Changing the displayed name for Entities in Dashboard?

[andre23 (andre)]

Hi,

not sure if I used the right search terms, so apologies if this has been answered already.

In the lovelace dashboard, all entries are displayed using their full name:

This becomes an issue for example when using the mobile app, the relevant part of the name is cut off. But when I change the name in the lovelace dashboard, the entity is renamed, too. Which is annoying because generic names like “ceiling lamp” make sense in the room context of the dashboarsd but not when I look in the entity list.

Is there a way to only change the name that is diplayed in a lovelace card, without renaming the entity?

[petro]

If you name the device “Sensor Terrarium Anna” the long names will be removed in the autogenerated UI.

[andre23 (andre)]

If I understand you correctly, this is already the case:

[petro]

Are you using the autogenerated UI then? If you were, your title would be Sensor Terrarium Anna then. If not, then you have to change the name of the entities in the entities card that you created that has the title Terrarium.

[andre23 (andre)]

@petro

If not, then you have to change the name of the entities in the entities card that you created that has the title Terrarium.

That’s my issue. When I change the name of the entity in the card, the name of the entity in the device will be changed as well.

For example, there’s a ceiling light in Room A. I have two dashboards where I want to control it: One for the room and one for all lamps. If I call it “Ceiling lamp”, that is useful for the room dashboard, but not for the lamps dashboard. If I put it in a card “Ceiling lamps” in the lamps dashboard, I would have to name it “Room A”, which is then bad for the room dashboard. The only way to have useful names is making them long, which then makes it difficult on the mobile app.

I tried to find a way to get to what you described, but wasn’t succesful. As I am always adding and changing devices in my home, I am probably not using autogenerated cards, but when I add an entity I create a new lovelace card by searching for it’s name and adding it manually.

[tom_l]

@andre23

That’s my issue. When I change the name of the entity in the card, the name of the entity in the device will be changed as well.

No it wont. Overriding the name in a dashboard card is local to that card only.

type: entities
title: Device Status
show_header_toggle: false
entities:
  - entity: binary_sensor.bathroom_dht_status
    name: Bathroom DHT
    secondary_info: last-changed

Card result:

In devices and Services it still shows as:

Edit the name here:

Not here:

[andre23 (andre)]

Hm, you are both right. Might be that I tried this before something was changed, or that this is different for some device categories (I am using zigbee, KNX and others).

Thank you for your responses, it works as expected.

[tom_l]

@andre23

or that this is different for some device categories

Nope. It’s the same for all entities.