab of the Orbi app, and the security score has dropped accordingly. Yet the iOS devices are all running the Bitdefender app and VPN fine.

Previously only one of the iPad and iPhone pairs were doing this, despite both being on iOS 15, and setup the same, but now all are no longer recognised by Orbi/Armor. This is an odd one and I was hoping the major iOS update would fix it. 

Let's see if an Orbi app update or Orbi RBR/RBS firmware update fixes it.

[Jeffgear]

As if by magic, version 2.20.0.322 of the Orbi app came out today. This has made no difference. Meanwhile the Bitdefender for Netgear Armor app is still on version 4.0.0 so perhaps this is getting an imminent update? iOS devices just updated to 16.0.2 and the reboot for this hasn't had any impact. RBR/RBS still on their v2.7.4.24.

[-SlowJoe-]

Just ran through the same process on nighthawk app/iOS devices with the same results. My support case was escalated to level 3 a couple days ago so we’ll see…

[DJJW]

Yes, I get the same problem on my Orbi RBR850. Tried everything, but it won’t recognise it is already installed on my mobile. FYI, I have installed Bitdefender on my wife’s Mac and the Orbi app does show this as a protected device.

[Jeffgear]

All my iOS devices are now not being recognised by Armor as being installed on the app yet they are running Bitdefender fine. My security score is fluctuating in the 60s as a result of apparently having so many unprotected devices. Plus a few smart home devices it thinks are eligible and unprotected that cannot have the Bitdefender installed.

We need a fix for the iOS issue and a feature to whitelist or exclude non eligible devices otherwise the security score is pointless and misleading.

[BK1959]

Same problem here. The Armor app is installed on two iPones and two iPads but they are not recognized as such in the Orbi app.

[FURRYe38]

https://community.netgear.com/t5/NETGEAR-Armor/Armor-Help-and-Information/td-p/2211063/jump-to/first...

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi-App/How-to-report-a-bug-on-the-Orbi-App/td-p/2140980/jump-to/f...

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-App/How-to-report-a-bug-on-the-Nighthawk-App/td-p/2134684...

[Hrp]

For quite awhile. At least in 2022. All my devices used to show. Now none. I won’t renew. Fed up.

[Hrp]

We’ll it’s November now and NETGEAR has not fixed anything yet.

[Jeffgear]

FYI I have an open support case now.

I did the nuclear option and factory reset my router and satellites, and deleted the iOS devices from the Armor web console, and removed and reinstalled the Bitdefender app on them. This did not resolve the issue! The only improvement was the security score in Orbi app went from 65 before reset to 90, initially then dropped to 85 once it realised the iOS devices were still eligible after a few days, despite them running full Bitdefender VPN mode.

I then restored the config backup to reinstate my device names and other custom settings given the reset and base configuration didn’t fix the Armor issue. Awaiting update from Support.