Loosing connection in Kasa app, but Alexa still works
I have several Kasa smart switches (HS200 & HS220). Periodically, one or more will show "offline" in the Kasa app. The will show as unresponsive in the Alexa app, but when delet4ed in Alexa, will reappear and work just fine for Alexa. Even if I reset the switches and reinstall, they will show offline periodically in the Kasa app.
And, yes, they have good signal strength at the switches.
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Well, today, I tried cellular only access and still had offline devices. I had my IT folks assure me that no traffic was being blocked. And, frankly, it was working a month ago.
When I got home on my home network, BOOM, all devices were available and operational. So, there must be some sort of local control.
I really appreciate all your efforts and hope that the TP-Link folks are paying attention.
@Riley_S
Since this is holiday time I am sure there are many of us that use their devices to schedule and run holiday decorations.
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@Riley_S Something I haven't seen others mention is that on my Android phone the exact same thing is happening in Google Home as is happening in Alexa. The devices not showing as having an issue are all non-Kasa products, except the living room fan and the smart plug in the bedroom, which are also the only Kasa devices still controllable by Alexa as well.
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rmhart wrote
This is past annoying.
Agreed - extremely frustrating.
@Riley_S - it's hard to comprehend what is taking so long to get some meaningful update as to, at least, the source of the issue if not yet a complete solution.
You acknowledged you saw the issue yourself so it is certainly known internally at this point, yes???
This is a MAJOR issue and TP-Link needs to put significant resources on this to resolve.
It is clearly one of two things:
1) Something changed recently in how the inter-communication handling between user components and server - surely this can be easily tracked as to when/what changed and follow that accordingly (if nothing else revert back and worry about fixing what is broken in whatever changed offline!)
2) Something physically broken in your server system is - again, surely not hard to zero in on what the issue is?
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A solution was posted to the other threads that were reporting the behavior but this thread seemed to be missed, whenever something this widespread occurs please make sure to check across the rest of the forum for similar reports in case we miss a thread, or to see if other users are providing temporary solutions.
""
Hello everyone,
We apologize for the unexpected cloud service outage on Nov 15, We are so sorry that you were affected.
We have rectified the issue, and you should be able to manage your Kasa devices now. Please double-check if your Kasa devices are back online in your Kasa App and if the Alexa or Google integration starts to work.
Please try to reboot your kasa device and see if devices are online or works with Alexa.
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Reboot plug (unplug and plug back in)
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Reboot kasa switch (Press RESTART button on the right bottom for 1 sec to reboot the Switch.)
[Troubleshooting tips]
If you still experience similar concerns, please try the following steps that may help to resolve them.
Case 1: if your Kasa device suddenly became offline remotely.
- reboot your plug (unplug and plug back in) or kasa switch (Press RESTART button on the right bottom for 1 sec to reboot the Switch.)
- try a different network like LTE mobile data or a non-local Wi-Fi network to observe if devices are available in the Kasa APP.
Case2: if Alexa/Google stopped working with the Kasa devices.
- confirm your Kasa device is online remotely when the phone is on LTE mobile data. If not, try to reboot your kasa device.
- relink your TP-Link account in the Alexa APP/ Google home app.
If the issue persists with finishing all the above, please provide more detailed information as below and email support.forum@tp-link.com with the subject " [Forum ID 589080] Model+ Case Description ", we'd love to look into that further:
1. TP-Link ID / email account ( please send via email)
2. A photo of the error message
3. Device Name of affected the devices
4. Time : E.g. Nov 15, 9 AM (UTC+8) experienced the issue.
5. Does a reboot on the kasa device help:
Thank you very much
""
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Riley_S wrote
A solution was posted to the other threads that were reporting the behavior but this thread seemed to be missed, whenever something this widespread occurs please make sure to check across the rest of the forum for similar reports in case we miss a thread, or to see if other users are providing temporary solutions.
@Riley_S I saw that thread and that response, which frankly I do not believe is a solution
1) this problem was happening before the 15th
2) The 'solution' suggests a temporary outage and if any devices did not reconnect, they could be individually reboot - well, this affects different devices on different days and I can successfully get all my devices on-line, with a ROUTER reboot, but another day they will drop off again. Please explain the mechanism in how rebooting the device will change this behaviour where a device has previously showed successfully connected but then the problem re-occurs approx 24 hrs or so later. i.e.. what is the reboot doing within your system to change how it reports to the server? I can understand that suggestion if a device simply has not ever come on line since the 15th, but various of my devices have been connected (100% of them after a Router Reboot) but then drop off again.
3) I tried the device 'reboot' method indicated above with 2 of my HS200's - no difference, I got a flashing green and then it went back out after a while but device remained offline. Edit - OK, about 15 mins later, the devices appeared back online so took a while to catch up at your server. Again, can you please explain mechanism whereby this individual reboot method, creates a different connection sceanario than the one whereby I reboot the entire Router and thereby local network
4) In that very thread where the 'solution' is provided, there are STILL reports of problem
I will provide more data as requested, but you cannot tell me that this is a limited issue affecting only a few people.
I will go around and reset all the devices in my App that are currently offline and see if they come back and whether or not this 'fixes' the problem completely, or if I'll be back in a day or two saying, sorry, just a temporary fix (same as in a router reboot)
If you think these problems are the same (& I believe they are), then why don't you just merge the threads?
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Still no change.
I am still at a loss on why everything works (including Alexa) when I am on my home network, but not if on another network or cellular.
I will once again try to reset the devices, but we need a solution that doesn not require unplugging smart switches and resetting switches. Kinda a pain when one has 40 devices!
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Typo, I have 40 devices
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I do think that your case in particular is a separate behavior that was only made worse by the cloud outage, unfortunately. I had already passed your initial case to our engineering team before the cloud outage occurred. I just also received a message that the team is aware of the disconnect that is happening between Alexa and our Cloud Servers and working on the fix.
We are aware that having to individually reboot this many devices is beyond an inconvenience for users. I think my recommendation to my team was just to start throwing the breakers that arent the router as a joke. Nothing like a whole home reset lol.
All of our brands are going through exponential growth with features being constantly added. With this, there are definitely some growing pains, but I believe that the updates they are making to the app, the firmware of devices, and the cloud will all result in a far better experience when ironed out. With the matter protocol on the horizon, I am sure that there are many changes that are having to be made to the systems.
Lastly, and most importantly, We were also given a debug tool to give to users whose devices do maintain their connection to the cloud, such as is the case with yours.
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You can save and share a log using a Windows computer to upgrade the firmware for the device and help collect the device log. This is extremely useful to our engineering team, who may be able to quickly find the cause of the behavior. The debug tool and information can be found attached to this post or below
https://static.tp-link.com/upload/beta/2022/202211/20221118/IoT_UpgradeTool_For Windows.zip
Tips to use the debug tool:
1) A Windows computer is required to use the tool, please follow the instructions in the Word file contained to manually upgrade the firmware for your device and collect the device log.
2) The tool contains firmware for EP10(US) 1.0/HS103(US) 5.0/HS105(US) 5.0/HS200(US) 5.0/HS210(US) 3.0
Thank you very much!
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Also, I have no clue why a full router reset would be different than resetting the device. There may be some sort of connection that is still happening indicating that the device has been disconnected from its local network. Or the device is trying to use its previous configuration settings rather than getting new information from the router. If you have the ability to pause the connection on a device from your router, I would be intrigued to know if this would allow the devices to reconnect.
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