HS100 and HS103 Smart Plugs Fail to Connect
Hi all,
I've had 1 HS100 for a year and 2 HS103's (V2) for 3 months. All have worked seamlessly until today.
Today, my HS100 wouldn't respond via my Alexa. I looked in the Kasa app, and it was grey. I reset it (by holding the reset button for 10 seconds), and then tried to reconnect using my Android. I went through the following steps per the user guide:
1) Plug in and see solid orange light
2) Orange light becomes blinking orange and green light.
3) In the app, I see "Connecting Smart Plug to Your Home Network" while the orange and green blinking light becomes just a green blinking light. It blinks this way for about a minute.
4) Then, the green blinking light goes back to the orange and green blinking light while my app continues to try to connect.
5) Then my app says "Unable to Connect to Your Wi-Fi Network" and tells me to 1) check for typos and 2) visit the TP Link website for troubleshooting. So here I am!
The same process happens for only ONE of my HS103's, except the blinking lights are blue and orange, then just blue, and then back to blue and orange.
The second HS103 is still working without issue.
Can someone please help? I'm not sure why these plugs all of a sudden won't connect to the network??
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You could try using the link below which helps you manually update the firmware on the plugs. It involves downloading the zip file, extracting it, then connecting your Windows computer to the smart plugs (default state) then running the utility. The instructions will be inside the extracted file.
https://static.tp-link.com/2020/202003/20200312/Upgrade_Instruction.zip
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Hi Tony,
Thanks for your response. When running the Device Upgrade Tool, only the one remaining HS103 shows up as a "device on local network" because it's the only plug that's connecting. The other 2 plugs aren't connecting to the network, so I'm not sure how I'm supposed to address these plugs when they aren't showing up as possible devices to upgrade. Am I missing something?
Thanks for your help.
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Tony, another data point for you. I'm confused on why the remaining plug is working but the others aren't. I think it has something to do with unplugging the plugs from the wall.
For the working HS103, I verified it was working by turning on/off via the app. Everything worked fine.
Then, I unplugged it from the wall. After 10 seconds, the plug name went grey within the Kasa app, as expected.
Then I plugged it back into the wall, and it had a blinking blue light for 30 seconds. Then it turned to solid orange.
Then I went back into the app and tried to Add New Device for this plug (since the original plug name was still grey and it said it was either off, which it wasn't, or not on the network). It recognized that the plug had already been configured previously, and it recommended to reset the device, which I did. Then I worked through the setup in the app, and it remembered the existing WiFi network. But ultimately, this plug had the same issue as the other 2 before it - it says unable to connect to WiFi network.
Why would unplugging the smart plug make it now unable to connect to the network that it was connected to just 2 minutes before?
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Either the wireless network pasword was changed or the saved network information (password) got corrupted. In using the utility you must factory default the plugs so they broadcast the default TP-LINK wirless name.
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If all plugs just drop you need to look at your router, it may be becoming overloaded and dropping connected devices, especially if it is a older router.
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I also have a similar issue. I have a HS105 and 2 HS103, i can get my HS105 working but HS103 just doesnt connect and infact it gives me the same error as described here it tries and then says setup failed - check network password or go to troubleshooting page. Wierd thing is my HS105 worked in one go.
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This is pretty disappointing. Seems like the issue is always with the HS103. I have a handful of these that have worked in the past. I just purchased 10 of them and not a single one connects to my network. It's not a limitation of my network capacity either. I have 5 access points and the load on each is below 5%. I tried both on iOS and Android and still have the same issues where I cannot get it to connect.
It finds the device and joins it to the network but the process never completes and it offers me to start the setup over. I tried it on a separate network and no luck. I even tried it on someone else's network with their mobile device...no luck. There must be something more than just "it's your router" response that I keep seeing.
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I exchanged numerous emails with tp link support to no available, I even reached out to my router support n spent hours but no resolution for hs103 and finally I gave up n returned them. I ordered hs105 mode n in one single attempt I was able to connect. There is something seriously wrong with hs103 model and they should look into it.
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TL;DR - disable 5g radio on your Wi-Fi router/AP during setup
I think I discovered something. I have 6 AP's for my WiFi setup. My WiFi supports both 2.4 and 5g connectivity. I noticed that 2 out of 6 AP's had the 5g radio enabled. When pairing my new plugs, they were all going through the AP that had the 5g radio enabled. The already working plugs were running communication through the AP's that only had the 2.4 radio enabled.
So, I turned off 5g on those two AP's (these were the closer ones to where I was setting the plug from) and they worked. Part of the issue is that I broadcast 5g and 2.4 using the same SSID, which I prefer since my network is suppose to determine what the connecting device supports and add them to that band automatically. However, looks like through the pairing process, it doesn't. One I got them paired, I renabled 5g since now the device is married to the 2.4 spectrum.
When I tested this on my isolated network and at another location, it also had 5g radios enabled there, which would explain why it failed there pair. I didn't realize these plugs didn't support both bands.
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