@Hank21

  @Hank21 here is what it looks like with all of the workstations on.

  @Hank21 

Thank you for getting back to me.  The clients will show as attached to the ER605 indefinitely, or until they are turned back on. I do all of my management using the cloud interface.  

I was able to solve the issue for myself but other people might still be struggling with it.  We purchased a new workstation and connected it to the TL-SG2008 v3.0 via an Ethernet cable.  When the new workstation was turned off for the night, it did not change to be attached to the ER605 like the older ones.  It simply went off of the client list and disappeared off of the map just like the older ones did before the firmware upgrade.  Then what I did was turn off one of the older workstations and it did show up in the client list as attached to the ER605.  Another thing that I noticed was that when the clients were turned off or left the area, and when they were shown as attached directly to the ER605. The list would show that their time online was the exact amount of time that had passed since the ER605 was upgraded.  Their time online was the same as the time online of the ER605. I then rebooted the ER605 with the client turned off.  When the ER605 came back online the older workstation that I had turned off was not in the client list.  I turned the workstation back on and it correctly appeared in the list as connected the the TL-SG2008.  After some time I turned it back off.  It now correctly disappeared from the client list just like it used to do before I upgraded the ER605 firmware. Then I turned off all of the workstations and mobile device and rebooted the ER605 again. After the ER605 came back online, I turned all of the clients back on.  This seemed to correct the problem.  The clients that were off when the ER605 was rebooted now disappear from the list when they are turned off or move out of the wireless area.  It seems that the problem was caused for each client that was attached to the network while I did the firmware upgrade to the ER605 causing the client to be permanently shown in the client list or on the map tab.  Then if the ER605 is rebooted while the clients are off they are removed from the list.

To duplicate the problem:

1: ER605 with older firmware

2. Connect TL-SG2008 with wired client devices attached and turned on, to the ER605 with older firmware.

3. Upgrade ER605 firmware to 1.2.0 while clients are on and connected.

4. After ER605 upgrades turn off a client (it should persist in the client list now)

 @Hank21 Actually the problem still occurs. When the ER605 is rebooted while workstation computers are on.  If the ER605 is rebooted with the workstations on, when they are turned off later, instead of disappearing from the network map and client list, they will be show as attached to the ER605 in the client list and on the network map.  They will show as attached directly to the ER605 indefinitely until they are turned back on, then they will show as correctly attached to the switch that they are physically attached to.  While the computers are shown as physically attached to the ER605 while they are off, the uptime shown for them in the client list will be shown as the same as the uptime for the ER605.  After they are turned back on and shown correctly attached to their switch in the client list, the uptime for each one will be show correctly as well.

  @loafingshed 

We are experiencing this problem for a long time. Especially with the EAP245 access points. We don't use any TP-Link router at our sites. This problem was introduced with the 5.x firmware version a while ago from what we see. More than a year ago TP-Link provided us with a BETA firmware that fixed the issue for EAP245, however it was never fixed in the official firmware versions.

Somehow they are unable to finally fix this problem. It's pretty annoying to see the persistent clients. We have some large sites with 10+ access points and as soon as everyone left the building, we see at least 10-15 persistent clients.

TP-Link can't give us an estimate when the problem will be fixed for over a year now. They told us it's related to the controller software and it needs to be re-designed. However I still believe the problem persists in the device firmware. Especially because the BETA firmware fixed our issues back then.

  @Hank21 

The firmware we got back then was EAP245v3_2.21.0_[20200925-rel64335]_up_signed

We don't see a pattern what type of wireless clients get stuck in the client list. We have seen clients connected for more than 7 days in a row, however those clients were not physically connected.

I made a screenshot. As you can see all persistent clients have a minimum signal strength. Spread over different APs and even different SSIDs

  @WSI, @Hank21

Interesting...  when my wireless clients leave the signal area, they bizarrely convert to wired in my client list, and are shown as connected directly to my ER605 router.  I don't understand why the wired clients show as directly connected to my router instead of the switch that they are wired too, much less why the wireless ones would show as connected by Ethernet.  I manage 4 sites, with around 90-100 wired and wireless clients at any one time and it is quite frustrating to not be able to determine who is still on the grounds and who isn't.