Whenever I try to update the Name of a device or entity the new name doesn’t show when creating automations or in my dashboard. I select a device, the cog, then press ‘update’, but the change doesn’t push elsewhere.
E.g. I changed the device “bedroom” to “bedroom speaker” but it only ever shows as “bedroom”. Some screenshots are attached to show what I mean.
Am I missing a trick here? For the speakers it’s not a big issue, but when it comes to lights then it can be a real headache figuring which device/entity is being configured.
I’m new to HA and not super tech-proficient. I would have thought changing the display name would be straight forward, but I seem to be overly optimistic!
Background info
Previously I used Google and Philips Hue to ‘smartify’ my home. So all devices have been previously configured in those applications. Although I’ve not noticed any conflicts/issues by introducing HA.
This is normal behaviour. When you change an entity_id, if the old ID is already in use in automations etc. that doesn’t change - and all your automations will stop working.
If you change the name of an entity but leave the ID the same, the new name will appear everywhere immediately.
If you want entity_ids to be meaningful, you need to change them before you start using them. It can make a difference if you do everything in yaml; if you use the UI it doesn’t matter so much because searches, dropdowns etc. work on the name as well as the ID.
