Blink Camera's discontinuing "legacy" login

The webhook request is received by IFTTT and also marked as “success”, but the actual arm-action on the camera is not processed and the camera stays unarmed. Let’s hope this is only (what they call) a temporary API problem.

Correction. After about a minute, the arm action actually hit the camera and followed by sending a disarm action, this was also execute after approx. 1,5 mins. So HA -> IFTTT - Blink (EU) seems to work just with a huge delay.

This has often been my experience with IFTTT.

I deleted my account with them after an ‘open garage door’ request took 3 hours to perform the action, meaning my garage door opened in the middle of the night.

Interestingly I did get a logged error last night when arming a module via IFTTT, however it did arm.

2020-05-05 21:17:04 ERROR (SyncWorker_7) [homeassistant.components.ifttt] IFTTT reported error sending event to default

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I asked:

“Hi, I received your email with subject “Notice: Disabling Unauthorized 3rd Party Automation Scripts”. I would like to know how I would integrate the blink alarm system with “home assistent hub” after that? You suggest me to use IFTTT, but with IFTTT I cannot use “family geolocalization”, I cannot activate Blink disabling one or two of my cameras… And everybody say IFTTT integration is not sure at all. So please: how could I get to use “Home Assistant” hub further? Please let me know, because a system that I cannot use with geolocalization and that cannot disable one camera is not what I meant to buy. If I will not have more the possibility, I must return all my cameras and have my money back. Please, let me know. Thank you very much.”

The answer I received is VERY disappointing. No answer to my needs, and also this:
“Thank you for contacting Blink Technical Support,
We do not recommend using third party scripts, using any unsupported / unsanctioned app or 3rd party script would be against the Blink terms and conditions.
If any other question or problem arise please let me know.”

I read all Blink terms and conditions and I didn’t see anything about that.

I replay and I’m now wating for Blink answer:

I read all of your Blink terms and conditions and I didn’t saw anything about “third party scripts”. I only can see:
“B. Use of Third Party Services.
When you use the Blink Software, you may also be using the services of one or more third parties […omississ…]. Your use of these third party services may be subject to the separate policies, terms of use, and fees of these third parties.”

So please: where did you find that the use of a third party script is against the Blink terms and conditions? Please, give me precise point where you read that.

Beside this, you didn’t answer my question, so I’ll ask again:

  • With IFTTT is there the possibility to continue using your alarm system as of today: I mean, is it possible to arm the system, but excluding one or more cameras?

  • How can I use “family” geolocalization? I mean: when the first member of the family returns home --> disarm, when the last member leaves home --> arm

Please, I need answers.

If this will not possibile any more, it is clear that Blink cameras are not usable any more for my purposes, so I need to give them back.

Awaiting your replay,

with greetings,

Switched my arm/disarm logic to use IFTTT webhook applet and seems to be working fine. I get no delays, as soon as I execute IFTTT service in HA blink gets armed. This looks like a good alternative.

I have a solution I’m pretty confident will work. Just released a beta version of the library for testing so just sit tight :+1:

If anyone currently has 2FA enabled on their account and are willing to test this beta version, please reach out!

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@fronzbot, count me in for the beta testing.

There are some instructions on the README page, but here’s a quick summary to specifically test the new features:

Create a virtual environment

python -m venv ~/venv/blinkpy_beta
source ~/venv/blinkpy_beta/bin/activate

Install Beta Version

pip install blinkpy==0.15.0-rc0

Start python, initialize blinkpy

>>> from blinkpy import blinkpy
>>> blink = blinkpy.Blink(username="YOUREMAIL", password="YOURPASSWORD")
>>> blink.start()

At this point, two things may happen:

  1. Function returns with no output to screen. Setup was successful and your account is not yet set up for email verification nor 2FA
  2. A prompt appears in your python terminal with the text >>> Enter code sent to YOUREMAIL:

If you are in group 1, you can end here. You can’t test the new features yet :frowning_face:
If you are in group 2, please continue.

Now, one of two things will happen. You will either:

  1. Receive an email (subject: Verify New Device Login) asking for you to verify access to your device. Simply click “Allow Device” and then, back in your terminal, hit “enter”. Do not type anything.
  2. Receive an email containing a pin. Back in your terminal, enter the pin. PLEASE LET ME KNOW ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS. I cannot test this case with my account yet.

Once you enter either the pin (in case 2) or nothing (in case 1) your devices should automatically set up. To verify this, you can check that all of your sync modules and cameras exist via:

>>> blink.sync

Which will output a dictionary whose keys are the names of any (and all) of your sync modules.

>>> blink.cameras

Which will output a dictionary whose keys are the names of any (and all) of your blink cameras.

Once you are finished, you can exit python by typing exit() and then, in your terminal, type deactivate to exit the virtual environment.

For more things you can check, I encourage you to read through the README or the Documentation

Thanks for the writeup, 2FA work for me with the beta build. Got emailed and clicked accept version, not the pin.

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@fronzbot: I also confirm it working for me, 2FA successfully setup. No PIN and I was able to access my cameras.

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@fronzbot, I confirm that, its working for me too. 2FA was setup successfully. Allowed access from my email.

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@fronzbot: I can also confirm that device verification via e-mail with beta build works. Thanks for your work!

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I also received the same email. Will be looking for a replacement.

@fronzbot Thanks for your awesome effort and work. Just bought 2 blink cams last week and then got the mail from Blink :slight_smile:

PS: when will the updated integration be included on HA default?

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Excellent question. Honest answer is: I don’t know. I have to add a bunch of stuff onto the component so the absolute earliest I’d be able to get a pull request into home-assistant is this weekend. After that, hopefully they’ll pop it into a hotfix update to allow uninterrupted service, but who knows.

EDIT - Ok, I think I have something working in Home-Assistant. Going to let it run for a day to make sure nothing is borked :smile:

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Just a heads up- eventually I’ll have to remove yaml config for this component due to 2FA. I’m trying to hold onto it as long as I can though, because I prefer the control I have with yaml as opposed to the UI :smile:. But if you prefer UI over YAML, this change will support that.

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If I have an integration written in a different language (C#), can I run this verification process to authenticate a workstation, then have my executable work with just email/password verification?

In other words, does this authenticate the workstation, the current running process, or what? Apologies for not being all that well-versed in the 2FA angle of this, I just need to understand how persistent the verification process is so I can try to get my video-downloading application working again. Thanks!

Me as well, wrote them a strongly worded email! :fist:

Response from the Blink team

Thank you for your email. Currently Blink only integrates with IFTTT and Amazon Alexa-enabled products, you can learn more about these integrations here,
https://support.blinkforhome.com/integrations/how-to-integrate-blink-with-ifttt-services?from_search=45426711
https://support.blinkforhome.com/integrations/alexa-setup-and-troubleshooting-guide?from_search=45426740

We do appreciate these other smart-home requests for consideration as it’s a feature we know is important to many of our customers. I am unable to comment on any future product or feature roadmap however I would be happy to pass along the suggestion for HomeAssistant support to our Team for consideration. Thank you for being a Blink Customer

Regards,
Heidi @ Blink```
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@FiServedPi - we already have a working fix (see the pull request linked earlier)

@sutekh137 - as far as I can tell they haven’t totally migrated to 2FA yet so for now, all you need to do is update the data sent with a request at login. You will get an email from Blink asking you to allow the device and that is persistent for an unknown amount of time (definitely more than 24hrs, my guess would be 30 days) and specific to the device_name parameter you send it. As for 2FA, the same process should work, only you need to send a pin to a new endpoint.

For the data to send, see here and for the 2FA pin endpoint see here.

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