Smart Bulb Tapo L535(E/B) | Constant Disconnect and Reconnect from WiFi
I just received 8 of these new bulbs and am having a very difficult time keeping them responding via Apple Home or the Tapo App. They either react very slowly or will say "no response".
I have mostly idevice homekit switches and excellent wifi coverage. Everything else in the house responds instantly.
I have been going through all of my network setting trying to figure out what is happening with no luck. All of the bulbs will just randomly change to "no response" and then eventually re-appear. I can watch them come in and out of existence using the "Discovery" app on the iphone. This is an mDNS scanner. The bulbs will show up in matter and then disappear. Many times when they disappear they will also not be controllable via the Tapo app.
Is this a known issue? These are the only matter devices I have. Everything else is homekit certified.
I have gone through every sort of troubleshooting imaginable and the bulbs are still randomly not responding. I am very experienced with networking and IoT devices. I can see the bulbs connected to my Netgear WAC510 access points with good signal. They are on a 2.4GHz only SSID with the rest of my IoT devices. This SSID is part of my normal LAN network and not segregated. My setup has been working flawlessly with over a dozen other Homekit devices for years. My Apple Hub is a brand new AppleTV 4k Ethernet.
I am looking at my Netgear Insight logs and the L535 Bulbs are constantly disconnecting and reconnecting to different Wireless Access Points. I see the mac address move from the nearest base station with a good signal to a base station further away with a poor signal. The logs are full of disconnect and re-connect notices multiple times per minute. I assume this is why my Apple Home app just shows them all randomly going No Response and then back online.
I have three wireless access points to cover my entire house and garage. According to the logs it appears the light bulbs cannot pick where to stay connected to.
Although I had tuned my access point power levels to ensure I do not have too much signal overlap in my house, I decided to change each access point to full power to see if the Tapo devices would stay stuck to a base station better. There was a definite improvement in response time once I increased all the radios to full power. The Tapo devices will still randomly show "no response" but they will work within 5 - 20 seconds if I wait in the home app. The Netgear Insight logs still show the Tapo bulbs disconnecting and reconnecting several times a minute for no apparent reason. I will see an RSSI of -57 and the bulb will disconnect and reconnect over and over again. This is happening even with signal strengths better than -50.
It seems to me like there might be a firmware issue with these bulbs in an environment with multiple access points all broadcasting the same SSIDs. The bulbs need to be a little more "sticky". As far as I can tell the bulb is initiating the disconnect and reconnect from WiFi for no apparent reason. I assume this problem would not exist in a house with only one wireless access point.
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CAGMEC wrote
Same problem here. I have 4 bulbs and they disconnect after 3 or 4 days and don't reconnect anymore. I have to remove them and add them again with the Tapo app and the cycle repeats.
L535
Hardware Version: 3.0
Firmware Version: 1.1.5 Build 240328 Rel.194528
Router is a Huawei EG8145X6-10. But the bulbs connect to it through two tpPLC access points (TL-PA7017 4.0, TL-WPA7517 2.0, TL-WPA7517 1.0)
Do the smart bulbs have access to the internet? Have you checked the router client list to see if the bulbs are still connected to the WiFi when they become unresponsive, or if they are disconnected?
Are the L535s connected to any Matter platform at the same time?
To assist with the case, a specialist will help to follow it up through email, please check your inbox later to confirm.
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Stanley_Yang wrote
I also have this issue with my three L535E light bulbs
can you have me to fix this problem
thank you
Please share more details of your case. What's the hardware and firmware version of your L535?
Are they managed by Tapo App or a third-party App (Matter)? Do you use them locally? Do they have internet access?
What router are you using? Have you checked the router client list to confirm if the bulbs are still connected to the WiFi when they become unresponsive, or if they are disconnected?
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Did we ever get a fix? I have finally got mine linked to HomeKit and it worked through the Home app for all of 5 mins before it changed to "this accessory is not responding". I added it to Tapo app afterwards so I could use it, and the bulb works fine through the Tapo app.
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Just came back to write my solution.
It has been stable for around 2 weeks without problems. I have 3 access points including the router. I don't have access to advanced settings in the router so the only thing I can do there is change the SSID name and turn off the wifi. Nothing else is allowed, like choosing channels and wifi power. My initial setup was 2.4 wifi only on my 2 tp-link plc access points. Both with the same SSID and everything on auto. Bulbs stoped working after 3 days aprox.
My solution was to separate both access points. Each one with its own SSID and fixed channels. One on channel 1 and the other on 11. Encryption on TKIP and only 20 Mhz Channel width. I manually chose the closest/strongest access point to each bulb. After this everything is working perfectly.
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@CAGMEC thank you so much for your response. I don't know what most of this means so I'm afraid I'm going to have to try find someone to translate for me. I'm so annoyed that these are advertised and "plug and play" when they clearly aren't :(
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If your Tapo L535 experiences frequent WiFi disconnection issues similar to the symptoms in this thread, check the following suggestions.
- Case One. Smart bulb managed by Tapo App.
- Check Case 1: Cannot use the Tapo/Kasa app to control my smart device
- What should I do if my Tapo smart devices keeps losing connection or going offline?
- If the light bulb cannot be controlled remotely with Tapo App, check suggestions under Case 2 in this article. Cannot use the Tapo/Kasa app to control my smart device
- Case Two. Smart bulb managed by a third-party Matter platform Apps.
Check the quality and signal strength of the router WiFi. Observe whether other devices on the same network experience the same WiFi disconnection phenomenon.
Suggestions in this article apply to this scenario as well. What should I do if my Tapo smart devices keeps losing connection or going offline?
If the problem remains, please share the following details when reporting the issue so we can offer more targeted suggestions.
1. What platform are you using to manage the Tapo L535? Tapo App or a third-party Matter platform app?
2. Model of your router. If you own a big network, please describe your network topology as clearly as possible.
3. Detailed description of the problem you've encountered.
4. Troubleshooting steps you've tried.
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The smart bulb's WiFi connection seems normal if it can be managed normally via Tapo App.
- You can try to update the smart bulb to the latest firmware version in the Tapo App.
- Upgrade the new Home architecture: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213481
- Make sure the Matter controller (Home hub) is updated: iOS 16.2 or later
- Try to reboot your phone and then create a new home in Apple Home App. Delete the L535 and try to re-add it by scanning the Matter code in the Tapo App (Tapo App -> Device Page -> Device Settings.)
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Wayne-TP wrote
If your Tapo L535 experiences frequent WiFi disconnection issues similar to the symptoms in this thread, check the following suggestions.
- Case One. Smart bulb managed by Tapo App.
- Check Case 1: Cannot use the Tapo/Kasa app to control my smart device
- What should I do if my Tapo smart devices keeps losing connection or going offline?
- If the light bulb cannot be controlled remotely with Tapo App, check suggestions under Case 2 in this article. Cannot use the Tapo/Kasa app to control my smart device
- Case Two. Smart bulb managed by a third-party Matter platform Apps.
Check the quality and signal strength of the router WiFi. Observe whether other devices on the same network experience the same WiFi disconnection phenomenon.
Suggestions in this article apply to this scenario as well. What should I do if my Tapo smart devices keeps losing connection or going offline?
If the problem remains, please share the following details when reporting the issue so we can offer more targeted suggestions.
1. What platform are you using to manage the Tapo L535? Tapo App or a third-party Matter platform app?
2. Model of your router. If you own a big network, please describe your network topology as clearly as possible.
3. Detailed description of the problem you've encountered.
4. Troubleshooting steps you've tried.
This is absolutely not helpful. The Tapo L535 has some problem with Wifi connectivity. It either can't handle channel changes, multiple access points with the same SSID or changes in encryption type. That is why after a few days if the wifi network changes channel, encryption or another access point has better coverage, it just stops responding.
I understand these are the first steps to correct problems, but there are firmware/hardware problems with the product.
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As I understand, there isn't a known WiFi connection problem with the Tapo L535. Any smart device may experience connection problems when used with different routers and in various usage environments. In the case of different usage environments and network configurations, it is not accurate to judge product problems based solely on the observed problem symptoms.
TP-Link support team and our forum moderators are here to assist if the general troubleshooting suggestion doesn't help. More targeted suggestions will be provided case by case.
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Ill toss in my 2 cents. Now before anyone jumps on me because my lights are TAPPO L930-5 light strips I have to say the symptoms of random disconnects since the day I installed these are the same. These are HomeKit,, not matter but I wish they did matter. Still homeKit communication and matter are not much different on the main layer.
Out of 160 smart devices I have owned these are useless when only one, or two, or none of the three turn on. Constantly interrupts automations to th point I no longer include them in any automations.
HUB
Apple TV 4K (latest version with thread)
Apple TV 4K last version.
HomePod Mini
All latest software
WiFi 6 routers I have tried
GL.iNET Flint 2 (mediatech chipset) with stock firmware and latest stable OpenWRT firmware
Asus AC-RT86U with broadcom chipset
I have adjusted the wifi setting, the DHCP timing and release, gave them statick (reserved) IP addresses.
I have tried so much that I dont have it in me to re-think everything over the last 5 month.
Ok, I'm done.
Thanks
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