New Arrival Setup for Apple HomeKit Enabled Kasa Devices - EP25, KP125
If you didn't hear... Kasa has begun to support Apple HomeKit!
This means that you can spend less time setting your product up for multiple environments and can spend more time exploring ways to use your devices.
We just released a new set of support articles with instructions on setting up HomeKit compatible devices to show how easy this setup can be. Currently, Kasa is offering two separate smart plugs with HomeKit compatibility - the KP125 and the EP25. The EP25 and KP125 are some of Kasa's newest Smart Plugs offering Energy Monitoring.
If you have never had a smart plug with energy monitoring before, I would highly recommend picking one up to monitor the energy usage of devices across your home. (Yes, you might even be able to finally find the device that added $20 to your electric bill last year.)
Feel free to comment below, as the team would love to hear what you think of the new feature and what devices you would like to see HomeKit support brought to next. Also, we would like to know what your experience was like if you configured your device using the HomeKit Procedure.
New Content:
New Knowledge Base Article: Setting Up Your HomeKit Enabled Kasa Devices
New YouTube Video: How to Configure a HomeKit-Enabled Kasa Smart Plug | DIY setup
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@Riley_S Hello! I just got a pair of KP125's!
No problems adding to Kasa or HomeKit, but the setup was a bit awkward. I often found myself mid-setup having to disconnect the plug in order to scan the QR code, which potentially caused the in-app setup to not succeed unless I waited to plug it back in before proceeding further (which isn't explicitly mentioned anywhere).
More importantly, after the setup, the plugs loses connection to both Kasa and Home app after about 2 hours.
The Smart Plug is still running, and anything plugged in stays powered, but no Smart Home features until you fully power down the plug and then back on again to reconnect to the Cloud. But the cycle repeats a few hours later.
App shows the plugs as KP125 v1.0 editions. Pretty dissappointed, was looking forward to energy monitoring and its mostly unusable in this state :(
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@InterHmai,
From what it sounds like, your devices are disconnecting from the cloud, but still maintaining their connection to the home network.
If Smart Actions(read cloud control) are not Working Properly there are a few steps that you can take to try and fix your issues.
If the Smart Action was working previously, it likely means that the device has gone offline and is not communicating with the Kasa Cloud Systems. Check to see if your smart devices are connected to your phone locally or via the cloud on your phone.
While you are having issues with the Smart Plug connecting to the cloud:
- Please change your phone over to mobile data or LTE by disabling Wi-Fi on your phone.
- Can you control and access the device?
- If not, the device is not using the internet to control your device, this is a requirement for Smart Actions to work.
- If the device can only be controlled on the home network, this means that the device isn't connected to the cloud and is operating locally on your network.
- If the device cannot be controlled on the home network or via the Cloud, this means that the device is no longer connected and you should proceed with a soft reset, and then a hard reset if the device does not stay connected to the network.
- Please Reboot any Smart Devices that are controlled by Smart Action. Even if your devices are connected to the cloud, I would still recommend rebooting any devices
Please ensure that the time settings are correct for your smart device in the Kasa Application, as this is a common source of failure for cloud connections. The time in the device settings needs to match the physical location for cloud control to work properly.
If none of the above helps to fix the disconnecting, I would recommend completing a factory reset of the device and configuring the device from scratch.
As this is a HomeKit Compatible Device, I am also curious if the device has the same reconnects when set up using the Kasa App first.
Lastly, you mentioned that the setup was awkward because of the placement of the QR Code. This can be avoided by either configuring the device on a power strip or extender where the code is visible from behind; there is also a card in the box that has a QR Code for the HomeKit Setup which can be scanned instead of the code on the back of the plug.
I was a little confused at what you said that you had to wait to plug it back in; does this mean that after you scanned the code while the plug was disconnected, you had to reconnect the plug to proceed to the next screen, or else the setup would fail?
If so how do you think we should relate this to future users?
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1. Switching to LTE and attempting to access did not change anything, the HomeKit smart plugs show as "Device Unreachable" in the Kasa App or Apple Home App.
2. Performing a reboot or factory reset does not resolve the issue.
Regarding the awkward HomeKit Setup...here's how the App instructs you to setup the device:
1) The app instructs you to power up the smart plug. The animation shows plugging it into a wall outlet.
2) After tapping Next, you are instructed to hold the power button for 10 seconds until the lights flash orange and blue.
3) After tapping Next, you are only offered the "Add to Home" option for HomeKit.
- What if I want to add it to Google Home using an iOS device?
- Is it possible to add it only to the Kasa App without using Apple Homekit or Google Home? (Similar to earlier Kasa Smart Plugs)
4) When you tap "Add to Home", you are asked to scan the bar code. This requires unplugging the device from the outlet since the code is in the back, facing the outlet.
5) After scanning the QR code, you are again presented with an "Add to Home" button.
6) Upon tapping the Add to Home button, if you have not yet plugged the device back into the wall, the setup process will time out requiring you to start over.
There is no indication that you should plug it back into the outlet.
Suggestion:
In Step 5, after scanning the QR code, the user should be instructed to plug the device back in before proceeding.
In Step 1, the user should be suggested to record the pin code in case they are unable to use the QR camera method.
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What is different in this EP25 model? I bought a few KP125 Smart Wi-Fi Plugs 4-5 months ago from Target and they do have the Apple Homekit logo on the boxes.
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So, i tried factory reset and setting it up with an android device using the kasa app. This time it updated the firmware from 1.0.4 to 1.0.8 (Maybe my ios app was oudated?)
Either way, both plugs were updated to 1.0.8 , one remained setup via homekit the other via an android device but set up via kasa app only.
Still having the same issue, after a time, it is flagged in Kasa App as "Device unreachable", but the device remains powered.
Going to try a single one from Best Buy, as these were a 2-pack from Target.
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The EP25 and KP125 offer the exact same feature set and experience for the end-user. Model differences such as this can vary for a few reasons such as sellers, selling in sets, or even simply different manufacturing facilities. In this case, I believe that there is no difference between the models, but I cannot confirm this for sure. I believe that in this case, however, they are different as a result of online retail vs retail; and packaged sets vs singular.
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Figured out my problem! Apparently some ASUS routers have anissue with Homekit devices, causing them to drop from the network.
I was able to fix the problem by allowing "Enable IGMP Snooping" on my ASUS router.
Spoke too soon :(
Plugs still go unreachable after a few hours. Even tried with a new Router (ASUS to NetGear, AC to AX with Wifi6) and have the same issue.
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Sorry to hear that they disconnected again. I think that you are on the right path with your troubleshooting when it comes to the IGMP Snooping Settings. I have been talking with our QA team and we have been trying to discover if this is the potential cause for homekit devices going offline. This issue can be seen across the board when it comes to both homekit devices and hubs. One thing that we noticed is that some manufacturers have included an IGMP Proxy Option. This can be found in our routers as a default option or will require a more detailed setup for other brands routers.
The Proxy seems to allow these devices to function albeit flawlessly as it passes the control of the devices from the Hub to the Router. This allows the router to be the device sending and organizing the network traffic, instead of following whatever instructions are sent to it by the HomeKit Hub.
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Did you ever get an answer to #3? Or figure it out? I just want to use the Kasa app for the EP25's I bought. there seems to be no way to break out of the loop of doing it through Apple Home. I have no interest in using Apple home.
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