@UnplugASAP 

I'm trying this out with an S505.

So far it seems to be working.

I used the App to upgrade the S505 software to 1.2.2 (latest version) and then removed it from the App and factory reset it (held the left button down for > 10 secs). 

After that I paired it with HomeAssistant via Matter.  The pairing process worked just fine and HA can control the switch (though the software version installed reports incorrectly... see my other post on that subject).

HOWEVER, even though the switch was factory reset (and hence "should" have no cloud connection or App association) it is still attempting to "call home" about every 5 mins. 

My router (ASUS XT8) allows me to block specific devices from Internet access (so I have done so for the S505).  I also blocked tplinknbu.com (and all its subnets) in piHole which is the server that the S505 is tryting to contact (just to be double sure) and then power-cycled the S505.   This means that the S505 cannot reach anything outside of my local network.

So far after 3 days it appears to be running just fine.

I will leave it for a couple of weeks to see if it stays that way.

  @avionics Forgive the delay in responding to your post.

I have an update to this saga and I hope you will provide feedback ASAP.

Was able to install and setup the S515 using the Tapo app and then added to Home Assistant.

However when I blocked the S515 from access the Internet the circle led on the S515 switch turned orange.  The switch still seems to function, for now, using Home Assistant. but I am concerned that it may stop functioning and ask to be re-authinticated. 

What is the color of the led on the switch?

You need to verify that the switch is actually blocked from the internet.  A simple way to test this is to turn off wifi and bluetooth on you smart phone and then use the Tapo app to try to control the switch.  (if you have not removed it from the app that is.)

The other thing you should do is check the states of your devices on your firewall/router.  Look for the IP of the switch and see if there is a connection estabished.  You will likely find one with the devices IP going to a remote IP. 

Also @Wayne-TP do you have any explination? 

  @Wayne-TP I am using Matter but it is asking for the TP-Link cloud user name and password.

  @UnplugASAP 

Your comments:

I Was able to install and setup the S515 using the Tapo app and then added to Home Assistant.

However when I blocked the S515 from access the Internet the circle led on the S515 switch turned orange.  The switch still seems to function, for now, using Home Assistant. but I am concerned that it may stop functioning and ask to be re-authinticated. 

My Thoughts

The switch indicator turned orange since your switch is still associated with the Tapo Cloud (which it cannot any longer reach when you block internet access).  It took me a little while to figure this out.  If the switch not associated with the Tapo Cloud then it does not "go orange" when it cannot contact the Internet.

This is what I did to get things working in my case:

1. Add the switch (in my case an S505) to the Tapo App and upgrade the software to the latest version.
2. Delete the switch from the Tapo App (this breaks the association with the Tapo Cloud).
3. Factory reset the Tapo Switch (hold the reset button for > 10 secs.... you will hear the relay "click").
4. Add the switch to Home assistant using the Home Assistant Companion App as a "New Matter Device".
5. Block the switch from Internet access (router).
6. Power cycle the switch to ensure any persistent IP connections are broken.

I've has the same S505 running for about 2 weeks now with the Internet blocked without any issues.  The switch has stayed "white" when not on and "not lit" when on (as per the manual).  I plan to leave it for another 6 weeks or so.  If there are no problems after 8 weeks I would not expect to get any.  I have had no unexplained disconnects (or other bad behavior).

From where you are now, I would remove the switch from Home Assistant and then start with step 2 above.  I would remove the switch from HA before you delete it from the Tapo App.

Note however this issue that I have now reported to TP-Link tech support (since I did not get any response here).  Whether this impacts you in your application I do not know.

Let me know how it turns out.

  @avionics 

I MAY HAVE IT WORKING BUT WILL LET YOU KNOW LATER.

You can read below as I posted this just before I tried something different that may have gotten it working.

You said:  

3.  Factory reset the Tapo Switch (hold the reset button for > 10 secs.... you will hear the relay "click").

4.  Add the switch to Home assistant using the Home Assistant Companion App as a "New Matter Device".

If I factory reset the switch then how does it connect to my network?

I ask because the Home Assistant Companion App cannot find the switch which makes since because the switch no longer has any information regarding my WiFi network. i.e. SSID and password.

It would be great for me and hundreds of others if you were to take a S505D and a S515 switch and starting from scratch install and setup both switches so that they can operate LOCAL ONLY using Home Assistant Matter integration.  Document each step, add screen shots and for extra credit create a YT video.

Be sure to block both switches from having access to and from the Internet.  Unless you have disable the switches LED, since your switch LED has not turned orange, I question whether or not your switch is blocked from the Internet and access to one of the TP-Link servers.  At one point I thought I had blocked them but a firewall rule with out of order and it was not actually blocked.  I tested by putting my smart phone on cellular and then attempted to control the S515.

Just because I haven’t been able to do it does mean you didn’t it just means I need more assistance in getting it done.

Really is pathetic that it seems TP-Link is dead set on keeping tabs on it's customers and forces them to stay connected to their "cloud".

  @UnplugASAP 

Your question:

If I factory reset the switch then how does it connect to my network?

My Answer:

That is the "magic" of matter pairing..... 

As long as your phone is connected to your WiFi network and has Bluetooth enabled, when you go through the Matter pairing process with the HA iOS app then the WiFi credentials will be passed to the switch from your phone when the pairing occurs (as Steve Jobs used to say "it just works"). 

This pairing approach is a basic feature of Matter over Wifi devices, however it is not entirely new, the "old" Wemo switches I have work exactly the same with Apple Home (except that in that case the protocol is Homekit over Wifi rather than Matter over Wifi for the TP-Link switches).  I have tested this 3 or 4 times with the HA iOS app and the S505 after having factory reset the S505 and it works first time every time.  It is important that you ensure that the switch is deleted completely from HA before you try to add it again.  Hence my comment in my previous post.

On other point to note:  If your network has separate SSIDs for 2.4Ghz and 5GHz WiFi networks you must temporarily put your phone onto the 2.4GHz WiFi network before you try to pair it with the switch, otherwise the pairing will fail.  Once you have paired the switch you can put your phone back on the 5GHz network.

Your question:

It would be great for me and hundreds of others if you were to take a S505D and a S515 switch and starting from scratch install and setup both switches so that they can operate LOCAL ONLY using Home Assistant Matter integration.  Document each step, add screen shots and for extra credit create a YT video. 

My Answer:

I don't have either of those switches.  I only have an S505.

Your question:

Be sure to block both switches from having access to and from the Internet.  Unless you have disable the switches LED, since your switch LED has not turned orange, I question whether or not your switch is blocked from the Internet and access to one of the TP-Link servers.  At one point I thought I had blocked them but a firewall rule with out of order and it was not actually blocked.  I tested by putting my smart phone on cellular and then attempted to control the S515.

My Answer:

I'm absolutely sure that my router is blocking internet access for the S505 switch. 

The blocking works at the MAC address level on my router and I initially tested things by unblocking the switch and then adding the switch back into the Tapo app. After that I disabled WiFi on my phone to force the connection onto cellular and then connected to the switch... connection ok, I then blocked the switch on my router and verified that the connection to the switch was lost. Note: I'm also blocking DNS requests from the switch so I am doubly sure it is not getting out of my network.

Once I had done the above, I factory reset everything per my previous email and paired the switch again.  I have also used the same blocking feature multiple times on the Wemo switches and other devices that I have in my network so I know it works as advertised.

Your comment:

Just because I haven’t been able to do it does mean you didn’t it just means I need more assistance in getting it done.

Really is pathetic that it seems TP-Link is dead set on keeping tabs on it's customers and forces them to stay connected to their "cloud".  

My Comment:

Totally agree!  I'm happy to help however I would ask you to exactly follow my recipe and give it a try and report back.

 Hello  @avionics 

" I would ask you to exactly follow my recipe and give it a try and report back."

Thanks for your assistance and paitance. It appears, with your help, that things are working LOCAL ONLY without it "phoning home" or turning orange.

"As long as your phone is connected to your WiFi network and has Bluetooth enabled"

One of the issues was that my phone was not on the same WiFi SSID (I have a seperate SSID for IoT devices) as the Tapo Switch when attempting to setup using the Home Assistant compainion app.

On a side note when using the Home Assistant companion app  I had to manualy enter the xxxx xxx xxxx Matter code for the Tapo switch as the app would not locate the switch via Bluetooth as the Tapo app did.

So the question is can the Tapo Matter switchs be setup without first setting up in the Tapo app?  (Something I could try if / when I get another switch.)

What is the likelyhood of TP-Link updating future switch firmware from preventing users from performing this LOCAL ONLY procedure and blocking the Tapo switches from their servers? 

  @UnplugASAP 

Glad to hear that things are working.

So the question is can the Tapo Matter switchs be setup without first setting up in the Tapo app?  (Something I could try if / when I get another switch.)

Yes and No. Can you do it, yes (I tried it), however if you do it that way you have no idea if you have the latest software on your switch.  Unlike products with a "more complete" Matter implementation the Tapo switches are missing significant Matter features.  One of the features that is part of "Local Only" operation of a Matter connected switch is the ability to do "Over the Air" (OTA) updates via the Matter Controller (Home Assistant or Apple Home etc).  A quick look at the DCL database maintained by the Matter certification authority (CSA) shows that the Tapo switches do not support Matter OTA at this point.  This means that to update switch software (and the switch I received from Amazon did not have the latest software in it), the only way to do this today is via the Tapo app.  That is why my "formula" is to connect the switch first to the Tapo app so that the software can be updated and then remove the App connection before pairing the switch via Matter with Home Assistant.

There are other Matter compliance issues that I have found also.  

• Only partial support of the StartUpOnOff matter cluster feature that controls the state of the switch (on/off) after a power outage.  My preference is to have switches return to their previous state.  As I read this, the specification this feature is a mandatory part of the Matter specification and has been since "Matter Application Cluster Specification Version 1.0”.  However, TP-Link does not support all of this part of the cluster specification in it's current release (just the options for "on" and "off" not "toggle" or previous).  TP-Link support has confirmed "I'm afraid that we products don't' support the function currently."   This is a direct quote from TP-Link.  While this exact feature is controllable via the Tapo App, the control via Matter (via HA) does not work.
• No OTA (software updates) via the Matter Controller - without this, every time TP-Link comes out with new software (which I would have to check for manually), I would have to add the device back into the Tapo app, do the upgrade and then remove it from the App and re-add it into Home Assistant etc.
• The software (firmware) version currently on the switch is always reported to Home Assistant or Apple Home as 1.0.0 (regardless of the version actually installed on the switch).  This means that to find out if you have the latest software version (for the S505 currently 1.2.2), again you need to add the switch to the Tapo App to get this information.   Here is a link to a post I have made on the subject.  I have had no response from a human at TP-Link support (I sent the contents of that post to them also) so far on this subject.  It's also interesting that there have been no posts from forum moderators here either.

What is the likelyhood of TP-Link updating future switch firmware from preventing users from performing this LOCAL ONLY procedure and blocking the Tapo switches from their servers? 

I don't know since I am not privy to TP-Link's internal plans and the. public statements that they have made on the subject are not (to me) entirely clear.  IMHO it would not be in their best interest to do so, since the industry trend is to move away from Cloud control to Local control (which is one of the points of Matter).

My Conclusions

While the test switch I have running seems to work fine (within it's limitations) connected via Matter to Home Assistant. It's clear that (to paraphrase one of my Grandfather's expressions), it's Matter implementation "fits only where it touches".  It appears to me that TP-Link has done just the minimum to be able to declare that they have Matter support (though since they appear to be missing some mandatory Matter elements, I'm not sure how they received Matter approval from CSA at all). In addition, since the last firmware release for the S505 was on 2024-07-26 they do not appear to be in any rush to resolve these issues. 

Based on the above (and I'm not trying to recommend that others do the same), I will be looking for another vendor to replace my aging Wemo switches and will not be purchasing any more TP-Link switches.    

I basically have two tiers of "smart switches" in my house:

Premium Switches - I picked Inovelli for this since they have a "full" Matter implementation over Thread and and their switches support multi-tap and hold commands when integrated with HA and also have a LED light bar that is also controllable via HA.  As an example in my house, if my Garage door is open, the light bars on three on my switches turn yellow.   If my Alarm is on, some of the light bars turn red etc. These switches are combo dimmers and  on/off switches, support 3 way both with dumb and Aux switches etc etc. There is no App for these products,  They are entirely "Local Only" control (which is what I think both of us want).  The Inovelli switches cost approx 4x that of the S505, but the additional features and manufacturer support (which is excellent) make it worth it for me. 

Budget Switches - I currently use older Wemo Switches for this (integrated with HA). In the locations I have them (basement, guest room etc)  I'm just looking for basic On/Off capability via HA and Apple Home.  Wemo (Belkin) has announced "end of support" for these switches as of January 2026 so I was looking for for a replacement for them, hence the Tapo evaluation.  While the S505 price was compelling, I am sufficiently worried about TP-Link's limited Matter support for the product that I think I will just go find another vendor.

If I can help further with your implementation let me know.

  @avionics thank you for the very useful info and background. I naively thought that any Matter Certified device would meet the entire spec.

I have a some 505Ds and KS225s. I had envisioned only connecting them to Home Assistant and Alexa using Matter. But you can't calibrate the dimming (and as I learned here, you can't update the firmware) without one of the TP-Link apps.

When I added these switches as Matter devices to Home Assistant or Alexa first, I couldn't add them to Kasa or Tapo app. I needed a blinking green/orange light, and that required a reset. And when I reset them, I lost the Matter connections to the other two platforms. But as it turned out, there are two phases to the "reset" on these switches. There is a "soft reset" that seems to just put them in pairing mode, and a "hard reset" that does a full factory-reset. A soft reset does the trick.

My guess is that TP-Link didn't correctly implement the process to add another controller. Also, the indicator on a switch will sometimes go solid orange - indicating that it has lost its Internet connection. But because Alexa is controlling it locally, I can still ask Alexa to turn on the light. The fact that Alexa still works tells me the "no Internet" orange light on the switch is simply wrong. I hope TP-Link irons out these problems in the next firmware release.