How‑to Guides

A practical guide to picking hardware for Home Assistant: HA Green, Raspberry Pi, mini PCs/NUCs, NAS/VM. Includes Zigbee/Z-Wave coordinator tips, storage, networking, and starter shopping list.

Avoid unreliable sunrise effects on Hue lights by understanding CT vs RGB mode switching. Learn working patterns with color_name, proper sequencing, and alternatives.

Learn how to create natural sunrise effects with Philips Hue lights in Home Assistant for gentle wake-ups and circadian rhythm support.

Set up Philips Hue sunrise/sunset effects in Home Assistant that feel smooth and natural; compare native Hue scenes vs HA scripts/Adaptive Lighting.

Troubleshoot HACS integrations not appearing and resolve common conflicts, using Adaptive Lighting as an example.

A guide to solving common race conditions in motion-activated lighting automations, where lights turn on and then immediately off.

Make time- and sun-based automations resilient across DST changes using offsets, dedupe guards, and duration timers.

Learn how to automate complex heating systems with multiple heat sources

Get reliable remote access and presence detection working. Learn when to use reverse proxy/VPN setups, and fix common geofencing issues.

A step-by-step checklist to diagnose and fix common issues when your DuckDNS remote access to Home Assistant stops working.

Optimize your PoE Zigbee coordinator placement for maximum mesh stability. Learn central positioning, RF interference avoidance, channel selection, and mesh building best practices.

Step-by-step to pair the Third Reality ZL1 Zigbee bulb with Home Assistant ZHA, including reset, channel/interference guidance, and troubleshooting.

A step-by-step guide to fix Zigbee device dropouts and instability after upgrading to a new WiFi 6, 6E, or 7 router.

Guide to maximizing range, performance, and device capacity of ESP32 Bluetooth Proxies in Home Assistant.

Learn how to automate specific song playback from Amazon Music on Wiim and other Linkplay-enabled devices using Home Assistant, leveraging the Alexa Media Player custom component.

Transform your doorbell into an intelligent assistant with AI. Covers visitor interaction, package management, security deterrence, and implementation using Frigate GenAI or HA AI Tasks.

Struggling with Z-Wave inclusion timeouts? This guide covers secure vs non-secure inclusion, S2 security tips, and troubleshooting steps to get your devices paired reliably.

Fix common Home Assistant Voice Assistant issues including random device activations, get TTS working from dashboard chat, and troubleshoot Voice Preview Edition problems.

Complete guide to bridging Home Assistant and Apple HomeKit for the perfect smart home setup

A checklist to resolve HACS not appearing in the sidebar or integrations after installation.

Troubleshoot HACS integrations not appearing and resolve common conflicts, using Adaptive Lighting as an example.

A guide to understanding and mitigating sporadic failures and rate-limiting issues with the Alexa Media Player custom integration in Home Assistant.

A guide to troubleshoot and resolve the common UI bug where the header and menu vanish in the Home Assistant Android Companion App.

A guide to resolving the persistent code prompt issue with Yale YRD510 Matter locks in Home Assistant.

Troubleshoot Shelly/Sonoff dropouts and instability fast: Wi‑Fi tuning, firmware tips, MQTT, and power quality fixes—step‑by‑step.