Can you provide some highlevel on File Notify for getting started

1

I am embarking on figuring out this warning message in HA. I set notifications up years ago and must have forgotten. The HA dev docs are, as usual, sparse.

Others have started these threads, which I have yet to figure out.
migrate legacy
how to forward
I am sure there are others.

Here is the HA topic page for notify file
And here is the (maybe?) old notify page

My questions:
From a really really high level, what is this doing? What is the flow of information from an automation action to my cell phone?

When HA developers say ‘store notification messages’, do they mean ‘send notifications’? (the point of notifications is to send something to someone, not store it). Or is this file storing boiler plate text used in notifications (does not sound right).

Is configuration.yaml being retired? I got a similar warning, but do not now, and am wondering if that warning was just related to notify in the configuration.yaml.

What do I need to do? Set up a new file in my config directory? I have one there already. It has entities listed, but not past notifications.

The warning:
The File notify service(s) are migrated. A new notify entity is available now to replace each legacy notify service.

Update any automations to use the new notify.send_message service exposed with this new entity. When this is done, fix this issue and restart Home Assistant.

Here is my configuration.yaml entry. I think the second entry was added by HA, not me. The first ‘www…’ has been there for years.

notify:
  - platform: file
    name: entity_log
    filename: /config/www/entity_log.txt
    timestamp: false
  - platform: file
    name: filenotify
    filename: /share/humidity_reading.csv
    #timestamp: true

The new integration ‘File’. The one with the error is, I think, the one HA added.

Screenshot 2024-06-11 at 10.11.05 PM
Screenshot 2024-06-11 at 10.11.05 PM1106×440 30.8 KB

2

The File notification service has nothing to do with your cell phone.

The File notification service does indeed save messages to a file. The message saved is whatever you send to it via the service call. As an example:

image
image806×126 10.1 KB

You can then use the File sensor to get the data contained in the last line of the file.

Like many other integrations over the past few years, the File integration has been moved to the UI. Your existing File notifiers should have been migrated automatically. From the posted screenshots it looks like both of your notifiers have been migrated, so you can delete the entries in configuration.yaml.

Really, you should figure out if you actually need to have these up and running… the second one was not “added by HA”, you may not remember doing it, but it was put there by a human with access to your config. If you’re not using it, just delete it from both the config and the File Integration setting page.

Based on the screenshot you need to add the folder being used by filenotify to the allow list.
Then, identify any automations or scripts that are calling the notify.entity_log and notify.filenotify services. Change those service call to notify.send_message, with the notify entity as the target:

service: notify.send_message
data:
  message: this, is, a, test
target:
  entity_id: notify.filenotify
3

Quick answer. Yes HA is aiming to remove manual configuration from configuration.yaml. I never used manual configuration of notify.
Suggest you try putting # at the beginning of each line shown (to comment it out) and restart HA.
Also the new file integration replaces an old manual of file in configuration.yaml entry. You have to comment tohose entries out to get the ne file integration working.
Finally have you allowed access to these “external paths”?

4

Thanks for the input.

The high level is this integration is storing a message, string, data, etc, in a file when calling a notify.xxx.

What are some uses of that function? I see the example of storing temperature somewhere. I assume it would be picked up by another automation or UI?

5

I use it e.g. to log the messages espRFlinkMQTT sends to HA that are not processed because I have no use for them/don’t know what device they come from.

6

I find the below changes that will work or will break my notifications to my phone. I am updated to the latest core and OS.
@Didgeridrew states this has nothing to do with your cell phone, so I assume this file notify change has nothing to do with notify.notify or notify.mobile_app_… .
The syntax in the dev doc for Notify does not work.
So I got my automation working, but am still confused.

from which works

  action:
    - service: notify.notify
      data:
        message: "A garage door closed"

to this which works

  action:
    - service: notify.mobile_app_myphone
      data:
        message: "A garage door closed"

These do not work

  action:
    - service: notify.send_message
      target:
        entity_id: notify.notify
      data:
        message: "A garage door closed"

and

  action:
    - service: notify.send_message
      data:
        entity_id: notify.notify
        message: "A garage door closed"

and

    - service: notify.send_message
      data:
        entity_id: notify.mobile_app_myphone
        message: "A garage door closed"
  • Core 2024.6.3
  • Supervisor 2024.06.0
  • Operating System 12.3
7

The reason those don’t work is because you are pointing them at entities that don’t exist.

The service notify.send_message has only been rolled out for a limited number notification integrations. The integrations it is currently working with will automatically have a notify entity created for each notifier. If you have any, you can find them in the Entities menu. If you don’t find any notify entities in your list, then you are not using any of the currently supported integrations.

Eventually, notify entities will be created for the other core notification integrations.