A frustrated noob - some thoughts at the outset

Just a comment from a (non-coder) new user…I find it extraordinarily frustrating that the tutorials that abound on YouTube - and which appear to be excellent - show menus or screens that bear no resemblance to what I am now seeing on my screen. Things have been renamed, moved, juggled, buried or combined. This does not really give me a warm fuzzy feeling and I’d really like to have a warm fuzzy feeling!!

I get that this is a devloping project and that’s great - because it means that it will be solid, robust and well-supported…but it IS driving me nuts!

The iOS integration for notification appears to have changed and I just keep getting errors. I’m sure eventually I’ll figure it out…but maybe some stability in UI might be a good idea? (This is a complaint over at Ubiquiti/Unifi…too much dicking around with the UI…so, just sayin’.)

Anyway…I have my USB hub (Zigbee/ZWave) and two whole sensors that I’m now trying to do something simple with…and at the moment, not succeeding well, LOL…so I thought I’d just pass along a few comments on my journey. Oh, and my phone, which HA seems to have decided was something worthy of note and making entities with. Hmmm.

I’m sure I’ll be back asking the usual pile of dumb questions (after searching for an answer or five).

Love the idea…stretching my 71 year-old brain.

Well, better strap yourself in for this year’s development focus then: Streamlining Experiences - Home Assistant

Great… I, too, do not enjoy having to continually hunt for where something has been moved to. Stop it already, it took me a month to learn where it was moved to last time.

This forum has a wealth of knowledge… use the magnifier icon at the top right. Like you I started with no background and tried to piece things together. I have had a few smart home platforms/systems and this community has helped more than the others combined. Look at logs, take suggestions, and try things. No build is the same as another so you need to piece things together.

One thing that helps other help you is if you post what you are having issues with. I use iOS so would be able to lend a hand. Do you use the built-in automations or Node-Red? I use node-red because its visual. Others prefer built in.

You should be looking for information is the official documentation. That will always be up to date.