I’m using YAML mode, and always could count on that if I deleted something from my configuration, it would disappear in the front end too… That appears to have changed. I am deleting automations and entities from my configuration, but they are staying in my configuration with the message
“This entity is currently unavailable and is an orphan to a removed, changed or dysfunctional integration or device.If the entity is no longer in use, you can clean it up by removing it”
Then I have to go into the UI and find all of these entities (which is hard because there’s nothing to indicate they are actually deleted ones) and delete them from the UI.
This seems really stupid to me, is there any way I can turn off this behavior so I don’t end up with years and years of deleted stuff cluttering up my developer states UI?
There’s two quick methods you can find these deleted ones. In Developer Tools > States page, look for the Attributes section and type “restored” into the Filter attributes box.
Click the arrow in the “Status” column to change the table sorting, and it will show your unavailable entities at top. They have red exclamation mark icons. Use the checkboxes next to the Entities to select the ones you want to delete and then press the “Remove Selected” button at the top of the table.
Thank you. But why do they need to be there at all? I deleted them from configuration.yaml, I want them just to go away when I delete them, not linger around… Isn’t it possible just to turn this behavior off completely?
I could be mistaken on this, as I don’t pay as close attention to the backend stuff.
But my understanding is that it was changed to solve some startup issues. Sometimes platforms like HomeKit, Google Assistant, Alexa would start before all of the users devices were actually available. So then you wouldn’t have voice commands for certain things, because those platforms weren’t aware that entity existed. Restoring entities solves that problem (and some others apparently).
There’s no option to turn this behavior off completely, you will have to use one of the methods I posted above to remove these unwanted entities.
Hmm, okay… Seems strange that something would need an entity that I already purposely deleted, but I guess I’ll go in and delete them as you mention from time to time. Thanks again.
