changing phones | Home Assistant | Page 1

sly wasp Oct 20, 2025, 5:47 PM

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Whenever I need to change phones for a person in the house I need to migrate all of the automations to the new device. this includes the device id as well as device_tracker and potentially other sensors like Android Auto.

is the best path forward to alter the automations to use helper entities and update those so it limits what I have to update or is there a better way? it's going to cause a lot of template references instead of using UI but I'm not sure of a better method.

this basically also eliminates being able to easily see what automations are tied to the device from the device view so does have some down sides as well.

I also don't know if triggers will work doing it that way.

serene flare Oct 20, 2025, 6:41 PM

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use the same name for the new phone, guess this would work without editing all automations etc.

sly wasp Oct 21, 2025, 3:56 PM

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hmmm, that might work for most things. I'll have to redo automations to use entities rather than devices I guess

serene flare Oct 21, 2025, 3:58 PM

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i think this will work without changing anything except the phone name..

tardy maple Oct 21, 2025, 8:00 PM

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sly wasp hmmm, that might work for most things. I'll have to redo automations to use enti...

Yes, that's one of the main reasons not to use devices

sly wasp Oct 21, 2025, 8:03 PM

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indeed

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devices just make everything a whole lot easier, devices should be more like a shortcut to add an entity object heh

radiant egret Oct 21, 2025, 8:06 PM

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I've created a script for all notifications. If I change the phone I only have to adjust the script in a single place

#changing phones