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If a Home Assistant automation stopped running immediately after you disabled an integration’s polling, the usual cause is stale entity state. Polling was making periodic requests that discovered changes; after it was removed, the integration may not have had a push subscription to report them. With no new state update, Home Assistant emits no state_changed event for a state trigger to match.
Open the automation trace first, then verify the automation and trigger are enabled, inspect the entity’s raw state, check History and Activity for a real transition, and identify how that integration is supposed to update. You can restore polling, use a scheduled Update entity action, or confirm that push updates are supported. The right fix depends on the integration, its API limits, and whether the device actually sends notifications.
Why did disabling polling stop the automation?
Home Assistant automations do not repeatedly ask every entity whether its value is still true. A state trigger waits for an entity update and reacts when Home Assistant receives a relevant state_changed event. Polling is one way an integration obtains those updates: Home Assistant asks the device or service for current data on a schedule.
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Home Assistant’s developer documentation describes the synchronization problem this way: “An entity mirrors something outside Home Assistant: a device, a cloud service, a file. Something has to keep the two in sync.” Polling performs that synchronization periodically. A push integration instead subscribes to notifications and writes a new state when the external system reports a change.
This distinction also explains why changing an entity manually to the value it already has usually does not help. A state trigger needs a new transition, not merely a repeated assertion of the same value.
What should I check first?
Use this order so you can separate a missing update from a broken trigger, condition, or action.
- Open the automation trace. Home Assistant’s troubleshooting guidance says most problems show up in the trace. A new trace proves that the trigger fired; a trace that stops at a condition or action shows where execution failed. If there is no new trace at all, investigate the trigger and entity update path first.
- Confirm the automation is enabled. In the automation editor, make sure the automation’s enable switch is on. A disabled automation cannot react, regardless of the entity’s state.
- Confirm the individual trigger is enabled. Automations can contain disabled triggers. Expand the trigger list and verify that the specific state, event, or device trigger you expect is active.
- Inspect the raw entity state. Go to Settings > Tools > States, search for the entity, and read its state and attributes. Friendly labels can hide the value used by a trigger: a dashboard may display “Open” or “Detected” while the raw state is
on. Trigger comparisons use the raw value. - Check History and Activity. Look for an actual transition at the time the device changed. A value that remains
ondoes not create a second state-change event merely because the device was checked again. - Check for an unavailable detour. If the sequence was
off→unavailable→on, a trigger restricted toFrom: offwill not match the recovery, because the immediate previous state wasunavailable. Clear or broaden the From field when recovery from an outage should count. - Evaluate conditions at the trigger moment. Conditions are checked once, immediately after the trigger. They do not keep an automation waiting until a condition later becomes true. If another entity changes later, create a trigger for that change.
- Verify the data-update path. Decide whether to re-enable integration polling, schedule an Update entity action, or use the integration’s push mechanism. The automation cannot compensate for an entity that never receives fresh data.
- Review integration logs. If the entity is stale or unavailable, open the integration’s diagnostics or troubleshooting page and enable debug logging when appropriate. Generic automation troubleshooting cannot reveal an integration-specific authentication failure, API outage, or transport problem.
How do I read the automation trace?
The trace tells you whether Home Assistant reached the automation at all. Open the automation, select Traces, and choose the run closest to the expected event.
No new trace appears
No trace means the trigger did not react. Check the entity ID, the raw state spelling, the trigger’s From and To values, and whether a fresh state update was received. If polling was disabled and no push update exists, this is the expected symptom.
The trace starts but stops at a condition
The trigger worked, but a condition evaluated false at that instant. Inspect the values shown in the trace and remember that conditions are not re-evaluated later. If the required value arrives after the trigger, add a trigger for that value’s change instead of relying on the original run.
The trace reaches an action and reports an error
The state update and trigger are healthy. Focus on the action’s target, permissions, service data, and the availability of the device or service being called. Integration logs are usually more useful than changing the trigger in this case.
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How do I verify that the entity really changed?
Use the raw state view, History, and Activity together. The raw state confirms what Home Assistant currently stores; History shows transitions over time; Activity can show related device or service events.
Friendly state versus raw state
A dashboard label is presentation text, not necessarily the trigger value. For example, a contact sensor shown as “Open” may expose raw state on. Enter the exact raw value in a state trigger and inspect attributes separately when the integration places the useful detail there.
Same value is not a new transition
State triggers respond to changes. If an entity is already on, writing on again normally produces no new state-change event. Test with a genuine transition, such as off to on, or use an event trigger when the underlying action has no state representation.
Recovery through unavailable or unknown
Connectivity problems can insert unavailable or unknown between two useful values. A trigger requiring a specific previous state will not match unless that previous state is the immediate predecessor. To run after recovery, remove the restrictive From value or use a trigger design that accepts the recovery states you intend to handle.
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Polling is periodic: Home Assistant asks for the current value, waits for a response, and updates entities when the response contains new data. Push is notification-based: the integration subscribes to a device or service and receives a message when something changes.
| Consideration | Polling | Push |
|---|---|---|
| Freshness | Limited by the integration’s polling schedule and request/response time. | Usually near-immediate after the external system sends a notification. |
| Network and API load | Generates recurring requests even when nothing changed; aggressive intervals can hit rate limits or burden a device. | Uses traffic when notifications are sent, but requires a working subscription or callback path. |
| Restart behavior | The integration resumes scheduled requests when initialized, provided polling remains enabled and credentials or transport work. | The subscription must be re-established after startup; failures can leave entities stale until reconnect logic succeeds. |
| Failure visibility | Trace, integration logs, and request errors can show failed refreshes, but a successful response containing an unchanged value creates no trigger. | Logs must show that the subscription connected and that notifications arrived; a silent or broken callback path can look like an unchanged device. |
| Availability | Common for integrations that expose no notification API. | Only available when the specific integration and external service implement it. |
Some integrations use a DataUpdateCoordinator to fetch data once and distribute it to several entities. A coordinator can also accept pushed data. That implementation detail does not change the troubleshooting principle: an entity must receive a new update before a state trigger can fire.
How do I turn polling back on?
For an integration that depends on polling, restoring its system option is the simplest recovery.
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- Open Settings > Devices & services.
- Find the affected integration and open its configuration.
- Open System options.
- Enable the option labeled Enable polling for changes (or the integration’s equivalent), then save.
- Wait for the integration’s next refresh, or use its supported reload/reconfigure control if one is provided.
- Watch Settings > Tools > States and History for a new value, then test the automation with a real state transition.
The setting is integration-specific. It does not create a universal Home Assistant polling interval, and it cannot make an external service push notifications when that service has no push API. If the entity remains stale after enabling it, inspect integration logs for authentication, rate-limit, network, or device errors.
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Home Assistant’s documented custom-polling workflow uses the Update entity action. This is useful when you intentionally keep continuous polling disabled but need occasional refreshes for a small set of entities.
- Create or edit an automation and add a time-pattern, time, or other deliberate schedule trigger.
- Add an action and choose Update entity.
- Select only the affected entities rather than refreshing an entire integration unnecessarily.
- Choose an interval that the integration’s API and device can tolerate.
- Save the automation, run it manually once, and confirm in History or the raw state view that the entity received an update.
- Open the original automation’s trace and test a real transition after the refresh has occurred.
Custom polling is a compromise. It gives you predictable refreshes but adds requests and can still miss a short-lived change between runs. Many integrations update at most once every 10 seconds when this action is used; that is a documentation caveat, not a universal Home Assistant guarantee. Follow the limits documented for the particular integration and service.
When scheduled updates are a poor fit
A schedule is unsuitable when the device changes frequently, the external API is rate-limited, or an immediate response is required. In those cases, restore the supported polling behavior or configure a genuine push integration instead of creating a fast loop of update requests.
How do I use a push update instead of polling?
First confirm that the integration supports push for the entity type and account you use. Some services offer notifications only for selected devices, subscription tiers, local connections, or event classes. The integration’s own documentation and debug logs should show whether a subscription was created and whether messages arrived.
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- Read the integration-specific setup and troubleshooting instructions for push or event subscriptions.
- Complete any required account authorization, webhook, local-network, or device configuration.
- Reload the integration if its documentation requires a reload after changing options.
- Generate a real device event and watch the entity’s raw state and History.
- Only after the state updates should you troubleshoot the automation trigger itself.
Push is not automatically more reliable. A lost subscription, expired credential, blocked callback, or device that never emits the event can leave the entity stale. The trace shows the automation side; integration logs show whether the push path is alive.
Why do some device actions need an event trigger?
Not every action changes an entity’s state. A button press, remote-control command, or momentary signal may be represented as an event even though the related entity remains off before and after the press.
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Use an Event received trigger for those cases and match the event type and data documented by the integration. A state trigger cannot fire from an unchanged state. Conversely, use a state trigger when the integration publishes a meaningful transition such as off to on.
Most entity-targeted device triggers also do not react to recovery from unavailable or unknown. A state-changed trigger is the more general choice when the automation must handle those recoveries.
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Choose the update method that matches the integration’s capabilities and the consequence of delayed data.
| Option | Best when | Main trade-off | What to verify |
|---|---|---|---|
| Integration polling enabled | The integration is designed around periodic requests and you need dependable general coverage. | Recurring network/API load and latency between polls. | Polling option, documented interval behavior, credentials, and rate limits. |
| Scheduled Update entity | Only a few entities need occasional refreshes and continuous polling is undesirable. | More configuration; changes between refreshes can be missed. | Action target, schedule, minimum practical interval, and API/device capacity. |
| Push subscription | The integration and external service support reliable change notifications. | Subscription setup and reconnect failures can make entities silently stale. | Subscription status, callback or local-network reachability, and reconnect logs. |
Do not select an update method solely because an automation is important. The external system’s capabilities determine whether a method can provide fresh state at all.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What common fixes fail, and why?
Changing the condition without restoring updates
Broadening a condition cannot help if the trigger never fires. First prove that the entity receives a new state; then use the trace to correct conditions.
Using the dashboard label in a trigger
Labels such as “Detected” are often not the stored state. Read the raw value in Tools > States and use that exact value.
Forcing the existing state
Writing the same state normally emits no new state-change event. Create a real transition or use the relevant event trigger.
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Polling too aggressively
Short intervals can overload a device or exhaust an API quota. They may also be delayed by the integration, so a faster schedule does not guarantee fresher data.
Assuming every integration supports push
Push is an integration feature, not a generic Home Assistant switch. If the service offers no notification mechanism, polling or a scheduled update is required.
Ignoring unavailable transitions
A restrictive From state can block recovery runs. Include the actual predecessor states or remove the restriction when any recovery should trigger the automation.
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How do I finish the diagnosis?
After correcting the update path, perform a controlled test. Change the device once, watch the raw entity state, confirm a History entry, and then open the automation trace. If the state changes but no trace appears, inspect the trigger definition and enabled switches. If a trace appears but the action fails, troubleshoot the action and its integration. If the state never changes, stay with the integration’s logs and update mechanism rather than editing automation conditions.
Document the final arrangement: which integration option supplies updates, whether polling or push is used, the entities covered, and any safe minimum interval. That record makes future outages easier to distinguish from a deliberately disabled polling setting.
What is the practical fix?
Removing polling is safe only when another update path keeps the entity synchronized. Restore polling for a polling-based integration, schedule carefully scoped Update entity actions when occasional refreshes are enough, or configure and verify the integration’s push subscription. Then validate the raw state, account for unavailable recovery, and use the trace to separate a missing trigger from a failed condition or action.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does changing an integration’s polling setting affect every entity it provides?
Usually the setting belongs to the integration entry, so it can affect multiple entities created by that entry rather than one automation alone. Check the integration’s system-options description before changing it if only one sensor appears stale.
Can an Update entity action repair an offline device?
It can request a fresh read through the integration, but it cannot restore a powered-off device, broken network route, expired credential, or unavailable cloud API. If the request fails, the entity will remain stale or unavailable and the integration log should contain the reason.
Is a shorter polling interval always better for security sensors?
No. A shorter interval increases requests and still may miss a transient change that occurs between reads. For alarm-like behavior, use the integration’s supported event or push mechanism when available and test its recovery behavior.
Why can an entity look current in the device app while Home Assistant is stale?
The vendor app may communicate through a separate session or receive push notifications that Home Assistant is not receiving. Compare the app’s connection path with the integration’s logs and verify that Home Assistant’s own entity state changes.
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