I have a similar issue. I can’t get the device to join HA, I keep getting:
I don’t know why it’s trying with host 192.168.1.12
I can’t even get it to factory reset (pressing the button continously for 22 seconds does nothing). It’s quite a frustrating start
I have seen several reports with this error, and don’t really know what the problem is, but some have reported that they need to reflash the VAPE, but other reports which seem to make a little more sense is that the ESPHome integration is trying to discover the VAPE and can’t (thus the pop up asking for host address), and this is because the VAPE was not given a 2.4GHz WiFi network/credentials that allow it to connect to the same LAN as HA.
In my case it was that my HA instance is available at homeassistant.lan (not .local), explicitly setting Home Assistant URL in the network settings fixed it.
FWIW: If the WiFi credentials were wrong, how could ESPHome detect it in the first place?
just speculating here…on the other hand, if HA is discovering the VPE via the LAN, then I don’t think it should be presenting a pop asking for an IP address. This leads me to guess that the Companion App is the one providing the discovery path (telling HA of a new VPE) and HA is in turn trying to contact the VPE via the LAN and when that fails, it presents the popup.
Mobile app is the route I took. If it is of interest, I can reset it again and try to see what happens if the BT adapter plugged into my Green detects it.