Problems reconfiguring Tuya based WiFi smart plugs

Hardware
1

Has anyone else dealt with the difficulties of attempting to reconfigure these things? I have a decent amount of these things all working, but I found out over a year ago, when we moved, just how finicky these are when you’re try to reconfigure them.

OOB, the SmartLife app literally discovers them without me even having to click a button… But if I try to reconfigure them, I.e. plugging them all back in after a move, or to switch networks, its anyone’s guess as to how many I’ll have to toss because no matter what I do, they won’t re-discover.

Currently, I’m working to consolidate all my WiFi smart devices to an IoT network. So, today, I removed one of these smart plugs from Smart Life app, told it to delete the device AND remove all data (that was a new option I hadn’t seen yet) and here I am again, unable to get this smart plug to be discovered by the App.

I’ve tried everything I can find on the interwebs, from “factory resetting” (which seems to just means putting it in pairing mode) to disabling 5GHz WiFi for my entire WiFi network, to using the actual brand’s app instead of SmartLife (this one happens to be a Teckin) to reinstalling the SmartLife App… But no matter what I do, SmartLife or the Techin app just sits and spins until it times out looking for the new plug.

I know the hatred for Tuya based products out there… I’m not looking for a bash session of Tuya, just looking for anyone who’s figured out how to fix this re-discoverability issue with these devices.

2

I think you need to enable bluetooth on your phone to get them set up. Do you also use the Tuya integration in Home Assistant? Maybe you should delete the device in the integration and in the SmartLife app, the integration may still comunicate to the device preventing it from pairing.

But to be honest I reflashed all my tuya plugs and bulbs with OpenBKN and could not be happier, they just work faster and have much more stable wifi connection then using tuya firmware. If you have a raspberry pi I strongly recommend you do that.

3

Hold the power button on them for 10s to reset them then press and hold it again from an off state to have it flashing correctly (it should be the fast flash rate that works iirc) then you can properly add it to the app and sign into the smartlife intergration to have them show up.

And yes you may need to just temp disable your 5Ghz SSID if its a shared one with the 2.4Ghz… I have had them add with and without, Tuya wifi devices are just annoying to deal with in general.