Device triggering constantly by automation when it shouldn't

[Chuck_Crisler]

I have been using HA to control my greenhouse for about a year. Just lately it has started triggering my humidifier too often. The humidifier is controlled by a Shelly plus 2 PM and 2 automations (on/off). The other connected device is lights which are working correctly. I have 2 Home Assistant instances running on separate RPi 5s. The automations are all the same. I use the 2 RPis for redundancy. I have unplugged the humidifier for now to try to get things under control, but the automation is still turning the humidifier on. The humidity sensor is a Sensor Push temp/humidity sensor.

Version info:

• Installation method Home Assistant OS
• Core 2026.4.3
• Supervisor 2026.04.0
• Operating System 17.2
• Frontend 20260325.5

I can’t find the firmware version info for the Shellyplus2PM device, but it is listed as ‘up to date’ by HA.

Here is the YAML for the ‘on’ automation. The ‘off’ automation just triggers on ‘above 70’.

description: Turn on the greenhouse humidifier
triggers:
  - trigger: numeric_state
    entity_id:
      - sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity
    below: 65
conditions:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: switch.shellyplus1_c4d8d552dcd8_switch_0 <- this is an exhaust fan
    state: "off"
actions:
  - action: switch.turn_on
    metadata: {}
    data: {}
    target:
      entity_id: switch.shellyplus2pm_cc7b5c0e3658_switch_1
mode: single

Here is a snippet of the humidifier history. Most of the times that it is turned off are by me. It has become ‘unavailable’ a few times recently. My GH heater is tripping the GFCI circuit breaker that this Shelly device is connected to. I think that is due to the excessive humidity causing a ground fault in the heater.

10:06:40 AM - 22 minutes ago - ChuckCrisler
turned on triggered by automation Greenhouse Humidifier on triggered
10:06:23 AM - 22 minutes ago
turned off triggered by action Switch: Turn off switch
10:04:01 AM - 24 minutes ago - ChuckCrisler
turned on triggered by automation Greenhouse Humidifier on triggered
8:38:58 AM - 2 hours ago
turned off triggered by action Switch: Turn off switch
8:03:51 AM - 2 hours ago - ChuckCrisler
turned on triggered by automation Greenhouse Humidifier on triggered
6:25:02 AM - 4 hours ago
turned off
6:23:01 AM - 4 hours ago
became unavailable
2:00:54 AM - 8 hours ago
#### April 17, 2026
turned on triggered by automation Greenhouse Humidifier on triggered
11:01:49 PM - 11 hours ago
turned off
9:47:00 PM - 13 hours ago
turned on triggered by automation Greenhouse Humidifier on triggered

Here is a snippet of the humidity sensor updates. As you can see the reported humidity hasn’t dropped below 85% in several days. That seems accurate because everything is damp in the greenhouse.

sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.31,2026-04-18T12:41:24.494Z
sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.34,2026-04-18T12:44:24.456Z
sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.37,2026-04-18T12:51:20.512Z
sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.4,2026-04-18T12:52:23.092Z
sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.37,2026-04-18T12:56:21.763Z
sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.34,2026-04-18T12:58:23.030Z
sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.31,2026-04-18T12:59:25.598Z
sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.28,2026-04-18T13:01:20.432Z
sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.25,2026-04-18T13:02:29.441Z
sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.28,2026-04-18T13:07:20.374Z
sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.25,2026-04-18T13:11:22.948Z
sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.28,2026-04-18T13:14:22.875Z
sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.25,2026-04-18T13:16:24.160Z
sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.28,2026-04-18T13:25:21.580Z
sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.34,2026-04-18T13:26:20.185Z
sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.37,2026-04-18T13:37:22.662Z
sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.34,2026-04-18T13:43:22.601Z
sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.4,2026-04-18T13:44:25.164Z
sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.43,2026-04-18T13:45:27.733Z
sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.4,2026-04-18T13:50:22.543Z
sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.37,2026-04-18T13:53:22.509Z
sensor.greenhouse_temp_humidity_humidity,85.31,2026-04-18T13:58:23.732Z

[Didgeridrew]

Please download and post the debug trace json from a run of the automation you think is in error.

[Chuck_Crisler]

Would that be under settings/system/logs? I can only see a menu option (3 dots in upper right corner) for raw logs, which shows many actions but I don’t think is what you are asking for. Also, do I need to change the log level somewhere?

[Didgeridrew]

Sharing a Debug Trace

The debug trace is one of the most useful sources of information you can provide when asking for help with automations or scripts that aren’t working the way you expect. It provides a complete copy of the automation’s configuration as well as details about what happened during a run of the automation. An automation’s traces can be accessed through the Automation Editor by clicking the “Traces” button at the top right: [Screenshot from 2025-02-26 19-18-13] The Traces menu allows you to naviga…

[Chuck_Crisler]

I have found and fixed my problem. I had another automation that called the ‘humidifier on’ automation. At the time that I wrote that automation, I thought that the ‘humidifier on’ automation, which is triggered by a humidity update, would check the current humidity level before executing. Now I know that HA doesn’t operate that way. It processes updates and executes automations for conditions that are met. Update values are not stored, though I could create a global variable to use. I had forgotten about the traces feature. That is a hugely valuable feature.