The log’s numeric string is a Unix timestamp. If I put 1549683808 into https://www.epochconverter.com/ it converts it to GMT : Saturday, February 9, 2019 3:43:28 AM.
That snippet shows a socket error leading to a disconnection followed by a re-connection.
Just as incomprehensible as the last time I tried it!
I can kill it by killing the broker!
I don’t know how I did it but connected/disconnected a few times and then saw the big red button and clicked that and disconnect/reconnect and it’s gone
But this is not what I consider as friendly software.
Someone causing interference… microwave oven, 2 way radio etc… environmental…
After clicking the red Retained button, the topic’s message is purged. However, the topic will continue to be displayed during the existing session. The next time you open MQTT Explorer, the topic will not be displayed (unless another retained message was published).
I suppose the developer could’ve wiped out the topic immediately after Retained is pressed. If this behavior makes more sense to you, feel free to suggest it to him. He’s been very receptive to ideas.
In your case, from what I see in the image you posted, it looks like you published '' to the topic because after pressing the Retained button you should normally see nothing there.
You’re right on all counts… but I didn’t see the retained button anyway… and that device doesn’t even exist. It popped up because I did a Reset 5 command when I was playing with firmware and I use MQTT discovery (it is actually Sonoff3) Anyway, it’s neither intuitive or friendly to me at least.
I’d like to be able to right click on a device and click delete… that would be friendly! Nevertheless, next time I have a zombie I’ll see if I can use that to kill it. (The Sonoff was not in the entity registry either BTW, just in the broker)
Yeah, I’m a graduate of the same school that teaches 'right-click object to expose methods that act on the object`. This UI went to another school. 
First time I used MQTT Explorer it revealed a few topics I had long forgotten (experiments with retained messages). I used the Retained button to delete them … and was equally perplexed by their refusal to simply vanish. I looked for some sort ‘refresh tree-view’ button but couldn’t find one. I restarted the app and, ta-dah, the experimental topics were gone. Other than that quirk, the rest of the app works well enough.
Agreed. Next time I need to get rid of a device I’ll give it a shot again…
Ok, so as I was about to go to bed I remembered that I didn’t have to go to my gf’s house to check out her router configuration, since we share the same network. So when I checked her router I noticed there was a sys auto maintenance enabled that “At 3 a.m. each day, the router will auto-reboot.” and I was also able to confirm her daughters tasmota is connecting to that router as well… Mystery solved!
Thanks to everyone for their help and suggestions, specially David. One thing that I do enjoy about posting here is that not only do I get to solve my issues, I also learn new things like the mqtt explorer which seems like a helpful tool I can use in the future.
so does that tour of Cancun apply to all forum members named David? 
(heading that way next year!)
In light of this:
How does one explain this?
A “misrememberment”?
I was going by what my GF was telling me. My guess the router would reboot everynight, but sometimes light would turn on when it reconnected other times it wouldn’t.
Not really, I was referring DavidFW1960 who has pretty much helped me solve all the issues I’ve had so far
Hahahahaha, it’s all good, I was only joking mate 
