I have five KP115 smart plugs. At exactly 4:42pm all five reported going off via the Sense app. According to the Kasa app, they are all still connected to WiFi and responding in that app. I can turn them off and on with the Kasa app, so they are definitely still online. The Sense unit is still connected to WIFI and reporting all other data except the five KP115’s. It can’t seem to see all five KP115’s at all.
Long thread on a similar topic here.
Sometimes the fix is a power cycle of the Sense monitor.
I power cycled the Sense unit, no change. These plugs are all over the house in different locations and spread over two WAPs on the same SSID. The KP115’s and the Sense unit all have strong WIFI signal levels between -31 and -40. All the KP115’s went off at exactly the same second.
I was suspicious of the issue being with the Sense monitor because the communication with all stopped at the same time. You might want to check in with support@sense.com.
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I read that entire other thread. There are multiple issues being experienced there but there are at least two people having this exact issue, where all KP115’s go invisible to Sense simultaneously but stay connected and working with the Kasa app. Only power cycling the KP115’s brings them back to the Sense app, which just also worked for me. I can see networking issues causing one KP115 to randomly drop then come back but five at the exact same second while staying connected to the the Kasa app? My guesses would be a) Something in the Sense device logic gets scrambled and marks all KP115 traffic as off. Then when the KP115’s get rebooted they re-announce themselves on the network and the Sense “comes to it’s senses”. 
or b) There is some network event that simultaneously crashes all the KP115’s but only the protocol that Sense is talking to them on and NOT the protocol the Kasa app is talking to them on. This seems far less likely but I don’t have any idea how the Sense device and the Kasa app vary in communication, if at all.
Just another data point. I found a third party iOS app “Watt” that can read the live data from the KP115s. The “dead to Sense” KP115s are also still live on the Watt app and the Kasa app while being offline to the Sense device. This clearly points to the Sense device or it’s polling method as being the culprit.
Is there something different in what the Sense device is doing to poll the KP115s?
Sense uses the same broadcast / response Kasa protocol as the Kasa app and likely the Watt app. Each of the 3 supported Kasa smart plug models gives a slightly different response as I remember it, in that thread - just the power, current voltage units are different. I’m guessing the same thing you are. The monitor gets hosed up on one KP115 response and then marks all as persona non grata.
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I’m still having some issues with my 4 KP-115s. I have noticed that rebooting my router allows Sense to find them again (for a few days). The HS300s all work without this issue.
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On Saturday about 7PM Eastern time my two HS110’s stopped communicating with Sense. My KP115 stayed connected. It’s Monday morning now and after resetting power on Sense unit and router the app still shows a “n/a” status for both devices. Kasa app sees them just fine…
Hi, everyone. I’ll touch base with our team and follow-up with more information. In the meantime, if you could reach out to support@sense.com and share your:
- Permission to view your monitor data
- Mobile device type/software: (example: iPhone X, iOS 14)
- Sense app version
Just updated my smarplug reliability chart. I only have a lone KP115 deployed and in on mode continuously. Except for the brief period at the start of this chart the I was using the KP115 in mostly off mode, it has been communicating with my Sense monitor and continuously producing data, since the start of March.
As I have mentioned in another thread, my Sony TV and Washing Machine power usage drop below 0.5W regularly, which looks the same from a data perspective as the smart plug going offline. We turn the kitchen Sonos on and off via the Sense button. When the button is off, the data ceases and it looks like the smart plug is offline as well.
In my case three of my five KP115s always have a load on them 50-300w, so it was quite obvious when they all went off at the same time. The other two are always in the ON mode but no load typically. But when all five were off to Sense, even the two with no load could not be accessed for an on/off toggle or a name change, so they were truly off to Sense.
Have you thought about adding a small load to these plugs (a 3 way tap and something like a small USB adapter)? That could keep the power level above 0.5W
Hey @Offthewall - I spoke with our Support team and they haven’t seen an increase in smart plug issues, specifically with them appearing “Off” to Sense. I had a similar issue with a few HS-300’s at my parent’s house after setting up their Sense. At the time, the issue resolved itself within 24 hours, so I didn’t have to pursue Support for a fix.
If you haven’t already, please write into our Support team so they can take a look at what’s happening on the back-end.
Good suggestion - For me, it’s not a big deal since I’m OK with those devices outputting zero Wh for hours when the power utilization is that low. It is important knowing that from an exported hourly data perspective, all three of these look the same:
- smart plug offline (NA)
- smart plug turned off (0/off)
- smart plug seeing less than 0.5Wh (0)
So my chart should really be “is registering non zero” rather than “is connected”
So after a few day of messing round, I went into Sense App “settings”- “my home” - “connected devices” and tapped on “TP-Link (list of devices here)” and tapped “Disable” . I then waited a few second and tapped “Enable”… Control of all my devices returned to the devices list. Lessons learned! Just needed a three finger salute… Hope this helps someone.
Great suggestion! Forgot to mention this earlier. Often my first reaction is to re-enable the integration and see if that fixes any immediate issues.
Thanks Justin I did send a support email a day or so ago. I just want to clarify that my issue wasn’t that the KP115’s “appear” off in Sense due to low or no power draw, they were truly disconnected from Sense and all at the exact same time. No on/off control, no power usage (even though some were drawing 200-300 watts). All the while the same KP115’s were fully functional and visible in the Kasa app and a third party Watt app. They were off for more than 48 hours before I finally power cycled the KP115’s which fixed them in the Sense app.
I was afraid of doing this, thinking I might have to re-set each plug back up with names, idle thresholds, etc. Did the KP115’s come back with all settings and historical data intact after the Disable/Enable?
Ah, yes I should have clarified. This was my understanding. If you happened to look at the device list for the smart plug devices, I’m assuming they said “N/A” instead of “ON/OFF”.
Since the Sense app is just gathering the names/groupings from the Kasa app, you should maintain all the details that are in the Kasa app once you re-enable the integration.
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