Good news everyone! They plan to reverse course and are offering a downgrade procedure in the meantime:
https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/237614
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@generic - this does sound like very good news. Any details on the downgrade process? (no information in the link).
Well, it’s a community manager providing a specific downgrade option for the FW - I haven’t read anything about reversing course or adopting any of the (very good) recommendations made in the post. So my hopes are on the current (apparently promising) efforts to reverse engineer the new approach.
@NamCisum
I’m the author of the post on the TP-link community 
She DM’ed me apologizing and stating that their engineering team is working on a “solution”. Calling Home Assistant an “unauthorized application” has ceased at least.
I hope they take my examples and suggestions to heart…
You’re totally right that the reverse engineering of the new local control API needs to continue and a backup solution via their cloud API needs to be matured (I would hate if it gets to the point of using their cloud API)…
I also have a post on their community requesting MFA/2FA on their Omada controller product line that seems to have attracted attention.
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@quenchmaster
In her DM to me, she instructed me to email [email protected] linking back to the thread I posted and to include my MAC addresses. She then told me to reply to her DM with the ticket number.
I’m hoping everyone doesn’t have to register on the TP-Link community and ask for this 1-1 treatment I got for posting…
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I have also had another email from TP-Link saying much the same thing and asking for MAC addresses and the email address of my TP-Link account. I didn’t go through the forum, just contacted them through their support page saying the new firmware broke HA integration.
The email also said “We are aware that the support of Home assistant is a very useful feature for some customers and our senior engineers are looking into the possible solution.” so perhaps there will be a future option to enable the old local API a bit like Logitech did on the Harmony Hub. It certainly seems like they’re taking HA seriously at least.
Bravo for your community post too, very well written and I bet it made a significant impression!
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Yes, same for me. I’ve got a HS100 on hw ver 1.0 and 1.2.6 and can control from HA 0.117.5. After the firmware update, I had to “Reload” the TP-Link integration in HA, but after that, it showed up again.
It would not surprise me at all if they decided the “solution” was to force users to their cloud API. From a support standpoint, it’s far easier to have users on a system you can control than a third-party platform.
I will not sign up for a Kasa account and I will not use a product which requires me to go through their cloud servers. It’s not that I’m paranoid about privacy (although I do consider it a plus) but simplicity, reliability and performance demand a local solution. I want to be able to control my own hardware for the same reasons vendors would prefer to control it for me. I can trust my own motives and am willing to fix my own mistakes.
Anyone communicating with TP-Link developers might want to include gentle reminders that a cloud-based answer is NOT a solution.
Totally agree. Great idea to remind them - I’ll send another note in the DM.
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This whole thing reminds me of the Logitech issues a few years ago. They removed some Harmony abilities due to “security concerns” and then ended up changing course after a lot of feedback from this community and others.
You’re totally right… I was thinking the same thing. “Here we go again, time to go make noise on the community forum and bang some pots and pans on HackerNews / Reddit / Twitter. The pitchforks and torches are where we left them over in the shed from last time.”
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Wow, this is great news! I was worried that Tp-Link wouldn’t do anything about it but yet they did. Good for them (and us of course).
@generic many thanks, I have done this and responded on the TP-link post.
My email to support also made a point about the cloud options as follows
As with other members of the Home Assistant community I would like to note that a cloud-based solution is not/will not be acceptable and local control needs to be maintained. I hope that this is taken into account in any future changes to these products and other Kasa products.
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Logged a support ticket with TPLink including the MAC addresses of my HS100 units, and just received this reply:
Dear Customer,
Thank you very much for your email requesting information about TP-Link product.
Thanks for your feedback.
Please kindly wait for the new firmware and then upgrade it.Thank you and have a great day!
Fingers crossed!
yep that just dropped into my inbox as well…
looks like they have gone for the easy global option instead of individual changes.
I have to admit that this really surprises me - I would have expected nothing more than a friendly shrug… Let’s see where we are once the FW is there!
Hopefully, the new firmware won’t conflict with the revised Kasa integration. 
!
For what it is worth I added the following domains to my pihole blacklist as they were being called by my tp-link devices. Hopefully that blocks any attempts to update.
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Looking here, it looks like the plan is for the revised integration to first check the original port and if it doesn’t get a response it moves to trying the new port. Now TP-Link are aware of the situation, I don’t think they will make further breaking changes. I think we’ll just end up with plugs that use one of the two ports. It’s win/win once the new integration is released.
Oh man… I would be pissed. I’m going to sell my wemo devices because they are requiring a cloud account to control the devices (at least that is the word). The firewall ruleset I use on my IoT network is default deny, so I have to explicitly grant internet access to devices which I do not for anything the doesn’t need it, including TP-Link devices.