Kasa devices without Kasa App

Hi!

As my username says, I’m a beginner in that great Home Assistant world.

I had a simple question : can I use my Kasa switch without using the Kasa App? Right now, the switch has it’s own wi-fi, so (of course) Home Assistant won’t find it on it’s network.

Thanks in advance!

Look at the TP-Link component and see if your switch is supported. It likely is and supports local control. I know my TP-Link bulb works fine without ever connecting to the internet.

I’m open to correction on this, but, having six switches, you need the app to do the initial setup. Naming the switch and getting it on your network etc. After that you can always uninstall the app.

Like already said, you need the app for the initial setup. After that the devices are in your network and you don’t need the app.

When the switch has its own wifi, it isn’t completly installed yet.

Hi! Thank you for your answers.

I hoped I could do it without the app, but I doubted it worked like this. I used the app to configure the switch, then deleted it, and it works fine!

Thanks again to have taken the time to answer!

Once paired the switch with the Kasa app, I was able to get HA to find it and add it to my set up. Is there a way then to unpair it completely from the app then? Even if I delete the app, it seems like the switch is still linked to the Kasa account I had to setup and therefore the cloud, correct?

Not sure about that. TBH, I’ve kept the app as occasionally HA throws an error while I’m away and drops one or two of the switches. Having the app in those circumstances is handy for me.

I’ve kept the app, too. But I never created an account on the Kasa cloud.

There’s a bit of a trick to that. You have to select “Create an account” during the app initiation, because there’s no other choice. But if you look closely, at the bottom of the next page, there’s an option to “Skip.” The documentation I read implies that this means the smart plug can now only work on your local network. Which is exactly what I wanted. HA is on my local network.

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Thats exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

Nice sleuthing there. I have 3 of these coming in and the fact that I might be able to locally control them with no cloud in the middle is awesome

One caveat: The HA integration to TP-Link is buggy. There are known problems, often reported here, which are apparently not on any developer’s plate to fix.

Specifically, the devices can sometimes go “unavailable” because of brief network interruptions or interference. Also, if HA and the device are both powered up together, as after a power outage, HA may see them as unavailable if it starts first.

The Kasa app is apparently OK by simply retrying. The HA integration gives up, and never attempts to reconnect again.

Some things which have been reported to help are to assign static or reserved IP addresses for the devices, to make sure the network signal near the devices is solid, and to ensure that there is no interference from nearby networks on the same WiFi channel.

I’ve done all these things and the reliability has vastly improved, but they still occasionally go unavailable in HA. The fix, for me, is to connect to the offending device via the Kasa app to verify it is reachable on the network (so far, it always is) and then re-start HA.

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Roger that, thanks for the info!

I will just add, I have the HS300 and its VERY buggy with Home Assistant. Took multiple tries of getting HASS to recognize all 6 plugs… and even then, a couple plugs go missing every once in a while. I was using them to power individual shelves on an enclosed plant stand lighting (one plug per shelf sort of thing) but the plugs go missing too often to be reliable for this use. Likely going back to a basic power strip with maybe some wemo plugs… They seem to be way more reliable. OH, and I am using a static DHCP assignment for the power strip and I have added the TP Kasa config to the configuration.yaml file as opposed to a point-in-click integration.

I’m not sure how much has changed in the codebase, but since maybe Nov or Dec 2020 when I built my new instance of Home Assistant, I haven’t had any real issues with Kasa / TP-Link devices. Yes, the fact that the switches are “local poll” is mildly annoying, but that’s only relevant if you want to use the switch to control other devices, and want a <20sec response time.

Stability-wise? Pretty solid for me so far!

I’ve seen the same thing as AbstractGeo.

I never see the TP-Link devices show “unavailable” in Lovelace any more.

curious on the “skipping” the create and account. I like this option and totally missed it the first time, so everything is loaded under my account.

would like to run locally, so when I logout and “skip”, not of my devices show up. Is there a way to pull them in or do I need to re-pair every device?

It looks like the current version of the Kasa Android app does not have the workaround to skip creating an account. Is anybody aware of a present-day workaround? Alternatively, I’ll go hunting for an old apk.

I stopped updating my Kasa app and downgraded APK as soon as I noticed the account creation being required. I am using 2.39.0.1073, which I think is the latest version to not require an account: Kasa Smart 2.39.0.1073 APK Download by TP-Link Corporation Limited - APKMirror (note: I checked version on my phone and googled that version, I can’t guarantee this is the exact link I used)