Stale Accessory Protection

Guard against accidental accessory removal by keeping orphaned accessories in place and backing up your Home setup before making changes.

Why This Matters

Homebridge can automatically remove outdated accessories when a plugin fails to initialize. Losing those accessories can disrupt the automations and customizations you have built around them.

While these precautions are not mandatory, it's highly advisable to take them in case of unexpected events such as a plugin failing to start.

Keep Orphaned Accessories

Homebridge can retain accessories that belong to a disabled or uninstalled platform plugin, so a failed startup does not wipe them out.

• Config UI — Enable the Keep Accessories Of Disabled/Uninstalled Platform Plugins setting in Homebridge.
• Command line — Add the -K or --keep-orphans option when starting Homebridge from the command line.

Both approaches achieve the same result; use whichever matches how you run Homebridge.

Back Up Your Home Setup

Create a backup of your Home configuration after making changes so you can restore accessories, rooms, and automations if something goes wrong.

• Use the Home+ app by Matthias Hochgatterer to capture a backup.
• Make the backup after any change that adds, removes, or reconfigures accessories.