OK, I have the same question. I am trying to force it off but you have not given us any real "trick" to do it. There are two tabs on the top and bottom and two on each side. I finally just pulled the top or bottom away from the switch while pressing into the switch with my thumb. I pulled really hard and it did pop off without breaking the tabs. I have been wasting a lot of time trying to pry it away from the tabs on the back side with no luck.

I am having the same issue. What the heck? I can’t get this off the face plate. It isn’t budging. About ready to just return four of these switches. Any hint?

@Carl 

Carl, Is it necessary to remove the faceplate of the HS220 so that I can screw it in to the wall and ensure that it sits flush? Right now, I can't safely remove the faceplate and the switch doesn't sit flush against the wall.

Am I missing something here? The switch that I replaced had two screws - one on the top and one of the bottom - so that everything was flush with the wall.

Now, my switch sticks out just a bit. I've tried to remove the plate, so that I can screw it into the wall, but it won't budge at all and I really don't want to break it. 

Help!

@NJBob Same here, played with it for 45 min thinking I was gonna break it!

@Carl  Same trouble here. I lost one of the clips on the faceplate in the process. 

Thought it may have been due to the faceplate coming upside down from the factory, though no change after reversing orientation (because of the UP indication on the faceplate rear, had initially installed the switch upside down).

This HS220 replaces an HS200 for me. Definitely did NOT have this difficulty removing the faceplate from that model. Are you listening TP-LINK QA team?

@NJBob Wow was that a pain in the you know what.  Finally got the plate off after several minutes.  Almost broke the whole switch.  I put a small rectangular hole on the bottom of the switch with my wire cutters in case I ever have to take this switch off again.

Hope they changed the design on this switch cover plate.  You shouldn't have to fight to get this off.

I am sure other people have the same issue and thus why I am commenting.  Good luck.

I'm in the same boat - was really scary to pry it off before the installation, now , after I snapped it back I noticed a nasty gap betweeen the plate and a wall - would like to screw a switch a bit further down but will probably break the thing this time.