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Refresh Tokens

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Dusty Greif edited this page Apr 5, 2020 · 12 revisions

Ring now requires the use of Two-Factor Auth (2fa) for all accounts. If you have not turned on text-based 2fa, you will receive a verification code via email instead. For automation purposes (like homebridge-ring and ring-client-api) we need a special refreshToken that can be used long-term with 2fa turned on. A refreshToken allows us to bypass email/password/2fa altogether. To get a refreshToken, run one of the following commands on any computer with node installed:

If you have homebridge-ring installed globally

  • Simply run ring-auth-cli from a terminal. It should be available globally via your npm bin directory.

If you do not have homebridge-ring installed globally

  • npx -p ring-client-api ring-auth-cli

After entering your information, you will see a refreshToken in the output. Copy the token and open up your config file for homebridge or whatever platform is using ring-client-api. Remove your email and password values as these will no longer be used, and add "refreshToken": "TOKEN FROM COMMAND ABOVE". Restart your home automation app (homebridge, etc.) and Ring should authenticate successfully.

Note: Your refreshToken is just as valuable as an email/password so treat it with the same care you would a password. It can also be used for accounts that do not have 2fa enabled if you don't want your email/password in plain text in a config file.

Refresh Token Expiration

Ring has updated their refresh tokens so that they expire within a couple minutes of when they are used for the first time. This means that you basically only get to use a refresh token once, and need to keep the new refresh token that comes with the response.

For libraries that use ring-client-api, you can subscribe to api.onRefreshTokenUpdated to get the new refresh token each time a new one is created. This new refresh token should be stored wherever your library stores its configuration. See TODO for an example. If you are a user of homebridge-ring, this is done automatically for you, and your config.json will always be up-to-date with the last available refresh token.

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