Removing old helper

Does anyone know how to remove this helper? I think it’s connected to a device that has been removed, but now I can’t remove the helper through the UI.

I’m assuming it’s in some config file, but not sure which one.
Thanks


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I have the very same issue and no idea how to solve it.

I managed to figure it out myself, the entities file is in a hidden folder called ‘.storage’.
You probably won’t see it in a terminal listing, but you can still cd into it. Just go to where ever your home assistant files are storaged (mine are in a docker folder, as I’m using a container).

The file you want is ‘core.config_entries’, I had to edit it as a root user.
Remember to make a backup and remove all entries between the { } brackets, as it is easy to screw up unless you really pay attention to the format of the yaml files.

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Well, that sounds like a workaround.
But not really a solution.

This is highly dangerous (as you pointed out yourself) and nothing that I would recommend to do. At least not to non-techies.
We need a proper way to clean up dead entries.

Very true, but I think we will be waiting a very long time.
Anyway, it fixed the problem for me.

Amazing! (Bravo for the walk around!)

@jtenniswood & @umrath - Found a slightly less hacky workaround just as I was about to edit my core.entity_registry file. Still a workaround unfortunately, but no need to edit the registry. Here is the process I followed:

  1. Go to Settings > Devices & services > Entities
  2. Click on the filter icon and check “Show disabled entities”
  3. Search for the broken helper by name. Mine was “Garage Light”
  4. Select the checkbox to the left of the entity icon, then click the curved arrow icon to re-enable the entity (image below).
  5. Click enable on the pop-up dialog
  6. Click on the “Helpers” button (lower right).
  7. Refresh after waiting a few minutes
  8. Helper may now be deleted normally

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Sound like a good idea - but does not work for me, because I do not have anything to search for.
The entries in the helper section show up simply as “Switch” - without any further information. So, I cannot really find them in the list.

Thanks! Worked for me. I had to select and open it, then I could delete it like a normal entity.

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this worked for me in a slightly different way. I first removed the line of the broken helper in core.config (I was following chatGPT) but that didn’t remove it from the list of helpers in the GUI.

so then I found your post and only read half of it (of course lmao) and did indeed find the disabled entity in question and just deleted the entity from there. Success! broken helper now gone from helper list. I didn’t read the rest of your post until now about re-enabling, I’m guessing I didn’t need to do that because I’d already deleted the info from the core.config. Guessing this orphaned entity was the last thing keeping the broken helper in existence.

So future users may benefit from running both @jtenniswood 's solution and @lehrbad 's solution in conjunction. Thank you both!

This is an old thread; but I found it because in 2025 it is still an issue. It didn’t work for me though my web browser; but as soon as I went on my iPad, I was able to tap on the 3 dots on the row of the helper i wanted to delete and at the bottom in bright red was “delete”. No need to mess around in any files.