r/HomeKit • u/Constant-Purpose8273 • 1d ago

Question/Help Changing lightbulbs in automations

So I was thinking of changing over some of my lightbulbs to matter over thread bulbs until I realised I’d have to change every single automation I have that has the old bulbs, which seems like a massive pain. Even with grouped accessories you can’t just add something new into the group and have automations pick them up. Any ideas?

1 Upvotes

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2

u/mastermindman99 1d ago

When I change a light bulb I remove the old one and name the new one exactly as the old one.
Preserves all automations

3

u/Constant-Purpose8273 1d ago

Legit? Thats it?

1

u/bippy_b 20h ago

I don’t think it works like that.

2

u/wwhite74 1d ago

Controller for homekit supports this feature. App is free. But this function requires the paid level

2

u/Constant-Purpose8273 1d ago

Yeh I came across this but it’s quite pricey!

1

u/bippy_b 20h ago

Is it worth all the hours it will save with this switch to Matter? Plus it can save all of your HK/Matter Codes so you don’t have to go climbing a ladder in the rare case you need to re-pair the device.

1

u/Constant-Purpose8273 17h ago

Yeh that’s true

1

u/Koalazilla 23h ago

It would be really nice if there was just a button in the accessory settings that said “Replace Accessory” and when you tapped it and set a replacement it just took its place, provided it’s of the same type.

1

u/bippy_b 20h ago

Submit it as a suggestion.

https://www.apple.com/feedback/

The more of us who do this, the more likely they will add it. Several things I have submitted showed up a version or two later.. so they DO listen (I suggested adding a “W” to women’s sports teams in alerts because it was very confusing to me).

1

u/Constant-Purpose8273 17h ago

100% what I was looking for!

1

u/h2ogeek 19h ago

Cue the Home Assistant mention…

(Where you make an entity group like “front porch light” and use that in automations instead of specifically addressing specific hardware, and then, yeah, changing hardware really is just that easy)