OK, experiment in progress.
So far have restored new (modded HP2023) Homey from a recent cloud backup and verified that Zigbee still behaving as it was before. Specifically in my case:
- Some Zigbee devices actually worked fine after the restore, even without repairing
- Some Zigbee devices didn’t show up as needing repair (no red triangle) but could not be controlled by Homey. For these devices, multiple attempts to repair them failed and after trying, those devices then showed with a red triangle. This happens with the same devices as before, which in my case is Aqara E1 TRVs.
- I have reset the Zigbee network on the Homey and the first thing I can confirm is that all my Zigbee devices still show but with red triangles.
EDIT 1:
- Interesting. So I actually tried repairing 3 separate TRVs in the end and the process went slightly different each time. But the good news is, I got all three repaired and controllable by Homey again pretty quickly:
- the first one I tried was the one I’d tried to repair after the restore but before the Zigbee reset. When I tried to repair it after the Zigbee reset, the process went kind of as normal (and Homey said it was taking too long and to keep the device awake which I did, which is also normal with these TRVs). The TRV seemed to indicate it was on the Zigbee network (it has a green network indicator on the TRV screen). But the Homey pairing process got stuck for minutes and then timed out saying it had failed. But interestingly, Homey then immediately went back into the normal device view and the repair had in fact worked and the device is controllable from Homey.
- Thinking this might have been affected by having already reset the device before the Zigbee reset, I tried another identical TRV which I had not touched since before the migration started. With this one, the first attempt to repair failed and Homey complained that the device that was trying to join the network wasn’t the same one I was trying to repair (I triple checked and it was). But on the second identical attempt immediately afterwards the repair attempt worked fine and the device is now controllable by Homey.
- So I tried yet another identical TRV also not touched since before the migration. This time the repair worked on the first attempt.
- So that was a bit weird but net positive since I pretty quickly got 3 x TRVs that previously could not be repaired at all after a cloud restore, controllable again by Homey and without losing insights, having to fix flows etc.
EDIT 2:
- I’ve now reset my Zigbee network again and started rebuilding
- By now I’ve managed to add all my powered Zigbee devices (mix of Hue without the bridge, Ikea, Aqara, Innr)
- No pairing issues, just some of the devices where physically awkward to access and reset
- I hate Ikea Zigbee bulbs’ reset process, but I got there in the end
EDIT 3:
- First round of battery Zigbee devices now repaired (mostly Aqara TRVs plus some motion and door/window sensors also Aqara)
- So far only the usual problems of occasionally taking two or three attempts to repair.
- But so far so normal.
EDIT 4:
- 2nd phase of battery Zigbee devices now repaired. Getting into the swing of it now.
- Couple of devices needed new batteries and/or moving to very close to Homey to repair but nothing out of the ordinary
- Some of the devices are initially a bit flakey in terms of signals from them being picked up by Homey but I think this is starting to settle down given a bit of time. Will report back.
FINAL EDIT:
- And I’m done. 62 devices, 1 solid morning’s work.
- Everything is repaired, no need to update any flows, all insights retained.
I have one single Matter over Thread bulb which I paired via Apple using my iPhone (so my understanding is that was using my Apple Thread Border Routers). This has also broken due to the Thread network being reset, which I was not expecting (because although I did know that the Thread network uses the same chip in Homey as Zigbee and so it would be reset, I didn’t think I was using the Homey Thread network). I know much less about Matter and Thread so far so I will tackle that one after some lunch! It might be a quick job, you never know.
A few of the Aqara devices (door/window sensors) are still a bit hit and miss. I’m hoping this will settle. It might also be a case of needing new batteries in those.
In almost all cases, I managed to repair my devices in situ, without having to move them to close to Homey so that also made things easier.
All in all, not too bad. As long as it stays working!
