Automation with alias '<alias name>' failed to setup actions and has been disabled. Unknown device: '<device ID>'

[yooza1167]

I made a change to my setup recently. A few of my IoT devices needed to be re-added causing their device IDs to change. In the early days I didn’t know to use entities instead of devices wherever possible in automations… This caused HA to flag up and disable several automations. I fixed most by opening them in yaml mode and updating the IDs in question. Unfortunately, I must have accidentally clicked the wrong option somewhere with one of the automation failure notices. That automation has stopped showing in my automations list so I can’t find and fix it. Each time I restart HA the core log shows the message in the title of this topic for that automation. Can anyone tell me how I get it to re-appear in my list so I can fix or delete it? Where do I find it now? TIA!

[jackjourneyman (Jack)]

This is one of the downsides of using device IDs rather than entity IDs. Can you find it by searching automations.yaml directly? You may be able to make corrections there. If you do, don’t forget to reload automations in Developer Tools.

Why and how to avoid device_ids in automations and scripts

Background When you start writing automations, a device trigger seems the obvious choice. Everybody knows what a device is and it comes at the top of the UI dropdown list. [image] It works… but it is certainly not a “great way to start” because it is storing up problems for the future. Far better to use an entity, with state or numeric_state. Device_id problems The yaml will be longer and harder to follow, which may make maintenance difficult, especially a few months down the line when y…

[yooza1167]

Ok I didn’t realise it would still be in automations.yaml. I already have a new version of the automation created so I removed the old disabled one and restarted HA. But when I went to rename the ID for the new automation so it matches the old (I just took the _2 off the end). I got this error. Is there a way to fully unregister the old automation or should I put it back into automations.yaml and fix it there so it reappears and I can then remove it using the UI?

‘Entity with this ID is already registered’

[yooza1167]

I restored a backup copy of my automations.yaml. Then I copied the contents of the new (fixed) version into the old, while leaving its automation ID unchanged. I get no errors in the logs when restarting HA but still the old automation copy doesn’t appear in automations list UI. Do you know why it’s being hidden or how to reveal it again?

In System > Repairs if I enable ‘Show ignored repairs’ it dosn’t show there. So it’s not that the original automation error repair message was just set to ignore by me by accident.

[jackjourneyman (Jack)]

Did you reload the automations in Developer Tools | YAML?

[yooza1167]

Yes I did, i’ve restarted also. When an automation gets flagged and disabed by HA, it’s shown in the top section of settings to notify you. Somewhere there is a way to dismiss or remove it from there without hiding it.