New Kasa Application Launching
Riley_S
New Kasa App Launching!
Hey Kasa Users! Yes, You!
We have some huge news for everyone regarding our Kasa platform! TP-Link has released a completely redesigned version of the Kasa app, bringing much-requested features and quality-of-life upgrades. (**cough*moresmartactions*cough**).
We recommend that everyone update their application from either the google play store as soon as the update is available to them so that you can take advantage of the new features as soon as possible. Once you update your TP-Link ID to use the new application, you will be prompted on other devices using the same TP-Link ID, to also update their applications to take advantage of the new features.
The team has already had the opportunity to test the functionality of the new app to get acquainted with the new features and to test the overall stability of the app over the last few weeks. Below are some of the main features that we thought we should share with our users first.
If you find any added functionality for your devices or smart home not included below, leave a comment so that other users can find the feature in their app.
Quick Feature Introduction
Smart Action Limit
While Smart Actions were one of the most powerful features in the Kasa Application, it also had the most limitations placed on it, such as limiting the number of active actions to 3, This was always one of the hottest topics amongst our users, and we are now glad to announce: The Limit of Three Smart Actions Has Been Removed! You can now create as many smart actions as you need to automate every inch of your house.
We look forward to seeing how Kasa devices can be used together to create a truly smart home!
Introduction of Multiple Homes for Kasa Devices
The Kasa Application will not allow you to sort your devices into Multiple Homes. This has been a long-requested feature from our users that have devices in a second physical location, whether it be an office, second, home or even a loved one’s house that you care for.
Note: If you were using two different TP-Link IDs to control your devices, now is the time to change to one account. (Just make sure to unlink your devices from your current TP-Link ID to ease the setup process.)
TP-Link Pro Tip: If you would like a device to be accessible from more than one home, you can create a lighting group for the devices and move the lighting group to another home. Let us know if this is a feature that you would like to see official support for in the future.
Introduction of Rooms within Individual Homes for Device Sorting
Users with devices across their entire house have always expressed how difficult it was to group and control lights for one group/room of their house at once. The new Kasa App now allows users to place their devices into separate rooms, for each separate home.
These rooms will appear as a separate tab on the main screen, providing a designated place to control the devices for one room.
Gone are the days of naming your devices with a prefix to sort devices by room.
TP-Link Pro Tip: You are now also able to change the order of device types in the Edit Menu at the bottom of the screen. You can now make your lights, cameras, plugs or switches appear at the top of each room.
NVR/Multiview for Kasa Cameras
If you have multiple Kasa Smart Cameras in your home, the new Kasa application has included a quick access screen where feeds from all active cameras can be seen at once.
Automation History
If you have ever wondered, why is that light on? You can now find the answer to your question in the device and activity history pages of the new Kasa App. This will allow you to trace what automation triggered a device to act or can help you keep track of the automations throughout your Smart Home.
Redesigned Automation and Routine Creation
With the revived focus on home automation and Smart Actions, the application also ships with a new method of configuring Smart Actions and Routines.
When creating an automation from scratch, the application now embraces a When and Then method for creating automations. We hope that this format will be more familiar to our users and will allow users to easily see what devices can operate as triggers and which can operate as actions.
Featured Actions:
If you would like to use the older flow for creating Automations, where a device is first selected, you can do this by creating a Smart Action based on one of the featured actions. These featured actions allow for automations to be quickly created based on templates for common situations
With all the different options that the new system introduces, we look forward to seeing how our users find ways to automate their homes.
Newly Found Additions (Post Yours Below)
Auto Off Timer Increase
The Timer for the AutoOff Function for Smart Devices has been increased from 180 minutes to up to 24 hours.
Manual Sorting of Scenes and Devices By Product Category
Customization of Preset Lighting Effects
Patch Notes for Device Firmware Updates
Comment
Why do we have to wait for the little spinner to complete before clicking on a camera? This is a downgrade from before, when we could just click on the camera first and then wait.
I would think that the spinner is because the application is checking to see if the camera is online. The team is constantly rolling out fixes to the backend systems to optimize things like this; some of the bugs that were identified by the community during launch have already been fixed. I will also pass feedback onto the team to readd this function, if it was in fact removed. So that I can give mroe detailed feedback to our development team, what Device/OS version are you using?
The update has been a nightmare for me.
I have my whole home automated with 62 Kasa smart devices... light switches, dimmers, plugs, power strips, light bulbs and cameras.
Devices have become extremely unstable ever since the update.
Upon opening the app, only a few devices appear online and it takes a long while for other devices to slowly appear online. Some just don't.
On some rooms I can see some Kasa devices eventually online and some others offline.
Devices from other brands are all online and stable (audio, drapes, etc.).
This is not a network issue. I have a strong and solid signal.
Everything was working OK before the update, and everything stopped working with the update. Nothing else was changed.
I would love to be able to revert to Kasa 2.39 but there is no way of doing it.
So I'm stuck with manual switches, light bulbs that I can't control and cameras that I can't see.
The app takes way too long to open on an older iPhone 8... not so much, but still slow on an iPhone SE 2nd gen.
I have the version 3.0.3 on the iPhones, I've checked for firmware updates on the devices. Everything is up to date except on my iPad where I'm stuck with the update request page, and I can't move from there unless I update, which I refuse to do hoping I can keep the 2.39 version of the app so I can at least have one piece of gear where I can control all my devices.
Has anyone experienced something similar since version 3 appeared?
Is there a fix other than a hard reset on all 62 devices?
Any feedback would be welcome.
Thanks
Thanks for the detailed information about your devices and what is happening, I will pass this along to our engineers so that they can take a closer look at the issues you are experiencing. Few Questions though:
Devices not coming online - Do the devices end up as showing unavailable or as under local control only. If your phone is on the same network as the devices you should have no problem connecting to and controlling the devices currently on the same network. Can you tell if the devices are disconnecting from your WI-Fi network?
Unfortunately, you might as well update your iPad to see if the app is functional there. As soon as an account is migrated to the 3.0 app, you cannot downgrade. I believe this a result of potentially moving devices over to a new backend system. Also, the new app would not know what to make of all the additional features enabled in the new app. As for a fix right now, you may have luck simply soft resetting the devices, which retains their names, rooms, and settings, but will reset the network settings.
The fix for some of these issues seems to be to delete the documents and data on the device related to the Kasa app and then reinstall the app. This has seemed to help users that have long initial loading screens. The team should get an update on the rollout and updates of the app soon, so I will let everyone know when we get new information.
I also just received word that a new app version is currently being tested that aims to fix a lot of the issues that came with the new app. I do not know when this update will be available on the app store, but rest assured I'm waiting for it, just the same as you are. We appreciate all of the details that everyone has provided across the forum regarding the new app and the glitches/bugs experienced, as this has really helped our developers discover the cause of the bugs.
Our teams are already taking steps to ensure that future major updates to the application rollout smoothly and create fewer issues for our users. I think this update was a one-off and was meant to modernize the cloud systems supporting the app and the interface. Many of the issues that users have presented were actually fixed within a day or two, and didn't require an app update since they only required updates to our backend systems.
Hello everyone,
If you were affected by the Cloud Outage on November 15th and your device are appearing as offline or not connected to the Cloud, follow the instructions below. We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the outage. 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
Wow. I worked with support because I couldn't add any more smart plugs to my system. Long story short, they asked me to "use an android phone" as a possible solution. I mean... ugh! Now I see the iPhone app issue has been going on for months with no resolution.
Has anyone recovered from this issue?
Can you let me know what type of device you are trying to set up and what the issue is that you are experiencing? As far as our teams are aware, there is no such limit to the amount of devices that can be added to the app. We even have users that have reported 60+ devices functioning on one account and wireless network. I also believe that most, if not all, outstanding bugs for the 3.0 release have had fixes pushed.
The only time that we recommend attempting to switch to an Android device is if you are having difficulties using the built-in Homekit setup that comes with some models. As an android device can add the device to your TP-Link account, and the device can then be added to homekit through a menu option. (If it is an issue relating to homekit, try enabling IPv6 on your network, as Homekit uses IPv6 to communicate with the devices.
What model of plug are you trying to add to the Kasa App? Have you already tried to uninstall and reinstall the application from your phone?
Hi, I have a problem with the new app on my iPhone. After the upgrade I see duplicate groups where one has all my previous devices and one is empty.
Any attempts to remove the empty group fails. When I hot the remove button the empty group disappears for a few seconds, but then shows up again. I tried to rename the "good" group and then remove the empty one, same result.
Any ideas?
Possible bug?
When I create a Smart Action that depends on an action (the "when" part) like turning a switch on, when the Smart Action runs, it does not disable itself. GOOD!
When I create a Smart Action that depends on a time event (the "when" part) like Sunrise or Sunset, when the Smart Action runs (typically turning on or off the lights in a group), it disables itself. BAD!
That means I have to re-enable those Smart Actions every day. The Smart Action shows "Always" under the title.
I don't want to have to put schedules on each light in the group; that's why have a single action on the group.
Is where a better workaround?