Anyone have the instructions for completing a factory hard reset?  Is it the 30-30-30 method?

@shaywood Thanks for the update. Looks like AES only setting when you have alot of 2.4G Devices might be the way. Has only been over a day but still up without issue, Will continue to monitor.

@tarund I have no problem at all sharing the information I learned in dealing with this issue. I like to take notes on items I may need to remember and put them in GitHub. Feel free to look over what I wrote based on what I was supplied by TP-Link. I hope it helps but remember you are on your own should you use the information, and if you are not technical or something doesnt make sence, reach out to TP-link directly. They will help and even do the steps remotely for you.

Link to personal notes in GitHub (GETTTING BACK TO OLDER FIRMWARE): https://github.com/samadril/tech-help/blob/main/tplink/README.md#tp-link-and-router-help

@HERE  - If this helps anyone else I feel blessed I was able to help but know this is just my notes on what to do based on an email from TP-Link support and not official.

Since moving to 1.1.1 Build 20200716 rel.84595(5553) last summer, my AX11000 had been working well, with no issues dropping 2.4 gHz devices.  Until 3 days ago.  All of a sudden, no device (Android, MacOS, iOS) could successfully connect to the 2.4 network.  Encryption was WPA/WPA2-Personal (WPA2-PSK),  AES encryption, Smart Connect  disabled.  The only thing that would allow devices to connect was turning off encryption entirely on the 2.4 GHz band.  No amount of rebooting, or fiddling with wireless settings made a difference.  Not at all optimal

I'm considering just getting a 2.4 GHz AP from a different vendor, and hanging it off the router, hardwired, in a different room.  Life is too short to have to keep monkeying with this.

@Largeshow ... Read one of earlier posts. There is an encryption setting on the 2.4 band that many devices choose when connecting on the band. Change that setting and it should fix the issue. Feel free to look back at my posts, as I worked with support for weeks to get to the root of the issue. I .gurss you like many of us have smarthome devices and probably a good number of them like many that have posted here. Its probably not the USB but actually a large number of the devices connecting on that band over time causing router to drop them. I'll include a screen shot of what the setting should be here. Hope this helps you!

@Jerryb 

So guys I also used to have the issue with 2.4 gigahertz just disappearing and nothing being able to reconnect until I rebooted..

The issue has predominantly gone away for me and here's what I've.doene:

(1) latest official formware5, not beta

(2)  do have my 2.4 separated from the 5 gigahertz networks I'm not using the smart function.

(3) for each of the bands I narrowed the width of the signal.  I also specified a specific channel after using a Wi-Fi analyzer at the extensions of both sides of my houses and recognizing that my neighbors were perhaps overlapping with my channel.

My suspicion, and it's only that a suspicion, is that when there is some type of network collision with nearby routers operating at the same frequency / channel, I don't understand why but it seems like that causes the router itself to stop sending out the 2.4 gigahertz signal.  I have no idea why that would be since the router is just sending it out but somehow that's causing a problem I believe.

This is not a scientific explanation This is merely just what I've observed.  I probably have over 100 devices that connect over 5 GHz and 2.4 with the majority of them being 2.4.  so certainly my network if it can manage to handle this after making some adjustments others should be able to do so as well.

feel free to quote me and ask for specific setup information and I'll happy to go look and show you

@Largeshow far up thread there is a discussion of issues with usb-c generating rfi that can interfere with 2.4 ghz routers and Bluetooth devices (https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.zdnet.com/google-amp/article/usb-3-and-usb-c-devices-can-cause-problems-with-wi-fi-and-bluetooth-connections-but-theres-a-solution/).  If the usb driver isn't well shielded, you can have 2.4 dropouts.  I experienced this with a usb-c ssd, where 2.4 would become flaky shortly after plugging it in, and right itself after ejecting it.  I could mitigate the issue by using a longer cable, locating the drive further from the router.

if your external storage isn't usb-c,  then I don't know