Using friendly name instead of entity_id

Configuration
1

Hi I have groups set up using entity_id.
Wanted to rename all the entity ID’s to friendly names just to make it more simple.
Now when restarting HA I get devices not found in all_lights in my main lovelace overview page.
What went wrong?

here it how it was which worked
in configuration file before and after I had/have this

group: !include groups.yaml
automation: !include automations.yaml
script: !include scripts.yaml

In groups before which worked I had this

all_Light:
    name: all_lights
    entities:
      - light.53411381807d3a59486b #bedroom
      - light.53411381807d3a59491c #family room
      - light.73371318ecfabc9a8f79 #Guest Bedroom

changed to this

all_Light:
    name: all_lights
    entities:
      - light.Bedroom
      - light.family_room
      - light.guest_bedroom

entity capture
entity capture689×702 24.5 KB

Also when using the same names in automation nothing works any more ex

worked

- alias: Turn on picture, fence lights
  trigger:
    - platform: sun
      event: sunset
      offset: "-01:00:00"
  action:
    service: homeassistant.turn_on
    entity_id:
      - switch.20808347bcddc2975adf #Fence light
      - switch.0673468284f3ebbbd7f7 #picture light

now doesn’t work

- alias: Turn on picture, fence lights
  trigger:
    - platform: sun
      event: sunset
      offset: "-01:00:00"
  action:
    service: homeassistant.turn_on
    entity_id:
      - switch.Fence_light
      - switch.picture_light
2

I think you can’t have capital letters. Some one will correct me…

3

According to the screenshot you haven’t changed the entity_id, it’s still light.53411381807d3a59486b

1 Like
5

yes I thought also that was the problem but changed to small caps and same thing. Also the ones which already were small caps are not working

6

You did not change the entity if and you can’t just take the friendly name of a device in your configuration.

2 Likes
7

hmmm I thought the Entity_id needs to stay as is as it is a unique name and just use the name overide

8

No, you need to read up a bit more on how homeassistant works. Everything you do with an entity relies on it’s entity_id, but you can change the entity_id to something more suitable.

9

And if you change the name of the entity_id, it will offer to rename all related devices :wink:

1 Like
10

ok thanks I will try that. thanks to all I will get back here if still problems

1 Like