Update state to reflect external change w/o trigger

Configuration
1

I wonder if there is a way to update the state of a input_boolean just to reflect a change that happened externally, without triggering the state change event?

I have a input_boolean that when triggered plays a radio stream on my squeezebox. However, I can play the same by pressing a preset on the squeezebox itself. Then an event is sent to hass. I then want to flip the state of the input_boolean to reflect the real world, but I don’t want that to trigger the automation that plays the media…

Maybe a condition in the automation, but on what? "Only when state is changed from gui " sort of…

2

This is kind of like the situation with the Harmony remotes. The solution that was in the setup worked for me. The example below is just for one state, there’s actually an automation for each activity.

- alias: "Powered off from Harmony Hub"
  trigger:
    platform: state
    entity_id: remote.living_room
  condition:
    condition: template
    value_template: '{{ trigger.to_state.attributes.current_activity == "PowerOff" }}'
  action:
    service: input_select.select_option
    entity_id: input_select.living_room_tv
    data:
      option: "Powered Off"

The only problem I have with this is if HA is restarted when the Harmony is on another activity, HA doesn’t catch it.

3

So I’m having the same issue. I think I have a solution. It requires 2 input_booleans.

The logic:

Boolean:
media_on, initial state off
media_off, initial state on

when media_on is turned on, automation will flip media_off to off state. media_on will trigger turning on your device.
when media_off is turned on, automation will flip media_on to the off state. media_off will trigger turning off your device.

You would have to train yourself to not use the media_on boolean to turn off the device.

4

basically, you would also have to make your other automation trigger turn_on’s for the booleans. The off’s will not trigger anything because no automation is built off the 'off’s. If that makes sense.