… Removing or disabling the duplicate path made the device list easier to understand. This is where AI-assisted cleanup started to feel genuinely practical. Home Assistant often discovers devices through multiple routes, and not every discovered path deserves to become part of the setup. …
… Once I add a folder, Syncthing automatically watches for changes and updates the other connected devices in the background. What I like most is that the data moves directly between my own devices. …
… Some devices let you hide rows, reduce autoplay previews, limit recommendations, or rearrange apps. Those changes can make the device feel faster even when the hardware hasn’t changed at all. …
… Meanwhile, native Mosquitto support chained with Zigbee2MQTT gives me a stable setup. Zigbee-only setups help devices from crowding up your Wi-Fi network. …
… The best smart home systems are not just collections of devices. They are living setups that need cleanup, documentation, refactoring, and occasional therapy after years of accumulated experiments. …
… The hardware I chose and why it works Reliable setup with role separation I deliberately chose a two-device setup, so I wouldn't rely on a single machine for everything. …
… You can install Shairport Sync , which lets you push audio from any Apple device throughout the whole house. Raspotify brings Spotify Connect capability to the setup as well. …
… I created a 2.4 GHz guest network and moved the problematic legacy and IoT devices to it. That turned out to be a cleaner approach for a long-term setup where IoT devices are isolated in their own network. Meanwhile, Smart Connect manages the remaining devices on the main network. …
… Later, I moved that setup to a used mini PC HP ProDesk 600 G6 and added a USB Zigbee coordinator dongle . In less than a month, I had a dozen IoT devices sharing the same subnet as my primary devices, along with a handful of self-hosted services that I ran on Proxmox on that same mini PC . …
… See at ESPHome Setup takes far less time than finding the keys Adding devices in Home Assistant was easy Once you grab the IRK using the dedicated ESP32 board working as an IRK Capture tool, adding the devices to make sure they stick is easy. …
