I started setting up my Home Assistant system today. I am fairly experienced with tech issues in general (I run my own nextcloud server in docker, for example). But I wanted a plug and play install this time, so I bought a HA green, and signed up for Nobu Casa for remote access. And sometime between the time I plugged in HA green and logged in remotely, I lost access to all my devices.
Here’s a rough timeline of what happened:
I plugged in the HA green
I installed and launched the HA app
HA found a uPnP device (the router I was connected to)
I plugged in a ZB-2. HA found it and updated the firmware
I could now see two connected devices in the overview
I then made a bunch of changes that all appeared to be fairly innocuous
I applied a pending update to HA, which required a restart
I renamed “Home” to a different string and the “device” for the HA server to a different string
I signed up for Nobu Casa and started automated backups
I changed my password
After all that, I connected to HA using Nobu Casa, and I could not see any devices in the “Overview”, either in the app or in the web dashboard. I am not sure which of the changes above caused this regression; I was not checking the status after every change because I didn’t think that any of them were destructive.
After poking around a bit, I figured that I can see the router as a device if I go to the room (Overview → Living Room). But I can’t see it in the list of devices (Overview → Devices). And the ZB-2 is not even visible in the living room, which is where I had added it earlier.
So my questions are:
WTH is going on with devices disappearing?
Where does Overview → Devices get its list from and how is it different from the Overview → Areas lists?
At this point, I have only installed two devices, so I am tempted to factory reset the HA green and the ZB2, uninstall the app, and just start again from scratch. What (if any) are the potential pitfalls with this approach?
What kind of devices did you see as connected devices and where did effectively connected already or just appearing to be connected?
Is that ‘ZB-2’ device not showing here:
Which protocol/integration are you planning to use with your end devices?
Even though being a fairly experienced tech user: HA is so versatile and open to everything, the learning curve can be steep and maybe it’s a better idea to not make a whole lot of changes at once.
Just a suggestion if you don’t want to hit the wall to much after having added a great deal of your place and you are left with a none working system while you don’t live there alone.
Yes, I am referring to the ZBT-2, which I configured in thread mode.
I am planning to use matter over thread with my end devices, which is why I have the ZBT-2 configured in thread mode.
The ZBT-2 device does show in the settings (!!) but not in the areas or in the device overview.
While it looks like I made a lot of changes, none of them were related to devices; they were: (i) a software update, (2) server label and (3) cloud integration, so I would not expect them to affect device registration in any way.
But my expectation was clearly wrong and I now know to be more careful with changes in the future. And fortunately, I did check before adding all of my end devices.
Which brings me to the second question: to recover from the current situation, I am tempted to factory reset the HA green and the ZB2, uninstall the app and start from scratch. What (if any) are the potential pitfalls with this approach?
That Overview dashboard is automatically generated & you don’t have much control over what is shown there. Much simpler to create your own dashboard & have full control over what is (and isn’t) displayed.
The Problem is you haven’t learned how the Builtin-Dashboards Works.
It Populates the Device-View with All Devices which are Not in an Area
( Notice the small text, top-right of each Device, Add to an Area )
When you do that it will be visible in The respective Area( And no longer under Devices ), if you don’t it will stay put under " Other - Areas - Devices "
And to the right ( Some random ideas of the Devs )
PS: and sometimes( or often ) a restart of HA is required ( Even thou there is no “notifications” about this … which basically means, if “some” changes doesn’t “seems to work/show” then Restart HA, first instead
And Make it a Routine to restart every time you i.e add an integration etc.
Also the “famous” Refresh Browser, and often a Clear ALL Cache, Everything in Browser … Yes , it’s a PITA
HA is a Web-Server-Application, and You access it via a Browser or the Companion-Browser-App
And People uses a variation of Browsers & Browser-setting, just have that in mind.
Thanks so much! What do you mean by “Restart HA”? I was going to factory reset, but saw a lot of stern warnings against this, so wanted to get some wisdom from the community before plowing ahead.
I have primarily been using it through the companion app, but accessed it via the browser while creating this post to make it easier to take screenshots.
That is really non-intuitive to me, but good to know So what is the best way to find a listing of all the devices? Is it in the settings (Settings → Devices and Settings → Devices)?
I don’t think the Areas Dashboard shows all devices, only specific ones. Restart HA (no need for something drastic as a factory reset), if that doesn’t work, try this Multiple dashboards - Home Assistant
Ok, I think I figured this out. The “Living Room” from the Overview only shows the entities in each of the devices. The ZBT-2 does not have any entities associated with it.
So if I click on the “Living Room” in the overview, I only see the router.
I don’t quite know a better way to reach this view of the Living Room area, and the OpenThread Border Router is not working, but at least there is progress.
and I now know to be more careful with changes in the future. And fortunately, I did check before adding all of my end devices.
So what is the best way to find a listing of all the devices? Is it in the settings (Settings → Devices and Settings → Devices)?
