# Z-wave devices "invalid" after migration
**URL:** https://community.homey.app/t/z-wave-devices-invalid-after-migration/138497
**Category:** Questions & Help
**Created:** [June 21, 2025, 6:48am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/z-wave-devices-invalid-after-migration/138497 "2025-06-21T06:48:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Gary\_Lane](https://community.homey.app/u/Gary_Lane)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2025, 6:48am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/z-wave-devices-invalid-after-migration/138497/1 "2025-06-21T06:48:23Z")
Hi. My homey 2019 died so I bought a 2023 version and restored the backup.
However none of the z-wave devices work, always responding with “invalid node”. If I go to the developer page to look at the z-wave routes, no z-wave devices are listed!
I thought I would try and restore again, but having removed the dead 2019 model from my account, all the backups got deleted as well (surely the backups belong to an account and not a device!).
Any suggestions?
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### Author:  [@Martin\_Manders](https://community.homey.app/u/Martin_Manders)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2025, 7:36pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/z-wave-devices-invalid-after-migration/138497/2 "2025-06-21T19:36:19Z")
I’m afraid that you have to rebuild you’re entire zwave network.
You switched unfortunately the “master” and this one keeps the network ID. The unique identifier that keeps this network separated from other ones.
Good luck 🤞
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Kawa](https://community.homey.app/u/Peter_Kawa)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2025, 1:55am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/z-wave-devices-invalid-after-migration/138497/3 "2025-06-22T01:55:50Z")
> [@Gary\_Lane](#):
>
> having removed the dead 2019 model from my account, all the backups got deleted
Contact Athom support please.
And never delete anything until a migration is completed successfully 🤷♂️😉 (just meant as good advice)
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### Author:  [@Gary\_Lane](https://community.homey.app/u/Gary_Lane)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2025, 8:34am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/z-wave-devices-invalid-after-migration/138497/4 "2025-06-22T08:34:34Z")
This seems bizarre: surely a restore operation should restore that master code?
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### Author:  [@Gary\_Lane](https://community.homey.app/u/Gary_Lane)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2025, 8:36am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/z-wave-devices-invalid-after-migration/138497/5 "2025-06-22T08:36:36Z")
I have already, thanks. Awaiting a reply and thought you guys might be able to help first. Hopefully they’ll respond soon and be able to revice my old backups..
In my defence, I “removed” the dead 2019 Homey from the account thinking that was the cause of the z-wave absences. It never occurred to me that the backups would disappear with it
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### Author:  [@Martin\_Manders](https://community.homey.app/u/Martin_Manders)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2025, 9:41am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/z-wave-devices-invalid-after-migration/138497/6 "2025-06-22T09:41:09Z")
The network key that is generated is hardware dependent.
That’s the reason you can’t set back a backup.
I once managed to do this but then I could transfer between two working devices. If one is dead (your older device) then for security reasons you have to rebuild the network 🤷🏻♂️
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### Author:  [@Gary\_Lane](https://community.homey.app/u/Gary_Lane)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2025, 10:17am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/z-wave-devices-invalid-after-migration/138497/7 "2025-06-22T10:17:26Z")
Thanks for the explanation.
I think that’s mad though. A backup programme must surely cope with hardware failure otherwise it’s a waste of time. It’s hard to believe that Athom won’t be able to migrate a hardware key from one device to another within the same account. Indeed there is nothing (that I can find) in their documentation to suggest that a restore to a new device demands the la device to be alive.
Before I go through this massive task I will await an official response from Homey in the hope that you may be wrong.
A rebuild is made worse because of the lack of a way of “replacing” one device with another. Which means adding all the devices as new and then changing every single flow to refer to the new devices. There seems little point in forcing myself to stick to the Homey ecosystem in that case.
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### Author:  [@Keverjeroen](https://community.homey.app/u/Keverjeroen)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2026, 10:45am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/z-wave-devices-invalid-after-migration/138497/8 "2026-01-11T10:45:06Z")
So how did dis ended? Did Athom had a solution for you?
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### Author:  [@Gary\_Lane](https://community.homey.app/u/Gary_Lane)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2026, 11:17am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/z-wave-devices-invalid-after-migration/138497/9 "2026-08-27T11:17:41Z")
I’m really sorry I did not report back. So anyone else experiencing this problem this was the reply from Athom:
`Hi Gary,`
`I understand and am sorry that they wouldn't reconnect to the network another way.`
`The backup service will transfer your Flows and devices so you don't have to go through setup from the start. Some protocols like Zigbee and Z-Wave need more, they create an entire mesh network of devices. This network can't be copy pasted meaning that when the hardware changes like going from Homey Pro (2016-2019) to Homey Pro 2023 it needs to rebuild. The device data wil be supplied by the backup but to mesh devices need time to reconnect and find each other. Sometimes the network just can't find one or more devices, there is not much we can do to force this and the solution is to add a 'new' device.`
Essentially, restore and wait 24 hours before expecting it to be successful.