Per Device Default Dashboards

[viscid valve]

For almost two years of using Home Assistant, I’ve always had separate dashboards: one for my PC and another for the Companion App.

However, after a recent update, it seems like Home Assistant now only allows one default dashboard per user.

According to the documentation (Dashboards – Setting a Default Dashboard), it sounds like the only way to keep separate dashboards is to create separate user accounts for my PC and my phone.

Am I missing something obvious here, or is this just broken right now?

[peak bronze]

They did make a change and to have different default dashboards across devices is separate users per device or if some similarities using conditional card / visibility settings based on screen size.

Hopefully HA will re-enable default dashboards by device type.

[woven thicket]

Yes it's not a thing any more but there is an open PR about it, hoping it comes back in some form

I asked recently too, there are...difficulties with how it was being done (mainly because of iOS it seems)

[peak grove]

yes, joining the call for per-device dashboard back. it's a fundamental use case, for the fact that dashboard renders differently on different screens alone.

Now I have see a completely misaligned dashboard 50% of the times, depending on where I open it.

any solution I see to cope with this lack is a user-side complication 🙁

[woven thicket]

PR was closed unfortunately, looks like they misunderstood the change

[haughty jungle]

Just create a new user for each device, problem solved (it actually gives you more flexibility, since a user can be local only, admin or non admin).

[woven thicket]

would you create a separate Discord account for each device?

[haughty jungle]

Different story.
HA is built for multiple users, this fits the bill, and takes 5 seconds to create a new user.
The alternative is to keep complaining and hope this gets reverted.

[woven thicket]

I mean I certainly use HA within the specific scope of my own user account, but I guess if you don't then nobody else needs it

thanks for your input

[haughty jungle]

You are taking it the wrong way, I offered a solution and pointed out the reality.

Think of it not in terms of users but more like profiles. Different profiles for different devices.

There is literally no difference in functionality between the old way vs the new.

You can even name all your accounts the same (same display name).

[frail tulip]

Just create device accounts. This is the way. It is what it is. But it’s open source so rewrite it back in if it bothers you that much.

[woven thicket]

that was attempted and got shut down - I'll agree to disagree, no other service requires you to make multiple user accounts for different devices, it's a purely technical limitation

was never the design intent (only a recent change brought in the forced user accounts), just a mistake that people are trying to justify as always the way