Why did my Tapo P105 plug disappear if I'm not using my local network?

Why did my Tapo P105 plug disappear if I'm not using my local network?

Why did my Tapo P105 plug disappear if I'm not using my local network?
Why did my Tapo P105 plug disappear if I'm not using my local network?
2023-11-13 23:46:18 - last edited 2023-12-01 03:29:07
Model: Tapo P105  
Hardware Version: V20
Firmware Version: ????

Note, this is about the P105 plug, not the KP105. Your website doesn't let me select the unit I have. 

 

So, I set up three P105 plugs, happy to have a nice user interface and presumably a better user experience compared to my Meross plugs, which stopped working with Apple's latest HomeKit update. The plugs are perfect...except for disappearing from my device if I'm not on the same wifi network as them.

 

I have a work network (actually a 2.4 GHz Internt of Things channel my router has) and a home network accessible from my office. I connected the three plugs to the work network, but then they magically disappear from my device if I'm accessing them from home, despite both networks being all joined. Turning off all wifi (as if I were connecting from outside the office), and there are no devices. Since the *entire point* of these plugs is for me to be able to reboot my devices from outside the office, this is absolutely a deal-breaker.


Can anyone tell me if I'm doing something wrong? Having my registered devices disappear from my app when I need them is the most useless thing in the history of network computing as far as I'm concerned, and I want to know I'm not doing something wrong before returning all four plugs. 

 

I note that my network says "unstable" despite me being right on the other side of a thin wall from my wifi router. Any advice for what to do about this?

 

Honestly, disappearing devices is 100% a deal-breaker. I would think the engineers at TP Link would understand this?

 

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Re:Why did my Tapo P105 plug disappear if I'm not using my local network?-Solution
2023-11-15 09:16:27 - last edited 2023-12-01 03:29:07

  @PeterinJapan 

 

Is your work network restricting smart plug's internet connection? If the devices cannot connect successfully to the internet (cloud server), remote management is not possible, and they can only be used locally.

 

Have you tried resetting a device and configuring it on the home network for comparison testing? Additionally, could you confirm if you have two routers or just one? What is the model?

 

When you mention "Office," are you referring to a room at home or at the company?

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Re:Why did my Tapo P105 plug disappear if I'm not using my local network?-Solution
2023-11-15 09:16:27 - last edited 2023-12-01 03:29:07

  @PeterinJapan 

 

Is your work network restricting smart plug's internet connection? If the devices cannot connect successfully to the internet (cloud server), remote management is not possible, and they can only be used locally.

 

Have you tried resetting a device and configuring it on the home network for comparison testing? Additionally, could you confirm if you have two routers or just one? What is the model?

 

When you mention "Office," are you referring to a room at home or at the company?

Share Your Pet Story. Win Free Tapo Care!Smart Action 2.0 Explore and meet the next level home automation.
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Re:Why did my Tapo P105 plug disappear if I'm not using my local network?
2023-11-16 03:57:41

  @Wayne-TP Thanks for the reply.

 

So I have the following hardware:

 

1) a brand new TP-Link AX55 Wifi 6 Router. Introducing this to the network is what seems to have broken everything else. This is my main wifi network at my company. I noticed that rather than make 2.4 and 5 ghz separate networks, it just makes one seemingly combined one, which seems odd, compatibility-wise.

2) I have a Home Network with separate 2.4 and 5 ghz versions. I tried connecting the P105's through the 2.4 Home network and it worked well...but accessing while connected to any other wifi network (say, my work one), causes devices to disappear from the network. If I connect just to the base station the P105 is on, it shows up. I have verified that this network connects fine

3) When I was using my old Airport Base Station things seemed to be more stable and compatible, so I brought it out and set up a new network to test. Same results as the 2.4 GHz home network though (device disappears if I'm not connected to the exact same network).

4) Most important of all, my plugs, which are properly tied to a 2.4 GHz network that can definitely, absolutely connect to the wider Internet, when I test it through a Mac or iOS device. But when I connect with no wifi (i.e. from the outside world, trying to reboot my all-important work computer of it has crashed), the devices disappear immediately.

 

 

Incidentally, every time I load the Tapo app it reports that my network in unstable, despite the network serving me well for years and years. I have no idea why this would be so, and the plug is about 6 feet (through a thin wall) away from the wifi it's connecting to. 

 

I tried to upload before and after images but this image board seems to have an error, it asks for the upload URL even though I'm trying to manually upload.

 

I'd really like to use these plugs, but the issue needs to be solved before I can consider it. Please help!

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Re:Why did my Tapo P105 plug disappear if I'm not using my local network?
2023-11-16 07:19:52
Also sorry for not giving the info you asked. The office is my physical company about 200m from my home. The office network runs on the TP-Link Ax55, and it's for inside the company, while the home network connected via ethernet to an ASUS RT-AX55. (It's hilarious that both devices have nearly the same product names but are definitely different products.) There is nothing blocking the switches from the Internet. If they needed a port opened in the internet box or something, that's not something I've ever done in a dozen year of using these devices. I've tried connecting the TP plugs to my IoT network (2.4 ghz), my Home Network (2.4 ghz) and my Old Network (also 2.4 GHz). All connect to the app cheerfully but are only visible if I'm connected to that exact wifi network.
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Re:Why did my Tapo P105 plug disappear if I'm not using my local network?
2023-11-16 11:21:16 - last edited 2023-11-16 11:28:51

  @PeterinJapan 

 

This issue does seem peculiar; it's rare to encounter a situation where several smart plugs can't be remotely managed on different networks. Are these devices newly purchased? Are they brand new?

 

Do you know which ISP your company network uses? Is it the same one that you use at home?

 

Also, I'd like to confirm if you have any VPN or similar apps on your phone that might interfere with the network data connection (of the app). If you do, please try closing them and reopening our app to see if it works properly.

 

Make sure these smart plugs have the latest firmware. So as the Tapo App. How to update the firmware of the Tapo&Kasa devices on the Tapo App

 

Please provide the MAC addresses of the devices via private message, and I will escalate this case to our advanced engineers for further analysis. An email will be sent to you later.

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