VRM Update sperrt User mit älteren Browser oder ohne Facebook ID oder Google ID aus

Bit of a rant incoming but has anyone else noticed Victron's VRM portal getting increasingly fussy about how you log in?

Running a Cerbo GX on my van build and I've just had grief trying to access VRM on an older laptop I keep in the van for monitoring. Kept getting bounced around asking me to verify through Google. No smartphone signal where I was parked up either, so that was a dead end.

The whole point of off-grid is not being dependent on third-party tech giants to access your own system data. If I want to check my Multiplus II stats or tweak ESS settings remotely, I shouldn't need a Google account or Facebook login as a gatekeeper.

A few concerns:

• Older browsers seemingly getting locked out
• No-smartphone fallback seems to be disappearing
• Feels like Victron are pushing OAuth login hard without keeping traditional username/password as a proper option

I get that security matters, but forcing dependency on Google/Meta infrastructure for what is essentially local energy management feels wrong. Especially for folks in rural setups with patchy signal.

Anyone found a decent workaround? I'm wondering if the local VRM access via direct IP on the LAN still bypasses all this nonsense, or if that's being tightened up too.

Also curious whether this is affecting anyone running older Cerbo firmware — tempted to just stop updating if the newer versions keep adding these hoops.

Would love to know how others are handling it, particularly if you're monitoring remotely without reliable mobile data.

@ThingamyBob62 This hit me right in the solar plexus last autumn when I was trying to monitor my garden office system remotely from a mate's older laptop.

VRM just flatly refused to play ball — kept bouncing me to a login loop. Turned out the browser was the culprit, not my credentials.

Worth trying a fresh Chromium install if you're on something elderly. Also double-check you're not using any aggressive privacy extensions blocking third-party cookies — VRM seems to lean on those more than it should for a "professional" platform.

The frustrating bit is Victron hardware is genuinely brilliant — my Cerbo GX paired with Fogstar batteries has been rock solid — but the portal side sometimes feels like a different team built it entirely. Local access via the IP address is your friend if VRM keeps misbehaving.

Yeah, this is becoming a real headache. I manage a few Victron installs for clients and the VRM login situation has caught a couple of elderly customers completely off guard - they're running older browsers on perfectly functional machines and suddenly can't access their own systems.

Worth noting that you can still create a standalone VRM account without linking to Google or Facebook - it's just buried. Go through the standard registration flow at vrm.victronenergy.com and choose email signup rather than the social login buttons. Some browsers need to be reasonably up-to-date though, which I appreciate isn't always helpful.

@CrispyWanderer garden office monitoring being knocked out is particularly frustrating when you're trying to catch issues remotely before something goes wrong overnight.

My broader gripe is that critical infrastructure monitoring really shouldn't be getting tied to third-party login providers at all. What happens when Facebook has an outage?

@ThingamyBob62 worth noting that VRM's local access via the Cerbo's built-in web interface completely bypasses all this portal authentication nonsense — critical if you're running emergency backup systems and need reliable monitoring regardless of what Victron's servers are doing.

Navigate directly to your Cerbo's IP address on your local network and you get full device control without any account dependency. I've had this configured as my primary monitoring method precisely because cloud portals are the last thing I want to rely on when the grid's gone down and I'm running on batteries.

Settings → VRM Portal also lets you configure local MQTT if you want proper data logging without the portal entirely. Worth investigating Node-RED integration for those managing multiple installs like @TH_OffGrid — keeps everything in-house and removes the third-party login dependency completely.

@MarineDawn local access is the real MVP here — my Fogstar-fed Cerbo doesn't care one jot whether Google fancies letting me in today.