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TAPO H500 hub bricked after firmware update...

TAPO H500 hub bricked after firmware update...

TAPO H500 hub bricked after firmware update...
TAPO H500 hub bricked after firmware update...
Wednesday
Tags: #Hub Video Storage #Firmware
Model: Tapo H500  
Hardware Version:
Firmware Version:

twice in 3 months!

 

Hello everyone! Last winter I set up a brand new Tapo H500 hub coupled with a Samsung SSD and connected to my home 5GHz wifi network.

Everything worked fine until May, when it stopped being responsive after an automatic firmware update: the "Status" led would blink intermittently in red and green and factory reset simply wouldn't work. I opened an RMA and disabled automatic updates in the replacement unit.

 

Today I was forced to update the firmware - which is unskippable when adding a new device to the hub - so I connected my H500 to the router via ethernet cable - supposedly, much safer this way.

The update went fine: I waited 1 hour, then unplugged the hub to place it in another room and... it stopped working: red and green light blinking, again - unable to connect to the wifi network, again.

 

Does anyone have a clue as to what's going on here? I've opened a 2nd RMA ticket and so far I've received no reply, but my issue is... in the event of another unit replacement, how can I prevent this from happening? What went wrong, considering there were neither power nor network outage both times?

 

Cheers!!

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4 Reply
Re:TAPO H500 hub bricked after firmware update...
Thursday

  @Pondig 

 

This is definitely not a common situation. In fact, i'd say it's quite rare. For now, I think we should focus on figuring out what’s actually wrong with the device. 

 

The blinking red and green led means the smart hub is trying to connect WiFi. Since the WiFi doesn't seem to work, can you check whether the hub recognizes the ethernet connection?

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Re:TAPO H500 hub bricked after firmware update...
Thursday

  @Wayne-TP Hi there, thanks for your reply!

I can confirm that while blinking in red and green, the device is still able to connect via ethernet cable while failing to connect to my home wifi network; with the cable plugged in, the led turns green. Trouble is, I need to place the H500 in a different room (no wired connection available) and being stuck in red/green mode is not normal behaviour anyway.

 

For reference, setting up both units the first time came with no issues at all... it was only after the fw updates that something broke.

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Re:TAPO H500 hub bricked after firmware update...
Monday

Pondig wrote

  @Wayne-TP Hi there, thanks for your reply!

I can confirm that while blinking in red and green, the device is still able to connect via ethernet cable while failing to connect to my home wifi network; with the cable plugged in, the led turns green. Trouble is, I need to place the H500 in a different room (no wired connection available) and being stuck in red/green mode is not normal behaviour anyway.

 

For reference, setting up both units the first time came with no issues at all... it was only after the fw updates that something broke.

  @Pondig 

 

What if you unplug the ethernet cable when the hub is near the router? And since you mentioned from the start that the hub is “bricked” again, does this mean you’ve already tried resetting the hub, and it didn’t respond at all? Was there no reaction whether the Ethernet cable was plugged in or not?

 

I don’t think your situation is really a case of the device being bricked—since it works fine with a wired connection. This seems like an issue that needs deeper investigation. I’d recommend having a more detailed conversation with our support team to see if they can identify the root cause. Contact Technical Support

 

 

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Re:TAPO H500 hub bricked after firmware update...
Yesterday

  @Wayne-TP  Thank you so much!

What if you unplug the ethernet cable when the hub is near the router?

when the hub is near the router, I can add wifi connection from the app and after 4-5 attempts a connection is established. The same is not true when I move the H500 to another room, where it should connect to a repeater expanding the network - router and repeater form a mesh network and are connected via ethernet cable (lan bridge)

And since you mentioned from the start that the hub is “bricked” again, does this mean you’ve already tried resetting the hub, and it didn’t respond at all? Was there no reaction whether the Ethernet cable was plugged in or not?

I've successfully reset it, but the issue persists: it's as if the firmware update renders the hub unable to connect to my wifi network, except when close to the router. After connecting to the router via ethernet cable, it performs as usual.

I don’t think your situation is really a case of the device being bricked—since it works fine with a wired connection. This seems like an issue that needs deeper investigation. I’d recommend having a more detailed conversation with our support team to see if they can identify the root cause. Contact Technical Support 

Thank you, I'm already in touch with technical support... I'll let you know how it goes!!

Cheers!

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Hub Video Storage Firmware