I know. That’s why I used the wink emoticon. My bad. I’ve been on the internet for 30 years and still haven’t learned that irony usually falls dead in text-based interactions.
But maybe we should stop going so far off topic before a moderator steps in and gets mad at us 
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I think working around a dead device by adding a new one with the entities named the same is possible through some sort of careful exercise (it even can continue picking up the old one’s long-term stats if you don’t delete them). You just have to make sure that the entities corresponding to the future name are deleted.
But today I have just run into a conundrum I don’t I can solve. Old radiator valve died, new one doesn’t fit. So I have to move one functioning device to replace the dead one and introduce the new one in place of the old one. For this I think keeping the correct long-term statistics is just not possible currently.
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Even something where you could run a bulk find and replace tool which would find all instances of sting a and replace it with string b.
Options for whole word searches, or being able to review the change before it’s made would be really helpful too.
Yeah I keep thinking of my poor wife who would just junk HA if I wasn’t there to maintain it. Easy for us but Greek to others. It should be easy to replace a device to a non-techie.
For example I have a mobile device, with automations and triggers setup, utility meters for data use, device tracking.
If I reinstall the companion app, or reset the phone, let alone get a new one, I have to set everything up again from scratch.
this means going through a list of hundreds of sensors and diagnostics to see which entities I want to enable or disable, recreating each of those utility meters which take dozens of clicks and a minute each. Have to find the old ones because they will be orphaned but it won’t show up in any errors.
Same thing if I have a Power Point with stats, I will have utility meters set for all of them and if it breaks and I get a new one I have to set everything up again from scratch
I think there should be an easier way to replace a device.
Not if you name the new phone the same as the old phone. Then it is just a matter of deleting the old phone before adding the new one.
Nope, I did that yesterday and all the utility meters were orphaned
and that really doesn’t help me select which of the ~100 sensors and diagnostics I want enabled or disabled.
BTW, where is the root place to rename a phone? I can only see places where I can add a custom name to cover the name. I had to delete the new phone an added again w/ the name to get it set properly.
and i’ve got another phone and watch to replace
On your phone.