Hey - I’m not sure where to post this so trying here!
I have several automations reliant on phones - to report something about the phone, or to send a notification to a specific phone, etc. Obviously, when someone gets a new phone its a pain to then edit everything to reference the new device.
As people in the household change phones semi-regularly I was wondering if there’s a way to create some kind of mirror of a device (sort of like a helper) which I can then use in automations, etc. And if the “real” device ever changes, the only thing I need to amend is the mapping between the real device and the mirror device?
You can edit the entity ID of the new device to match the old one.
My phone is device_tracker.sm_405fn but I could change it to device_tracker.troons_phone. When I replace it, I can give the new one the same entity ID.
Of course:
you have to remove / rename the old device first
you must only use entity-based automations, not device-based ones. That is a good restriction
Thanks @Troon . I renamed the device but all the entities based off it are still the new phone model (sensor.pixel_8_…) instead of (sensor.nicks_phone_…).
I use notification groups for this issue. Then it’s just a matter of changing/verifying it in one spot. It’s also helpful for when you get an additional device like a watch or tablet; add it to one spot and everything just works.
