Controlling of smart plugs when they’re in different time zones
Controlling of smart plugs when they’re in different time zones
I have smart plugs set up in 3 different locations (2 in US east coast and one in Aruba). At one time of the year, the Aruba plug is in a time zone which is one hour later than the other two.
Assuming my cell phone is in the us location I can compensate for the time difference by changing the schedule for the Aruba plug but what if I’m traveling to Europe for instance and I’m taking my cell phone with me. Do I have to change my schedules for all my smart plugs each time I change time zones? This doesn’t seem so smart.
I have called customer service many many times and can’t seem to get a straight answer. Does anyone else have a different solution?
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I know schedules are held locally on the plug itself but the plug does get its time from the phone so there is a change it could create an issue. I am investigating with our smart home team. My hope is that time is only updated locally on the same network which if that is the case there will be no issue. If not i will discuss with them further on what can be done or if anything does need to be looked into. Once i have work i will post an update.
Best Regards
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Hi Carl,
i thought the plug plug was smart enough to know where it was located based on the WiFi it is connected to but that was not the case. I was just in aruba and the schedule was off by 1 hour.
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The smart plugs don't seem so smart after all. The Kasa app does not seem to inherit location from either source:
- The time zone of the mobile device running Kasa
- The LAN which the switch is connected to via wifi
I have switches in the US (Pacific) and Thailand (Indochina time zone/ICT). It seems like the app wants to impose a single time zone to all smart plugs in the Kasa app. Try as I might, I cannot get the switches to recognize they are in the US Pacific Time zone. If my spouse is in Thailand and tries to "correct" the schedules over there, the app assigns ICT to everything.
TP-Link team, are you listening:
Please, please fix this!
- Allow for individual switches to retain the LAN's time zone information.
- Have the switches report their respective time zones to the cloud account.
- In the Kasa app, provide a way for customers to assign the time zone for each switch (or groups) individually.
- In the Kasa app's schedule for each switch: show the time zone governing that particular schedule.
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Are you speaking of the timezone as stored on the smart plug itself. I think the schedule on Kasa may be based on your current zone but the plug follows what is stored internally on the plug.
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The time zone for all Kasa plugs (on same account) are based on the time zone where the mobile device that controls the app is
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Carl, any update?
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Sorry for the delay. No there is not. I have asked for clarification form the Smart Home team just waiting on a response.
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@Carl in the meantime, is there a workaround for this? I have smart plugs in 3 different time zones. Perhaps I can have 3 different Kasa accounts on the app, one for each time zone? Please advise. Thank you.
Eric
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No but most of the smart home team was with me at CES last week so that will lay to part of the delay. Yes you can have multiple Kasa accounts. Each one would require a diffrent Email address but their is no reason why you can't do that. You would just need to sign into the accounts one at time. Another option would be to use Alexa or Google Assistant and have diffrent "homes" setup.
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