Reolink integration does not support an empty password

[ecksun]

The problem

The default credentials of the RLC-811A camera is "admin" with an empty password, that is however not possible to enter in the UI:

I noticed a comment by @starkillerOG that stated that the integration on purpose only allows a subset of "valid" passwords: #123302 (comment)

It does however not mention if empty passwords are rejected per design

If it is per design it would be nice if the error-message could indicate that ("An empty password can cause issues and is thus disallowed", "An empty password is bad practice and not allowed")

What version of Home Assistant Core has the issue?

core-2025.1.2

What was the last working version of Home Assistant Core?

No response

What type of installation are you running?

Home Assistant OS

Integration causing the issue

reolink

Link to integration documentation on our website

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/reolink

Additional information

I do not mind contributing a patch for this

It is also not possible to change the default password without using a proprietary program: QuantumEntangledAndy/neolink#303

[home-assistant]

Hey there @starkillerOG, mind taking a look at this issue as it has been labeled with an integration (reolink) you are listed as a code owner for? Thanks!

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[starkillerOG]

You should just go to the IP of the camera in a browser, there you will be able to set it up and provide a password.
See this section of the documentation: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/reolink/#1-initializing-and-configuring-camera-credentials

Before setting up the reolink homeassistant integration, you are expected to setup the camera, linking it to your network (WiFi credentials if needed) and setup the camera password.

[starkillerOG]

Mybe in the future I will implement setting up and configuring the password for a brand new camera in the config flow of HomeAssistant. But I probably want to do that after implementing the UDP discovery protocol.
For now I first have some other features to work on.

[ecksun]

You should just go to the IP of the camera in a browser, there you will be able to set it up and provide a password.
See this section of the documentation: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/reolink/#1-initializing-and-configuring-camera-credentials

Before setting up the reolink homeassistant integration, you are expected to setup the camera, linking it to your network (WiFi credentials if needed) and setup the camera password.

It is not possible to change the password via the web-interface if the password is the empty string, which it is the default password.

Technically that is a bug in the reolink web interface, I guess they assume one uses their app to configure the camera (I used neolink).

All that said neolink now has support to configure the password, so for the people who can't/don't want to use the proprietary reolink mobile application there is a solution available

Mybe in the future I will implement setting up and configuring the password for a brand new camera in the config flow of HomeAssistant. But I probably want to do that after implementing the UDP discovery protocol.

That would be cool but I can understand you wanting to prioritize other features :)