MQTT lights randomly turn on

I have been fighting this issue for over a month now. All my lights inside and outside just randomly turn on. the log shows turned on triggered by action Light: Turn on". I have scoured the forums, internet, reddit, even asked ChatGTP. I have looked through all my automation and scripts. the only way I have been able to stop this is turn off MQTT, which takes the light entities away. I have even uninstalled MQTT and deleted the data too. Actually I almost want to say this all started several months ago, but at that time it wasn’t really random. Not like it is now. before all my lights would turn on at sunrise. I say sunrise because it wasn’t the same time everyday. They would turn on between 5am and 6am everyday. If anyone can help get my sanity back it would be greatly appreciated.
I am using the new MQTT configuration. And I also use a split configuration too. Also my lights are a mix of Tasmota, ESPHome, WLED, and a few TPLink. Most are in wall switches and dimmers, but I do have some bulbs too. My switches are “Martin and Jerry” and “Wyze”. thank you

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Hello woodfamilynetwork,

It’s known as ghost switching. Search on that term to know more.
Basically you can ‘fix’ it by removing some of your retain statements in the MQTT entries.

I have gone through “mqtt explorer” and removed the retained messages on the cmnd. Also searched my whole config folder for retain messages. I have got it to stop on some of my light switches by setti g them back to “reset 5” and changing their topic name. And commenting out their mqtt files and just letting tasmota intergration pull them into ha. That worked with a couple of Treatlife fan and light switches. And a martin and jerry dimmer.

Here is a little update. Well, I’m still having this problem. Even when I have MQTT addon stopped, my Wyze bulbs (through the Wyze API) and WLED lights also portray the same as my other lights. This has turned me off to this whole home automation thing. This sucks because I have been doing this for several years now and have become accustomed to my house just doing what needs to be done. And of course, having Alexa heckle and praise me and my family when we come home. If anyone can give me some pointers / help it would be greatly appreciated.


@Sir_Goodenough What is going on here?

Ummm, I think the fan is winning…

(Bedroom 1 Fan 142) :smiley:

I can’t see the timing there, but it looks like a couple times a minute guessing.
Do you have any rules running?
Is HA triggering it?

I really have nothing to go on.


Here is a picture with the timing. I have 1 rule.

Rule1 on TuyaReceived#Data=55AA03070005030400010016 do backlog power1 1 ; publish2 stat/%topic%/speed 3,0 endon on TuyaReceived#Data=55AA03070005030400010117 do backlog power1 1 ; publish2 stat/%topic%/speed 3,1 endon on TuyaReceived#Data=55AA03070005030400010218 do backlog power1 1 ; publish2 stat/%topic%/speed 3,2 endon on TuyaReceived#Data=55AA03070005030400010319 do backlog power1 1 ; publish2 stat/%topic%/speed 3,3 endon

This is a Treatlite DS03 fan light combo. This is just one of my switches, this one is in my bedroom. On this one i just did a reset 5 on it today. And this is how the console is going it goes every few seconds. I have other switches , not the same brand. Their console barely updates. One other thing after the reset now when the switch is restarted the fan turns on but the light stays off for a few seconds then it turns on. The fan is power1 the light is power2.

Change the log level so you see the Tuya stuff coming thru, you might see the issue.

Also what happens when you turn off the rule?