Litter Robot 5 Troubles

1. Spurious errors: “Extended scale activity”: Both units will report this error occasionally but upon examination of the video recordings, I find that there is nothing present and not even any cat visits in the past hours.  Both units will continue to operate.

Support reply: Extended scale activity can be caused by the robot detecting excess weight if litter has been added without recalibration of the scale. What you’ll want to do is press the Cancel (X) button while the light on the robot is solid white. The screen should say ‘recalibrated’. This is something you would want to do every time you add litter or remove waste from the drawer.

Yes, I do know to press the recalibrate button after adding litter or emptying the bin, etc. and I have been doing so all along. And yet I have been seeing these “Extended scale activity” messages even when there has been no change in the litter level. This message comes up at random times separate from any interaction with it and even if the litter level is getting a little low and it always resolves itself on its own. So this is why I call it a spurious error – it’s as if the sensor or its software is just triggering this message randomly.

2. Spurious errors: “Bonnet removed” (usually at exactly 12:00am): Both units will occasionally report that their bonnet has been removed and that processing is stopped but this erroneous status goes away on its own. Also, this error most frequently occurs at exactly midnight.  That definitely sounds like some sort of software or sensor bug tied to the internal clock.  The bonnet always seems to be secure and we don’t mess with it but I’ve also tried opening and re-securing it.  The error is still reported several times a month by each unit.

Support reply: This error is caused when the sensor that detects the bonnet is in place gets any light. You’ll want to open and close the bonnet with the latches on the side of the robot, making sure the gap is as tight as possible. If you continue to have this issue after ensuring it’s closed, please let us know. There may be a fit issue with the bonnet itself causing the error.

Okay, as I did before, I opened and closed it again to verify that it’s as secure as can be but there is always a slight gap all the way around the front portion of the bonnet. This gap exists on both LR5’s (see photo). I think it’s very telling that this happens sporadically, that it usually happens at precisely 12:00 am and that the error message goes away on its own and is merely logged in the history. It’s not like it thinks the bonnet is actually currently removed – like what happens if I actually do open it. It does not affect the active status on the unit and it continues to operate normally.

3. Spurious error “Laser board fault”: Both units are reporting this error occasionally, sometimes more than once in a day.  I’ve wiped the sensors along the top side of the opening but the error still appears occasionally on both units.  Both units will continue to function though if I ignore the error.

Support reply: This error should be cleared by performing a hard reset on your Litter-Robot. You’ll want to power the robot off by pressing and holding the power button for 6 seconds. Then wait 60 seconds before powering the robot back on again. If this doesn’t clear the error and it comes back up immediately, you’ll want to let us know specifically so we can troubleshoot this issue further. Otherwise, the hard reset should get it to go away.

To clarify, the error is merely displayed in a notification and recorded in the log. It doesn’t affect the status of either unit and they both keep functioning. I went ahead and performed another hard reset on one of the units to satisfy your troubleshooting suggestion though.  There have been some further occurrences of this error message but it has been much left often, like no such errors for three weeks recently. (March 2026)

4. Spurious “Low litter” or “Empty litter” messages:  One time the second unit sent a pair of messages to the app (“low litter” and then “empty litter”) over a few minutes but then a few minutes later, after another cat used it, it reported the litter level as optimal again.

Support reply: If the litter level in your robot is inaccurate or you’re having problems with incorrect notifications, please take a look at this guide. It will help you recalibrate the optimal litter level to prevent this issue from continuing.

The link you provided was invalid, but I found the relevant page about recalibrating. I don’t think I need to recalibrate unless I start getting inconsistent level messages. What was unique about that one-time event I described above and the reason I shared it was that it sent notifications of “low litter” and then “empty litter” and then cleared itself to “optimal level” over the course of just a few minutes.

As of March 2026, I don’t think I’ve seen more obviously wrong low or empty litter messages.

5. Litter waste bin measurement inaccuracy: This feature has proven to be inaccurate on the LR5 and I’ve taken to mostly ignoring its estimate.  (See pictures.)  A single litter ball in an otherwise empty bin will report 12% or more and repeated recycling will sometimes cause it to increase its percentage estimate (13%, 14%, etc). I have of course pressed in the litter bag into the bottom corners to try to help it, it’s just not very accurate.  Sometimes it may declare the bin as full when the app shows it at only, for example, 27% and it is indeed around only a quarter full.  I have to force a manual cycle in order to get to re-estimate and continue to cycle normally with cat visits.  It will also report the bin as completely full prematurely when it is starting to get full but a little shake of the bin will make it happy for another day or so.  LR4 seemed more accurate.

Support reply: As with the litter level, the drawer full indicator may need recalibration. Please take a look at this guide here, it will walk you through all the different methods for ensuring the drawer is fully recalibrated.

Okay, I’ll go through all that trouble later… perhaps after the next time I need to empty the bin.

As of March 2026, I’ve been mostly ignoring its waste bin level estimates until it declares it as mostly full or entirely full and warns that it will no longer operate.  This is one of the more annoying errors as it means I have to deal with it promptly (with a reset and/or manual forced cycle) and it can happen even when the waste bin is nearly empty.  (See photos.)

6. App sometimes shows invalid “Busy” status: Sometimes the app will report the unit is busy but when I go to check it, it clearly is not.  Sending commands via the app at this time would not do anything (power, cycle, reset, etc).  It acts as though it doesn’t have a connection even though the app reports the state as “busy”, not “offline”.  The camera feed remained available and working though.  Eventually the inaccurate status goes away.

Support reply: If your robot is showing anything other than online, you would want to navigate to the settings of the robot to update the network. You’ll tap on the robot, and then see the settings icon in the top right corner. That option will reconnect your robot to the internet fully and clear the incorrect status.

Yeah, I know about the “Update Network” command. Just take my feedback above that sometimes (very rare so far) the app will be out-of-sync with the unit even though both report themselves as connected.

7. Sometimes chimes repeatedly without any messages: On separate occasions, one unit or the other has sometimes chimed several times over a period of a few hours. There is no error message on the unit, no notification in the app, no message in the history, no change in the LED light.  I tried scale reset and WiFi connection button and power cycle but it happened again.  A couple of times soon after we got the second unit it was chiming every 5-10 minutes over a couple of hours in the early morning. Happily, this has not happened again for a while but I don’t know that it won’t.

Support reply: This is a known issue and we have a fix planned in a future update. We should have this fixed soon.

Great!

8. WiFi connection issue and “WiFi Chip Fault” error: The first unit had a period where it would display the “WiFi Chip Fault” message when I was troubleshooting its connection by pressing the WiFi button.  After some days of this, the app eventually reported the device status as “offline”.  The cameras remained accessible during this period. (Separate WiFi module?!)  Power cycling did not help. After completely resetting the WiFi connection using the app’s “Update Network” option and holding down the WiFi button and going through the onboarding process, the connection was reestablished, the device began responding to app commands again and there has been no further trouble for weeks now.  So what went wrong with the previous WiFi configuration – it became corrupted somehow?!

Support reply: The Wi-Fi chip fault should be cleared up once your robot is able to update to the latest version of firmware. If you continue to see those errors once your robot is on the latest firmware version, please let us know.

Both of my LR5 units are currently on the latest firmware according to the app right now (2026-01-03, robot firmware v5.7.5 2904_0106), but I look forward to any coming updates to improve things.

As of March 2026, I have not seen this issue in months and I see the firmware version is now v5.8.4 2904_0106.  It looks like this was fixed.

9. Cameras went offline separately from robot unit: Over a period of a couple of days, the cameras of the second unit went offline for several periods of many hours each while the robot remained connected and online.  During this period the camera status would sometimes show as available but fail to connect and would time out with “camera off” message and at other times the camera status would show as either off or offline.  Sometimes it responded to toggling the in-app power button but other times it would not.  This issue has not re-occurred for a week or more.

Support reply: If the camera shows as offline but the camera light on the robot is still on, indicating it’s still functioning, you may want to try switching the network to a 5GHz connection via the ‘update network’ feature. If you don’t have your network split into separate 2.4GHz and 5GHz guest networks, I would suggest looking into how you might set that up on your network. It can be very helpful for keeping a stable connection on the Litter-Robot.

I just had to use “Update Network” again today to regain access to the camera on my second LR5 even though the main unit remained connected and accessible via the app. Is the camera’s WiFi connection less robust? Anyway, I’m disappointed to hear that your units my have trouble dealing with 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz networks sharing the same SSID as this is the preferred setup to allow devices to automatically connect to the best available frequency without manual intervention. I do not want to change this. I hope instead that your engineering team can improve your WiFi handling. Note that I have a strong AIMesh network with three access points for good coverage and strong signal across the house and I don’t have trouble with WiFi connections for other devices including my earlier Litter Robot 4.

10. Frequently reports 0.0 oz of waste: Both devices frequently (30-40% on average?) report 0.0 measured waste even when waste (and a litter ball) is indeed cycled through. (See picture below.)

Support reply: This was another bug that was supposed to be fixed with the latest firmware update. Looking at the examples you sent, this was indeed happening before the update. Are you seeing any 0.0 waste recordings now? If you are, it could potentially be related to the scale not being zeroed out correctly. Again, just make sure that it’s being zeroed out any time you add litter or remove waste from the drawer to make sure that’s not the cause.

Yes, I do still see common 0.0 oz measurements: for example, three of the last eight visits were registered as 0.0 oz on one of the units. And yes, I always do recalibrate after moving or adding any litter.

11. Unusually short delay cycle sometimes:  One of my units (B) is near the bedroom and I sometimes here it start the automatic cycle only a minute or two after one of the cats uses the Litter Robot even though it has always been set to the default 7-minute delay. This happens maybe once or twice a month.

I have verified in the history log what I’ve heard.  (See photo.)  With the 7-minute delay, the log normally shows a difference of 9 minutes between the cat interaction and cycle completion events but when it does this there’s only a 3-minute difference *and* there hasn’t been an earlier cat interaction recorded within the hour.

Support reply: This sounds like it may be related to WasteID and the earlier issue with excess litter causing a cat detect via the scale. If there was excess litter triggering the scale, the unit may have began a cycle timer. If there wasn’t anything in the globe at the time, it may have registered as not needing time to clump as it would during a regular cycle. Do you see this very often? Based on an overview of your robot’s history from the last few days, this only happens when a cat isn’t actually entering to use the bathroom. Otherwise, the unit does wait to cycle as it’s detecting urine from it’s sensors.

No, when this has happened there hasn’t been any excess litter message. Also, the unit shows normal usage and operation by the cats in the preceding hours.

12. Can’t complete onboarding with iPad: The app’s onboarding process displays the QR code so large on an iPad screen that the robot won’t recognize it.  I had to switch to using a phone screen to successfully connect and set it up.

Support reply: We are aware that onboarding on iPad does not work correctly. For now, it’s best to only onboard with a phone. I apologize for that.

Okay.

13. Robot usage history not linked to camera recordings:  The built-in camera’s recordings are inconveniently not associated or accessible from the robot’s normal history log.  You have to go and find a given recording for a given event separately and manually search by timestamp.

Support reply: We appreciate the feedback about the current app layout. I’ve seen myself that it can be awkward to switch between tabs in the app, especially when it comes to directly comparing events to visits in the history.

Sounds good, thanks.

14. Separate interior and exterior camera views are inconvenient (and intrusive):  The interior and exterior views are separate cameras and the interior view is not recorded – you can’t view what happened in the interior of the robot afterwards.  I found with the Litter Robot 4 that a single camera (like a Blink Mini) mounted directly to the top of the bezel (without your camera adapter piece) could be pointed straight down and rotated 90 degrees to capture both the interior and exterior simultaneously and would do so without also capturing the entire room unnecessarily like the built-in forward camera does on the Litter Robot 5 Pro.  Now maybe the forward view is necessary for the AI cat recognition feature, but maybe not – maybe your recognition model could still be trained and work from that vantage point?

Support reply: I know we have an update coming soon that will address your concerns with the interior camera recording. 

13. Unexpectedly dumped all the litter:  Both units have done this. I caught unit A as it started to do it and was able to intercept and eventually reset it back to the normal ready position.  The other unit (B) dumped everything after I unexpectedly found it powered off.  I powered it back on and told it do a manual cycle (to clean up after several “deposits” while it had been powered down.  I discovered later that it did a full dump of all the litter instead of a normal cycle.  I also don’t know why it had powered off in the first place.