D-Link shuts down cloud services 19 smart home devices and takes apps offline

D-Link is shutting down 19 security cameras, baby monitors and other smart devices from its cloud services. The associated apps are also removed from the Play Store and App Store. It seems that the devices can no longer be used after that and therefore become e-waste.

D-Link announced the change via a support pagewhich was picked up a month ago by some German sites, including PC Games Hardware, but it did not receive widespread attention. It is not clear when D-Link put this announcement online. The changes proposed by the Taiwanese company will take place on Friday, December 30, 2022.

These are IP cameras, smart sockets, motion sensors, a water sensor, Z-Wave hubs, a door and window sensor, a siren, a smoke detector and several cameras to monitor babies or pets. The products that can be found in the Pricewatch show that they have introduction years ranging from 2013 to 2017. The closed apps are mydlink Home and mydlink Baby Camera Monitorbehind the links can still be seen in cached versions.

D-Link doesn’t say it very explicitly, but it seems that after closing the associated apps and cloud services, the devices become completely unusable, so e-waste. As far as is known, D-Link has also not made any firmware source code available, which could still ensure that handy users can write their own firmware and, for example, develop compatibility with Home Assistant for continued use.

D-Link also states that the DCS-935L, DCS-5010L and DCH-Z510, respectively two cameras and a siren, no longer work due to closing the old apps, but that in these cases it is still possible to switch to the newer mydlink, mydlink Lite, or mydlink+ apps. The support article tells you which app works for which device.

Update, Friday 3:59 PM: tweaker jeanj says that as a D-Link customer he was notified of this closure via email in February of this year.